Keep Your Students Reflecting Through November
November is such an important time of reflection in my classroom as we think about all the things we are thankful for. In the past, I have always done crafts centering around thankfulness, but this year I wanted to take this a step further. I want my students to think critically about what they are thankful for and to share these ideas with thei... Read more 12 Nov 2017 - 1 minute read
Thankfulness Lapbook Writing and Craftivity
November is a time where we stop to think about what we are thankful for. Every time I open social media I am inundated with thankfulness campaigns. I wanted to create a writing craftivity for my students that we can work on each week in November so that we too can reflect on what we are thankful for. I created this Thankfulness Lapbook to do ju... Read more 10 Nov 2017 - 2 minute read
My Bat Cave Classroom Transformation
By LAURIN BRAINARD Updated Oct. 22, 2023 Halloween is one of the craziest school days of the entire year. My students dress up in their Halloween costumes, we enjoy a costume parade, and students always bring treats to share. Rather than fight the chaos, I decided to take the advice from Jodi Southard at Fun in First and transform my classroom ... Read more 08 Nov 2017 - 3 minute read
Using Bookmarks to Master Fry Words
Learning sight words is HARD for some of my littles. I love finding fun and engaging ways to work on memorization. In my classroom we use the Fry Word sight word system. I created a set of Fry Word Bookmarks for First Grade to help break down the words into manageable sets. Each bookmark includes 20 fry words. In my first grade class, there ar... Read more 03 Nov 2017 - 1 minute read
How to Survive Halloween as a Teacher
By LAURIN BRAINARD Updated Oct. 18, 2023 Halloween falls on a Tuesday this year which means that we not only have to survive Halloween day, but also the THREE school days that follow. Here are a few quick teacher tips to help you not only survive, but enjoy one of our student’s favorite days of the year. Click here to save this post to your fav... Read more 31 Oct 2017 - 3 minute read