By Rachel Lynette
Minds in Bloom is pleased to welcome back Christina Gil today! Christina is sharing her techniques for making poetry for kids a fun and engaging experience that enhances their reading, writing, and analyzing skills. With so much to do and so little time, poetry might seem like the kind of activity that teachers plan to do but never quite have time to cover. My guess
Christmas Books Your Students Will Love! Looking for some new books to read out loud to your students (or perhaps your own children)? You’ve come to the right corner of the blog-o-sphere. These books were all suggested by teachers from my Facebook page. Click on the title or the image to for more information on Amazon. NOTE: As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Today, Caitlin and Jessica from EB Academic Camps are sharing five strategies for boosting student interest before starting a new novel. Have you ever been so excited to start a new novel with your students – one you absolutely love and know they will, too – only to discover blank stares and a complete lack of interest? Frustrating, right? To combat this dilemma, we’ve tested
Minds in Bloom is excited to welcome Shea to the blog today! Shea has Rachel’s permission to create products based off of her task cards, and she’s sharing the success she’s had with one of those resources. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to have a mini-review session each week so that by the time the ELA standardized test rolls around, your students are ready? Two
Minds in Bloom welcomes Jen and Wendy of Informed Literacy to the blog today! They’re sharing what I think will be a really helpful post that delves into foundational reading skills. Enjoy! As we embark upon a new school year, we invite you to think about the diverse reading profiles of your students. You will inevitably notice distinct types of readers as outlined below. Voracious
We’re welcoming Melissa from The Paisley Owl to Minds in Bloom today. She’s got some excellent tips for those of you who teach upper elementary but still want to implement the Daily 5™ in your classroom. How can I put students at the center of their own learning? How can I hold students accountable during language arts centers? How can I differentiate to meet
Hi! My name is Jenny, and I am a reading specialist entering my 27th year of teaching. I have spent a majority of those years helping students gain the skills and mindsets necessary to be confident and successful readers. Two major components in teaching readers to be and feel successful are fostering reading engagement and knowing what your young readers need. I have found a way to
Please welcome Kristal to Minds in Bloom today. She’s sharing a fun guest post with us about how we can connect cooking to literacy. The next time you’re reading a book that talks about food, see whether you can incorporate cooking! Eating food can create experiences for us beyond nourishing our bodies. Oftentimes, we remember foods that were a comfort to our souls, that made
I’d love for you to try I Heart Literacy, so I whipped up a 5-page freebie (plus answer keys) to make it super easy! I Heart Literacy is a fabulous way to supercharge your ELA and reading skills review! Not only will students be practicing important standards, they will also be learning about curriculum-based topics as each page has its own high-interest theme! Skills are Common
We’ve got a return guest blogger for you today, so please welcome Mary from NewMathTeacher back to Minds in Bloom! She’s got a great post about preventing summer slide for you. Looking for ways to encourage summer learning? Help parents prevent summer slide, the tendency for children to lose achievement gains, by building curiosity and exploration into summer plans. To feel successful children need ongoing
Minds in Bloom is thrilled to welcome Stephanie to the blog today. Please enjoy her post about helping kids find books they like in order to put an end to chronic book browsing! As we all know, every precious minute counts in the classroom! This is why I knew I needed to find a way to put an end to the professional book browsing
Hi, I’m Lisa Robles from LisaTeachR’s Classroom. I’ve been teaching 26 years (yikes!). I’m super excited to be blogging about this, because I am a book fanatic. My favorite time in my class is read aloud time! These are my top 10 favorite read alouds! Here are my top 10 read alouds for fourth grade: I like books that are multicultural and teach empathy–books that catch their
Today’s guest blogger is Jennifer from Stories and Songs in Second, a second grade teacher who is passionate about integrating musical moments and quality children’s literature across her curriculum. Read on to find out how she blends important science, math, social studies, and art concepts into her ELA fairy tale lessons! I’ve always loved fairy tales, and I can’t wait to launch my unit every spring. So
My name is Hillary Kiser, and I have been teaching for seven years now. Rachel was so sweet to allow me to be a guest on her blog and talk about Creative and Critical Thinking. Thank you, Rachel! I hope you all enjoy this post and learn a few things about incorporating creative and critical thinking in your classroom! Teaching children to think sounds easy…but
I’m Marion from Mentoring in the Middle, and I’m delighted to be guest blogging on Rachel Lynette’s Minds in Bloom! Rachel was one of the first bloggers I started following way back when I was a blogging newbie, and she continues to serve as an example of what good blogging and product-making look like. Every grade presents its challenges to keep students engaged, but with
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
