5 Tips For A Successful Back to School Night With Elementary Parents

This year was my 34th Back to School Night as a teacher! I tried many things over the years to make Back To School Night or Meet The Teacher Night successful. I want to share with you my five favorite Back To School Night activities and ideas that worked well in all different elementary school grades

Mentor Texts For “How-To Writing” for Kindergarten and First Grade

It is important to teach children with explicit instruction and practice, especially when working with new writers. When I plan a mini-lesson with a mentor text, I read it beforehand and add sticky notes with notes on what to point out to the students. My students think it is hilarious when I think out loud to model the how-to writing.

Teaching Important Skills Through Play-Based Learning and Dramatic Play

When I left the elementary classroom to become the director of a daycare and preschool, I was in a different world! One of my first responsibilities was to adopt a new curriculum for the entire daycare. As we adopted the Creative Curriculum, I was introduced to play-based learning and dramatic play.

What Is Project-Based Learning In The Elementary Classroom?

Project based learning is a method of teaching that teaches a concept while students acquire new information and knowledge as they are engaged in inquiry-based lessons. Project-based learning answers a driving question and is thought-provoking, uses higher-order critical thinking, and is open-ended. Students work in groups to answer an open-ended question, this is often called inquiry-based learning. PBL promotes critical thinking, communication, and creativity. It is a long-term student-centered project including feedback, reflection, and revision.

The Importance of Dramatic Play For Preschoolers

My dramatic play area is my favorite part of my classroom! I could spend hours setting it up and I love playing in it with my students. Dramatic play is a type of play where you give a child props or an “mini environment” to act out a role, for an example a doctor’s office. There are so many benefits of this type of play and as you watch them play, you will learn a lot about your students as well! So, what are these benefits ?

5 Simple Ideas for Teaching Numbers in Preschool

Teaching number sense to early learners is one of the most important foundations you can give a preschooler or kindergartener in math. Number sense is more than just recognizing numbers. Number sense includes, knowledge of quantities, number order, sequencing and counting with a one to one correspondence and many others. It is not only important to teach young ones to count but to teach them what those numbers mean. Here are some definitions and ideas to teach these important skills.

What Is Visual Discrimination and Why Is It Important in PreK and Kindergarten?

My defining moment as an educator was in one of my first graduate courses. My professor gave us a decodable book she had created with symbols. As we started reading, we had to continue to look back to the first page to remember what letter of the alphabet was represented by which symbol. MY HEAD HURT and my stomach churned a little! This is what it must have been like for my then second graders who were trying to learn how to read! WOW !