MINDS IN BLOOM BLOG

Are you wondering how you can use task cards in your classroom? This task cards infographic gives you all the details you need to know about using task cards, including why they're so economical! Pin it so you can always have a reminder!

Task Cards Infographic and Free Cards to Try!

Click here to get free task cards!

Grab these free sentence posters to hang up in your classroom! These posters cover three types of sentences: simple sentences, compound sentences, and complex sentences. The posters make a great reminder for your students to reference when they're practicing identifying types of sentences!

Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentence Posters – FREE!

I originally created these sentence types posters and handout as part of a task card product, but I have decided to offer just these four resources for free. Use them as a reminder to help your students understand these three types of sentences. If you are interested in digging a little deeper, then you may want to check out this double set of task

Spring ELA Task Cards

Spring-Themed ELA Task Cards (Autumn and Winter too!)

Here are three sets of season-themed multiple choice sentence ELA task cards that are perfect for reviewing some of the most common and important English Language Arts skills. Skills include: Parts of speech Prefixes and suffixes Punctuation Capitalization Complete sentences Homophones Synonyms Context clues Multiple meaning words Shades of meaning Complete sentences Many of the ELA Common Core standards are addressed, making this a great

Do your students need practice expanding their sentences? Rachel Lynette created three sets of task cards to help you how to do just that! These Super Sentences Task Cards teach students how to make their sentences more descriptive and interesting to read.

Super Sentences Task Cards

Seriously, would you read this post if it started out like this? Students should write good sentences. They should use good words. They should write long sentences. Clearly, learning to expand sentences and choose more precise words is an important part of becoming a good writer. Not only that, but these skills are also part of the Language Common Core Standards. That is why I

Teaching Contractions

For words that are supposed to make things easier, contractions can make things a whole lot harder, until your students understand how to use and spell them properly. Here are some ideas that can help. Be sure your students know what a contraction actually is. The word “contract” means to make something smaller – and that is exactly what a contraction does. Explain that the

Fun Ideas for Using Task Cards in the Classroom

Quiz, Quiz, Trade

Looking for a new and fun way to use task cards with your students? Try the Kagan cooperative learning game Quiz, Quiz, Trade. One reason this game is popular with both kids and teachers is that it gets your students up and moving. Not only that but you can also use it to review pretty much any subject. Here is how to play: Select a

Christmas & Hanukkah Freebies

Freebies for Christmas and Hanukkah!

Over the years, I have produced a dozen or so freebies for Christmas and Hanukkah. Of those, these six are my favorites. Summarize It! Task Cards for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa I made this set of task cards as my holiday gift to all of you who read Minds in Bloom and frequent TpT. You can read more about the set here. One reason I really

Summarizing task cards are an excellent addition to your centers or to your classroom games. This set of summarizing task cards features a winter holidays theme, covering Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. Plus, they're free!

FREE Summarizing Task Cards for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa

I know, I know: it isn’t even Thanksgiving, and here I am talking about the holiday season already. But I wanted to post about this set of free Winter Holiday Summarizing Task Cards now because I am really excited about them and also so that you can download them now and have them printed, cut, and laminated to use when you get back from the break. NOTE:

Rachel shares an incredibly easy AND cheap method for task card storage in this blog post: photo albums! Sticking your task cards in photo albums is not only a great way to store them, but it also saves you the time, energy, and money you'd otherwise invest in laminating them. Read more inside this post!

Easy Task Card Storage without the Laminating

Don’t have the time, energy, or money to laminate the task cards you just purchased? Try using a small photo album for 4 x 6 pictures. I got this one at our local drug store for $1.99. But be sure to check Amazon, too, because you might find one that holds more for less money! It is possible that some task cards will be too

Are you teaching about reading genres this school year? If so, then you need to check out this post, which describes two genre resources that you can use to help you teach about the eight reading genres. Click through to this post to get all of the details!

Genre Resources

If you happen to be teaching literary genres this year, then I have two great resources that can really help. Use these genre task cards to help your students gain familiarity with the eight different genres: biography informational mystery fantasy science fiction historical fiction realistic fiction folktale Each card features a short passage and four choices for selecting the correct genre. If you want to

Reading Strategy Task Cards – FREE

I have this idea that if a teacher who has never used task cards tries them, she will love them so much that she will simply have to get more. That is one reason why I made this set of free Reading Strategies Task Cards. While totally useful as a stand-alone activity, this set of task cards is kind of a sampler of some of

We all have fast finishers in our classrooms. Why not give them an extra challenge with these autumn-themed ELA task cards? While these cover a range of ELA topics, they are not based on the Common Core State Standards. Rather, they are focused on encouraging your students to think critically and creatively.

Fall Fun for Fast Finishers!

Now that you have been in school for a few weeks (or in some parts of the country, longer), you have probably figured out who those fast finishers are in your class, and you might be looking for some activities to keep them challenged. Here is a free set of 20 autumn-themed, opened-ended task cards that will do the job quite nicely. Most of the activities are

Your students need task card tracking sheets, so Rachel has delivered! Click through in this post to read about a FREE resource that she made that includes downloadable sheets to students to track which task card sets they've completed, as well as award certificates that you can give to students when they complete sets.

FREE Task Card Tracking Sheets and Award Certificates!

I created this freebie because I heard from some of you that you needed a way for students to keep track of the task cards they had completed. I hope this will do the trick! There are three different tracking sheets: One for older students to record up to 20 sets of completed cards Half-sheets for recording up to 10 sets of completed cards A

Multiple meaning words can be a challenge to teach, especially for English language learners. But, they can be a lot of fun to teach, too! Check out these tips on how to teach multiple meaning words to your class.

Exploring Multiple Meaning Words – and a Freebie!

How cool is it that a duck can be a common water fowl or something you do to avoid being bashed in the head? Multiple meaning words, while somewhat confusing to those who are learning English, are also loads of fun. Not only that, but they are also part of the Common Core Standards across the grades from 1-12: L.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown

Informational Text Freebie

FREE Informational Text Structures Handout and Poster

Knowing the Informational (non-fiction) Text Structures Unlocking the power of non-fiction texts is crucial for young readers as they progress through school. Teaching non-fiction text structures is a game-changing reading strategy that can significantly improve comprehension and retention. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the role of text structure anchor charts, graphic organizers, and other helpful tools in making this learning experience enjoyable and effective

Reading response is a necessary part of reading instruction, and there are lots of ways to do it. Some are highly effective, others aren't. In this post Rachel shares five different approaches to reading response that you can use for any book. All are tested and proven to be useful in classroom instruction!

Reading Response for Any Book: One Concept, Five Approaches

I don’t usually write about my own products unless they are free, but in this case, I am going to use them as examples to demonstrate five different ways that a teacher can approach the same concept. Of course, I would be thrilled if you saw something that you want to purchase, but the focus of this post is to highlight the different approaches, and

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