Hello Mrs Sykes

Why colored rice?  It's fun!  So often we forget to make things hands-on for our upper elementary students. Colored rice is great for tactile learners and much easier to clean up than sand.  In the past, I've used colored rice in baby wipe containers (easy storage) for younger students to practice writing letters or words in the rice.  They love the feel of the rice, and if some falls on the floor, they use the whisk broom and sweep it up in a jiffy.  With my older learners, I use colored rice to make word work fun with Shake It Up!

Need a quick way to review? Want to see what your kiddos know in less than 15 minutes? Scoot is a game I use in classrooms to get kiddos up and moving while we review. It's a quick way to get a look at how the class is doing with a concept. Just like any other game you play with students, teach them how to play it. It's a great way to spend 10 minutes on a rainy day, trust me.

Here's a quick, Bright Idea for all the Teacher-Authors out there...  How to secure a PDF. Read on to Secure PDFs for free

If you haven't heard yet, Teachers Pay Teachers is an online marketplace where teachers, homeschooling parents, and graphic artists can buy and sell resources for educators.  Interested in opening your own TPT store?   Read on for 5 Skills I Learned as a TPT Seller that I had no idea I needed to know. Button Graphics  from my new favorite clipart artist, Tomato Dumplings . When people find out that I blog and create resources for teachers, they usually ask, "How do you find the time?"  My answer, "I have no idea, but I love what I am doing."  A colleague came to me for advice about opening her own TPT store, and I am so happy she did!  Since I am teaching part-time this year, I was able to meet with her over her track out on a beautiful Friday morning at a coffee shop for a couple of hours and chat in the sunshine about teaching, blogging, and being a Teacher-Author on Teachers Pay Teachers.  By the way, her store is called Tomato Dumplings, a...

I get asked this a bunch - "How did you add that cool link to your comment on my blog?"  Well, here's the trick... (Doncha just love the graphics from The 3AM Teacher !?!) Here's what it looks like when I leave a comment: Here's the code: <a href="PUT THE LINK HERE">TEXT HERE</a> Happy Blogging!!  :)