Last year, before the end of the school year, I saw a picture of someone’s classroom on Instagram and I immediately wanted to steal the idea: the entire classroom was turned into a camping site with lots and lots of colorful tents, much like the ones above! It was genius: cheap plastic tablecloths draped over […]
Author: Diana T. Sylvander
Super Mario To The Rescue!
March 10th is Super Mario Day, for the only reason that when you spell MARIO it really looks like MAR 10, as in March 10th. It was a lucky coincidence that I decided to go with a Super Mario room transformation for a school wide event that happened to be planned exactly on March 10th. […]
Valentine’s Day With A Twist
Teachers don’t necessarily think of themselves as creative and I am one of those! However, I keep telling myself that there’s no need to feel like I have to be a Picasso or a Mozart to come up with a creative lesson. Creativity comes in many shapes and forms. For example, I am really good […]
Hogwarts Day
I never got a chance to write about that very special day in November when the entire school turned into Harry Potter land for a day! It was a magical adventure that the entire school embarked on. Teachers, parent volunteers, principal, secretaries, custodians, and last, but not least, students, came together to celebrate each other […]
Can We Retrieve The Kragel?
October was Master Builders’ time to shine! Legos are a favorite of many students and so is The Lego Movie. Therefor, it was relatively easy to come up with the plot for this activity. As always, a letter went home to the parents and an invitation was given to the students the day before, to […]
Rock Your School Day 2020
This special day in September came during difficult times marked by restrictions of all sorts in the classrooms around the world. With so many negative messages that I convey throughout each school day, from Don’t touch! to Don’t share! and Don’t stand too close!, it was clear that I needed to do something fun for […]
Turn Taking Skills in Play
Taking turns can be difficult for young children and extremely difficult for children with special needs. There are a lot of instances in which children need to wait for their turn, whether it is in a conversation, in playing a game, or when requesting someone’s attention. Turn taking is one of the most important social […]
#BLM
Never, in a million years, could have I imagined that I would cry while writing a social story! And yet it happened this week… In the light of the recent events, I’ve been having a lot of conversations with my kids about what is happening around us, and we’ve been commenting on the images that […]
May Titles
I am not sure exactly where May went, but I know it was gone in a blink of an eye! It was a very emotional month as I said good-bye for the summer to my students without being able to send them off with a big, strong hug for the first time ever! Adjusting to […]
April Titles
Enjoy a wide variety of New Releases April was a very busy month! Remote learning forced me to create new visuals for my students, polish old ones, and also to be very intentional in how I organize my time spent in front of a screen. However, being forced to be on my computer more so […]