About Squarehead Teachers

Well, I’m a travel loving, cookie eating, bright color obsessed teacher who just can’t get enough of blogging or Photoshop. I’ve taught various grades from Kindergarten to Undergraduate courses in both in the United States and in China, teaching everything from dance and PE to English and math. I come from a family of educators, and believe that all teachers (public, private, charter and home school) are grossly under appreciated and deserve a little extra help. I started my Squarehead Teachers blog in August 2012 with the hope that I can be that extra little help that makes teachers feel a little more loved!

Name Reading Groups to Teach Extra Stuff!

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

When I first started teaching, I didn’t know what to call each reading group. Although students are grouped by reading level, you can’t name them with numbers or letters (or anything that indicates one’s higher or lower than another, even though students will figure it out eventually). So I chose animals our school had die-cuts for. But I wish I had heard of this idea before I named the groups!

One Arizona teacher names her groups after the various desert cactus plants in her region. She teaches the kids how to pronounce them and has a picture on the wall next to the name, so the kids will become more educated about their region! So smart!! Here are her posters of the cactus reading group pictures. This is a great way to sneak a little extra learning into your classroom.

Grammar Dictation Sheet (Spelling)

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

One of my teacher friends recently told me that their district just changed their policies to outlaw traditional spelling tests. Instead they do “dictation” with a small set of spelling words (8-10 for second grade). The set of words all focus on specific sounds. For example, they might choose “kn” or “sh” or “eigh” that week. Every day the teacher hands out a sheet (similar to the one below) and says the sounds and the students have to write the sound. Then the teacher says a sentence that includes one or more of the words for the week and the kids have to write it. The sentences are the same on Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday. Then on Friday, the teacher chooses one sentence from Monday and one sentence from Tuesday. It’ll be interesting to see how much better/worse the students are at spelling because of this new system.

Grammar dictation sheet (16 lines)- PDF

Dictation sheet PDF- 10 lines

Grammatical Poetry – Fall

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I fell in love with the idea of grammatical poetry when I saw it. It turns out fun and silly poem and gives kids a painless, quick review of grammar! Here’s a free printable template for fall grammatical poetry. Click here for the Grammatical Poetry- fall. Enjoy!

Great Anchor Charts

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Anchor charts are a staple in any elementary school classroom. Here are some truly inspired ones:

Group work expectations anchor chart

Ways to compare fractions anchor chart

Quadrilaterals anchor chart

Fall Crafts for Kids

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Here’s a collection of some of my favorite fall crafts for kids. These would be great to do with your class or your kids at home. Happy fall!

Directions for Paper Roll Pumpkins

Directions for Hand Print Owls

Directions for Leaf People

Directions for Puzzle Leaves Tree

Great Language Arts Ideas

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I never get tired of Pinterest. There are so many great ideas, and it’s just fun! Here are some of my favorite finds as of late…

Use clips to connect the letter cards to make words. Also helps develop fine motor skills… and it’s just a fun way to activity to use with spelling words! (source)

Make a salt tray and grab some alphabet cards. Easy to make and kids have fun smoothing out the salt after correctly making the letter. (source)

Craft a kite that displays contractions! Super simple, and it would make a great classroom bulletin board! (source). Click here for more activities using contractions.

Converting Metrics (Review Video)

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Converting within the metric system (from km to mm, for example) is easy, but sometimes it’s still nice to review… since it’s been forever since you had to (America doesn’t use the Metric system very often)! This short video should help refresh your memory!

Awesome Classroom Ideas!

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Here are some more of the coolest elementary education ideas I’ve seen so far lately. Enjoy!

Work boxes for each student. When they finish their work they can go to their work box and pull out things to work on that the teacher has placed in there. Lets the teacher assign different things for the student/if they need extra practice in an area–DIFFERENTIATION! This makes a great fast finisher system too. Click here for more fast finisher ideas.

Here’s an easy way to do number of the day. If you’d like a number of the day program that gets increasingly more difficult and is aligned with the common core, click here. (source)

Help students focus more by covering sections of the page with a cut file folder. This would be a great way to help students who get distracted easily or have a hard time completing work. After they finish a section, they can stand up, walk around the room once, etc. (source)