There are many reasons why I assign my students classroom jobs. Jobs help students see themselves as contributors to the classroom. Classroom jobs build their self esteem and sense of responsibility. In return, I praised them for a job well done. My students kept my room organized, and frankly, our classrooms wouldn’t run without our students […]
Birthday Graph FREEBIE!
We have a little free gift for you today to celebrate the beginning of a new school year: a birthday graph. Whether you are a homeschooler or parent who wants to graph family birthdays with your children or a teacher looking to graph students’ birthdays, we have a free printable birthday graph for you! […]
Ideas for Building a Classroom Library on a Budget
My first year of teaching, I walked into an nearly empty classroom. Literally, the classroom had a broken laundry basket filled with a few musty books with binding that had seen better days. It was pathetic. Plus, the school gave me a mere $100 for supplies-which included handwriting paper and construction paper. Even though I made […]
Classroom Jobs
Let’s be honest: without classroom jobs for students our classrooms wouldn’t run! When I taught both elementary and high school art, you better believe my students had classroom jobs! Art is a messy subject to teach. Having a good roster of classroom jobs keeps your classroom clean, organized, and running smoothly. More importantly, students develop […]
Five for Friday
We are joining in with Doodle Bug’s Teaching today for a Five for Friday! Love that linky season is back. 1.) We have one week left of summer break, and school starts here for us in Chicago on the 26th. I’m in full back-to-school mode, and we’ve really check off most of our bucket list. […]
Classroom Library Labels with a Freebie!
Classroom Libraries. We all need them in our classrooms to grow our students into voracious readers. I have many secrets that I will share tomorrow on how to grow your classroom libraries on a dime, because let’s face it, it takes many moons to build a decent one. Over the past decade, I have collected […]
Meet the Teachers!
We are joining in on the fun today with a whole crew of other teacher bloggers over at Blog Hoppin’. Since two of us run this site, we figured we’d split the post: 5 things about Nicolette and 5 things about Karen. First, here’s Nicolette: 1.) Every year in the classroom, I’ve never taught the […]
Back to School Bulletin Board Ideas
Hello, teachers! I’m sure you’ve been scouring the web and Pinterest for some new bulletin board ideas, right? Well, feast your tired eyes on this wonderful post. For this back to school edition of our continual bulletin board series, we’ve divided up our welcome back to school bulletin board for 2013 into two categories: bunting […]
First Day of School Writing Activity: Back to School Bus Mini-Book
Need an original idea for a back-to-school writing activity? Hop on the school bus! This back to school mini-book includes beginning of the year writing prompts and a title page where the students can draw themselves driving the mini-bus. Since most school are moving to Common Core, we’ve aligned it for those standards. This is […]
Back to School Activity: About Me Themed School Bus
It’s the first day of school: your room is organized, and your students radiate with excitement. Who are these new little eager learners? This back-to-school about me activity is a perfect ice breaker and simple way get to know your class! Your students will draw and write about themselves on the back to school bus! Here’s […]
