Today, I’m excited to share my new favorite Thanksgiving read-aloud, Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet, along with some ELA activities you can incorporate into your kindergarten, first grade, and second grade classrooms. (PS. I definitely think you could use them with your third graders, too!) I’ve talked a lot recently about the library of read-aloud activity sets that […]

Today, I’m sharing TWENTY of my favorite Thanksgiving books and activities that will fit right into your curriculum whether you teach kindergarten, first grade, or second grade. Each book shown below matches with a set of paired activities, so that your lesson plans are ready to roll and you can simply teach!  They’re Common Core […]

Dang, I love kid lit. Like, a lot. We moved recently – as in twice in eight months (WHO DOES THAT?!) – and the amount of books we moved was outrageous. I’m not even exaggerating when I say thousands. #teacherprobs All that moving gave me a good chance to sort and organize my classroom library books, so […]

Do you have a set of books that you just love to read during the Back to School season?! ME, TOO! I really value the time I spend reading to students and find it such a great time to connect our learning to the experiences in their lives. During the first few days and weeks of school, […]

February is a fun month in the classroom! There are plenty of thematic activities for February to incorporate into your curriculum, including Black History to recognize and celebrate, Ground Hog Day, Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, Dental Health and the Winter Olympics this year! And, you’re supposed to cover it all in the shortest month of […]

As a first grade teacher, assembling literacy centers wasn’t always the highlight of my weekly preparations. In fact, it seemed downright cumbersome at times to find or create something that would hold the attention of my kiddos for ten to fifteen minutes and was engaging and could be completed independently so that I could work with guided reading […]

Joy is my One Little Word for the year, and I’ve recently begun reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. She talks about expressing gratitude every day to our amazing Maker, even over the smallest things to help find the joy in life that is so readily available to us if we’d only seek it. Some of […]

Here’s a fun New Year’s writing craft that’s perfect to use after Holiday Break to not only celebrate the New Year, but also to help your students focus on some end-of-the-year goal setting! It comes with three different options, along with writing paper variations (lined, dotted lined, and unlined). It’s great for students in kindergarten, […]

I’m trying to get back into the swing of things post-Christmas and am clearly still in a holidaze over here. Patting myself on the back for dressing my kiddos in something besides footie jammies and getting a shower today, so #winning. If that’s all I accomplish today, we’ll call it a success.  The good news is […]

Hello, friends!  Can you believe Christmas Break is *finally* here?! I’ll pause for a moment while you give yourself a big ol’ pat on the back (or grab another sip of that Christmas cocktail you’re enjoying) for finishing the first half of the school year strong!  You probably Polar Expressed yourself right out the door […]