Text Evidence in the Primary Grades

We've made it easy for emergent readers to practice using techniques to find and use evidence from texts!

Simple Math Games to Practice Counting

Here are some simple counting games that are great for the beginning of the year and to do review!  The games are easy to prep and set up!

Reader Ready: RL .1 Ask and Answer Questions About a Text


We are excited to start a new blog series called Reader Ready: Standard by Standard.  In this series, we will look at each RL standard.  We will show you a resources, books, and ideas for teaching each standard.

This blog post features RL .1, Ask and Answer Questions About a Text.

Must Have Read Alouds for Back to School!

We've shared our favorite books for the first week of school and paired activities for each book!  Hope you find some good book picks and great ideas for your classroom!

Good Readers Use Tools

Engage your readers!  Come learn more about the many 'tools' we have to help kiddos be Good Readers!  Have your readers start their own collection of tools today!

End of Year Gifts

Here are our favorite gift tags for the end of the year!  Come grab them for FREE!

End of Year Survival Guide! {+ freebies!}

 
The EOY is all about survival, isn't it?!  Here are our favorite ways to get through the last little bit!

Poetry Writing in the Primary Grades

Here's a fun way to get your kiddos to write poetry in a easy way!  Kiddos learn about how poems follow rules and patterns and work on writing their own poems!

Simple Science: Colored Rubber Eggs

Simple Science: Color Changing Flowers

Simple Science: Spring Science

Simple Science: Rainbow Oil and Water

Simple Science: Walking Rainbow

Simple Science: Rainbow Clouds

Simple Science: Growing Rainbow

Reading Across the Genres

Do you have students stuck in a rut when it comes to selecting books?  We have found that teaching students to "read across the genres" helps with this! 

Simple Science: Rotten Teeth

Teaching Equality in Math


A favorite math unit we teach is Equality and we have a few ideas we'd like to share with you.

An anchor chart / discussion starter we use at the beginning of the equality unit is this:
We ask students what equal means and what not equal means.  We use post it notes to see the ideas the kids generate.  This allows us to see our students' understanding of equality before we begin the unit.

One of our favorite books for equality is Equal Shmequal (affiliate link).   This book is a fun look at equality in the real world as it relates to playing.  The kiddos easily relate to the struggles the friends in the book are having. 

We start simple with equality; we make sure students understand what equal means before we jump into equality with equations.  We start with simple numbers and objects or manipulatives.


Once we are ready to move into equality with equations, a game that we like to play uses large numbers on the floor that students manipulate.  (If you'd like a set of the numbers / symbols CLICK HERE!)  Kiddos use the equal and not equal sign to come up with different combinations.
You can do this game using an equal and a not equal sign where they make examples of both equal and not equal and a peer places the correct sign in the middle.
You can use this game for just addition or subtraction, or a combination of both.

We also play a similar game using dominoes.  Students place 2 dominoes on each side.  They write an equation that matches on each side.  In the middle they draw the equal or not equal sign.

We use a character we call "Equal Ellie" to practice Equality.  We keep Equal Ellie up in our classrooms to help students remember the Equal means Balance.
Our Equal Ellie product has 4 activities that can be used in the classroom as a supplement to your current curriculum.


 True / False Sort:

Memory Game:

Task Cards:

Scoot Game:


Hope this blog post gave you a few ideas to use in your classroom!  And don't forget to grab Equal Shmequal!  It will be a great text to guide your whole Equality in Math Unit!





Simple Science: Color Changing Potions

Simple Science: Making Ice Grow

Summarizing in the Primary Grades

Summarizing is a difficult skill for primary readers.  Often we find that students want to tell you all the details of the whole book, or they tell you about one main part.

Simple Science: Snow Dough

shapes {ideas + activities}




If you're teaching shapes now, or teaching shapes later, we hope you can use a few of these ideas and activities!  

100th Day of School Fun!


To celebrate the 100th Day of School, we set up math centers using the number 100!  In this post, we're sharing our favorite centers we've gathered through the years and giving you the resources to create them for your own classroom!

Fiction vs. Nonfiction Text in the Primary Grades

Have fun comparing Fiction and Nonfiction texts in the classroom with these easy to prepare ideas!

Simple Science: Making Snow

Setting Daily 5 Routines and Procedures

We're sharing how we set up for Daily 5 rotations!  Come check out our pictures and grab FREE resources!