After months of spending time indoors (hello, quarantine 2020), I wanted to share some fun outdoor activities I’ve been doing with my boys to get them some fresh air and learning at the same time! There are even some free printables further down in the post for you to use with your students or kids at […]

Earth Day is coming up next week and while our students are at home, it can be a great time to focus on a little bit of nature. Specifically, I like to talk with my students about the importance of trees. In this blog post, I wanted to share some of my favorite books to […]

Writing workshop in first grade can be tricky to implement, but once you and your class have the process down, it can be such a rewarding time. One of my favorite parts of the writing workshop happens during independent writing. It’s the writing conferences! When you hold writing conferences in first grade, you may get […]

Who doesn’t need a new addition game to change things up a little?! I wanted to share this FUN and free card game that is perfect for first and second-grade students practicing their addition skills.   The game is called 31 and all you need to play is a deck of cards and some cubes […]

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 […]

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 […]

December is always a crazy teaching month. To combat the mayhem we play a lot of games and spend this time reviewing what we’ve learned during the first half of the year! I recently sent out these 3 free games in my monthly newsletter and I wanted to share them with you here in case anyone didn’t […]

Are you on the lookout for some quick and simple Halloween activities this October? Halloween is a big deal up here in Salem, Massachusetts, but I totally get that in the school world this holiday isn’t too much to think about… other than all.the.candy. Sometimes the days leading up to (or following) Halloween just need some […]