4 Great Ways to Use Ed-Tech to Build Communication Skills in the Elementary Classroom

If you read my recent post about my return to blogging, you’ll have seen that I’ve been on a bit of a crusade at my school to prove that ed-tech can be, should be, and is being, used to develop the communication skills of students (If you haven’t read it you can find it here). … Continue reading 4 Great Ways to Use Ed-Tech to Build Communication Skills in the Elementary Classroom

Great Games Part Two: Created/Printed Games

Here goes with post two in this mini-series.  If you haven't read part one yet I suggest you begin with the introduction here. In the first post I talked about some of my favourite games that have either been purchased and played as intended, or used other games re-purposed to fit a skill or concept … Continue reading Great Games Part Two: Created/Printed Games

Secret Agents: A great learning activity

Hello, Just a quick post today as I want to share with you a great activity my class adored last week.  We swapped it in as part of our balloon pop countdown. It's essentially a code-breaking game, but my students decided we should call it 'Secret Agents'. The premise is basically that of a scavenger … Continue reading Secret Agents: A great learning activity

Great Games Part One: Bought/re-purposed games

Thanks for dropping by again! This week I'm kicking off my mini-series on some of my favourite English and Math games to play with primary school students, you can find the introduction to this mini-series here.  In this first post I'm looking at games that I've either brought and used as they are, or re-purposed. … Continue reading Great Games Part One: Bought/re-purposed games

Great Games for Literacy and Numeracy

During the last week of school I love to round off our year by replaying my class' favourite Maths and English games from the year.  I rotate our games through the year as ability, preference and focus changes but its always fun to go back and bring out some of the 'classics'.  The kids love … Continue reading Great Games for Literacy and Numeracy

Making Word Work Work

Like many teachers I have taken inspiration for my student centered ELA classroom set up from The Daily Five by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser.  Their premise is quite simple; students are given 5 elements of their learning that they must complete (mostly in self-selected order) each day.  My classroom obviously differs somewhat from their … Continue reading Making Word Work Work

Motivating Readers: Book Talk

Like many teachers I have a couple of students who are reluctant readers; I try to keep them as motivated and engaged as I can using a combination of different approaches that vary from student to student and change over time as needed.  I often use strategies such as praise, positive reinforcement (you've gotta love … Continue reading Motivating Readers: Book Talk