It’s Monday morning and Janelle walks into her classroom after having a lovely weekend off where she relaxed, cooked a fabulous Sunday brunch, and did some quiet grading (she IS a teacher after all and rarely do teachers not have to do some weekend work, right?). She was feeling pretty great actually. Lesson […]
Place Value Front and Center!
Teaching place value to kids in math class can be fun – if you have some hands-on learning activities and visuals, like charts. You can utilize game boards or worksheets. The key really is for students to understand the core of what place value is, which is abstract and much harder to get across when […]
Pumpkin Sorting Activity
I was feeling pretty inspired today and decided to whip up a fun sorting activity freebie hopefully some of you can use in your classrooms to celebrate the season! I love pumpkins all fall long! They are a good symbol of the season that I don’t have to change in a month’s time. I usually […]
Learning with Washi Feathers!
As I was thinking about US Thanksgiving, I thought about how I learned about Thanksgiving when I was in school. What I don’t remember learning a lot about was Native American culture throughout that process. {Keep in mind, this was a great many years ago.} So, while I was doing a little research, I did […]
Student Slang for Teachers
I’m sitting minding my own business when my son comes in the door from the school bus and says, “Get wrecked.” I immediately thought he meant that the bus had gotten into a collision with something else and panicked. Turns out “get wrecked” just means a cooler way of saying ‘oh snap’ about someone or […]
Word Walls to the Rescue
Looking for some new word wall ideas? Word walls don’t have to be a standard wall full of sight words that remain static all school year long. You can create interactive word walls, word walls for character traits, or even a portable word wall that you only pull out when needed! There are so many […]
Boppin’ with Brain Breaks
How often do you stop instruction for brain breaks? Is it when you see the glazed look on your students’ faces – or perhaps you set a timer every so often to remind you to stop intentionally for a quick pick-me-up? However you decide to remind yourself to stop for a brain break, it is […]
Easy Classroom Jobs Rotations!
I feel like I’ve tried it all when it comes to classroom jobs! At one point I had different individual jobs for each and every student that I had to remember to change everyday (exhausting!). With all the little, and big, things teachers have to do, classroom jobs should be at the very least of […]
5 Days to Parent Involvement!
Oh yeah! I know a lot of you LOVE my PD in your PJs Workshops and I have a NEW one for you that is sent purely all email and not a video training! This one is called 5 Days to Parent Involvement and it is presented a little differently than some of […]
Managing Bathroom Breaks
Do bathroom breaks in the middle of your lessons drive you bonkers? It seemed for me that every time Janelle needed to use the restroom, it started a chain reaction. First Janelle went, then it was Ayisha, then Jacqui. I’m fairly certain they were plotting the end of the world on the back of a […]
Telling Time Rollers!
Do you ever use dice as a math learning tool? How do you do it without dice flying all over the room and splitting your ear drums? One quick tip I learned from a fabulous math coach was always to give students 60 seconds with the manipulative you would be working with just to “play.” […]
Singapore Math Games
Finding simple, but effective math games for elementary classrooms usually means pulling out all sorts of manipulatives, but a you will see from the guest post below, it doesn’t have to include a ton of resources. Sometimes simple really is better. Keep reading! High Energy Math If you step into my classroom, you’ll notice that […]
Cup Management
Hi all! Today, I have a quick video that shows you an idea that I adapted from one I saw being used during cafeteria duty. Just change it up a bit, and use the same idea in your classroom when having small group work time! Save your voice and allow the students to have a […]
Quiet Dice Solution
Hi there fans and followers of The Organized Classroom Blog! Today, I created another video! Whoo hoo! This one is from a tip from Janice! I mentioned how the sounds of 15 sets of dice hitting the table (or mainly the floor as they were being whipped about), was almost unbearable without carpeting. Janice’s idea was […]
Baggie Business
Hey teaching friends! Just stopping by today to share with you a pretty cool organized idea that was shared by Andrea C. on our Facebook fan page – I felt it was fabulous! With so many schools reducing the amount of copies a teacher is allowed, and not having the resources to go out with […]