Creative Back to School Bulletin Board Ideas with a Purpose

Sometimes it is so hard to be creative when decorating our classrooms. Coming up with new ideas after teaching for a long time can be challenging. This year I decided to make my Back to School bulletin boards with a purpose. I wanted to use creative bulletin boards that taught a lesson. I also wanted […]

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.

Teaching Sight Words- Using Multisensory Sight Word Activities

I absolutely love the Orton Gillingham approach to sight words, my kindergartners do too ! If you are familiar with the program, you know that it includes crossing hemispheres with arm tapping, finger sliding, finger tracing and writing. This approach to “red words”, those that you have to STOP and think about , uses a multi sensory approach to learn these words that cannot always be decoded easily. In the rest of this post, I will give you some effective and fun ways to get the kids moving and memorizing those sight words.