Fun and Practical Ideas for Primary Classrooms
I love using fun decodable books with my young readers! See our four-day reading group routine with our short vowel decodable books! I’ve used these in reading groups, with reading volunteers, and I send them home with students as well. The kids love the funny characters and simple text. The “words to know” section is a great warmup for kids… Read More
We have a lot of fun with this each year and I always look forward to it! It’s a fun way for my students to focus on the changing spring weather and to track what they observe each day. They get so excited to check out the weather at recess each day. I start off by reading the book In… Read More
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 🎉🎉🎉 I look at the first few days back with my students as a “soft-start” and here are some of the things we do during that first week! We all need time to get back into the routine, me included! I’ve got a great pack of FREE New Year activities included at the end of this post… Read More
Short answer…📣📣📣 WE DON’T!! I just finished my 20th year of teaching and it was my toughest one yet. The year before that, where we were online for most of the year, was also extremely tough. I have not been loving it these last two years…I’m exhausted and drained. But, I still LOVE teaching 1st graders! Most of the things… Read More
How does a Reward Catalog work? Well, let me show you one of our favorite things in 1st grade! The great news is, you can use a Reward Catalog with any management system that you already have in place, it’s low-maintenance, and it can be low cost and/or FREE for you. Here’s how it works in my room… We use… Read More
I love using spring-themed activities to keep my first grade students engaged during this exciting time of the year! Here is a roundup of some of my favorites that I think you’ll love! Spring-Themed Reading Passages I’ve used these passages for leveled homework, reading groups, and more! Each week has three levels (emerging, growing, established) that cover the same topic… Read More
I love making and sharing great resources for teachers to use. Here is a roundup of some of my FAVORITE FREEBIES from my Teachers Pay Teachers store or my blog! Click the pictures to get your free resources! This pack has 17 passages for first grade Reading Literature (RL) and Reading Informational (RI) passages. Perfect for practice, review, and assessment… Read More
Primary teachers know we have students who come to us writing up a storm and others who are very reluctant to write anything! How do I get my first graders writing from day one? The short answer is…we write ALL THE TIME! (Me included!) We don’t just write at “writing time”. We write on whiteboards, sticky notes, anchor charts, and… Read More
If you’re a primary teacher, you know that we not only have to help little ones learn HOW to read, we also have to tackle some pretty challenging comprehension standards on top of that! It’s a BIG job! Here are some resources I use to help my first graders and I hope you will find them helpful, too! Anchor Charts… Read More
We all have our favorite attention-getters that we use in the classroom. I love having an array of them to choose from to keep my kiddos on their toes! Here are my Top 5, in no particular order! My Wireless Doorbell My students love my wireless doorbell. It has so many different chimes and I love to change it up… Read More
