"Teachers get 12 whole days off at Christmas." Yeah right! I, myself, have been trying to get ahead and prepared for the return to the long month of January, we have report cards due, parent-teacher meetings, PLC meetings... the list goes on and on. So these days off are a balance between getting all ready, [...]

So I have been mentioning that I love using small group, guided approach to teaching. You are probably wondering how in the world I keep my other students learning in a meaningful way while I am working with these groups. This is my first year teaching first grade. Certainly with changes in the standards, all grade [...]

BRR winter is arriving and with the cold weather is tons of classroom winter fun! Silver glitter, student cut snowflakes hanging from the walls... I love this time of year with my students. Christmas and Holiday time has passed and we are now on our school vacation. Time for me to relax, enjoy my own [...]

When I was moved to teach first grade, I knew the most difficult part of teaching young readers was going to be teaching them to decode. I had taught first graders before, and the phonics instruction was boring and I often saw very little application to my students' reading and decoding. I went to a [...]

It has been a very busy week and a half in my classroom. We have been reading many of the wonderful stories by Joy Cowley about Mrs.Wishy Washy and the Meanies. The most exciting thing for my students has been that they are able to read enough now to navigate the text on their own, [...]

  Click below for materials to launch Super Problem Solvers in your classroom! I have spent huge parts of my academic day solving the case of the missing brown crayon, the girl who accidentally stepped on another students toe, or a child who cut in line.  I began to realize that these students were depending solely [...]

Happy More Math Monday! In my classroom, I use a guided math approach during math time, so I use math games and centers daily. I have recently created some fun games and activities that my students have enjoyed again and again. One of my (and their) favorite things to do is "Write the Room" type [...]

Christmastime is my FAVORITE time of year. It is also one of the most challenging times of year for teachers. The children are abuzz with excitement and anticipation of all of the holiday celebrations and festivities. One problem I have been running into is a lack of interesting resources for my beginning readers (who still [...]

Launching guided reading groups in my first grade classroom has been quite an adventure this year. I know, I know... guided reading is often said to be in stark contradiction to the Common Core, but the truth is that for early readers there is a definite need to have the students reading books with lots [...]