At the beginning of the year, I like to have my students begin working together right away! The sooner they learn to cooperate and learn that we are all going to be a team this year, the better! During that first week of school, something I like to use is cooperative puzzles. This easy-to-prep activity […]

Do you use morning meeting in your classroom?! I have some quick and fun games that you can take and play right away with your students! First, if you don’t use morning meeting, you should really think about it. It is such a great time to come together as a community and for everyone to take […]

Writing workshop in kindergarten, first, and second grade can be HARD. There’s no denying that. Our young learners want to communicate and tell stories, but they need a lot of guidance getting their ideas on paper. If you are headed into a new year of school and looking for some new tips or guidance, I […]

Number sense activities are ones that allow students to see, feel, and discriminate between different numbers. I love easy games and activities that allow students to practice their number sense over and over. Tower races does just that! This game is great for kindergarten or first grade students. As I mention in the video, students […]

Tennis balls + sight words = a whole lot of fun! Sight word bounce is a fun outdoor game that has students practicing their sight words and a little hand-eye coordination at the same time.   All you need to play this game is some outdoor space, sidewalk chalk, a tennis ball. My kids liked […]

My preschool boys are learning all about the alphabet! They’ve got the uppercase letters under control, but some of those lowercase letters are a bit tricky. To help them practice (and mostly, have some fun), I introduced them to this easy literacy game, Ping Pong Races!   All you need to prep this game are […]

Outdoor chalk games are great for the nice, warmer weather! I know my two preschoolers at home are always obsessed with a little chalk, so I thought I would share 3 three fun games you can take and use at home or in the classroom all summer long.   The three games I’ve included are […]

When we teach students to synthesize, we let them know that they are combining what they already know with new information they learn from the text. As we do this, our thinking changes and grows! It’s important to teach students not to just repeat back what they’re learning. Instead, we want our students to realize […]