By Rachel Lynette
As a teacher, you probably know how difficult it can be to fit all of your responsibilities, ideas, and daily to-do list items into one school day! But, even with your busy schedule, you may have small pockets of free time when you don’t have anything planned with your students. It’s during these times, like the last five minutes before dismissal, that you can make
Some of the best lesson plans are those that span over the course of many months. They build on concepts, helping students to develop learning strategies along the way. You may have a certain project or lesson that sticks out in your memory. Was it a one-off worksheet, or an intensive project that required your time, attention, and knowledge? Maybe it was a science fair
You may remember learning about parts of speech oh, so long ago in your own elementary school days. Perhaps your teacher just discussed the different parts of speech and then handed out a worksheet or Daily Oral Language (DOL), expecting you to figure out how to use the parts of speech in an actual sentence. How intimidating is that? But learning about the different parts of
Mental math may seem like an ingrained skill that doesn’t require practice or development. But, elementary students who are still growing may lack the capacity to solve math problems in their head. Practicing mental math prepares students for harder math equations and also helps them to solve equations more quickly and accurately. Without the help of a calculator or scratch paper, students have to rely
In today’s world of digital media (mostly social media), our students often only hear about current events in passing. For instance, they may overhear a parent stream a news story broadcast on Facebook Live or accidentally catch a few seconds of the six o’clock news while flipping the Smart TV input to Netflix. Long gone are the times when a family would gather like clockwork
Minds in Bloom is excited to have RuthAnn Lane from Learning Lane guest posting for us today! RuthAnn has written a great blog post all about authentic project-based learning in the classroom. As an experienced PBL educator herself, RuthAnn shared some really fantastic tips and insight! Keep reading to learn from her and to get ideas for implementing PBL yourself. A few years ago, I
Do you want to use Reward Tags (similar to Brag Tags) with your upper elementary students, but worry that they won’t be excited about collecting the tags or that the clip art is a little too young? I ♥ Coloring Reward Tags solves both those issues! Instead of cutesy clip art, each tag features a unique background for your students to color! If you are
We are thrilled to welcome Chloe from Lucky Chlover Writing to Minds in Bloom today! Chloe has written a really informative and insightful blog post about how to inspire a love of research in your students. If you’ve had a hard time engaging your students in research projects and informative writing, then you definitely want to keep reading to learn from Chloe! If you teach
Minds in Bloom is thrilled to welcome Kerry Tracy! She’s addressing why many teachers (only think they) hate STEM challenges and how teachers can approach them differently in order to use them as a successful learning tool. You are probably reading this because you’ve watched that teacher down the hall doing STEM challenges. The kids are always talking about it, but it looks like a
Minds in Bloom is pleased to welcome Nikki Lubing to the blog today! Nikki has experience teaching English language learners in foreign countries, and she’s written an extremely helpful post for our readers about why visuals are important for ELLs. Keep reading to learn her tips and suggestions! Have you ever been in a full immersion foreign language class? If you have, then you understand
Ask many students how they feel about close reading informational text, and they’ll tell you it’s a bore. Informational text is full of just that, information. Without a fun story or interesting characters, some view it as a one-way ticket to Snoozeville. Throw in close reading strategies, and you’ve entered the Humdrum House. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Well chosen informational text
As you well know, your students need to have a clear understanding of prefixes and suffixes, but often these concepts (especially suffixes!) can be tricky to teach. Of course your activities need to be related to the standard, but you also want them to be fun! But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. This post is your one-stop shop for effective and engaging lessons that will
Minds in Bloom is so excited to welcome Ofer Tirosh of Tomedes to the blog! Ofer has written a fantastic post discussing the importance of inspiring children to love languages and translation, including information on why kids’ brains are better adapted to learning languages (as opposed to adults’ brains) and games that you can play in the classroom to help students practice translation. We hope
Hey teacher friends! This is Tanya G. Marshall from The Butterfly Teacher! I am so excited to guest post again for Minds in Bloom! It is an honor to join this community of passionate educators who are looking for ways to engage students and improve learning. This post shares tips for helping students read more deeply and comprehend better. These close reading strategies can be
We are so excited to welcome a new guest blogger today, Terri Maples! Terri is a second grade teacher and spends a lot of time teaching reading fluency in her classroom. Her post today is all about fluency fun in her classroom and how she uses Rachel’s winter-themed reading fluency task cards to engage her students in practicing their reading skills. Keep reading to get
The standardized testing season will be here before you know it. Whether this time of year excites you or frightens you, it’s time to prepare your students for the big test. Teaching them test-taking vocabulary can really help. Not only will your students perform better on the text, they will also gain confidence in their abilities to understand and respond to difficult questions. Read on
