Be sure to enter for a chance to win some prizes in this Easter Raffle!

Prizes
First Place: $50 TPT Gift Card
Second Place: Mystery Custom Pack of 15
Third Place: Mystery Custom Pack of 10

To Enter:
1. Comment with what is your favorite Easter activity (I like baking and decorating Easter themed cookies with my kids.)
2. Click on the King Sumo link widget above to enter your email and earn extra entry points. Be sure to confirm your email address with this. 

Winners will be selected at random using King Sumo.

​Increase your chance of winning by completing the actions within the King Sumo entries.
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Good luck and Happy Easter!

While I love seeing the kids excited for Easter it can be a stressful time to get them to focus on their learning. How can you compete with all the excitement the Easter rush brings?  Well if you can’t beat it, join it!

There are LOADS of low-cost Easter props that can make great facilitators for learning and transforming the classroom.
 
Why not take your math class out of the classroom and turn the ‘Case of the Egg Thief’ into an Easter Egg Hunt. All the props used in this post were sourced from K-Mart or the Dollar Shop.

Add some Easter check points for each of the five clues and scatter some egg wrappings to set the scene. Students collect a clue worksheet at each checkpoint to complete. They can only move to the next clue checkpoint after showing that they have discovered the clue from that worksheet. 

P.S: Someone’s got to create that wrapper trail. Let’s face it, we all know who the real Egg Thief is! 
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Sometimes students need to be reminded that the answer to a problem isn't going to magically appear. They must work for it. Just because something is difficult to grasp doesn't mean it is impossible to understand! This is something I not only need to consistently reinforce with students, but with myself and my own learning. 
This week I have collected eight educational quotes to hang in the classroom that will motivate any struggling or unmotivated students! 

​Brain breaks are such an excellent way to get restless students out of their seats and moving!  I’ve found that brain breaks do wonders for refocusing my students’ attention and helps get them ready to begin a new lesson. Keeping brain breaks thematic makes it even more fun for everyone. Below I have collected my top five Easter brain break videos that  will get the students hopping with excitement this Spring! Simply play these videos on your Smart Board and press play! I hope this gets the students in the Easter spirit! 

With all the chocolate eggs and bunnies at the supermarkets, how can you forget that Easter is just around the corner?

​Thanks to my teachers I will always have fond memories of the magic and wonder they put in the lessons building up to Easter. The moment the teacher would start talking about the Easter holiday, every child’s face would light up. That is why I have eight ‘egg-cellent’ Easter Activities to check out that will liven the classroom atmosphere this year! 
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The original Once Upon a Crime Reading Mystery Series follow a 'crack the code' format to reveal the clue. This has worked well for many students in many different classrooms. However, since no student or class is the same, recently I decided to develop a new structure that will give teachers the option to change the way these reading mysteries are delivered to best suit their students.  In this post, I will explain this new
​'B-Edition' structure and the new addition of word banks added to the original Once Upon a Crime Reading Packets.