By Rachel Lynette
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
As you well know, your students need to have a clear understanding of prefixes and suffixes. But 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! Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! This post is your one-stop shop for effective and engaging lessons that will teach,
Writing and math aren’t often in the same sentence, but as many educators know, they should be! Teaching students how to write in math workshop is important, because through writing they can demonstrate their understanding of math problems and strategies. This guest post from Tracy at Wild Child Designs shares great tips for getting students writing in math through clear modeling, teacher guidance, and independent
We are excited to welcome Erin to the blog today! Erin has written a really inspiring post about ways to add academics to video games, which is something I’m sure many teachers would shy away from. Read on to learn more about Erin’s ideas and suggestions! At the end of the school year last May, a parent asked to speak to me after class. She
Looking for some fun writing ideas? We’re excited to welcome back Julie Petersen to Minds in Bloom today! Julie’s written a great post for us about fun writing activities for kids, so please read on and comment with which activities you want to try with your students! What’s your style of teaching? Is it based on repetition? Yeah, that doesn’t work. I’ve tried it. Kids want
Minds in Bloom is delighted to welcome Sandra, from Mrs. Naufal’s Nook, to the blog today! She’s sharing her tried-and-true tips for encouraging kids to write with “write about” ideas. Enjoy! As a teacher, I am thrilled to read a good book to a class. I often look for books to which students can relate. Many can be about real-life situations they have encountered, such as
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
20 Writing Prompts for the Christmas Season The holiday season is so much fun, but of course you want your students to be engaged in meaningful work, right up till they finally go home for winter break. These 20 Christmas writing prompts will keep your students writing – and they will have fun too! Download these FREE papers for the 20 Christmas prompts! Here are
Teaching Paragraph Writing Just Got Easier! Writing a good paragraph includes so many skills – organizing and sequencing, word choice, varying sentences, understanding topic sentences, good grammar and so very much more. While all of these skills need to be taught and practiced repeatedly, you also want to keep your students engaged with motivating writing prompts and a process that won’t bore them to tears
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
Hello! I am Jill from Coffman’s Creative Classroom. I am a third grade teacher who loves finding new and exciting ways to get my students engaged in their learning. Thank you, Rachel, for allowing me this great opportunity to share my ideas on your blog! We all know it is not an easy task to engage all students in writing. We all have students who struggle to
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
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
Hi! I’m Marypat from Just Add Students. I’m thrilled to be a guest blogger on Minds in Bloom today. Thank you, Rachel, for giving me a forum to write about my favorite topic: poetry! Most of us teach poetry in April. We pull out fun lessons with figurative language, haiku, couplets, and limericks. And why not? After all, it is National Poetry Month. But
Julie Petersen joins us today to share 10 really great online tools for getting kids more engaged in writing. We all know getting kids to write is a struggle sometimes, and these tools will help make it more fun and interactive! Do you know someone who loves writing? If you ask them where that passion comes from, you’ll probably find out that they were amused
Gail Hennessey is our guest blogger today. She’s sharing great ideas for time-fillers at the middle school level. Keep those kiddos working until the bell rings! A new school year is beginning. My advice: Always have kids on task! Checking homework in the beginning of class or doing clerical stuff? Finish your lesson with a few minutes to spare? What to do? Giving them free
