Free Christmas Writing Prompts for Kids in Kindergarten

Download free Christmas writing prompts for kids in kindergarten and first grade. Encourage your students to write with these Christmas themed vocabulary cards and make story-writing fun and engaging this festive season.

Explicit Teaching, InvestigationsJanelle McArdle20 November 2023Christmas, writing prompts, kindergarten writing, first grade, grade one Comment

9 Christmas Games for the Classroom - fun and easy

Check out these easy prep Christmas games for the classroom and celebrate the holiday season with your students. You will love these fun and easy prep Christmas games. They are perfect for younger kids in preschool, kindergarten and first grade.

Explicit TeachingJanelle McArdle13 November 2023Christmas, kindergarten, preschool, grade one, first grade, gamesComment

Jumbled Up Sentences - An Easy Way to Help Beginning Writers

Discover how jumbled up sentences can enhance literacy instruction in kindergarten or grade one classrooms. This evidence-based activity boosts sentence structure and enriches writing skills in a fun and productive way!

Explicit TeachingJanelle McArdle23 October 2023jumbled up sentences, beginning writers, early literacy, reading, writing, kindergarten, grade 1, first gradeComment

Free Halloween Writing Prompts for Kindergarten

Get your students excited about writing this Halloween with my Free Halloween Writing Prompts for Kindergarten and grade one. Quick, easy prep and educational too!

Explicit Teaching, InvestigationsJanelle McArdle13 October 2023kindergarten writing, halloween, writing prompts, grade one, first grade, prep, foundation stageComment

Investigation Area Ideas for the Start of School

Are you looking for some simple yet highly engaging investigation areas and learning invitations to start the school year? In this blog post, you’ll discover a heap of Investigation area ideas for the start of school. These tried and tested learning invitations are my go-to setups year after year, so you’ll be sure to find some that you can use in your classroom too.

Investigations, Classroom EnvironmentJanelle McArdle15 January 2023investigations, investigative play, learning invitation, kindergarten, first grade, grade one, starting school, foundation stage, back to school, play based classroom, play based learning, classroom setup, investigation areaComment

The Orientation Schema

In this blog post, you will learn all about the orientation schema and why it needs to be supported in your classroom. You’ll also discover several hands-on playful activities that will help you to support this interesting play schema.

InvestigationsJanelle McArdle16 November 2022play schema, orientation schema, kindergarten, prep, preschool, first grade, grade 1, early years, early childhood, child development, play based learning, play based classroom, play based Comment

How to Write Open Ended Math Questions

If you are wondering how to write open-ended math questions so you can improve your math instruction, this blog post is for you. Discover everything you need to know before you even start writing and then follow my 3 easy steps on how to write the best open-ended math problems.

Explicit TeachingJanelle McArdle31 October 2022maths, open ended, open-ended math questions, open ended questions, kindergarten, grade 1, first grade, early years math, teaching math, math problems, problem solving, teachingComment

The Connecting Schema

The connecting schema is all about how things connect and separate. If you have children in your classroom tying things together, fascinated with tape or building and knocking over towers of blocks, you have children developing their connection schema. This blog post will explain exactly what this play schema is and give you a heap of playful hands-on activities to support it.

InvestigationsJanelle McArdle21 September 2022play schema, play based classroom, connection schema, connecting schema, developmental play, play based learning, kindergarten, preschool, grade one, first grade, child development, early childhoodComment

Science Provocations – Properties of Materials

Teaching the early years chemistry strand and looking for some engaging and educational science provocations? This blog post has 5 hands-on learning invitations to help you teach about Materials and their Properties. There are also tips and ideas to help you set up your very own purposeful early childhood science learning provocations.

Easter Writing Prompts

Grab yourself some fun Easter writing prompts and a heap of Easter writing activities and ideas in this blog post. You will be able to keep your students engaged and writing all the way up until the Easter break.

Explicit Teaching, InvestigationsJanelle McArdle22 March 2022writing, easter, kindergarten, grade 1, first grade, literacy, investigations, early years, primary school, elementary, writing promptsComment

Classroom Mindful Monday

Mindful Monday is a great way to start the school week. If you are looking for a way to bring some mindfulness into your classroom, you are going to love this Mindful Monday activity.

Social and EmotionalJanelle McArdle7 March 2022social and emotional, mindfulness, social skills, mindful classroom, mindful kids, kindergarten, prep, preschool, early childhood, classroom, grade 1, grade one, first gradeComment

Reggio Math Provocations

Discover what Reggio math provocations are and how to plan and set up inviting Reggio inspired math provocations in your kindergarten or preschool classroom. You will have your children engaged with hands-on learning in no time.

Investigations, Classroom EnvironmentJanelle McArdle4 October 2021maths, reggio inspired, reggio, math provocations, reggio math, kindergarten, preschool, first grade, grade 1, hands-on learning, play based learning, playbased, loose parts Comment

Environment as the Third Teacher

Are you interested in transforming your learning environment into the third teacher? Read this blog post for tips and ideas on how you can get the third teacher working for you.

Blog - Life in a Play Based Classroom

I’m Janelle and I’m here to help you implement an engaging, play based curriculum

that STILL has your children meeting academic standards and benchmarks!