There’s nothing harder than trying to put together a bulletin board when you come right back from Winter Break. You’re tired from having fun, eating lots of food, and spending time with extended family and you’re probably still putting away decorations and props from the winter m...
In this time of clearance shopping and crazy crowds, here are a few reasons why you should hop in your car and head to the stores. Know that this advice is coming from someone who works part-time retail. I have lived through the picky customers, fussy children, angry tag-along shoppers, lou...
Holiday carols are so much fun! I love introducing my students to carols because they give you a chance to spark the kids’ interest and teach them about other countries, time periods, and (in some cases) different languages. In that regard they are much like folks songs because they open u...
I was working on a bulletin board recently and was frustrated with how all my bulletin board borders and extras were stored. I was looking for one more piece of the colorful star borders but I just couldn’t find it. It looked like the borders had exploded. Those little colorful pieces of...
Planning for my upcoming holiday program is well on its way and my bulletin board to advertise for the concert has been up a while too. Wanted to share with you all because there are one or two fun elements that you could use for this or any other holiday bulletin board! The show that I’m ...
A few years ago I purchased one of those classroom pointers that every teacher seems to have (little pointing hand on a stick) when the book fair came through my school. The following year I bought another one because it had cooler colors and was just generally awesome. The problem was that I re...
I love Pharrel’s “Happy” song and I know that my kids do too! This summer I was brainstorming a way to use the Happy song in my classroom and it struck me that I could so easily use this fantastic song to teach form to my students. I developed the lesson and tried it out with m...
“If You’re Happy and You Know It” is a classic children’s folk song and is so wonderful for so many reasons. It gives you a chance to talk about improvising new lyrics and coming up with variations. It gives you a chance to define the word “lyics.” It al...
Hula hoops and emojis… best eye-catcher for my kids ever! I’ve done a lot of different things to advertise for upcoming concerts and this is one of my new favorites! I needed something exciting that would really grab the attention of my students. I also didn’t want it to be to...
Parent teacher conference days are always a struggle for me. I have 500 students and theoretically I could have 500 kiddos and their parents running into my room to ask about grades and standards and concerts. But that has never really happened. I’m usually lucky if 10 of those 500 come ...
In my Orff Level I training we came across a couple fun activities for Beanie Babies that got my brain spinning and thinking about what could be done with those little critters. Probably a lot of you already use beanie babies or stuffed animals for a variety of things. In this post I’ve go...
Every chance that I can, I use little phrases or hand signals to save time. I try and do everything I can do to streamline my instruction so that I don’t have to reexplain or go back and reteach. I only get 25 minutes twice a week with my kids and that’s not much. We don’t have...