March 2016 - Minds in Bloom

Teachers everywhere know how hard it is to fit in all your standards so that you teach everything you're supposed to teach in a school year. Often, teachers don't meet this high expectation, because there's just too much. How can we start making it happen? Our guest blogger shares her insight on integrating standards so that you can fit more curriculum into your lessons - curriculum that's interdisciplinary! Click through to read more.

Integrating Standards So You Have Time to Fit It All In

Hello everyone! I’m Tammy, and I’m excited to have this opportunity to share with you today here at Minds in Bloom! While most of my experience has been in teaching fifth grade, I currently teach third and have been teaching since 2004. Although I teach all subjects, I have a passion for teaching science. I love creating hands-on and engaging lessons and activities. When I first began my student teaching, I could not wait to get

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Classroom parties no longer need to be a stressor now that you have this list of eight party games with minimal prep and instructions. Get to playing!

8 Party Games Good for Any Time of the Year

Hi there, friends… I’m Melissa from More Time 2 Teach, and I’m so excited to be visiting today as a guest blogger for Minds in Bloom! With so many holiday and class parties happening throughout the school year, I’m always looking for games to play that are simple, easy to setup, and LOADS OF FUN! The eight games that I’m going to share with you

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Does the task of organizing centers make you feel faint? It doesn't need to thanks to the five tips shared by our guest blogger! Click through to read this blog post full of five useful tips to help make organizing centers a breeze - for both you and your students!

5 Tidy Tips for Organizing Centers in Your Classroom

Hi! I’m Jamila, and I am a certified K-5 educator and instructional coach and K-8 certified administrator who has been educating youngsters and supporting teachers since 1997! Today I’m excited to guest blog and share some great “Tidy Tips” that will help make organizing centers a snap! The most frequent question I hear from newbie and veteran teachers is, “How do you stay organized?” So

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Teaching the solar system is always fun in elementary school; students love learning about outer space and other planets. Our guest blogger shares three tips for making a solar system unit even more fun by including STEAM elements! Click through to get more details for the upper elementary classroom.

3 Tips to “S.T.E.A.M.” up Your Next Solar System Unit

This is Meghan Vestal, from Vestal’s 21st Century Classroom, and I am honored to be a guest blogger for Minds in Bloom! Recently, the science trend has changed from S.T.E.M. to S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Math). We all know hands-on learning makes a lesson memorable for students, and integrating art is a great way to add creativity to any lesson. One of my

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Our guest blogger shares five fantastic ways to use humor in the classroom. We all know learning is more effective and productive with a little humor! So, click through to read this post that offers tips for a few ways to use humor in the classroom.

5 Ways to Use Humor in the Classroom

My name is Jeanine, and I am the girl behind the giggles at Third Grade Giggles! I am so honored to be guest blogging for Minds in Bloom, especially about my favorite topic: LAUGHTER! Charlie Chaplin said, “A day without laughter is a day wasted,” and I couldn’t agree more! But can laughter really be brought into the classroom? Absolutely! These five strategies will have

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Reach all of your students using these three tips for speech and language strategies for the classroom teacher. All of your students can improve their communication skills, not just your speech therapy students!

Speech and Language Strategies for the Classroom Teacher

Hello! I am Hallie Sherman, and I am a licensed speech-language pathologist. I am excited to be here today to share some strategies for classroom teachers to use in their classrooms to promote communication (for ALL students, not just those receiving speech). Thank you, Rachel, for allowing me this opportunity to share strategies on your blog! “Communication? Why do my students need that in school?”

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Do you use journals in your classroom? Make journaling more appealing to your students! You can go about making journaling fun with two simple things: washi tape and a straw!

Make Journaling Fun with Washi Tape and a Straw

Hi! It’s Melissa from Peas in a Pod. I am currently in my 11th year of teaching. I’ve taught kinder – 8th, thanks to a few combo classes. Writing is one of my favorite subjects to teach! There are so many ways to make it fun. Today I’m going to guide you through personalizing super cute DIY journals with pencil holders! Learning how to organize

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Mrs. B from Mrs. B's First Grade shares her top five steps on implementing a class Twitter account in this post. She lays how to create a class Twitter account, how you can use it, and more!

5 Steps to Implement a Class Twitter Account

We all use a variety of social media outlets daily. Have you ever thought about using them in your classroom, though? My name is Sarah from Mrs B’s First Grade, and I am excited to be guest blogging today to give you five steps to successfully implement a class Twitter account! Setting up and using a class Twitter account can seem like a daunting task;

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Sometimes we need to change up our instructional routines to increase student engagement. This post from HoJo is sure to be helpful for making that happen, as she shares 10 ways to make learning fun and engaging for our students! I love her ideas, so click through to get the full list of suggestions!

10 Ways to Make Learning Fun and Engaging

Hi there! My name is Heather, and I blog over at HoJo’s Teaching Adventures! We all know that in today’s high stakes testing world, it can be hard to make learning fun and engaging. That’s why I want to share 10 ways to make learning fun with all of you here at Minds in Bloom today. So, let’s get started! 10 Ways to Make Learning

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It's easy to get frustrated with students who have ADHD; I'm sure we've all been there, as educators. However, our guest blogger is sharing her insight on how teachers and other educators should handle ADHD gently for the benefit of the kids who struggle with it. She's sharing some really great ideas for ways to do this, so click through to read her post.

ADHD: How to Handle Squirrely Kids More Gently

Here’s Lessia Bonn, from I am Bullyproof Music, on addressing ADHD with increased kindness and understanding! ADHD: We flit, we float. We sail on quirky boats. We talk about tangerines when you asked us about pumpernickel. Oh jeez. My mom used to groan in my direction, “Look how you get!” I’ve had mud on my face my whole life. ADHD life is disorderly. Squirrels rule

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This is the struggle of every elementary teacher: finding ways to fit science in. With so much emphasis placed on reading and math, science (and social studies) often falls to the wayside. Fortunately, our guest blogger is sharing a fantastic post about fitting science in by using inquiry-based learning. Read her post to get all of her insight on this subject!

Finding Ways to Fit Science In

Our guest blogger today is Jan from Dr. Jan’s Math and Science Lab! She’s sharing her thoughts on how to fit science in through inquiry-based instruction into today’s schools. Enjoy! Science instruction in elementary schools has been dwindling for some time now. As a science lover, this has been a disheartening reality. In my research as a doctoral student, I learned that science is only taught an

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Brain Breaks are a popular topic here on Minds In Bloom, so I'm adding a new twist to them: Mystery Brain Breaks! Your students will love the surprise!

Try Mystery Brain Breaks

This is one of my favorite ways to manage Brain Breaks during the school day. Not only does it add a degree of mystery your students will love, but it also encourages good behavior as they are working for their Bonus Brain Break all day long. Before the school day begins, choose as many Brain Breaks as you think you will need throughout the day.

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Ever heard of test prep rallies? Check out these ways to have test prep rallies at your school to head into standardized testing with a positive mindset!

Score with Your Test Prep Rally

Hi, I’m Sandra. I’m so honored to be writing about test prep rallies for Minds in Bloom. Test pep or prep rallies are motivational school assemblies that occur right before state testing and focus on raising student confidence and enthusiasm. You might wonder what makes me qualified to tell others about prep rallies. Well…I just may have invented them. I’ve been doing rallies since 1985

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Try out a combined reading and writing unit with a mysteries theme in your classroom! Students will love opportunities to solve mysteries and expand their comprehension skills!

It’s a Mystery to Me!

Today, we’re welcoming Sharon from Classroom in the Middle! She’s sharing her ideas on a combined reading and writing unit with a mysteries theme. Are the finer points of reading comprehension and written composition still an elusive mystery to your students? To one degree or another, reading and writing can be a bit mysterious to all of us, so why not play up the mystery theme with

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If you don't know how to make slime, this post has you covered! Learn how to make slime with your students to up the science ante and have a lot of fun!

Sliming You with Science

Rebecca from Science Girl Lessons has brought us a super fun and hands-on post today: It’s all about slime! Even if you’re not a science teacher, I bet you’ll want to make slime and get your hands dirty with this one! I am so excited to be guest blogging today about one of the most FUN science activities out there… SLIME. With all the

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