MINDS IN BLOOM BLOG

Poetry for Kids: Make Reading, Analyzing, and Writing Poetry FUN!

Poetry for Kids: How to Make Reading, Analyzing, and Writing Fun

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

Favorite Christmas Books to Read Out Loud

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.

How do you boost student interest in a new novel? It can be challenging to do so, especially for students who dislike reading. Our guest bloggers share five excellent strategies for boosting student interest before starting a new novel. There are creative and engaging ways to spark high interest before reading!

Strategies to Boost Student Interest before Starting a New Novel

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

Do you spiral review? Show Your Thinking is a series of resources created based on Rachel Lynette's task cards, with her permission. These resources help you spiral review content so that you don't have to do a big review right before the big standardized test.

Digging Deep for Success with Show Your Thinking®

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

how can I use daily 5 for upper elementary

Daily 5™ for Upper Elementary Students

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

differentiating literacy instruction using technology

Differentiating Literacy Instruction Using Technology

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

Most books and stories provide ways to connect cooking to literacy. Open a new door to learning in your classroom by connecting cooking to literacy. Your students will love the opportunity to learn cooking skills while reading and making real-world connections.

How to Connect Cooking to Literacy

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

These Common Core-based literacy pages cover high-interest themes and help students improve ELA and reading skills. Your students will enjoy the challenge of these pages while practicing key reading strategies for growth.

Grab Your I Heart Literacy Freebie!

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 all know that preventing summer slide is extremely important. This guest post shares a wealth of ideas for fun ways that parents can incorporate learning into everyday activities during the summer months.

Preventing Summer Slide

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

Every teacher has at least one student who participates in chronic book browsing--always looking but never reading! Here is an idea to end that cycle.

Put an End to Chronic Book Browsing

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

Top 10 Read Alouds

Top 10 Read Alouds for Fourth Grade

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

Did you know that you can use fairy tales to teach a fully interdisciplinary STEAM unit? Read our guest blogger's explanation of how she used fairy tales--and the castles within them--to teach a STEAM unit that had her students reading, writing, building, imagining, speaking, listening, and more!

Caution: Castles Under Construction–Full S.T.E.A.M. Ahead

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

Learn a few new methods for employing creative and critical thinking in your class. Despite a focus on reading, these can be used in any content area!

Creative and Critical Thinking

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

This post goes into details about six apps to use in your classroom to reach all readers. All of them have been used to improve reading comprehension and to master various reading strategies!

Apps to Reach All Readers

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

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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