Residential Schools Picture Books for Grades 2-5

Residential Schools Picture Books for Grades 2-5

Picture Books to Teach About REsidential Schools Teaching students about the history of Canadian Residential Schools is necessary but can lead to some very heavy conversations. I have found the best way to do this is through the use of picture books. 14 Picture Books It can be difficult to know which books are appropriate…

Free After the Fall Growth Mindset Lessons

Free After the Fall Growth Mindset Lessons

Growth Mindset Lessons As soon as I read After the Fall by Dan Santat I knew that I wanted to use it in my classroom. Besides the amazing illustrations, it has an incredible growth mindset message. I have tried many different behaviour management and self-regulation methods in my classroom over the years. I have seen…

Student Approved Read Alouds for 3rd & 4th Grade

Student Approved Read Alouds for 3rd & 4th Grade

Are you looking for new read Alouds for your Grade 3 or 4 Classroom? Whether it is on Instagram, Facebook, or in the school, I am always hearing the question “What book should I read to my class next?” I decided I would let you know which read alouds my 3rd and 4th grade students…

Teaching Growth Mindset

Teaching Growth Mindset

This year I noticed that many of my students were using a lot of negative self talk and that they were giving up on a task before they even started. Something needed to be done about this so I did some research on Growth Mind Set and decided that this is exactly what my students…

Midnight Pumpkins Art Project

Midnight Pumpkins Art Project

Have you been wanting to do a Halloween (or fall) art project with your class but still want to incorporate some art elements? Are you wanting a Halloween bulletin board that is not just a cut and paste craft? I’ve got you covered. We have been working on blending colors during art. We’ve blended different…

Teaching Students to Connect to What They Read

Teaching Students to Connect to What They Read

To start Reading off this year we are focusing on learning the Reading Power strategies.If you haven’t heard about Reading Power by Adrienne Gear (Note: All book links are aff. links) it is a must for anyone teaching reading.  We have started by learning about how to make connections to what is being read. The…

Currently July 2015!

Currently July 2015!

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…

CAFE Strategies

CAFE Strategies

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…

And We All Turned Into Turkeys!

And We All Turned Into Turkeys!

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…

What Does the Fox Say

What Does the Fox Say

We just finished our animal unit in Science and I used a little fox to help me! I saw the book What Does The Fox Say a while back and bought it immediately because I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. We had a day where we revisited What Does The Fox…

David Bouchard and Pink Shirt Day = A Great Week

David Bouchard and Pink Shirt Day = A Great Week

We had a fabulous week this week. It went by so fast but it was packed full of activities. On Tuesday our school had the honor of an author visit from the AMAZING David Bouchard. I have read his books to my students for years and it was so neat to actually have him come…

Setting the Stage for Narrative Writing

Setting the Stage for Narrative Writing

This week we started looking at story elements in hopes that soon my students will be able to write their own story with well developed story elements. I decided to start with teaching them setting. The first day I introduce setting with this anchor chart. As I was going through the anchor chart, I went…

A Busy Friday – Valentine’s Day Art and 100s Day

A Busy Friday – Valentine’s Day Art and 100s Day

Wowzers !! Friday was a busy day for us. Not only did we celebrate Valentine’s Day but we also had our 100s Day celebration. It was a fun filled day and I was proud of by kiddos for keeping it together and not being to wild and crazy (especially when candy was involved). This past…

A Bear in War

A Bear in War

We read A Bear in War and coloured poppies for our Remembrance Day wreath today. A Bear in War is one of my favourite picture books for talking about Remembrance Day. It is a true story and showcases Canadian history. After we read the book we visited the website for the Canadian War Museum to…

Seeing Dots

Seeing Dots

I just realized the other day that it seems like dots are my new chevron. The last few things I have made for my classroom and most of the bulleting boards I created for back to school all have polka dots on them. Here’s the proof: I saw somewhere (please let me know if this…

Seeing Dots

Seeing Dots

I just realized the other day that it seems like dots are my new chevron. The last few things I have made for my classroom and most of the bulleting boards I created for back to school all have polka dots on them. Here’s the proof: I saw somewhere (please let me know if this…

Whangdoodle….What’s a Whangdoodle?

Whangdoodle….What’s a Whangdoodle?

I am going to be on holidays for 2 weeks.!!!!! Yay. It has been a long time. Before I leave I thought I would share with you all my students’ favourite read aloud book from this year. It is called The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews. Yup the same Julie Andrews…

Easter Planning

Easter Planning

Back to work today and focused on Easter. It is weird to me how our Spring Break doesn‘t run into Easter as we just got back from a week off and now we have 2 short weeks in a row. If you are planning like I am check out the Easter items in my TpT…

No Bones About It, Science is Fun!

No Bones About It, Science is Fun!

Well it is the last day of Christmas break for me and I cannot wait to go back to school. Is it weird that over the holidays I was missing my kiddos and wondering what they were doing? I am sure I have said it already this year but I love my class. They are…

Christmas Icosahedron Art Project

Christmas Icosahedron Art Project

What in the world is an icosahedron you ask? It is a 20 sided 3D shape that makes for a PERFECT Christmas art project.  A long time ago (9 years) I did this project with a group of students and then forgot all about it. Well this year I wanted to do an art project with…

Brain Science and Remembrance Day

Brain Science and Remembrance Day

Once again I am finding myself with VERY little time to take care of my blog. I miss blogging a lot but I am swamped with my master’s work and running my son around to soccer. Maybe someday I will have a laptop and then I can blog while I am being soccer mom 3…

Feeling Lucky

Feeling Lucky

I am feeling pretty lucky these days to have so many great people out there to chat with. Thank you for following my blog. To share the luck with you I thought I would create a post dedicated to St. Patrick’s Day and all that comes with it. To start off, here is a freebie…