Fun STEM idea for Thanksgiving. Here comes Thanksgiving. As soon as Halloween is over my mind shifts to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. No gifts, no stress, just a great meal with family and friends. It’s fun to celebrate Thanksgiving at school as well. My focus has been on

Picture Passwords are a game-changer for primary students. If you have spent any time in the younger grades you know that getting your students logged in is the hardest part of using Chromebooks and iPads in kindergarten. Well, not anymore. Boom Learning has announced picture logins. Using images instead of letters,

Using Boom Cards in The Primary Classroom Boom Cards provide the digital resources you need to bring digital learning into your primary classroom. Boom Cards are self-checking digital task cards that provide immediate feedback to students. Teachers have access to the data through Boom’s reports feature. Giving teachers a powerful

Knowing the alphabet is the best predictor of reading success. I have been teaching in the primary grades for over 30 years. In that time I have seen expectations change for kindergarten students. What started out as social-emotional growth, learning to play with friends, fine motor skills, and alphabet skills

  The hardest part about using digital resources in the primary grades is getting your kids logged in. You don’t need to be an early childhood expert to quickly figure out that getting to log into Google Classroom is the biggest challenge. If you have spent any time with young children

What is the rest of the class doing during reading groups?   When I started teaching I had a pretty good idea how to run a reading group. It was clear to me what my students needed. Whether they were in my low group and just learning to identify and

If you have spent any time in a classroom recently you know that teachers are constantly asked to differentiate. So let’s talk differentiation in the classroom. What exactly does it mean when we say we differentiate our instruction to meet all our learners? I have yet to go to a

Keep Learning all summer long! We all love summer vacation.  The kids and the teachers are counting the days until we have a little free time to relax and recharge for next year.  This summer help your parents by giving them some tips for some fun summer activities to keep

Having an ELL student in your class If you teach in the United States the chances are high that you have a student for whom English is not their native language. It’s up to us to determine the best way to support all of our learners. It can feel intimidating when

What technology should we be using in the classroom?? There has been a big difference in the way we teach young children in just the last few years. The advance of appropriate technology is growing at warp speed. Technology in kindergarten is transforming the classroom around the globe. Teachers today

Using Technology in Your Primary Classroom If you work in a school like mine, you are being asked to use more and more technology in your kindergarten class. You may have been given a cart full of Chromebooks or iPads, but have absolutely no idea how to use the technology

Using Boom Cards in Kindergarten Using Boom Cards in kindergarten classrooms is a powerful tool we can use to engage all students. Most kindergarten students have some experience with iPads and technology long before they arrive in our kindergarten. Many, if not all, have some type of iPad or tablet