Free Games: Squares!

Free Squares Games for Kids

Inside: Free strategy game called Squares. My grandson and I have been playing this fun game called “Squares”. He’s almost 6-years-old and he absolutely adores this game. In the last three days we’ve played it at least 8 times! The game requires a little bit of strategy and lots of attention to detail, but it’s still simple enough for a … Read more

Silly Doggy Book Review

Inside: Book review of Silly Doggy Hi Friends! I have a very sweet book to share with you today plus, as usual, some ideas to go along with it. Title: Silly Doggy! Author / Illustrator: Adam Stower Publisher: Orchard Books, 2011 Intended Audience: 3 – 8 years Opening Lines: One morning, Lily saw something wonderful in her garden. It was … Read more

My Absolute Favourite Back-to-School Books

Back to School books for first grade

Inside: A collection of Grade 1 back-to-school books. It’s back to school time again! Actually, here in B.C. we have another month to go, but I know in many parts of the States school has already started up again for the year or will be soon. Here are the books I read to my classes over the years to help … Read more

Feelings Are Important: The Color Monster Book Review and Activities

The Color Monster book review and activities

Inside: Helping your children explore their feelings with a wonderful book and follow-up activities. My daughter-in-law purchased a book I immediately fell in love with and just HAD to share! It’s called The Color Monster: A Pop-Up Book of Feelings by Anna Llenas. It’s important for children to learn to identify and express a wide range of feelings, while also … Read more

Expectancy Effect: Free Poster

Inside: A teacher’s attitude and expectations affect student performance. You’ve probably heard it said many times throughout your teaching career to have high expectations for ALL your students. But you might be asking yourself why, what’s the point, when all the facts, data and history around certain children say otherwise. Here’s why. It’s something called the EXPECTANCY EFFECT. Years ago, … Read more

Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox: Book Review

Inside: Book review of Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox and lots of book-related activities. My daughter-in-law purchased this beautiful book for our five-year-old grandson. I read it to him yesterday and was completely enchanted with it. I hope you love it as much as I do. Title: Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox Author-Illustrator: Danielle Daniel Publishing: Groundwood Books, … Read more

Swirl By Swirl Book Review and Snail Art

Inside: Swirl by Swirl book review and related activities. I had the most fabulous time yesterday teaching in my friend’s class of Grade 1/2 students. Yes! Even though I’m officially retired, I decided to go on our substitute teacher list. I NEVER thought I’d do that but I miss teaching so much I couldn’t NOT do it. Besides, there’s a … Read more

The Wild Robot Escapes: Book Review

Hello! I just finished reading The Wild Robot Escapes, the sequel to The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. If you haven’t read these books you must must MUST get them as a read-aloud for your primary class OR for a fluent young reader. You can read my review of The Wild Robot here.  I have some suggestions and links for … Read more

Beautiful Bundle of Watercolor Social Media Icons

Hello! I’ve been busy painting and creating a big set of social icons. I used my watercolors to paint 8 different round backgrounds for the icons. I wanted to paint a rainbow-hued collection. So here they are! Click the image above to see the icons in my shop. If you were to buy each of the individual sets separately at … Read more