When you are introducing your classroom rules at the beginning of the school year, you hope they stick! As teachers, we make every effort to repeat, rehearse and restate our classroom expectations, but will our students remember them and follow through? Setting personal behavior goals […]

If you run literacy centers or a Daily 5 framework in your classroom then you know the struggle of constantly planning and prepping engaging activities for your students to keep behavior problems at a minimum so you can meet with your small groups for Guided […]

It’s that time of year again! We’re Back to School! It’s bittersweet isn’t it?  Everything is fresh and brand new, new faces, new friends, new beginnings…and new school supplies! WooHoo! Yet, no more lazy mornings, late nights, planning your days on a whim. BooHoo! Here […]

Read to Self is an excellent opportunity incorporate additional word work. If you are looking for more opportunities to encourage your students to apply what they have learned from your spelling and phonics instruction WHILE they read, you are going to love this! We all […]

You need a Sub Tub if you have dragged yourself to work when you were not feeling well just so you could avoid having to write sub plans. Or if you are a mother like myself, there have been numerous times where one of my […]

If you use Class Dojo as your behavior management system, you might find that your substitute teachers have a hard time managing classroom behaviors when you are out sick. Providing your substitute teacher with a behavior clip chart to use in your absence will help […]

As primary teachers, we spend most of our time teaching our children to READ, and READ some more.  This is not always an easy task.  We take on this responsibility and are continuously searching for the right strategies and tools that will provide our young […]

Why not take your Word Work one step further? I have disguised Read to Self as a bit more… Word Work… and my firsties don’t seem to mind. Yours won’t either. It’s a Win-Win!  Read on! Read to Self Word Study Assignments In addition to […]

Now that you have your Word Study routines in place it is now time to consider how you will assess your students and evaluate their growth. I have some simple solutions for you! Assessing Each Sort At the end of each sort/unit I administer a […]

Now that you have prepped your resources, you are ready to forge ahead with your differentiated Word Study groups. But before you do, I have some tips to help you motivate your students to achieve with goal setting! Motivate Your Students with a Theme and […]