Oftentimes, students feel like they can’t find anything to read because they genuinely don’t know what they like to read! One way to combat this is to explicitly teach our students about the different reading genres available to them. I mean, think about it — if you love fairies and imaginary worlds, but all you’ve ever read is realistic fiction, you might feel like there’s nothing for you to read, too! Understanding the unique characteristics of different literary genres will help your students better comprehend the nuances of the stories they are reading. Once they know what to expect from a ..read more

We all know that community building is one of the most important things we do in the classroom. But that’s just something you do at the start of the year and then it’s smooth sailing, right? Did I just hear you laugh out loud? While it’s important to START building your classroom community at the beginning of the year, it might be just as important to weave in community-building lessons, activities, and opportunities throughout the year. You can use this free Building Community Craftivity in your classroom during the holiday season and winter months. In this activity, students write positive n ..read more

Do you dread the day after Halloween in your classroom? We all know it can be tough. Your students come in from a late night of trick-or-treating, they’re crashing from the sugar high. The decorations and costumes and candy treats consume their conversation. Instead of dread, lean into the spirit with these Halloween freebie activities.  What’s in this freebie? This resource provides fun Halloween-themed activities to keep students engaged in learning, but also relevant to what they want to discuss. There is an ELA descriptive writing activity to give students an outlet to share about th ..read more

What do you do for Patriot Day? Like other historic events in US history, it is important to teach about the history behind Patriot Day with accuracy and sensitivity. September 11, 2001, forever changed the United States. Americans from various walks of life became heroes and patriots that day, performing extraordinary acts to help others. Some of us lived through the attacks in real time. For our students, however, this day is a historic event that happened before they were born. Some may have personal connections through family members. Others have only read about it in books or heard about ..read more

I love utilizing Character Education as a tool for my classroom. It’s important to focus on your character education lessons and take advantage of the time to build up that positive class community, and give students skills they can take beyond the classroom. This post will focus on the character education month of friendship.  Teach valuable lessons about friendship with age-appropriate books. Today I will share my favorite picture books for teaching friendship in character education lessons. You can read a new title over the course of several weeks, use it as a discussion springboard, o ..read more

This blog post contains my Making Inferences eBook + Mini Unit. All of the information found in this blog post can be downloaded in my free printer-friendly Ebook found HERE . Inferring is such an important part of reading comprehension. Unfortunately, it’s also a skill that confuses many students every year. It requires students to understand something about a text that an author didn’t come out and explicitly say. This requires students to flex some of their critical-thinking muscles. If making inferences is giving your students trouble, I’m here to share some helpful tips and mate ..read more

It is so important for our students to understand what it means to have integrity. My goal in designing these integrity activities is to give students memorable and meaningful experiences. I want lessons to move beyond the classroom. If you’ve been searching for ways to better incorporate integrity into your character education lessons, read on for my favorite ideas.  Need integrity resources? This integrity resource you see below is the final installment of my Character Education activities series. It contains a variety of activities and tools for making your character education month mo ..read more

It is so great when I can bring character education pillars to life for my students. Read on to see my favorite read-aloud choices for integrity. It’s so important to help students focus on the lesson and take advantage of the time to dive deep into character education. This post will focus on the character education month of integrity. I always kick off the year with kindness, which you can find here.  Teach lessons about integrity with age-appropriate read-aloud books.  This post covers my favorite read-aloud options for teaching integrity. You can read a new title over the course ..read more

Teaching our students the value of friendship is so important for our classrooms. My goal in designing friendship activities for character education is to give students memorable and meaningful experiences that they will use beyond the classroom. If you’ve been searching for ways to better incorporate friendship character education into your classroom, read on for my favorite ideas! Need friendship character education resources? My character education friendship resource that you see below contains a variety of activities and tools for making friendship more than just a lesson! Check out all t ..read more

Character Education is such a valuable tool in the classroom. It’s so important to focus on your character education lessons and take advantage of the time to dive deep into building a positive classroom community. This post will focus on the perseverance picture books. If you haven’t seen how I kick-off Character Education each year, check out this post here.  Teach valuable lessons about perseverance with age-appropriate books. Today, I’ll share with you my favorite perseverance picture books and read-alouds for teaching character education lessons. You can read a new title over the co ..read more