A Primary Teaching Blog
Grammar is an important feature in reading skills, but sometimes it seems mundane to teach. There are some simple ways you can integrate grammar skills into your teaching, reading centers, or small group time. Somethings do need to just be taught directly, but the practice doesn’t have to be boring! Here are some ways you can sneak these skills into… Read More
If you were to look in your files (or your TPT purchases-who am I kidding, that is my files now), do you own a set of “task cards“? I own about 7,000 sets (okay that’s extreme, but I do own quite a few) and sometimes I need to spice up how I use them. Here are some ideas on… Read More
There are two kinds of teachers in the world. Those that integrate their grammar instruction and those that teach it at a separate time. Which are you? I teeter back and forth between the two. I like to think of my grammar instruction as mini lessons, that help with developing the concept, then the application piece, the integration. Here is… Read More
I’m obsessed with Target Dollar Spot erasers. Aren’t we all? We walk in, get sucked in right away to the Dollar Spot, and what do we see? These sweet little baggies full of cute erasers. Do we know what do to with them? No. Do we care? No. I thought to myself, I probably have AT LEAST 3 baggies per… Read More
It’s fall, it’s Halloween. It’s time for monsters. It’s time for adjectives! A coworker reminded me of this book Go Away Big Green Monster {affiliate link}. Classic 90’s book {can’t you tell from the cover??}. I remember reading this book as a kid. I’ve just barely touched on adjectives with our pumpkin exploration, but now it’s time to dig deep and… Read More
Every once in a while, I get a BRILLIANT idea. It always comes in the middle of my lesson. I literally say, “WAIT. Let’s try this…” Have you had those moments before? It happened to me today when I started teaching commands or as common core calls it “imperative sentences”. It all started with my little Clifford stuffed animal that I… Read More
I bet you’ve seen these paint chips before! Teachers love to use them for all sorts of things! With the shift of my state to common core, there was a change in the 1st grade ELA standards {no surprise}. Before we get started, let’s review some of the new vocabulary with common core. shades of meaning: how words are related; in… Read More
Back for another Wishlist Wednesday with Jen from Teacher by the Beach!If you missed last week’s Wishlist Wednesday, you can still see my Fluency Roll & Reads in action. This week’s deal is one of my FAVORITE classroom products, GRAMMAR READERS! Let’s take a peek inside one of the readers: They are organized by phonics pattern {each book has the… Read More
It’s been a while since I’ve linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! I always get too tired or realize it’s Saturday and feel awkward about it or sometimes I just feel like I don’t have anything exciting to share! grrr. But I’m doing it because I’m sitting here on a Thursday night preparing {& watching Scandal… Read More
Someone always has to take the EOs 🙂 I’m the lucky one this year. I’ve got 30 little English-Only first graders in my 30 minute ELD time. Since they aren’t ELD students, I can’t teach them ELD standards! Yikes. So I came up with a plan. Fluency. Writing. Close Reading. I try to use every second of my 30 minutes… Read More
