Building a Reading and Writing Classroom and a FREE Game

Conferences are so much more than PD. It's a great way to connect to our fellow teachers while getting that motivation to teach another day! I love presenting to teachers. Here are a few ideas from some of the sessions I present. Be sure and read all the way to the bottom where I have added a FREE file to get you motivated!

Encouraging Little Ones to Write: Center Projects that Motivate and Inspire

In this session I share lots of fun crafty type projects that will get your kids writing. I also share some easy no prep writing centers. I love this idea we did when we were doing the book “I Know an Old Lady”. After making the cute craft Old Lady, the children pick a sticker or clip art picture of an insect. Then, we glued it inside her mouth. Now, the children write clues to see if you can guess which insect is in her mouth. Writing clues is a great way to work on descriptive language.

Reader’s Workshop: A Celebration of Independence

Getting things started are often the hardest part. Like what do you do when they first come to school in the fall?  At the beginning of the year I want to set the kids up for success!  I want all of our kids to see themselves as readers. this anchor chart teachers our kids that we can read in different ways.   This anchor chart is used over 3 different lessons!

Wacky Wonderful World of Words Mini Lessons

When do you start teaching the reading strategies? What order should they be taught? Well, those are just a few of the questions we ask ourselves. For one thing, we start early with just a few strategies. Practice them for a few months, and add in a few more. In the spring, we add the most challenging strategies while maintaining the others. This is the first anchor chart we use to teach strategies. Very simple and easy to practice!

Start off on the Right Foot: The First 30 Days

Develop a home-school connection with this simple idea. Take pictures of all of your kids with their family at Open House or Meet and Greet. Then, get cheap frames from the Dollar Store. Display the photos on a shelf for everyone to see! Parents love it! They feel like a part of the class, and they are very impressed!

Number Line Mystery Free File

And here is the freebee for today. This is a great way to develop number sense and where numbers are in relation to each other. 

Want more ideas for this game? Here is a blog post just about this game!