Teacher Tips for Struggling Creative Writers

It's no secret that I love creative writing. Like, LOVE love it. Always have, always will. Luckily for my students I love teaching it, too. In fact, I could go as far as saying that it's my favourite unit to teach. Of course I understand that not everyone shares my love of writing, so I always have a couple tricks up my sleeve those kiddos who struggle.  

Hands down one of my favorite tools to help a struggling student with creative creating are these Story Cubes! No, this isn't a sponsored post - I'm just sharing with you what works the best with my group! 

I find these dice are such a game changer for my reluctant, uninterested or otherwise struggling kiddos when it comes to creative writing. These story cubes are such a hit that they get pulled out during indoor recesses and free choice! Now that says a lot :) 

Not only do Story Cubes act as a jumping off point in creative writing, but they also help my kiddos along the way, from brainstorming all the way to the ending. These dice have made a massive difference in the writing process. Coupled with my "Bump it up" chart, (descriptive writing words) my kiddos are proud budding writers now! And well, that makes my teacher heart happy :) 

Do you have struggling writers in your class? What are some tools and tricks you find useful? Share below! 

Happy teaching!❤
@jen_rece

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Teaching Canadian Coins!

I really love teaching all about money! It's such a life skill to be able to not only recognize and correctly label all the different coins, but it's also important to be able to add and subtract within them!  This post goes out to my Canadian teacher friends :) 

I have a few favorite resources that I like to use while teaching about Canadian coins, so I'm going to take a moment and a link a few of them below! Just clink the link that interests you to be taken to its individual download page :) 

Find the links below:

• Canadian Coins Kindergarten Interactive Booklet
• Canadian Coins Student Activity Booklet for Grades 1 and 2
• Money Math - I Have, Who Has? Canadian Coins Group Card Game
• Canadian Coins Anchor Charts / Poem Posters Pack
• Money Math - Canadian Coins Clip Cards
• Canadian Coins Worksheet Pack
• Canadian Coins Roll and Graph
• Canadian Coins Cut and Paste Flip Flap Emergent Reader
• Canadian Coins Flip Book and Coins Posters

Happy teaching!❤
@jen_rece

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Amazing Technology Giveaway!

You know how much I love tech in the classroom, so it won't come as a surprise to hear I’ve teamed up with some amazing teacher friends to bring one lucky winner this amazing tech prize pack: 

Here's a breakdown of what one lucky winner will win:

• TWO sets of Ozobots
• Ozobot pens
• Ozobot case

Pretty amazing, right?! Be sure to head over to my Instagram post for the details! Entry in this contest is SUPER quick, but the giveaway ends April 24th so make sure to enter right away! Good luck! :) 

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End of Year Student Gift Tags

I just love sending kids off to summer break with a small toy or activity in their hands! The looks of appreciation and excitement in their eyes always warms my heart :) Maybe it's just me, but I find that it's a really nice, positive way to wrap up the year. 

I normally give each kiddo a fun ball and super cute gift tag during the last week of school. The gift tag reads, "Have a BALL this summer!" (get it? a BALL...!) ;) I'll usually buy light-up bouncy balls or inflatable beach balls and they've always been such a hit! 

If the balls I find aren't in some sort of packaging  (hello dollar store!), I'll put them inside a plastic treat bag, tie it with ribbon, hole punch my gift tags and thread them through. If the balls already come with a cardboard tag or bag, I'll just staple the gift tag directly to that. Easy-peasy! 

Here are my favorite gift tags for my end of year student gifts. I either print the colored ink version on white paper or print the blackline version directly onto colored paper for a BIG pop of color - hello, Astrobrights! Aren't they CUTE?! 

These end of year gift tags are ready to download from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Enjoy!

Happy teaching!❤
@jen_rece

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$300 S.T.E.M. Giveaway!

I’ve partnered up with some amazing teacher friends to bring one lucky winner a huge haul of STEM supplies worth more than $300! 

Here's a breakdown of what the winner will get: 

• Two Evo Ozobots 
• 336 Crayola Oil Pastels
• 110 Piece STEM Sticks 
• 105 Piece Marble Run Set 
• 1,400 Piece STEM Flakes 
• Lewo Wooden Building Block Game 
• 64 piece Magnetic Blocks

Amazing, right?! Be sure to head over to my Instagram post for the details! Entry in this contest is SUPER quick, but the giveaway ends April 24th so make sure to enter right away! Good luck! 

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Kindergarten and First Grade Easter Centers

Every Spring our school focuses on Lent and Easter, so over the years I've created and modified numerous resources for the season. I'm going to briefly cover a couple of them here so you can see how they might enhance your literacy center. :) 

First off is my Kindergarten Read it, Write it & Wipe it Literacy Center! I designed this center with 3 parts:

• Solid words for reading, referencing, pocket charts and salt trays
• Traceable word cards for practice printing
• Letter boxes to help with appropriate letter formation and spacing

This particular literacy center is very diverse and can be utilized in many ways. No matter how I use it, I always laminate the cards so they are durable....because, you know - #kindergarten. ;)

Next up is my First Grade Easter Math and Literacy Pack! It covers first (and second) grade common-core standards:

• filling in the missing lowercase and uppercase letters
• Skip counting by 5's and 10's
• Adding and subtracting single digits (up to 20)
• Answering writing prompts to demonstrate knowledge
• Coloring by sight word and numbers
• Patterning (both completing and creating)
• Using nonstandard measurements
• Coloring

The best thing about this pack (in my opinion) is that it is covers some actual religious material. I know that may sound obvious, but I've found that it's not as common as you'd think! So there are writing prompts about Jesus and Church along with standard Easter themed math and language worksheets :) 

If you have any of these sets (or wish to get them) please let me know what grade you teach and which one you'd enjoy most! :)

Happy Easter! 🐰🐣
@jen_rece

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The easiest Easter Literacy Center for Kindergarten

News flash - not all kindergarten literacy centers need to be flashy and colorful to be effective and engaging! 

This Easter themed center happens to be one of my favorite word working stations, ever. Bonus is that it cost me less than 3 dollars and no more than 10 minutes of my time to set up! All I needed were these three simple things: 

• Large Popsicle sticks (they look like tongue depressors) 
• Wooden clothes pins 
• Gel pens 

I purchased the sticks and clothes pins from the dollar store. I already had the gel pens ;) This center is seriously easy-peasy, lemon squeezy! 

Happy Easter! 🐣 ✝️ 
@jen_rece

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Teacher Tips to Transform your Play-Doh Center

If you’re anything like me, you’re always on the lookout for the best, most functional, user-friendly and creative teacher hacks on the web! 

Well a while back I had stumbled upon a vague Pinterest idea of using a K cup carousel as a Play-Doh stand. The only catch? I was already using my carousel for K cups (obviously, right?). The bright side? Not for long!

Fast forward to March as I began my yearly spring cleanup at home and I came across that old K cup carousel that my husband and I no longer use (don’t get me wrong-we still use our Keurig machine, but we opt to use the reusable filter instead) and it instantly dawned on me that I could re-purpose it for my classroom (cue the angels singing). So friends - that’s exactly what I did!

I posted the picture above to my Instagram Feed and within a couple hours it had gone viral. It was really exciting to see so many educators posting pictures of their re-purposed carousels with mini play dough containers!

If you aren’t sure which containers will work, I’m using the 2 ounce containers and I’ve seen them at Dolllar Tree and Dollarama. I actually order my Play-Doh online from Amazon, so that’s an option too.

If you try this teacher hack I would love to hear about it! Feel free to tag me on Instagram, Facebook or leave a comment down below letting me know how it turned out!

How do you organize your play dough materials? Share below!

Happy teaching!❤
@jen_rece

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