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<p>Welcome to March.  I am so happy that Spring will be here soon. Scroll down to see my latest creation or click on my blog header and check out my full blog.   I know that some of you have just finished your break, but my March Break starts in 2 weeks! And right now, life at &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/one-leprechaun-went-out-to-play/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about My Latest Creation&#8230;</span></a></p>

<p>I really enjoyed this simple art project.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The original idea comes from Gail Bartel. You may know her as &#8216;That Artist Woman&#8217;.&nbsp; Hop on over and check out her fabulous blog and her step-by-step instructions on how to make these cute families. &nbsp; I used some grey card stock that I had lying around.&nbsp; I &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/snowmen-families/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">a

<p>Well if you&#8217;re like me, today is your last teaching day of 2012. I thought I&#8217;d post up some art from the hallways of my school. I found these amazing, patterned Santas in front of the Grade 6 classroom, and knew I needed to share them.&nbsp; Enjoy! &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; Here&#8217;s a super easy and really effective Christmas wreath. You will need green construction paper&nbsp;in a variety of green colours. You can die cut them in leaf shapes like I did, but if you don&#8217;t have access to a die cutter, you can use leaf tracers, or punches, whatever you have around. Sometimes &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/quick-and-easy-wreath/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about Quick and

<p>As I said yesterday&#8230;</p>

<p>I am so sad . . . I try to be so upbeat in my daily life, especially around my class and my own children.  (That&#8217;s a photo of my daughter above).  Twenty years ago, I was a student teacher who was desperately trying to establish control over an unruly class, and failing miserably, and &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/i-am-so-sad/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about I am so sad&#8230;</span></a></p>

<p> I&#8217;m super excited to share this new creation of mine with you.  It&#8217;s my approach to differentiated learning. This is a letter to Santa activity which is good for children of many levels of development from K to 2.  I&#8217;ve broken it up into 3 levels.  The beginning level is good for Kindergarten, Level 2 &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/post-card-from-santa-freebie/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about Post Card

<p>&nbsp; Well December is almost here.&nbsp; It&#8217;s time to start the Christmas Art. I don&#8217;t ususally teach anything religious for Christmas, but these angels are really easy and effective. &nbsp; Where I work, there are a number of christians, but there are also a lot of children whose families practice other religions.&nbsp; I feel, that &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/christmas-angels/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">

<p>Here&#8217;s a cute Art / Language Arts project for Fall that we did last week. I need to apologize again for the terrible photos, please bear with me. This is how we made the painting. First we painted the background.  We used pucks of tempera paint.  I showed the children how to mix blue and &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/fall-leaves-art-and-poem/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about Fall Leaves Art and Poem</span></a></p>

<p>Currently going insane???? I need to vent a bit &#8211; but I&#8217;ll wait to the end of this post. Yesterday my son wasn&#8217;t feeling well, so I took a sick day and stayed home with him, and actually he&#8217;s not feeling bad today so we&#8217;ve had a great day together. We enjoyed singing to the ipod.  &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/currently-october/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about Currently October</span></a></

<p>Well, this weekend is Thanksgiving here in Canada. If you want to prep for your own Thanksgiving Study, this is the packet for you. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; This unit is ideal for a Grade One of Two class. This unit plan includes two big books, a shape book, a pattern book, and a finger &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/thanksgiving-fun/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about Thanksgiving Fun!!!</span></a></p>

<p>&nbsp;Wow &#8211; I can&#8217;t believe that September is almost over.&nbsp; It&#8217;s been one of the craziest September&#8217;s ever. With my youngest starting Kindergarten, and one of the most challenging classes I&#8217;ve taught in 20 years, I&#8217;m constantly exhausted, and ready for a nap. But this week I felt like there might be light at the &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/fall-tree-silhouettes/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-rea

<p>It&#8217;s been a crazy couple of weeks.  My poor blogs are both getting very neglected.     But I&#8217;ll be home in another week&#8230; Guess who refused to sleep on the plane over? Connor called it the Night Flier. Two cuties on a bridge. Where the roads are made of water&#8230; After climbing ALL those steps &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/where-ive-been-2/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about Where I&#8217;ve Been&#8230;

<p>Anyway, before I get to the pictures, I need to vent. I mean, REALLY REALLY VENT. I&#8217;ve been teaching for 21 years. I&#8217;m no novice at this game. BUT&#8230; This year, it&#8217;s been CRAZY! Now, I know that once in a while, you get a group of kids that have their extra &#8220;challenges&#8221;. But this year, &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/wow-its-been-quite-week/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about WOW &#8211; it&

<p>I made these cute Easter Baskets with my class last week. They were absolutely easy to make.&nbsp; Of course the kiddos needed a bit of help, especially with the stapler.&nbsp; But overall, the activity was unexpectedly simple.&nbsp; This is the template I used to create the baskets.&nbsp; The only difference is that I did not &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/easter-baskets/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about Easter Baskets</

<p>Aren&#8217;t these dolls adorable???&nbsp; I found the instructions for this cute little art activity over at Deep Space Sparkle.&nbsp; Click Here to go over and check them out.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It&#8217;s a great lesson for teaching line and pattern in art. I admit that it took almost a week of lessons for us to complete these.&nbsp; And &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/matryoshka-doll-art-lesson/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text

<p>Scroll down for the freebie, but if you&#8217;re interested, here&#8217;s a little update on our trip to California. We&#8217;re back from our vacation.&nbsp; I was a crazy lady and decided to travel to California with my 2 kids WITHOUT my hubby.&nbsp; My parents are down in Palm Springs for the winter, and usually we fly &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/freebie-friday/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about Driving With Small Ch

<p>As I prepare myself to walk the picket line today, as teachers in British Columbia walk off the job to protest legistlation which will dramatically damage the school system, I was thinking about why Teachers are so undervalued.&nbsp; Why do we teach if we get no respect?&nbsp; Here&#8217;s a little video to give you a &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/why-teach-if-you-get-no-respect/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about Why Teac

<p>Wow, I need to get back into regular posting.&nbsp; I have so many ideas and photos from the past few months that I really want to share with you.&nbsp; Sometimes life can be really crazy though. warning &#8211; scroll down if you want to avoid the complaining and get to the teaching stuff&nbsp; 🙂 I &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/wow-am-i-behind-or-what/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about Flood Update, Family Messes and a

<p>Well I have a little SNEAK PEEK for all of you today.&nbsp; I am being featured by Gladys over at Teaching in High Heels.&nbsp; So I thought I would let you in on a project I have coming soon.. I have been working for months on the blackline masters for a unit I developed on &#8230; <a href="https://savvyteachingtips.net/simple-story-writing-sneak-peek/" class="more-link">Read More <span class="screen-reader-text">about Simple Story Writing &#8211; a sneak peek!!</span></