Teaching the Signs of the Fall, Autumn Season

all is one of the prettiest seasons here in the northeast and I always love teaching young students about the fall colors and signs of the season.  We start off talking about and listing things that the students already know about the season. Then, I like to […]  

Growth Mindset Activity Based On “The Little Engine That Could”

When introducing or discussing growth mindset with young students I like to use the book The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper.  The story illustrates believing in yourself, positive self-talk, & perseverance in a way in which young students can understand. Growth Mindset is a theory based on the work of Stanford University psychologist  […] 

 Fall Leaf Activities & Books

After teaching students about the signs of the fall season and taking a fall walk to take pictures of signs of fall that we find (you can read about that here), I like to take them on a fall leaf walk a week or so later after the pretty autumn leaves have fallen to the ground.  We were lucky enough this year to have unseasonably warm temperatures in the 70’s so we took full advantage of it and went out on a mission to collect leaves in all of the fall colors. […]  

Water Cycle, Rain Cycle Science Experiments and Craftivity

Let’s Learn About the Water Cycle! 3 Simple Water Cycle Experiments & a Craftivity

Here are 3 of my favorite water cycle experiments and craftivity.  These science experiments are simple to set up and use common household items. The water cycle wheel craftivity gives students a visual representation of the stages of the water cycle and how they repeat over and over again. […]  

Fun Alphabet and Handwriting Practice

I wanted to share with you today some favorite and fun ideas for teaching the letters of the alphabet and handwriting. Over the years teaching the alphabet has changed quite a lot due to the increase in standards. However, the fact that young children can get overwhelmed with learning both the uppercase and lowercase version of each letter of the alphabet, their sounds, and how to write them has not changed.[…]

How to Make the Pumpkin Life Cycle Meaningful & Fun for Students

Real life and hands-on experiences are some of the best ways to teach concepts, therefore growing your own pumpkins and documenting each stage is a great way for students to learn and remember the life cycle of a pumpkin because they actually experience it and help grow the pumpkins.  However, growing your own pumpkins takes several months and you may not have the time or resources to do it.  Therefore,  […]

How I Motivated Students to Learn Their Alphabet Letters

Let’s face it, learning 26 letters and their sounds can be a daunting task for young children.  Even though at 4-6 years old they are in the middle of a language explosion and their minds are like sponges, it is still a lot to learn and process.  This is why I love to reward and […]  

Motivational and Fun Addition and Subtraction Practice

After working on addition and subtraction with manipulatives, math talks & stories, I needed to find a fun way for students to practice fluency to meet the core standards. As we all know, for them to become fluent means practice, practice, and more practice! So I didn’t want to just have one or two ways […]

Brag Tags that Motivate Students to Learn Numbers, Shapes, & Colors

After seeing the success I had with brag tags for alphabet letters (you can read more about that here) and how motivated and excited students were about learning the letters and receiving a tag for each one, I decided to create some for numbers, colors, and shapes too. With the ever increasing demands on young […]  

Student Gift Ideas & Gift Tags for Positive Reinforcement, Testing, Motivation

Throughout the school year I like to surprise students with a little something extra special to recognize their hard work and effort, improved behavior, achievement of a milestone like learning all of their sight words or numbers to 100, or to celebrate the completion of a big project on which they worked very hard or testing/assessment.  You would be surprised how much a simple trinket with a positive, encouraging note means to a young child and how important it is to them that you noticed their efforts.  […]