Writing Center Visuals:  The first thing you need to do is make everything visible for your students in your writing center.  This includes transition and time order words that your students will use with every writing piece, mini lesson anchor charts, a seasonal vocabulary word […]

Struggling with having writing conferences with each child every week? Every writer has different needs. Your writing lessons may not address the individual needs of all your writer’s when they are all at different stages of their writing development. Yet, your grade level curriculum forces […]

There is nothing like seeing one of your young authors beam with pride when they are recognized as being a published author during your Writing Celebrations. Your students have grown so much throughout the year that you should do something special to honor their determination […]

The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown is hands-down the best writing mentor text to teach young writers how to organize a nonfiction paragraph. It is the perfect picture book to show students how to include a topic sentence, details to describe the main idea, […]

These Thanksgiving activities have become a tradition in my classroom. Year after year, I include them in my lesson plans because they help my students understand why we must give thanks for all that we have. My favorite, by far is the Thanksgiving Story Mix. […]

If you are looking for a way to celebrate friendships either at the beginning of the year or during your end of the year activities, this class project is just what you are looking for! The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown is an ideal […]

In my personal experience using the Reading and Phonics Goals in my primary classroom, I have found that not only are they a great visual reminder for my students of what good readers do, it also holds them accountable for their learning and achievement. I […]

The On the Road to a Proper Paragraph system works so well in my classroom, I decided to give our Writing Portfolios a makeover to match our writing theme: A Road Map for Writing.  And I am thrilled with the results! Since my students have […]

My students love using this road map writing center to help them write a proper paragraph. The stop light analogy helps them to visually understand the proper structure of a paragraph. I begin the school year teaching the children the basic structure using a topic sentence, […]

Students read nonfiction to LEARN and to become experts on one topic of study. Most importantly, they celebrate what they have learned by sharing it with others. Students love to read nonfiction text almost as much as they love to learn about ocean life. However, […]