students blog

  Are you looking for quality resources that will help improve your students’ sentence structure? In order for your students to write well, they need to become familiar with the various elements of grammar,  as well as have an understanding of the different types of sentences! This blog highlights a number of   sentence structure resources   and activities that you can use in the classroom to support your students on the road to quality writing. Sentence Structure Resources for the Classroom Dressing Up a Sentence Activity This activity will encourage younger students to add more descriptive language into their sentence writing. A fantastic template that can be used again and again. Students pick a simple, boring sentence from a pack of  60 flashcards . Then, students ‘dress up’ the boring sentence by using the  Dressing Up a Sentence template.  This template guides the students to add more adjectives and detail to their chosen sentence! For more ...

  “The most interesting people you’ll find are ones that don’t fit into your average cardboard box. They’ll make what they need, they’ll make their own boxes.” – Dr. Temple Grandin Social stories are short stories written for children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD find social situations very challenging, as they find it difficult to interpret the non-verbal communication of the situation they are in. Social stories help manage change and reduce anxiety issues for students with ASD by explaining how to behave in a specific social situation. They prepare the student for what is going to happen, what they should do in a particular situation and how they (or others) might be feeling. Social Skills Social skills have varying expectations and constantly change; they depend on the social situation, people or places involved. Students with ASD need to be taught specific social skills and appropriate behavior for each social setting they ...

  “Little did the Mitchell family know that their furry family members had other plans. They were coming on holidays too! Milly and Molly liked the thought of lying in the sun by a pool every day – it sounded a lot more exciting than the cattery. They couldn’t wait to see if Hawaii had catnip cocktails and rooms full of scratching poles.” Writing Prompts Writing prompts are a great way to engage students with writing and encourage creativity. They provide students with choices and the opportunity to draw on ideas from known stories and personal experiences. Effective writing prompts create situations that interest students and provide them with some direction for their writing. Selecting prompts that are consistent with the interests and life experiences of the students in your class will assist them in achieving their writing goals. Writing prompts can be used for independent writing, guided writing, quick writes, partner writing, homework tasks and daily ...

  “To blog is to share, to connect, to create, to inspire.” –  The Gingerbread Gem Blogging with your students in the classroom can be a fun and positive way to connect and share with parents on a regular basis. There are also many educational benefits that your students can gain from blogging. This blog will outline 7 benefits to classroom blogging and also some suggested platforms that you could explore. 1.Parent Communication Parents want to be continuously informed about what their child is learning about, what they did at school that day and how they are going in class. Especially in the early years. They also love to see photos of their child in their learning environment. It’s great to get into the habit of taking a few photos or a short video each day. It doesn’t take long and helps maintain open communication between home and school. At the end of the day or at the end of the week, post the photos and videos on a classroom blog with a summary of the lea...

  Phonemic awareness isn’t taught in a day! Constant consolidation of children’s phonemic awareness is crucial, especially in the early years. For more information on the English language, system check out our blog:   A Guide to the English Language System . This blog outlines some fantastic phonics resources and activity ideas that can be used in the classroom environment. Digraph Bug Swatting A small group digraph bug swatting game to consolidate the concept of digraph graphemes at the beginning of a word. How to use this resource: Laminate and cut out the game cards and four bugs. It is best to have a fly swat; however, students can just use their hands. Place the bugs on the floor and the game cards in a pile beside the bugs. Students take turns to turn over a game card. They must say the word that is on the card, then swat the bug that shows the corresponding digraph e.g. if the students chose the card showing the word  ship , the studen...

  Teaching fractions? We have everything you need right here to make learning fractions in the classroom exciting! Starting off with this super cute comic by Jeff Keane. What a great way to start a fraction lesson, have a discussion with your students about what is happening in this comic. The Fraction Boogie This is a great way to get your students up and moving. Each student will need one piece of newspaper. Students place the piece of newspaper out as a ‘whole piece’. The teacher plays some fun dancing music so that the students can dance along on their piece of newspaper. When the music stops, the students must pick up their piece of paper and fold it in half. They then start dancing on half of the newspaper. Again, the music stops and they fold the piece of paper so that they are dancing on only one quarter. Finally, they fold the newspaper so that they are only dancing on one eighth of the paper. An activity kids will love doing! They can then unfold their piece of ...

  Relax! Sit down, have a cup of coffee, and enjoy scrolling through some of these amazing, time saving teaching tools that are all available on Teach Starter!   Random Sentence Selector Beautifully designed images and sentence starters ready to go! Simply click on the red ‘Go’ button to randomly select a sentence starter and a matching image. No more searching through google images for writing prompts! It is all here ready for you to utilize… Random Name Selector Kids love this! If you need to pick someone for a classroom job, or to answer a question, simply put your students’ names in our random name selector and click the red ‘Go!’ button! Create your own Handwriting Sheets That’s right! You can create your very own handwriting sheets right here. Pick your preferred font and handwriting lines and type whatever content you would like. Perhaps it is focusing on a particular letter, number, or sight word! It’s so easy! Read our blog The ...