You may be a classroom teacher, homeschooling mom or a parent who wants to give your child some meaningful activities at home. Mastering the basics of creating letters and being able to recognize them is key for ensuring reading success letter on! These ideas are fun, low-prep and great practice. 8 Active Ways to Practice Letters 1. Write Letters in…
The games/activities below can be used with any grade, any vocabulary list, in any subject. Slap! This is a great game to reinforce vocabulary. Line 3-4 pictures up in a row on your smartboard (or just print pictures and stick to the wall). Bring up two students at a time. The teacher says a word and the students try to…
The word phonics can sometimes seem abstract or overwhelming. Parents and teachers alike often feel afraid they won’t teach reading in the “correct” order and then what they are doing won’t be effective. Here I will break down the basic steps to teach a child to read using phonics. Phonics is all about helping children understand the parts/sounds of a…
Why is it so hard for teachers to take a break? There’s a teacher in my school now who recently hasn’t been eating or sleeping because all she does it work. She gives up her weekend and time with her boyfriend, to work. Some teachers might look and say: “well, that’s just part of the job”. But, I reject that…
Writing/Literacy centers are pretty common in mainstream American classrooms but how about for ESL students? Hands-on activities are still very helpful and possible for students just beginning to learn English. I just finished introducing all the letter sounds with my students. And we are working on putting those sounds together to form 3 letter words. I do centers in my…
1.Ask students to stand up by table or group. I’m writing this from a Reading/ESL teacher perspective but I imagine you could easily tailor it to other subjects. I use this approach when I want to hear how my students are reading and pronouncing a set of words. If I have them all say the words together I can’t really…
October is one of my favorite months as a teacher! There are just sooooo many different themes you can integrate with your learning objectives. A few that I have done are: Human body- bones, brain, blood, muscles etc. This is the perfect month to learn about those things and students will think its cool and gross. Bats/Spiders Harry Potter Pumpkins…
90% of the behavior problems you have in your class can be eliminated by changing your routines and environment! 1.Establish clear expectations. Let’s use the example of getting in line. I want to take a minute to close your eyes and imagine how you would LIKE a classroom of students to get in line. Imagine the noise level, how quickly…
It’s the beginning of a new year. Many students burst out of bed, excited for what the first day of school will hold. They are excited to see who’s in their class, find out what kind of teacher you are, and leave their parents (or babysitters) behind. Then, they enter the classroom and the typical teacher spends the first…
(This page contains affiliate links) A Makerspace is any place in which learners can share STEAM (Sciences, Technology, Engineerings, Arts and Mathematics) related concepts of interest, and then collaborate with other learners on ideas and hands-on constructed projects. Lamens terms…. a Makerspace is a place for kids to bring their imagination to life! It can be a corner of the…