On the road to building decoding and fluency mastery, students need to incorporate a variety of reading strategies. Likewise, beginning writers need to master some basic writing strategies. The most important reading & writing strategies are simple. They must be incorporated into daily work so that they become routine and students use them without thought. […]

Teaching writing is a stress inducer for a lot of teachers. Engaging Writing is here to help! During my first couple years of teaching, writing time was THE area that frustrated me the most. Many techniques and strategies I read about and tried to implement just muddled the “art” of it. They took up far too much time. Overall, they missed […]

I’m linking up with Jen over at Teacher By the Beach for her Monday Motivation series. This week is all about Word Walls. I love this idea because there are a TON of ways to address the Word Wall situation and I think I’ve tried them all! Which Words When? My word wall is on […]

Do you ever need to fill a few minutes in class? Want those minutes filled with something meaningful? Also want those minutes to require very little (hopefully nothing) from you? Wouldn’t it be nice if those minutes incorporated some high-level thinking and schema cementing tasks? Yeah, me too! That’s where Daily Schema Review comes in. […]

I’m sharing a few of my favorite March activities with you today. I cannot believe we are already heading into March! The post is long, but filled with all sorts of word work and writing fabulousness and a FREEBIE, too!! A couple of things happen when March rolls around each year. I get a little […]

Valentines Day cuteness and creativity in the form of Lulu the Love Bird narrative writing is joining the presidential and patriotic fun this month. This little holiday just can’t be ignored when littles are involved. In celebration of Valentines Day, we will have a quick and easy ice cream sundae party and pass out our Valentines on […]

Wow, did January ever fly by!! I cannot believe we will already be celebrating Groundhog Day this week! This is one of my favorite bulletin boards! Each and every little groundhog turns out so adorable and slightly different from the next. The kiddos truly enjoy making this little guy. Groundhog Day Books Throughout the week, […]