The Open Pencil Box » a little box of inspiration for you + them

Caring for Toddlers…the Hardest Job on Earth?

Disclaimer: don’t read unless you have a sense of humor. Old folks…baby folks. What’s the difference? Well not very much. I just had my third beautiful baby and now I’m stuck at...

Grading Writing in the Early Childhood Classroom

Grading is still a new thing I’m getting used to as a teacher. In preschool and kinder everything as evaluated based on observational measures and checklists. As a kindergarten...

What I learned (and lost) moving up grade levels

I was very lucky and blessed to work full time as a teacher assistant at Head Start in college. I took night classes in Early Childhood Education while I got to work during the...

Teaching Early Childhood Students to Edit their Writing

I can’t even take credit for this idea. I’m not sure where I found it at or how I came up with it but I’ve been teaching editing this way for the last two years of second grade....

Sneaking MORE writing into your day

SONY DSC I would definitely say that writing is my weakest link as a teacher. It wasn’t always this way though. When I taught kindergarten I did writer’s workshop and LOVED to...

Homework in the Early Childhood Classroom

Since the beginning of my teaching career, homework has been something that I find myself haggling with every year. How much do I give? At the early childhood level what kind of...