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A blog about tips and ideas to use in your reading classroom!

Fall Classroom Activities

Fall Classroom Activities For Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Grades

   Yay! It’s Fall! Cooler weather and colorful trees! Here are some fall classroom activities for fourth, fifth, and sixth grades that I have created to capture the season. Use these products as fun independent work, partner or group work, fast finishers activity, indoor recess, fun Fridays, free time activity, or

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How To Keep Consistent Classroom Management and Routines

How To Keep Consistent Classroom Management and Routines

Introduction How to keep consistent classroom management and routines in your classroom now that the back to school season is gone. This may be a question you are asking yourself right now. How do you stay consistent with your classroom management and routines? I know when people hear classroom management

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Taming Your Weekly Teacher To Do List!

Taming Your Weekly Teacher To Do List!

Introduction Trust me having a system to deal with all your “to do’s” to tame your weekly teacher to do list is a must! I know because it is the end of August and I am “in the thick of it”. I just finished up the first full week back

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Classroom Set Up Ideas For The New School Year

Classroom Set-Up Ideas For The New School Year!

Introduction It’s that time again for classroom set-up ideas for the new school year! How will you be arranging your classroom for this school year? Will you keep it the same all school year or will you mix it up a bit at the end of each quarter or semester?

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Back To School Ready!

Back To School Ready!

Introduction First impressions matter, be ready but not perfect, put your best foot forward! Remember teaching is about being consistent every day! Think about what can you do TODAY to help you have great days for yourself and your students. What can you do TODAY to help you have a

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How To Plan For The School Year

How To Plan For The School Year

Introduction How do you plan for the school year? If you are like me once it’s June signifying it’s the end of the school year your not thinking about planning. I don’t think about how to plan for the school year at all during the month of June. It’s probably

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My Favorite Teacher Professional Development Books

My Favorite Teacher Professional Development Books

Why Read Teacher Professional Development Books Why should you read teacher professional development books? Especially since you will read them on your own time without them being required readings. Well, if you are dedicated to your career, enjoy teaching, and want to be your best, professional development books can help

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5 Tips For Packing Up Your Classroom At The End Of The School Year

5 Tips For Packing Up Your Classroom

When it’s the end of the school year and you’re packing up your classroom, you are probably eager to start summer vacation! But as a teacher, there may be one thing “standing in your way” of starting your summer break as it relates to end-of-year classroom clean-up. Checking out! Checking

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seven fun indoor recess games

7 Fun Indoor Recess Games

Rain, Snow, Heat, Calls For Indoor Recess Games And Activities!  Rain, snow, cold weather, and sometimes excessive heat call for indoor recess games and activities! Having a variety of indoor recess games and activities ready to use with your students is a must! Although outside recess is probably a preference

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Reading Foundation: The Alphabet, Vowels, and Consonants

Reading Foundation: The Alphabet, Vowels, and Consonants

Introduction Since I have taught grades first through sixth, I know the importance of having a solid reading foundation. It’s best for students to develop critical reading skills in the primary grades. It becomes very challenging for upper elementary students and middle school students to “catch up” in reading once

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Back To School Resources To Use In Your Classroom

Back To School Resources To Use In Your Classroom

Introduction It’s that time of year again when I am looking through back-to-school resources. As teachers, we know the first day of school as well as the first weeks of school are important! This is the time when we set the tone for our classroom and school year. I like

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Planning Your Reading Block

Planning Your Reading Block

Introduction When planning your reading block you are working on the actual structure of your reading block. The day-to-day of what you will do and how you will teach. Hopefully, you read my blog post from last week about organizing your reading classroom for back-to-school. If not you can read it

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How To Organize Your Classroom Reading Corner!

How To Organize Your Classroom Reading Corner

Introduction Organizing your classroom reading corner or space is one way to start the new school year off to a great start! Even if it’s not the beginning of the school year, maintaining an organized reading space is a must. No matter if you are an elementary teacher or a

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7 Back To School Tips For New Teachers

7 Back To School Tips For New Teachers

Congratulations! It’s official you’re a new teacher (smile)! You landed that first teaching job and are eager to start! You may feel a little nervous but I’m sure there’s some excitement shining through too. These 7 Back To School Tips For New Teachers are just what you need to help

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Title Graphic: Effective Parent Communication Can Make A Big Difference

Effective Parent Communication Can Make A Big Difference

 Introduction Effective parent communication can make a big difference when it comes to communicating with your student’s families. How teachers communicate with parents begins at the beginning of the school year and continues throughout the school year. No matter what grade level I have taught, I have always kept the

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5 Tips For Creating a Caring Community In The Classroom

5 Tips for Creating a Caring Community

A classroom where students are engaged in learning, in my opinion, begins with a caring community! Creating a caring community appears to start on the very first day of school when students arrive. But if we are honest, it begins for many of us, weeks or maybe even months before

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Photo of a moving truck with the blog title. Moving Grade Levels? How to successfully make that change!

Moving Grade Levels?

Introduction I have taught 1st grade through 6th grade so trust me I have lots of experience in moving grade levels! Now I didn’t do it in numerical order. Starting with 1st grade and then moving into teaching 6th grade. I actually started my teaching career in the primary grades

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Graphic with blog post title: Back From Spring Break Activities

Back From Spring Break Activities

Introduction Spring break is a much-awaited event in the classroom, especially if the break falls after March! So much so that it appears that my students are not concerned about when we are coming back from spring break. I have not heard many students ask when do we come back

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Blog Title: Women's History Month Book Collection Part II

More Women’s History Month Books

Introduction: Celebrating Women’s History Month Last week I posted Part I of this mini-series blog post about Women’s History Month. I talked about ideas to use for Women’s History Month classroom activities for upper elementary students. As well as I discussed a couple of books. Teachers can do book talks

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Title: Women's History Month Book Collection For Upper Elementary

Women’s History Month Book Collection

Women’s History Month Introduction Women’s History Month is a significant time to recognize and celebrate women and their contributions to society. It is a time to focus on Women’s History Month classroom activities. Activities that you can do with your upper elementary students. Are you wondering how long Women’s History

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Blog Title: How To Use Discussion Cards to Promote Conversations About Books

How To Use Discussion Cards

Introduction Do you have your students form literature circles, book clubs, or novel study groups? Are they meeting frequently to discuss the books they are reading? Are you looking for ways to help guide students in discussing what they’re reading? Ultimately, wanting students to engage in meaningful conversations without straying

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Blog Tittle: 3 Ways to Use Reading and Writing Surveys in Upper Elementary!

3 Ways To Use Reading And Writing Surveys

Reading and Writing Surveys in Upper Elementary What do you think about surveys? Do you like to take them? Do you enjoy giving your opinion about something you have used or will use in the future? Well, survey results give important insight into how someone feels about a particular subject.

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Why Use Novel Studies?

Why Use Novel Studies?

What Are Novel Studies? You may be asking yourself, what are novel studies? And why might I want to do novel studies in my classroom? There are many ways to do novel studies. Some teachers may have students read the same book as a class. And once finished, students complete

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Title: sixth grade chapter books by black authors (That I have used in my classroom throughout the school year!)

6th Grade Chapter Books by Black Authors

Celebrating Black History Month is a vital time to recognize African Americans’ contributions, talents, and skills. It’s essential that we pause and reflect with our students on the accomplishments that others have made over the years. In this blog post, I will talk about some 6th grade chapter books by

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Title: Researching Harriet Tubman During Black History Month

Researching Harriet Tubman During Black History Month

Black History Month Researching Harriet Tubman during Black History Month opens the door for insightful discussions with your students! It is important that during Black History Month students learn about the essential contributions made to our society by heroic people like Harriet Tubman. Before I begin teaching lessons with my

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Title: 5 Tips For Your Next Author Study

5 Tips For Your Next Author Study

Introduction An author study is a great way to introduce your students to a variety of authors and the books they have written. Begin with some familiar authors. Authors of books you have read to your class. Then choose authors your students have never heard about. Many times in the

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Title: Reading for Comprehension in Upper Elementary

Reading for Comprehension in Upper Elementary

Introduction We teachers know that reading for comprehension is important for students to be able to do in upper elementary. But how do we help our students learn how to do this while reading?  Especially when they have to read a text they may not be interested in reading. Reading

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Title Snowflake Winter Read-Alouds

Snowflake Winter Read-Alouds

Winter Wonderland Theme January is a great time to do a “winter wonderland” theme in your classroom! Bring fun to your winter read-alouds by adding quick crafts for students to do! During the winter months, students are use to the routine of being in school. So changing up your winter

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back from winter break activities

Back From Winter Break Activities

It’s that time of year again, back from winter break! It’s true we have a countdown in the classroom eagerly waiting for the start of winter break. But many of us don’t give too much thought to returning from winter break! We want to blissfully believe that winter break will

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Blog Post Title: 5 Class Reward System Ideas

5 Class Reward System Ideas

Are you searching for whole class reward system ideas that help you motivate and reward your class all while setting a classroom goal? A classroom goal that will focus on the whole class and have students working as a team? One where you can help motivate and reward your class

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Using Reading Response Journals in the Classroom

Using Reading Response Journals in the Primary Classroom

Have you used reading response journals with your students to help them with reading comprehension? Reading response journals can help your students respond in writing about what they are currently reading. Students can respond before, during, and after reading. Reading response journals are great tools to help students keep all

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Hi, I'm Joy!

I have taught grades 1st through 6th grade! Read my blog for tips and ideas to use in your reading classroom!

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