School and the City

What is academic vocabulary? Think: All of those words students may encounter on assessments. I typically consider academic vocabulary to be verbs, like infer, analyze, compare, summarize, and so on.  I went to a professional development one time with an amazing speaker who said something that I will never forget. She said: "Vocabulary should be a hurdle for students, not a roadblock." Ever since then, I've tried to be extra intentional about providing my students with daily exposure to such terms so that they can become familiar with using them in daily conversations. Although this seemed to help, I felt that my students needed a tangible resource to practice with - especially for those visual and kinesthetic learners. So, I made puzzles! What's not to love? There are three types of puzzles: common academic verbs RELA nouns math nouns Let's help our students master high-level academic language so that they can truly show ...

Teaching economics to elementary students is tough. I've been there - and I feel you! I've had to teach "financial literacy" to kindergarteners, then basic economics concepts as a second and third grade teacher. Years of experience has allowed me to learn a lot along the way about how to effective teach economics to elementary students. Invest in Picture Books I love to use my front-facing bookshelf to spotlight books related to our current science or social studies unit. It's a great way to consistently refresh the highlighted books and to give students extra exposure to content. It's great to expose students to a variety of new texts and help them learn those tricky vocabulary words. You can find a list of my favorite picture books for teaching economics in this blog post , or on Amazon . Of course, there's no need to spend your hard-earned money on books for every unit. I love to use the library for this! Integrate Conte...

Did you know that February is Dental Health month?! It's so hard to find time to fit in those health standards, but it makes is easier when you have a reminder, like a whole themed month! I like to try and cover my health standards be integrating health content with other subject areas. It's easy to mix health standards in with RELA standards, but math can be a little trickier. Here are some ideas for you to use in your classroom during Dental Health Month - or whenever - to help you cover those dental health standards. Read all the dental health books. Some of my favorite books to read about teeth / dental health are: The Tooth Book Why Do I Drool? Just Going to the Dentist (because I LOVE Little Critter!) Let's Meet a Dentist Check out this collection of dental health books that I created on Epic! How-To Writing I've always loved to use "how to brush your teeth" as a how-to writing topic when introducing informa...

Teaching from home isn't easy, but these must-haves for distance learning can make it a little more manageable. It's been a learning curve for all of us - teachers, students, and parents alike. Below you'll find some products that I've found to make teaching remotely a little easier. 1. Mini Tripod This mini tripod (which doubles as a selfie stick - ha!) is great for recording read alouds. In the spring, I would use it to record a few chapters at a time of our current novel. It is adjustable in many directions, so it's also great for recording instructional videos using your phone. It's small, folds up nicely, and therefore is really easy to store, pack, and carry around. 2. Mini Ring Light If you're using your phone to record videos, you might like this clip-on ring light . It clips onto your phone easily to provide better lighting for those read alouds. It can clip on to your laptop, too, if you have a front-facing camera on...

Each year, I have students struggle with putting ending punctuation in the correct spots.  They know that they needed to use periods, but will put periods at the ends of lines or in seemingly random spots. I've spent a lot of time on this over the past few years and thought I'd share some tips for teaching punctuation to your elementary students. Use Mentor Texts To teach students how to be good writers, have them study books (and other texts) as mentors. Spend a lot of time discussing punctuation as you read: What punctuation is the author using? Why was that mark chosen, and why was it placed there? How does this punctuation mark help me as a reader? What can I learn as a writer? Practice Oral Reading Use nonsense words or silly sentences for students to notice how our voices change depending on the punctuation that is used at the end of the sentence. I love this idea from The Unique Classroom : This can help students realize the importanc...

You asked for more information about making video lessons for students during distance learning. I've got you covered! Read on, teacher friend. Why are you prerecording videos? I've moved to an interventionist role this year. Because of that, my program isn't starting up right away and I won't have students assigned to me for the first few weeks. Of course, this year is far from normal, so we've decided that I'll spend some time creating a bank of standards-based videos for the students (and teachers) that I will be working with this year. I'm recording short minilessons that teachers can send to parents/students if they need extra support outside outside of the synchronous learning that they are doing. When I start meeting with my students, it will be live, not prerecorded. What do you use to record your videos? I use my school laptop to record videos. I got lucky with an upgrade right before COVID, so the video and audi...

You may already know how and why to use choice boards in your classroom, but let’s talk specifically about math.  3rd grade math choice boards Math is my favorite subject to teach, but I absolutely hated it as a student. Why? In elementary school, it was all skill and drill. Think: multiplication facts and timed tests. In middle school, I had to complete math packets for homework each week. In high school, I took notes during lectures and struggled to get my homework finished before the late bell rang each morning. (Evens only though, because the odd answers were in the back of the book, right?) I think my disdain for math as a student is what has motivated me to make it an entirely different experience for my own students. I also had wonderful teacher education professors in college and even grad school that taught me how to truly explore mathematics and to improve my practice as a math teacher.  4th grade math choice boards In order to increase intrinsic mot...