During February, we take time to observe Black History Month, which is an annual celebration of the achievements and contributions of African Americans throughout history. To celebrate Black History Month, there are a variety of activities that we can do in our classrooms to help students to develop greater awareness and understanding of its importance.

What role does literacy play in a social studies classroom? You might work with the same group of students all day, teaching every subject area. Or you may see different groups of students with only social studies as the focus. Reading and writing skills are present throughout the school day, and in today’s blog post, I have six creative ways to integrate literacy into your social studies lessons.

The start of a new calendar year is the perfect time to reflect and set new goals for learning and growing. Reflection and goal setting helps us better understand our specific learning needs and decide on the next steps in our learning journey.

How do your students respond to reading? We often think of show and tell as an activity when students share a favorite item with their classmates. For example, they might sit in a circle and talk about a baseball glove or postcard they brought into their classroom from home. To extend this to a reading experience, you can introduce showing and telling activities to your readers this school year.

Are you looking to save time this school year? I’m always on the lookout for high-quality, adaptable resources that can help you make the most of your planning time. Whether you are teaching in an English Language Arts classroom or looking to help students build literacy skills as part of social studies and science instruction, there are customizable teaching resources that can support this work. An Activity Bundle can save you lots of time this school year.

Because of the increasing emphasis on computer science and coding, there are more resources available to help educators create opportunities for students to learn about these topics. To support educators, the “Hour of Code” takes place during “Computer Science Education Week” which is in recognition of the birthday of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, a computing pioneer.  Check out the great resources available to students from PebbleGo!

To connect your English Language Arts goals to this time of year, you may want to try out one of these fun winter activities! Each one is adaptable to different learning environments, and you can tailor them to the needs and interests of your students. As you dive into this list, I’m sure you’ll have cross-curricular connections that address social studies and science goals, too.

Researchers and educators generally agree on the benefits of fostering intellectual curiosity, but what is less obvious is how to do this – especially within the confines of a formal school day when standards must be met and core content must be covered. To answer these questions and get insight into practical classroom-based, we sat down with veteran educator Kara Freed to get her advice and insights on this topic.

PebbleGo Next is one of the most popular research tools for 3-5 across the country, and over the years there have been tons of innovative and fun ways teachers have shared with us they've used PebbleGo Next to boost literacy and research skills with their students. Here are just 16 of the most popular ideas we've seen!