Teacherof20

Students' early years (5 to 10 years old) are a time of incredible brain development and learning with the help of hands-on science lessons for kindergartners . During kindergarten, they will be learning to recognize patterns and formulate answers to questions about the world around them. It means forming a way how to learn, adapt and perceive new concepts at school. This is a critical time. That’s why experienced teachers recommend parents expose kids (5-10 years old) to science, which can help them develop necessary thinking skills, creativity, and problem-solving abilities. Science lessons can also help them build a foundation for future learning and success in school and beyond. In this blog, we will educate you about how to indulge your students' curiosity in learning science and recommend the b est science lessons for this academic year.  Why is Science Education a must for Kindergarteners? Develops Critical Thinking Skills:  Science lessons teach kids to ask questio...

1. Being Too Friendly Students in 4th grade come across as very grown up. Even though their height may deceive you (especially in the 2nd semester), 4th graders are oscillating back and fourth between tweens that are exerting their independence by rolling their eyes at you and babies that look up to you and cry on your shoulder. This was quite shocking for me to see the disparity in behaviors, but now that i've done it once this year I know the subtle balance of being a 10 year old. This year I am going to know the balance between joking around with students and when students are expected to exhibit a certain behavior. As a first year teacher, you will have to play around with this and learn the difference between building relationships and rapport with your class and letting them walk all over you or cause you to be inconsistent in your expectations because you're trying to be the nice guy. An example: "Do I have to come to the carpet?" 2. Not Having Behavior Systems...

  Meet Stephanie, the teacher behind School House Rap with over 20 years of experience and enjoys creating picture book companions. She's a picture book fanatic and loves using them to teach her elementary and middle school students. In fact, she's been known to break out with a spontaneous rap in the classroom, using picture book characters as her inspiration. Don’t worry; she won’t quit her day job.   Understanding cause and effect is a critical skill in children learning to process the world around them. From recognizing that pushing a toy will make it move to understand that studying for a test can result in higher grades, grasping the concept of cause and effect forms the basis for problem-solving, critical thinking, and scientific reasoning. But how can elementary school teachers make this abstract concept more tangible for their young students?   Let’s explore some engaging strategies to teach cause and effect to elementary students, making the learning...

When I began my teaching career as a second grade teacher, there was one mathematical standard that frightened me the most. “By the end of second grade, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.” (CCSS 2.OA.B.2) I approached this standard in the same way in which I was taught my addition and subtraction facts by drilling my students with facts. I incorporated flashcards, games that required quick recall of the sum like knock out and around the world as well as weekly fact quizzes into my math lessons, but as the year progressed, there were two problems that surfaced.  1. My students were not engaged during fact practice time. To be frank, they were bored.  2. My students were not making progress on their weekly fact quizzes.  Needless to say, I was feeling quite defeated. My second grade students were not going to know the addition facts to 20 from memory by the end of the year if I continued to employ the same strategies. Luckily, around this same time, I was a...

  As summer draws to a close, it's time for students to pack their backpacks, lace up their shoes, and embark on a brand new academic journey. For middle schoolers, the back to school season is an exciting time filled with opportunities to learn, grow, and explore various subjects. in this blog post, we will dive into the world of math back to school activities specifically designed for middle school students. Additionally  we will introduce a thrilling no-prep activity that combines math practice with technology, promoting engagement and a sense of adventure in the classroom. Making Math Fun Mathematics may not always be everyone's favorite subject, but it doesn't have to be boring. One of the key aspects of a successful math back to school experience is finding innovative ways to make learning fun and engaging for students. By incorporating interactive activities, puzzles, and games into the curriculum, educators can transform the traditional perception of math and ignite...

  Looking for a cute new look to your classroom? Wanting to try something new this back to school season but don't know where to start?  Last year I began teaching for the first time in 10 years! I wanted my classroom to be a space where I could relax and unwind, and an inviting space for my students. Teachers work long hours, so I knew this would be my home away from home.             .                      First things first, I purchased a little coffee Keurig on sale with the themed color of my classroom. I needed to stay caffeinated for sure! :) The palate of my classroom is white, black, and succulents. Teal/turquoise is used as an accent color. The succulents have a splash of purples and greens as well. I didn't want to venture too far off from that palate.  I created  numbers for the backpack hooks , as well as  inspirational posters  (available in English and Spanis...

In my time in the classroom I've seen the teachers often spend so much time teaching routines and structures thereby neglecting the content. In this blog entry, I'll talk about how to leave routines the same, to free up time for teaching the content. 1. Teach the same game with different content. There are many games floating around that are all the same basic principle. Teach it, then change up the content it teaches. For example, in this October Freebie , there is a Spin n' Jump game. You can have this be an activity at a station all year, with different content. The Spin n' Jump game could be about 3D Shapes, sight words, vocabulary terms with non-linguistic representations...you name it! The game is the same, but you'd be reinforcing different content based on what you're learning that week. Likewise, with this Roll n' Graph game, found in the same freebie, you can use the same format, and change up the content in the game. I've used roll n' g...

Top 5 things to do to keep your class engaged the last month of school Here are some things to keep your students motivated and engaged in class the last few weeks of school. It can be hard to keep their attention when they've checked out for summer break (even though we're only in April!!). Here are some tools you can use to help students feel motivated to finish out the year strong! 1. Balloon pop motivation Set up balloons at the top of the whiteboard (where kids can’t reach) and the last few minutes of class pop one a day (if they've had a good day). Inside have incentives, such as no shoes the last 10 minutes of class, have a dance party, have free time with blocks and board games, etc. If the class doesn't have a good day that day they don't get to pop a balloon! 2. Games, games, games Have students bring in their favorite board game to play with classmates at a designated time of the day. If you need to cover academics during this time, board...

This week’s talented teacherpreneur is Johanna from ThatTeacherJo . She started creating resources when, as a bilingual teacher, she couldn’t find any quality Spanish resources. She figured if she needed them, other teachers did as well. She’s been growing her store ever since! The supplement resources to the Daily Five and CAFE she’s created are the most valuable resources she’s made. They have helped her structure her literacy block which was a great starting point for her 9 years ago when she became a teacher. She tells any aspiring teacherpreneur that if you create resources for your class, most likely others will need them too. She’s often downloaded others products and used them in her class, to which she is very grateful. Take a chance and go for it. There are many tips on how to get started out there. Her next venture as a teacherpreneur is to learn how to create digital resources on google slides. It is top on her to do list for the summer!

This week's Talented Teacherpreneur is Angie from Ser Bilingue Rocks! She has been teaching for six years, and was originally inspired to become a teacherpreneur because of the lack of Spanish resources she had access to. Her store has steadily been increasing in growth, and she is now a very proud teacherpreneur because she creates resources in both languages that help other teachers and students from all over! The most valuable resource in her store, and the one that's inspired her to create more hands-on engaging resources for her classroom and her store, is the 2D Shapes booklets. They are available in both languages, but her Spanish version, " Figuras Geometricas 2D " is her top seller! Her advice to aspiring teacherpreneurs? Do your research. When she opened her store, she didn't upload a resource for another 2 months after that! She was busy researching how to create products, including how to write descriptions for the products, giving credit to o...

I f you teach K-2nd, you know that you have a certain amount of minutes dedicated to each subject. Yet the increasing rigor in the standards require kindergarten teachers to have their class reading by the end of the year. So, we find ways to incorporate ELA skills into content areas while still teaching content area standards. We hope our kindergarten science units have some grade level text. How can we incorporate ELA into science units successfullly? Here are 3 steps you can take: 1. Find grade level text that talks about what you're teaching. Some good resources are Reading A-Z. While most of their books don't directly address the Kindergarten Science Curriculum, they do contain certain science themes appropriate for kindergarten.  Thi s water clarity reader ,  this  weather reader , and  this  "how objects move"  science predictable reader meet the Texas kinder TEKS. They include a predictable reader and a video that reads the book alou...

This week's talented teacherpreneur is DianaJo from DianaJo's Math and More ! She loves to help students that are struggling with math. So much so, that she has tutored over 200 students one on one, and gained many valuable insights to lower achieving students that can help them succeed! She initially heard of TpT when a friend of hers retired, and encouraged her to create and sell products. The idea of being able to create anything she wanted really drew her. The most valuable product she's made for her store has been her Math and ART! products. Most of her work has been with struggling students. She had these kids in mind when she created Math and ART! These products really help struggling students because they are self correcting and fun! One thing she'd like to know more about is incorporating STEAM into her math class especially. She hopes to do some research on this and offer related products in the coming year. After all, learning happens best when we c...

There are five simple steps I follow for my guided reading lesson in kindergarten. It doesn't matter if I've hashed out what I'm doing with my group for hours in advance, or if I'm just fumbling through that particular week, these five steps are easy to follow no matter what amount of planning you've done! 1. Phonemic Awareness: the best bang for your buck in the phonemic awareness realm is blending and segmenting phonemes because those are the skills most directly tied to reading. If the assessment your district uses requires your students to substitute or omit phonemes, then be sure you're working towards that goal during this portion of the lesson. Otherwise, focus on the blending and segmenting during a guided reading lesson in kindergarten. Once students have mastered this, use this time to briefly review blending and segmenting and maximize time spent reading the book (Step 4 of the guided reading lesson). If you'd like more ideas on differentiating ...