Author name: Vanessa Levin

I was at Barnes & Noble recently browsing the shelves for good read alouds for preschoolers. One of the first books I saw when I entered the children’s section was If I Were a Lion by Sarah Weeks. If you teach preschool or kindergarten or you have a child between the ages of 2-6 they

I will slowly start posting pictures from my new model classroom here. Above is the writing center, you can read detailed explanations for each item on my Writing Center page. Above you can see the Dramatic Play center, I LOVE the compact kitchen unit instead of all the big pieces. You can read more about

I just read a new book titled I Love Letters!: More Than 200 Quick & Easy Activities to Introduce Young Children to Letters and Literacy by Dr. Jean Feldman. I Love Letters!is a literacy goldmine for pre-k and kindergarten teachers! It’s chock-full of fun, simple ideas to teach literacy that you can implement in your

The following pages have been updated: Ocean: Added new ocean syllable mats and counting mats Farm: Added new Where is the Cow? positional word book Thanksgiving: Added new Where is the Turkey? positional word book I will be adding more positional word books, syllable mats, and counting mats to other pages soon.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGGbgQ7ehlw] I recently had the opportunity to listen to the new Little Songs for Language Arts CD from HeidiSongs and I was so impressed I just had to share my observations with you! What I like best about this CD is that there is a nice mix of songs that you can use throughout the

I have a long-standing love hate relationship with the Lakeshore store. If you’ve never been to Lakeshore it’s the Mecca for early childhood teachers everywhere. Their never-ending aisles of high-quality (and high-priced) toys and manipulatives draw teachers like moths to a flame. The smell of lamination in the air is like perfume to a teacher’s

There are so many ways to use Vista Print products in the classroom I don’t even know where to start. For those of you that are Vista Print newbies allow me to explain, Vista Print is a website where you can order personalized items for FREE plus the cost of shipping. I used a wide

It.s about this time each summer that you begin to smell the panic of teachers everywhere in the air. Veteran teachers don.t want to go back to school and new teachers are terrified of the unknown. Experienced teachers know what to expect and how to prepare for that dreaded first day, but in the interest

I have used many different methods of teaching letters and letter sounds over the years, some approaches have been more effective than others. Our pre-k program didn’t begin teaching letter sounds until 2002 and the state of TX didn’t even address teaching letter sounds in pre-k until just last year. When we were first told

I thought I would share with you some tips for managing your “Summer Stress”. Summer Stress is something many teachers suffer from every year around this time. Often, we find ourselves busier in the summer than we were during the school year. I know you’re thinking “how can that be possible?” but it actually makes

I started my summer “to-do” list yesterday- don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about! All teachers have a list of “school stuff” they want to accomplish during the summer. One of the items on my list was to update some info on my classroom library page. One of the reasons this topic is

I recently discovered a fabulous new place in cyberspace called Etsy (thanks Michaele!). There I discovered a new trend called “altered art”, which is basically different ways to use scrapbook paper and supplies to create unique items like clipboards, paint cans, banners etc. At first I bought a few pieces of altered art from various