Andrea Knight

Teacher · Learner · Author

Chrysanthemum Activities for the First Day of School and Beyond

We read this sweet book by Kevin Henkes at the beginning of every school year, but these Chrysanthemum activities work well beyond the first day of school. If the story is new to you, it's about a little girl (mouse) with an unusually long name... Chrysanthemum. It doesn't bother her one bit though. She loves her name and thinks it's absolutely perfect. That is, until the first day of … [Read more...]

Fun Activities for Teaching Prepositions

Teaching prepositions and positional words is fun when you use games and other engaging activities. Little ones will eventually put pencil to paper, but let's begin with some out-of-your-seat fun first! From Simon Says to a fun twist on musical chairs, these ideas will really get the ball rolling. First though, let's grab a quick library of books about prepositions. These can be used at any … [Read more...]

Grammar Activities for Learning Parts of Speech

Finding grammar activities that are fun and engaging is important. Why? Because I have friends (grown adults, mind you) who still crab about the time they had to learn the parts of speech and then diagram sentences. I mean these are people who are decades out of school, yet they continue to remember those experiences negatively. And, kind of like I used to say after geometry class, they wail, "Why … [Read more...]

Female Inventors Who Changed Our Lives

Three cheers for female inventors! Although they haven't always received the recognition they deserve, female inventors have had a significant impact on our lives. Many of their inventions are still part of our world today. I mean, come on. Can we hear it for Ruth Wakefield and the deliciousness she brought to our lives with the chocolate chip cookie? Thank you Ruth. From Josephine … [Read more...]

Teaching Basic Economics in First Grade

When I first learned I would be teaching basic economics to a room full of six-year-olds, I raised an eyebrow. These seemed like concepts only college kids studied before they embarked on careers in finance and marketing. "My kids are first graders," I said. "They're still arguing over who gets to use the swings during recess today." Turns out, they weren't really arguing. They were actually … [Read more...]