Uncategorized – Page 13

Pumpkin Day

It's almost that time again! Halloween week! At our school we are not allowed to dress up for Halloween, but we can do something fun and exciting in the classroom if we choose to. This year I am thinking about doing one of the really fun looking Frankenstein craftivities I have seen floating around out there, but in the meantime, I am getting ready to do one of my favorite things. Pumpkins! Each year I bring in a few pumpkins for … [Read more...]

Maker’s Monday: Array City

Dragging myself into work was a bit tough today! It was beautiful weather here in New England all weekend so it was sad when the weekend was over :( One thing that gets me through Monday mornings is the promise of Maker's Monday. Watching the kids literally cheer when they walk into school on Monday Mornings is so fun to watch. This weekend, I had seen some really cute array cities in some of the Facebook … [Read more...]

STEM: Keeping it Simple and Effective

There are always buzz words out there in the teacher world. Right now, two that I can think of are Flexible Seating and STEM Challenge. If you go on Pinterest or follow any teaching groups on Facebook, you have surely seen these two terms over and over. As teachers, I think it is easy to get sucked up into the current trends in education, but it is REALLY important to remember that you need to be using these trendy ideas with a critical mind. … [Read more...]

Virtual Field Trip

So every once in a while, after 11 years of teaching, something hits me by surprise. At the beginning of the school year, I did a favor for the librarian at our school. In return, this week, she emailed me telling me that my class had been selected to do a virtual field trip in the library. I looked at my lesson plans, I was behind schedule on the pacing guide, but I said "why not?" Honestly when we walked into the library I … [Read more...]

Map and Globe Centers

I always like to start my school year off with Maps and Globes. I think it is a great hands-on social studies unit and it culminates in two great projects! Today I was looking at the different activities that I have created and/or gathered and decided that I was going to try to do a center rotation with some of the more hands-on components. To be honest, the beginning of the year involves me doing a lot of talking, and I thought … [Read more...]

Realism vs. Fantasy: Hands On Sorting

Let's talk Realism and Fantasy! This week we started our first reading story of the school year and our targeted skill was determining the differences between realism and fantasy. This is a great skill to start the year with because students have a great amount of background knowlege to connect to! I love to have my students make a simple T-chart in their Reading/Writing notebooks. Then I pass out a stack of extra book … [Read more...]