Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner Such a great book for springtime, especially if you have a nature loving learner! Read on for ideas on what this book can target: Prepositions Prepositions help us communicate location, especially when one object is being compared to another. These are words like 'on, in, under, behind, above.' Two of the most frequently used prepositions are 'up' and 'down.' To work on prepositions, try pairing each preposition with a ge

Repeat Reading is exactly what it sounds like - read the same story, on repeat. As adults, we tend to avoid repeated exposure to books, movies, games, etc. We don't want the kids to be bored after all! But what we have forgotten, is that most kids secretly love repeating a book, movie, or game. Any parent that's watched their child's favourite movie a million times can confirm - repetition isn't always boring for kids. Find books that your learner enjoys - and then read them

Neurodiversity has so quickly become a buzz word, and of course with growth like that, some of the meaning and intent had been overshadowed. Let's pull the word apart so that you can begin to understand why neurodiversity is an important topic to be talking about. 'Neuro' means brain. 'Diverse' means difference. Neurodiversity is a way of thinking about the natural variation that occurs in human brains. For so long, our Western society has characterized people who have brain

The book this week is The Bad Seed, by Jory John! I love a book with a message, and this one does not disappoint! First Person Narration This book is written as though the main character is the one who is telling the story. It's a good example of using first person narration to tell a story. Some of our learners may have trouble using pronouns like 'I, me, we, you, he, she, him, her' in a way that grammatically makes sense for their sentences. Reading books that model first p

This week's book is called This Book Just Ate My Dog! and it's by Richard Byrne. I love an interactive book! Richard Byrne is a go-to when I'm looking for a book that will draw kids in and get them involved. In This Book Just Ate My Dog!, a spunky little girl is taking her dog for a walk across the page, but the dog vanishes at the middle crease. Things keep going awry as other friends and community helpers also are unable to make it past the middle crease, and the reader is

One of my earliest reading memories is reading the book Are You My Mother? with my own personal mom. It's written and illustrated by P.D. Eastman, and it was published in 1960. It must have been a book that was passed down to us from older cousins, but gosh it was one of my favourites! If you're not familiar with the story, a little baby bird is just about to hatch when his mother goes off to find him some food. When he hatches, his mother is still away, and the little bird g

Welcome to our Book Talk series! In this series, I'll post a picture book every week and highlight some of the learning opportunities that you can leverage while reading with your learner(s). My recommendation that will always stay the same for every Book Talk is: Repeat Read!! (I put two exclamation points to show you how important this is) Please, for the love of literacy, read picture books that are engaging over and over again with your learner. This stands for at-home li

My FAVOURITE educational framework *Even though I'm writing this based on my experience of being an Alberta teacher, I think that this post will have messages that can apply universally - good learning can happen anywhere. A lot of teachers will already be familiar with UDL. This is where I want to start in the parent-education space, because it's a framework that can really facilitate learning. UDL stands for Universal Design for Learning and it is attributed to Dr. David Ro

I've been a teacher, the one who wears all of the hats, all the time. I know just how much classroom teachers give of themselves (I've got a story for this one, and it's a doozy for another time), and I also know that it will never be enough for the kids that need it the most. If your little one, or big one, has been left stuck in one of the cracks of the public education system, please know that you are not alone. I'm so glad that you're here! My hope for this blog is to cre