I love changing up my Math centers to match the upcoming holidays. Even though students are practice skills they are familiar with, there is something about a holiday themed center that instantly gets them engaged. I recently completed math centers for multi-digit multiplication that will be part of my math centers this week. I (like…
It feels like Valentine’s Day has snuck up on me this year. These last few days all I have done is shovel snow and haven’t had time to think about planning Valentine’s Day. I am glad I have my Valentine cards already printed. I just have to cut them out and label. Oh yah….and buy…
I have been doing a lot of updating of products lately. I have added more engaging, interactive activities that I have tried in the classroom and are student approved. One of my favorite updates has been to my Homophones unit !It went from being boring worksheets to engaging activities and literacy centers. Here is a…
I LOVE Halloween time! There are so many wonderful, descriptive words that go with Halloween which leads to many literacy activities. If you have a class that you have to differentiate work for, these FREE alphabetical order pages will be perfect. They look similar, and have most of the words the same. The difference is…
I beg you to STOP buying those tissue paper flowers. Yes, you can buy them everywhere and they are convenient to throw in your shopping cart, but please, please, PLEASE stop. They are super easy and cheap to make. I am going to show you how you can make your own and in any colors/patterns…
It has been WAY too long since I posted last. I will be teaching at a new school next year that will be way less stressful and time consuming and one of the things that I am going to make a priority is my blog. I feel I have been neglecting it for the past…
Most years we don’t really celebrate New Years in school because we usually go back to school around January 9th. This year we go back on the 3rd so we will get to do some New Years activities!!! I just updated my mystery grid activity for 2017 so that will be an activity we will…
A couple weeks ago I was looking for a quick art project for my class to complete. I cannot remember where I saw a picture of a winter scene done on black paper with chalk, but it was likely Pinterest. After searching town for white chalk (our school only had yellow) and finding some, I…
Hi All, I have this 15 minute block of time, once a week, first thing int he morning before we go to PE that I have to fill. I usually have my students do some morning work activity. Most times it is Math or Language Arts but it ALWAYS has to be independent work, as…
Here is a quick freebie for you. I always want to set expectations at the beginning of the year for how I want students to answer questions. Since I teach grade 4/5 I don’t want just one word answers (unless it is an adaptation for a student) but rather more in depth answers that have…
No matter what grades I have taught I have ALWAYS had my students write journals. Of course journals in primary grades are different that journals in intermediate grades. At the beginning of the year when I introduce journals to my intermediate students (this year grade 4/5) my students are like…”Hold on! We don’t do journals…
I am always looking for new ways to dismiss my class. Whether we are going from the carpet area back to our desks or from our desks to the carpet area or from either place to the door, I don’t want my students rushing in a big mob to where they are asked to go….
Hi All, Just a quick post here today. I am off to work to get things ready for next week but I thought I would post one of my classes favorite place value review activities. Who doesn’t love Duck Dynasty? Students play concentration/memory with the cards to match the standard form of a number to…
I know Christmas is over but I wanted to share a last minute art project we completed where my students exceeded all my expectations. Let me set the scene first…. It is the day before the Christmas concert (3 days before winter break) and my kiddos are WILD. I needed some filler activities because there…
Every year I have my students use a planner no matter what grade I teach. Planners help students start working on their organizational skills and is great for school-home communications. I was going to show you the editable planner I made for this year with pictures but I thought I would try something new and…
I feel like I was very productive today because I got a lot of little things crossed off my to do list. That is always a great feeling. I still don’t know what I will be teaching so I can continue with getting those things done that aren’t planning for a specific grade. The first…
Today I tackled my filing cabinet. I call it “tackled” because it was a DISASTER. There was still stuff in there from the previous teacher and I just grabbed my files out of boxes and shoved them in the drawers the night before school started last year. EVERYTHING was mixed together and every time I…
This year is a little different for me because I currently hold a Grade 2 position at my school but I want the Grade 4/5 position at my school that will be coming up soon. Long story short — the way postings are done in my district I can no longer just internally transfer into…
Ahhh summer time. I always have such a big to do list in the summer and I never get to everything I want to do. This year may be different! To start I have made a goal to do all of Farley’s Currently posts! Here is the first one 🙂 Listening: My new favourite song…
Mother’s Day is this Sunday and we have been working on finishing our Mother’s Day Gifts. There has been a lot going on at our school this year so I didn’t want to go with my usual Mother’s Day gift ideas because they require quite a bit of prep beforehand. While I was shopping at…
Wow I cannot believe that 2014 is over and 2015 is here. I still remember when I was in Grade 8 (1990) and we were figuring out how old we would be in the year 2000. Yikes! I am excited to start the year off with Farley’s Currently Link Up! Listening: Since we are moving…
I am super excited to announce that I have been included in this years Winter Ebook for Grades 3-5!!!!! All of the Ebooks are amazing and it is hard to get a spot in them so when I found out my page was going to be included I was ecstatic. Click on the picture to…
Wow! Two blog posts in one day. Well, I missed last months Currently and didn’t want to miss it again. So here it is: Listening: I am obsessed with Sam Smith. Every song he sings is brilliant. Loving: Okay those of you who know me know this is not surprising. I LOVE shopping online. There…
Well we have been hit hard by Mother Nature these last couple of days. We had no snow (usually it snows at the beginning of November) and I was beginning to wonder what Christmas was going to look like when … WHAM! We got a ton. We had so much snow at once that Thursday…
Well it finally feels like we are in the swing of things at school. Everything is behind because of our late start so it is weird that we only have a few CAFE strategies done. Here is an update on our most recent activities. We had a Seusstastic time with our Tune in to…
Our Thanksgiving is over here and so are our Thanksgiving themed activities. This year I had student turn themselves into turkeys. Well not literally 🙂 While I was procrastinating on Facebook I saw a post by Mrs. Beattie with this activity for Thanksgiving and I knew my class would love it. I started by reading…
I cannot believe it is October already but with that comes my FAVOURITE holiday….Halloween! I love everything about it 🙂 Well since it is the beginning of the month here is my Currently. Listening: It is after dinner and the dishes are being washed. I am so thankful we have a dishwasher because I am…
We are still not back into our classrooms. I just finished my 5th week (2 in June, 1 in August, 2 in September) on the picket line 🙁 Since we are not back at work I have had extra time to get things ready. Well what I can do with the stuff I have at…
All last year I battled a cluttered desk. I would have piles of papers on my desk waiting to be put somewhere. Once I marked students work they went into 2 piles — Completed and ready for duotangs or Corrections to be done. These piles would get in the way and make my desk look…
I cannot believe it is September already. Soon it will be my birthday! I still get excited like a little kid 🙂 Here is this months Currently. Listening: I just woke up and am starting my morning routine which involves COFFEE!!!! It is sad to say but I cannot function without it. Loving: I have…
All teachers know that kids learn more when they’re excited and engaged. Today a team of bloggers come together to help your students take a BITE out of learning with a theme your students are sure to love! I use individual whiteboards in my classroom all the time to keep all of my students engaged….
One of the things I anticipate every back to school time is the TpT Ebooks. This year I managed to get in this one!! I am excited about that. There are over 40 TPT sellers who each created a page which has teaching tips and at least one free item. Believe me when I say…
It is always great to get a product that is editable but what do you do when you get it and don’t know how to edit it? Usually I make my editable items in PowerPoint so it is easy to edit. I do have a few earlier products that I made into a PDF. I…
I love back to school time. I love buying new supplies to start fresh with and I love decorating my room. I get excited and nervous to meet my new students and this year I will be changing schools so I have new colleagues to meet! I also love the Teachers Pay Teachers Back To…
I don’t normally write political posts on my blog but in light of our current union strike I knew I had to write this one. I have heard many times that teachers knew what they were getting into when they decided to become teachers so we should be happy with what we have. Part of…
I know we all have those students who chronically do not finish their work and if you are teaching in a school like me, inevitably there will be students who will not do homework or who will not bring it back. A few years ago I really needed a solution to organizing all of the…
