Are your students comparing and contrasting two characters? I suggest starting with picture books! By October, my students are getting much better at identifying character traits, so it's a great time to take that one step further: comparing and contrasting two characters. One of my favorite picture books for modeling how to do this is The Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume: If you're not familiar, it's a funny look at sibling rivalry as an eight-year-old girl, "The Great One," and her six-year-old brother, "The Pain," state their cases ... read more
Tracking Reading Levels Through the Year
Primary students can make incredible reading growth each year and I am always looking for a quick and easy way to track that growth. This is a simple form that works for me, so I thought I'd share the idea with you. It's just a table I created to match the levels our testing kits assess. Incoming reading level data After receiving my class list, I plug in the names of students onto the chart. This one page chart is super handy while making sure to prep enough copies for reading assessments. Not to mention it fits into a ... read more
Math Warm-Ups for Number Sense
Students need repeated practice on skills in order to work towards mastery. I recently shared with you how my grade level team uses a customized Daily Math Review for our morning work (click here to read more about it). Another key component of my morning is our math warm-up. A few years ago I purchased this pack from Jen Ross (Teacher By the Beach) and I love it! Here's a little peek into the pages I use in my second grade classroom and more about our daily routine with the pages. No matter what, we always start with the hundreds ... read more
The Juice Box Bully
Just a couple of years ago, I had THAT kid in class. Do you know the kid I'm talking about? He wore the same scowling expression as Pete from The Juice Box Bully.He had me thinking about walking away from teaching. He brought me to tears in my classroom after the kids left each day (sometimes during recess breaks). He's the reason I avoided blogging for months because I couldn't put my emotions into words or find joy in teaching the other 24 students. He's the same kid that could turn a calm and quiet atmosphere into one filled ... read more
Anansi and the Magic Stick
Anansi and the Magic Stick is an entertaining story for kids with a great lesson to learn. Here are some of my favorite activities to pair with this book. Hate is a very strong word, but let's be clear.... I HATE spiders. But then I met Charlotte... And then there was this guy: I guess that means I don't hate ALL spiders, I just hate REAL spiders. Fictional spiders I can support. Maybe that's why I enjoy reading books about Anansi, who happens to be a spider. Anansi is an African folktale character who often takes ... read more
Morning Work – Using a Daily Math Review
I have tried all kinds of things for morning work over the years. Each has had its own pros and cons, but nothing ever seemed to be the right fit for my teaching, curriculum alignment, or student needs. So what does a teacher do in this case? She creates something that will work. My colleagues and I use a Daily Math Review (we call it DMR for short). It is similar in concept to what you might find in a teacher resource book, but it has been created and tailored to fit our students. Yes, that means it's a lot more work for us, but it is ... read more
Gooney Bird Greene – Character Traits, Story Retell, Freebies, and More
If you haven't met Gooney Bird Greene yet, you are missing out! Gooney Bird Greene is a freckle-faced, red-headed girl who is absolutely as unique as her name. Throughout the book, Gooney tells absolutely true stories to her second grade classroom (though they seem far from the truth at first). Your students will be excited to hear about a second grader who moves to town from China, goes on a flying carpet ride, directs a symphony orchestra, and spends a little time in jail. Boys and girls will simply adore the stories Gooney has to ... read more
Horrible Harry’s New Look
Horrible Harry has been a classroom staple for several years now. There's just something about the kids of Room 2B (and 3B) that kids can relate to and enjoy. While I still love my packs, it was time to give them a bit of a makeover. The first change was the cover - meet the not-so-new, but definitely improved, Harry: The next thing I changed was the borders and fonts, I added an option for lines on the comprehension question pages, and I made sure each chapter had it's own dedicated page. This left some blank spaces at the ... read more
Classroom Economy: How I Use Money in the Classroom
Many years ago I moved from teaching intermediate down to primary. I worked closely with another teacher who had been using money in the classroom for years. I was hesitant at first, but quickly realized that if we would be sharing students throughout the day, I would need to jump in with both feet and get started. Now it seems like second nature, but it wasn’t always the case. Here’s a look at some of the questions I had when I first started and I hope it might help you, too. GETTING STARTED WITH A CLASSROOM MONEY Why do you use ... read more
Classroom Jobs for Students
CLASSROOM JOBS FOR STUDENTS After teaching for more than a decade, I have changed the way I have used classroom jobs many times. I don't think I even used classroom jobs my first year since I had too many other things to worry about. But, starting my second year (and for several years after), I knew I wanted my students to take some responsibility and help out in the classroom. I started peeking in other classrooms (with permission, of course), and taking note of the types of jobs other teachers were using in their classrooms. Soon after, ... read more
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