This summer I took some time to take some Professional Development courses in my district, as well as, did some of my own research online. Many of the ideas were the same, get each of the students involved and make them accountable. In the past I believed that putting students in groups would involve them, and assigning them a "job" would do it. I definitely love having students work together in ... Read More about Engaging Students by Incorporating Games in the Classroom
Classroom Library Set Up
Do you want to set up an organized and easy to use classroom library, but don't know where to start? Hopefully my process will give up an idea of where to start. First off, let me give you a quick snapshot of my personal experience. Last year, I started at a new school midyear. It was quite the challenge to start midyear and walk into another teacher's small classroom to co-teach. By ... Read More about Classroom Library Set Up
DIY Whiteboards for Students
DIY whiteboards for students take less than five minutes to make for a class set and the benefits are immeasurable! I absolutely LOVE quick response boards. We have used them for several activities like math daily work, vocabulary, spelling and more. I find that the students LOVE writing with dry erase markers, and I love how quickly I can assess who is understanding the concept and who is ... Read More about DIY Whiteboards for Students
Author Research Project – Kate DiCamillo
I am SO excited! We just recently got a class set of 30 laptops that we share with one other class. We used them for the first time last week to start our first author research project. Right before we began to read "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane," we researched Kate DiCamillo. Boy, did they have a blast! We first read the questions found in my FREE product, Kate DiCamillo ... Read More about Author Research Project – Kate DiCamillo
Earth Day – Let’s Celebrate It Everyday!
It's April, and that means a heightened awareness of treating the Earth respectfully. Our class has already began to learn about how we can make a difference by conserving resources. We read a passage from "A Comprehensive Earth Day Unit," which discusses different resources we get from our plant and how we can conserve them. We then watched a couple of videos on YouTube about the ... Read More about Earth Day – Let’s Celebrate It Everyday!
Scientific Variables: Constant, Independent, and Dependent
This week, as we continued to learn about the scientific method, we dove into a lesson on variables. This concept is always a bit tricky for students, especially independent and dependent variables, but my students seem to have a clear understanding after our introductory lesson. We started off by cutting and pasting our “Science Variables” flap books into our science journals. I projected PDF ... Read More about Scientific Variables: Constant, Independent, and Dependent