The Best Back-to-School Blog Posts

Back to School Season is fast approaching!  I know, I know, I'm trying to avoid thinking about it too, but it is so much easier if we are prepared ahead of time!

I have plenty of things to share with you the next few weeks to help make Back to School a little easier!  Today I am sharing a collection of blog posts from some of my teaching friends that will set you up for back-to-school success. There's something for everyone PreK - middle school! So without further ado, here are a few of my favorite teacher blog posts (labeled by grade) to help set you up for success in the coming school year!

K - 6th Grade

Start the School Year Off Right! will help you get ready for the busy season.  My friend, Melissa Bonito from Peas in a Pod offers some great tips and tricks to help set the stage for a smooth school year. You won't want to miss her top 5 back to school tips, and how she goes about teaching classroom procedures!  That's ALWAYS the tricky part!

2nd - 5th Grade

I am all about building student relationships and I have shared compliments with my students right on the door so it is the first thing they see each day for several years during Valentine's Day.  My students LOVE it and so many of yours do as well!  This year, I decided to implement this idea EVERY month.  My first month I will share why My Students Are Amazing, on adorable apple templates.  Hint**There's a freebie in this post so you can do this with your students as well!

K - Middle School

In Organize & Transform Your Classroom, Suzy Memeo from StudentSavvy offers some awesome tips for creating a space that makes you happy! Since our classrooms are truly our homes away from home, this is SO IMPORTANT! She will guide you as you come up with your plan, locate the problem areas in your classroom, and tackle them. Her classroom designs are a must see!

Prek - 3rd Grade

The BEST way to improve student reading performance is to make sure that they are reading!  Read all about creating a life long love for reading within each of our students in My Favorite Way to Increase Reading Engagement by Paula Beckerman from Paula's Primary Classroom. She says, "After 25 years of teaching early childhood, I haven't found any magic tricks that always work for everyone, each child is unique after all!  There is, however, something that has served me incredibly well, year after year." Find out what it is HERE!  Also, you should check out her Facebook page where she shares so many other great tips and strategies for primary teachers (and parents of students in this age range as well)!  On a random side note, her Australian accent is adorable!

1st - 8th Grade

Classroom Management - It will either be the case of you sinking or swimming during the school year!  If you don't accomplish anything else during the first weeks of school but to have control of your class, then you have done a good job! Read more about how Kathleen Guleksen, from A Plus Kids, does just that!

Thanks for checking out the list of our favorite back-to-school posts. We'd love to hear your tips for a smooth year in the comments below!

And... before you go, make sure to visit my Giveaways page to enter our weekly giveaway to win a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card!

My Students Are Amazing Back to School Door Decoration

Every Valentine's Day, I decorate my classroom door with Reasons Why I Love My Class.  My class is always so excited to read each of the new reasons as I post a new one each day.  I shared this freebie, so that your students could enjoy them as much as mine did.  Several of you asked for me to make them for ALL of the months.  So, that is what I am working on now!  Here is the classroom door display for September (Back to School Apples)!

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love. 

I made a sign that said My Students Are Awesome.  Then I printed an apple template on several pieces of card stock and cut them out (I printed on red, yellow, and green card stock since those are the colors of apples).  I wrote various reasons why my class is amazing including:

They are smart.

They are kind.

They always try their best.

On the first day of school, I will hang up the My Students Are Awesome sign and the first apple.  Each day of the month I will hang up a new apple.

In addition to the My Students Are Awesome signs, I also created grade specific signs as well (K- 6th are included in the freebie).  Here is the 4th Graders are Awesome sign:

I also have two different font choices available to best suit your students!

I have made a freebie for you just in case you wanted to try this project out with your own students.  You can download it here.  

Here are the other monthly versions that are already completed.  Check back for new postings each month!

February

March

April

If you decide to do this project, I would love to see pictures!  Please email me at kellys3ps@sbcglobal.net or tag me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter!

And... before you go, make sure to visit my Giveaways page to enter our weekly giveaway to win a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card!

 I would love to hear from you! ❤️

Have a question? Idea for a resource you might find helpful?

Be so kind and leave a comment below.

Classroom Management Tips Every Teacher Can Use

As any teacher knows, effective classroom management is the key when it comes to getting your students to learn.  I am always on the lookout for new classroom management techniques, even when we have guest speakers, such as author, Gary Hogg, who came to teach us how to be better writers.  After all, if a person is able to manage 300+ students during an assembly, they must have a few tricks up their sleeve!  here are a few classroom management tips I picked up during his visit that any teacher can use!

1. Use Catch-Phrases and Visual Aids

In addition to teaching the students about writing, Gary also gave them important life lessons about managing distractions, putting effort in your work, and more. As you can see in the picture above, Gary Hogg had posters of a variety of different catch phrases that he used to teach a certain point about behavior and work ethic.   

He would tell the students a story using the catch phrase several times. Each time he said the catch phrase, he gestured towards the poster with that phrase.  The students caught onto these phrases quickly, and began implementing them almost immediately.  

I have been able to use these posters to reinforce the catch phrases in our classroom.  

2. Manage Your Distractions

One of the biggest problems in teaching has got to be distractions!  I know you have been there, in the thick of teaching a lesson when you notice that one of your students is playing with something and not paying attention at all!

Well, Gary Hogg has obviously been there too, because he had a catch phrase a poster for this one!  Manage your Distractions!

The very first thing that he told the students was to put their pencils underneath their notebooks so that they wouldn't be distracted while he was teaching them.  So simple, yet effective!  The students weren't playing with the pencils, or going on ahead before directions were given!  This is definitely an idea that I have kept going in the classroom and it has been a game changer!

He also told them that distractions happen in twos - when you become distracted, you distract someone else.  He said, "It will distract me and it will distract the person next to you."

You can watch this video of Gary telling a story about a student managing their distractions.

3. Playing Your Brave Card

We all have those students who just don't participate in lessons.  Gary had a phrase for that one too!  Play Your Brave Card!

As he went through one of the activities during our writing workshop, he said to the students, "Some of you have not raised your hand, are you playing your brave card?"  Hands immediately shot up!

 Gary Hogg talks about Playing Your Brave Card in this video below.

4. Encourage Students to Do Their Best - Be Amazing, Not Annoying

We all have students who don't put forth their best effort!  It's disheartening to see a student who you know can do amazing things just barely even try.  Gary offered the students this advice:

He told the students, "You are amazing but sometimes you let distractions get a hold of you!"  He told them that sometimes when they did their school work, they didn't put forth all of the effort that they could have. He said, "There is not a teacher on Earth that can make you feel smart, if you do not do the work!"

"Be Impressive, Not Lazy!"  He told them!

Would you use any of these classroom management tips?  Leave a comment below to let me know if you would or if you try any of them!

If you want to find more about Gary Hogg, check out his website and his YouTube page!

And... before you go, make sure to visit my Giveaways page to enter our weekly giveaway to win a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card!

 I would love to hear from you! ❤️

Have a question? Idea for a resource you might find helpful?

Be so kind and leave a comment below.

March Teaching Resource Round-Up

March Teaching Resource Round Up! 

Looking for some awesome resources to use in the classroom this month?  Check out this growing list of blog posts, freebies, pins, product suggestions and more!  Feel free to add your own suggestions in the linky below!

Give your students a shout out for St. Patrick's Day! This freebie is a great way to give your class shout-outs during the weeks leading up to St. Patrick’s Day. Simply print out the template on colored paper and write down the shout-outs you want to give your class. I posted one new shamrock each day and my students raced to read each new one.

This activity is featured in my blog post Shamrock Shout- out. Head on over if you want to see more about how I used it in my classroom.

If your students need to practice math facts, you will love this St. Patrick's Day themed treasure hunt activity.  You can read all about it and grab the freebie here!

This print and play game from 180 Days of Reading  will have your students rolling and reading!  Perfect for those students who need practice with blends and digraphs!

This great little freebie from Teaching Super Kids includes March themed reading, writing, and spelling activities!

These poke cards from The Chocolate Teacher are a great way to help students practice telling time to the hour and half hour.  They are self-checking so are perfect for an independent center.

Math facts are always something my students need practice with!  This addition to ten freebie from Debora Marines TeachMagically is perfect for that extra practice!

This math activity from Sparking Children's Thinkibility puts your students in the driver's seat as they create their own math problems!

These St. Patrick's Day Reward Punch Cards from Little Red are a great classroom management tool!  The resource is editable, so it can be used for so many skills or habits that you need to have your students work on from remembering to turn in homework, to books read, to being kind to others, to???

This flip book was designed by the Speech Attic to be a companion to How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton. This book companion addresses a variety of language skills such as comprehension, describing, sequencing, following directions, vocabulary, and more! 

If you are looking for more St. Patrick's Day resources, check out my Holidays in the Classroom - St. Patrick's Day Pinterest Board with over 260 resources!

If you celebrate Pi Day in the classroom, you will LOVE these Pi Day bookmarks!

If you have other resources for March, feel free to add them to the linky below!

Once you are finished checking out all of these amazing resources, head over to our giveaway page to enter to win a Teachers pay Teachers gift card!

Inlinkz Link Party

Pi Day Fun in the Upper Elementary Classroom

Have you ever thought about celebrating Pi Day on March 14 (3/14)?  Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th because that day corresponds with the first three digits of Pi (and is coincidentally the birthday of Albert Einstein).

Although it is traditionally celebrated by many middle school and high school teachers, I have found that my students always have an amazing time learning about Pi even if they can't quite calculate it themselves yet!  Read on to see all of the things we do to celebrate Pi in the Upper Elementary Classroom!

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love. 

Wear Pi

One fun thing about holidays is dressing up to celebrate them.  Why should Pi Day be any different?

I bought this Pi-Day shirt from Amazon here.

My students were also able to wear Pi with these awesome temporary Pi Day tattoos.

Math Jokes  

I print out some of the math jokes in this post, " 36 Math Jokes to Get Every Nerd Through Pi Day", and we share them throughout the day.  My students LOVE them, even the cornier jokes! 

I usually give each student a joke and randomly call on them throughout the day to read them out loud to the class.

Pi Day Read Aloud

My favorite read aloud for Pi Day is Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi.  

The book is a math themed adventure where the title character, Sir Cumference is changed into a fire breathing dragon, and his son, Radius is on a quest to change him back.  In order to do this, he must solve a riddle where he discovers a math number that is the same for all circles - Pi!

After your read aloud, you can pass out these adorable Pi Day Bookmarks to your students to use in their own books!

How Many Digits Are in Pi?

My students were so fascinated by this Pi Measuring Tape.  It features the first 400 digits of Pi. They couldn't believe a number could be so long!  

Pi Day Book

We completed these adorable Pi Day books that taught us even more about Pi!

Pi Day Vocabulary

We learned a few Pi related vocabulary words!  

Let Them Eat Pie!    

What Pi Day Celebration would be complete without pie?  We had to end the day with some yummy apple pie!

Do you celebrate Pi Day in your classroom?  I'd love to hear about it!  Leave a comment below!

And... before you go, make sure to visit my Giveaways page to enter our weekly giveaway to win a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card!

 I would love to hear from you! ❤️

Have a question? Idea for a resource you might find helpful?

Be so kind and leave a comment below.