Happy Mother’s Day
Growing up, we had a Monday tradition. Each Monday in elementary school, after my brother and I received our weekly homework packets, my mom would take us to Starbucks to knock out as much of the work as possible. But…
Just Right Readers Giveaway
Books for primary readers are categorized into levels of difficulty—Just Right Readers. Some of these books are categorized by grade level (GRL), some by a developmental readiness assessment (DRA), and others still are categorized by a Lexile measure. The purpose…
What is the Role of Reflective Learning?
“One of the key practical lessons of modern neuroscience is that the power to direct our attention has within it the power to shape our brain’s firing patterns, as well as the power to shape the architecture of the brain…
Goodbye April, Hello Poetry!
As April comes to a close, so does the National Month of Poetry. And I wish it weren’t so! Poetry is not extracurricular. Poetry is the key that unlocks the mystery of the English language. Deconstructing poems to shreds of…
Collective Nouns and Poetry
We are proud to announce our very first Collective Noun lesson on Print Shop. Click through to download and get the lexicon growing! Now, let’s craft a poem! First we need fodder: You might think a group of rhinos is…
Peeling a Poem: John Keats
Chances are you’ve heard of John Keats. He was a Romantic poet who wrote on the precipice between life and death. Because Keats was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the beginning of his poetic career, a career that ended with his…
“Cache” is a Mighty BIG Word
“A word that means a collection of things, like a CACHE of jewels for the crowns of kings…or a BATCH of bread all warm and brown, is always called a COLLECTIVE NOUN.” Join Ruth Heller as she guides…
The Noble Fish
Listen to Elizabeth Bishop reading her poem, “The Fish,” as you read along. Being raised by grandparents and great-grandparents, I was fortunate to spend summers at Lake Arrowhead. Before we had a boat of our own, we would rent…
The Wonder of Collective Nouns
Collective nouns name a group of people or things. Whoever came up with the concept of collective nouns had some serious fun! From an army of frogs to a zeal of zebras, these aren’t ordinary-performing nouns. For each group of…
Safety in Numbers
In the case of collective nouns, we might more aptly title this post Wonderment in Numbers! Believe it or not, collective nouns are rooted in medieval sport! It all began with the hunt, the animals encountered, and a woman named…