If you’re looking for books and mentor texts to teach opinion writing, you’re in the right place. Teaching opinion writing can be a challenge, however, I’ve found that picture book mentor texts can make all the difference in helping students understand different writing opinion pieces. Why use mentor texts? Using picture books to teach opinion … Read more
If you’re looking for classroom ideas and activities for Valentine’s Day, you’re in the right place. While I’m not a huge Valentine’s Day fan outside of the classroom (read: my husband and I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day), I really do love celebrating with my students. Valentine’s Day is perfect for reviewing friendship, kindness, and respect. … Read more
Of all the writing genres, I think personal narrative is the hardest to teach, which is why I’m sharing my favorite 15 personal narrative mini-lessons. While students all have stories to tell, I’ve found that students struggling telling their story in writing. After teaching personal narrative writing mini-lessons for years, and never feeling like I’ve … Read more
I sort of feel like Groundhog Day is one of those “holidays” the sometimes gets overlooked, but it covers so many different teaching and learning opportunities, it’s worth taking some time to incorporate it into your lessons. I especially love THIS informational reading mini-unit. Throughout this post, you’ll find Amazon Affiliate links. This means I … Read more
Every year I spend about two weeks reading gingerbread stories, and doing all the gingerbread things. My BEST tip: do your gingerbread unit AFTER Christmas. Say WHHAAAT? I know, I know. But seriously, I have so many Christmas books (you can read about those HERE) I want to share with my class, that there’s just … Read more
I’m going to keep this short, and to the point. I wanted my students to write about what they’re thankful for, but I didn’t just want a plain list. I thought having them try to think of something they’re thankful for that begins with each letter of the alphabet would be more fun, and add … Read more
If you’re looking for must-read books for elementary teachers, then you’re in the right place. It’s almost summertime, and I’m already thinking about what professional development books I’d like to read. I don’t really get to do much PD reading during the school year because I’m just so dang busy. #teacherproblems With so many teacher … Read more
Last week we started opinion writing! It’s my FAVORITE genre to teach, and typically, the one my sweet seconds like best too! I thought I’d share how I launch opinion writing! I spend an entire week launching this particular writing genre – I want my kids to feel comfortable sharing their opinion, as well as … Read more
EEEK! We started opinion writing last week…only my favorite writing genre to teach! I’ve got my favorite mentor texts ready to go, and even found a few new books I can’t wait to use! Throughout this post, you’ll find Amazon Affiliate links. This means I receive a small commission if you purchase something through that … Read more
Happy New Year (almost)! It’s this time of year that I start thinking about my own resolutions for the new year. Granted, we all have resolutions we don’t keep (or for not very long), and regardless about how your feel about resolutions, it’s a great chance to be reflective! I like for my students to … Read more
I posted a few days ago about the very first lesson I teach when launching writer’s workshop. It was all about figuring out what writers do. If you missed it, you can read about it here. Once students have started contributing to our What Writer’s Do anchor chart, we look at how writers decide what … Read more
One of our very first writer’s workshop lessons is thinking about what writers actually do. I think most students have this idea that in order to be a writer, you have to sit a write a really long story, when in fact anyone who uses words to express an idea is a writer. Writers make … Read more
