Hello everyone! I am so excited with the new clip art collection I have been working on in the last week. After a long period of time without creating any clip art, the inspiration came back and I have been busy! My new darlings are rag dolls! I have a very soft spot for rag dolls. My favourite doll when I was growing up was Read More
Are we done yet? – Time Management Strips
How many times have you heard this question when working with young children? Particularly, if you work in a small group setting like I do as a tutor, this question is quite common. It doesn’t matter how much fun the children are having. Or how much work they are actually doing. It doesn’t even matter if they have just started the session. As soon as Read More
Word Tower – A Simple Literacy Game
I am currently tutoring a few French Immersion students that need help learning their English sight words. Because they are so young, I try to keep each activity to about 10-15 minutes each, so that they don’t get bored of doing the same thing all the time. I have come up with several activities to practice sight words with my students, and even though all Read More
Once Upon a Game – “Burned”
Today I bring you another one of the games I used to play as a child. I taught it to my daughters at the beginning of last Summer, and they absolutely loved it! Well, the fact that mommy was jumping around with them and making them giggle, might also have something to do with why they liked it so much :). Burned is a simple Read More
Building Blocks and Place Value
Recently, while tutoring a group of grade 2 students, I realized that some of them were having a hard time understanding the value of each digit when representing 2-digit numbers. For example, when asked to represent the number 23, they would draw 2 hearts and 3 squares. When I asked them to use Base-Ten blocks, they knew to use 2 rods and 3 units, however, Read More
10 Things You Can Do to Engage Boys in Literacy
One of the many issues that teachers often face in their classrooms, is boys disconnection with literacy. Somehow, it seems that boys always have more difficulty engaging with writing and reading activities. But why is this so? This is an issue that has intrigued teachers and scholars alike. Along the years, several studies have been conducted to analyze and troubleshoot this “phenomenon”. Some attribute this Read More
Make Your Own Clay Turkey For The Holidays
Fall is time for celebrations. In Canada, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so it is time to start looking for crafts to make 🙂 This past weekend, my daughters and I decided to make our own turkey art with clay. Here are the tutorials for two different clay turkeys. What you need: – Clay – modelling clay is ideal for children. You can also try Read More
Make Your Own Cute Paperclips
This is a cute and very easy to make craft. You can use these clips as bookmarks or as clips for your classroom activities. Here’s how I made them: Print a page with clip art, colored circles or numbered circles. Gather scissors, hot glue gun, laminating supplies, paperclips and/or clothespins. Laminate each page on the printed side only. Cut each decoration. Place a dot of hot glue Read More
One More YouTube Presentation – Subitizing
Hi everyone! I just wanted to leave you a quick note to let you know that I have published another YouTube presentation. This one is also on subitizing but goes more into detail about its importance in early childhood education. I hope you enjoy it! Take care, Catia
Land of Books – The First Days Of School
When I found out that I needed to take an ABQ course in order to be granted certification to teach in Ontario, I went into panic mode! It had been a long time since my last experiences as a student and I felt that I needed to refresh my skills. I asked for advice on the TpT forums and someone suggested I started by reading Read More