Teaching can be challenging from time to time, especially when we are talking about holding a student’s attention and keeping it. How can we motivate a child and engage them to learn? How can we spark an interest in the content that we are teaching? And, most importantly, how can… Continue Reading »
5 Games for Reviewing Any Content
When I was in school, I remember teachers reviewing content by simply having us open a book, going to the end of the chapter, and answering the questions. It was not my idea of reviewing, nor was it exactly exciting. In fact, I hated the end of a chapter. It… Continue Reading »
Why You SHOULD Use Games In Your Classroom
Often times when I mention using games in the classroom, I am met with a look. A look of bewilderment. I’m surprised by this because I thought games were a more mainstreamed thing, but I guess it’s not. I started digging around and realized that there’s this belief that they… Continue Reading »
Stimulate Curiosity through Questioning
When children are little they are very curious about everything around them, but as they get older this tends to diminish. How can we, as teachers, recapture this creativity? We can stimulate curiosity in our students by teaching them to ask the right kind of questions. In this post, I’ll… Continue Reading »
20 Science Career Projects and Activities that Engages
Sometimes a topic such as science careers can be a bit dry. And, often times you aren’t exactly sure how to “spruce it up” so students are engaged. Today, I have 20 science career project and activity ideas that I think would help you when it comes to planning! Choosing… Continue Reading »
24 Exit Ticket Ideas
We’ve probably all used exit tickets before in our classroom for a quick, informal assessment. And, I’m willing to bet that most of the time you have used nearly the same questions– something along the lines of “tell me what you have learned today.” If you’re like me, after a… Continue Reading »
5 Tips to Using Game-Based Learning
Let’s play a game! Those words can excite upper elementary students just as much as the younger set. Students of all ages love playing games, but game-based learning is so much more. It’s not just a replacement for worksheets, a space-filler to kill time between assessments, and it’s not just… Continue Reading »
How to Create a DIY Classroom Calendar
Does anyone remember the Everyday Math Calendars? I use to love doing those in my classroom with my students, even in the upper elementary grades. But as our time became more packed with Common Core, it just seemed that got packed into the closet and just wasn’t possible. However, it… Continue Reading »
10 Engaging Ways to Create Timelines
Teaching about timelines is a skill that crosses into language arts, science, and social studies, at the very least. It is often found as a graphic source in nonfiction texts that helps students understand the material better, and students are often asked to create a timeline at some point during… Continue Reading »
Creating Readers with Reading Rally
Each year for reading month, I like to make sure I have lots of activities going on to emphasize just how important reading is. Some grade levels focus heavily on Dr. Seuss, while others complete book tournaments such as Reading Star or Book Madness. A few years ago, our school… Continue Reading »