Social Distancing Greetings


Classroom Setup, Daily Life, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Kindergarten, Printables, Second Grade, Third Grade, TpT Store

I still don’t know what our school has planned as far as in-person, virtual, or hybrid learning. But I know that at some point we will be back in the building. So, in preparation, I created a set of social distance greeting signs. Hopefully, they will help students connect with one another, even while being far apart. In past years, I’ve tried doing the individual greetings with each child, but I was never great at remembering what steps there were for each child. I’m thinking I may try it again this year, and with a visual reminder of the choices, […]

Mini Anchor Charts


Classroom Setup, Daily Life, DIY, ELA, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Math, Printables, Third Grade, TpT Store, Writing

I love anchor charts. I hate hanging anchor charts on my walls. They either take up precious bulletin board space, or they constantly fall down (or just wave at me from one droopy corner). So, a few years ago, I created a set of mini anchor charts for my tables using IKEA’s Tolsby Frames. After much frustration to get everything just the right size, I finally had a small set of charts. Multiplication chart, synonyms for overused words, math talk stems, commonly misspelled words, and more. And I also made some cute motivational cards to keep it fun and positive!

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Printable Post-Its


Daily Life, DIY, ELA, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Printables, Second Grade, Third Grade, TpT Store, Writing

A friend asked if I had ever used or created printable Post-Its to use in my classroom. A logical question, since I do love Post-Its! While I had never printed on them before, my curiosity was piqued and I was on it the next morning! It took a few days, but I finally had a full set of printables that I could see myself using in the classroom (whenever we head back, that is!) Positive notes of praise, notes of encouragement to keep going, sentence starters for those days when I want to be more specific, writing checklists (my stamp

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DIY projects


Classroom Setup, DIY, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Third Grade

DIY Project #1: I was cleaning out some old kindergarten supplies and came across the purple drawer container which used to house all of my alphabet stamps. I thought it could be a cute desk holder for all of those knick-knacks that get cluttered around, so I brought it home for a little TLC. I peeled off all the old ABC stickers and gave it a good cleaning, printed out some new labels and taped them on (I would have put them on the inside, but the label goo didn’t come off), and then painted the outside with an acrylic

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Gratitude Journal


Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Homework, Printables, Third Grade, TpT Store

Last fall, I did a Gratitude Journal with my students. Every day, for 42 days in a row, they had to write down 3 things they were grateful for, or write about how they were grateful that day. At the end, they did two short reflections. For students who are used to only having homework Monday through Thursday, there was a bit of a grumble at the beginning when they had to do work on the weekends. But by the end, many were sad to see the project end. Here are a few things my students said they were grateful

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Brag Tags


Daily Life, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Homework, Printables, Second Grade, Third Grade, TpT Store

We have a program at my school where students are encouraged to set weekly goals, and long term goals. I find that after a while, kids set the same goals week after week. “I want to pass my math fact test” or “I want to read x number of minutes.” I am also a teacher who likes to present extra optional challenges to my kids, and sometimes they are accepted, and other times ignored. We also do the MindUP program, which encourages qualities such as optimism, gratitude, perspective taking, happiness, etc. Some tricky concepts for some children! If only I

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Severe Weather Project – Pyramid Dioramas


Cooperative Learning, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Science, Third Grade, TpT Store

This year, the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classes got together to do an end of the year project which we named Biome Bonanza. We put the students into mixed grade level groups, and had each group choose a biome to study. Once biomes were assigned, the 5th graders researched the biome itself and created a trifold, the 3rd graders each chose a country within the biome and put together a country report and short powerpoint, and my 4th graders studied a type of severe weather in the biome and created a pyramid diorama. Then, they had to work together

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Math Challenge – Presidential Math


Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Homework, Math, TpT Store

With every unit in math, I give out a math challenge that reviews some of the major concepts from the previous unit. I had a challenge for mean, median and mode, but it turned out to be far too complicated, which meant I had to create something new. I figured social studies and presidents would be a good tie-in. So here it is, the Presidential Math Challenge! You can view it on my TpT Store.

Biography Partner Projects


Cooperative Learning, ELA, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Printables, Reading, Third Grade, TpT Store

My students recently finished a biography partner project, which was designed not only as a reading and research project, but also to help students work on their organization, time management and cooperative skills. I wanted to stress the process and quality of work with this project. I used the ‘Who Is/Who Was’ series of biographies, since they are all about the same length, and they include a starting place for the timeline requirement. The entire project took 4 weeks, with children working on this both in class and for homework. I started by grouping students into pairs, keeping in mind

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Student-Led Portfolio Conferences


Assessment, ELA, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Math, Printables, Reading, Science, Social Studies, TpT Store, Writing

November is a time for Parent-Teacher conferences, which I must admit are not my favorite. I spend so much time trying to think of everything I need to say to a parent, organizing my ideas, gathering work samples and finding just the right way to phrase some of those difficult messages. And inevitably, the minute a parent leaves or an hour later it hits me… the one thing I forgot to tell them! Spring is another conference, but this time around students are leading the way. Over the next few weeks I will spend time reflecting with my students, sharing

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