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See Quick Wins with Handwriting Practice

Teaching WritingBy Hannah BlakesleeJuly 27, 2025Leave a comment

Achieve writing fluency by practicing the handwriting skills unique to 3rd, 4th, and 5th-graders.   Handwriting Practice for Bigger Kids Handwriting is a kindergarten and 1st-grade skill, right? When we teach a skill like division, we know it’s not a once-and-done kind of thing. Over the following years, kids will see division come up in…

The Simple Solution for Kids that Have “Nothing to Write About”

Teaching WritingBy Hannah BlakesleeJanuary 15, 2021

Inside: Use this writing teaching strategy to get kids thinking of topics quickly and easily so they can get on with their work. This post contains affiliate links. Y ou give your writing lesson. Everyone has their materials. The hard work on your part is done and now it’s time for the kids to give…

How to Improve Spelling With Simple Word Sort Activities

Spelling, Teaching WritingBy Hannah BlakesleeAugust 7, 2020

Inside: My 10 favorite word sort activities. Use these in your classroom or for distance learning to build up spelling and phonics skills.   O n Thursday nights when I was in 2nd grade, my mom turned into a spelling cheerleader.   “B clap, U-R clap, R-I clap -E-D!” she’d chant. It wasn’t that my…

Teach poetry writing to kids in elementary schools with these four easy skills #poetry #literacy #teachingwriting #2ndgrade #3rdgrade

Get Outstanding Poetry from Kids With 4 Simple Skills

Genres, Teaching WritingBy Hannah BlakesleeApril 4, 2017

Inside: Use poetic devices to teach poetry writing lessons that will get your elementary students writing poetry in no time. There’s a little-known secret about teaching poetry writing that will blow your mind. I’m sure you’ve got a few kids in your class that would rather drop their pencil on the floor forty times in…

Use this free song and video to teach your students verbs

A Fun Song for Teaching Your Students Verbs

Grammar, Teaching WritingBy Hannah BlakesleeOctober 2, 2016

  I’ve got a new parts of speech video to share with you today and this time it’s about verbs! I love to practice songs like this one and my noun song during those extra two to five minute chunks of time that pop up now and then.        Help your students remember…

Use this free song and video to teach students about nouns, great for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade!

A Fun Song to Teach Your Students Nouns

Grammar, Teaching WritingBy Hannah BlakesleeSeptember 5, 20162 Comments

Kids love music and it’s so helpful for memorization! I’ve written before about using music for learning parts of speech here and here. I’ve had a few people say that they wish they could hear the songs instead of just seeing them on a chart. I’ve been getting my feet wet with video lately and…

Research About Spelling for More Effective Instruction

Spelling, Teaching 101, Teaching WritingBy Hannah BlakesleeMay 1, 20167 Comments

Research about and best practices for teaching spelling in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade classroom.   Do you ever feel like your teacher prep program left you with some major gaps? Like, how the heck do you really teach spelling? We’re probably all familiar with the technique of assigning lists and testing at the…

4 Amazing Opinion Writing Ideas to Try Now for elementary teachers

Get Students Excited about Opinion Writing with these 4 Ideas

Genres, Teaching WritingBy Hannah BlakesleeApril 1, 2016

In my first year of teaching I was expected to use a writer’s workshop model where students almost always chose their own writing topics. This was before the Common Core standards and my district wasn’t very concerned about what genres students wrote in, as long as they wrote. I could definitely tell you that in my…

Ugly Christmas Sweater Contractions FREEBIE

Grammar, Teaching WritingBy Hannah BlakesleeDecember 13, 2015

With winter break quickly approaching, if you can keep your class from turning into all out chaos, you’re doing good.  If you actually work in some academic content…well, you deserve something special from Santa ; )  I’ve got an ugly Christmas sweater contractions freebie to help you out.  Students take words from two balls of…

Find out how to teach writing to students without working so hard! Ideas, activities, and strategies for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade teachers. #teachingwriting #1stgrade #2ndgrade #3rdgrade #writing

8 Smart Strategies for Teaching Writing

Teaching 101, Teaching WritingBy Hannah BlakesleeAugust 31, 20151 Comment

Inside: Teaching writing DOESN’T have to be complicated! With these simple strategies, you can improve students’ writing without having to work so hard.   M rs. Braun? I turned around to an outstretched notebook in a kid’s hands. “I don’t know what to do next,” said the student.   I leaned closer to decipher the…

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