Jennifer Van Blair is a current third grade teacher. She has taught 3 - 5 grade for 13 years, and has experience with combination based classrooms. She has a Master's in Educational Leadership and a background in natural sciences and outdoor education.
Classroom transformations make learning engaging and memorable. Get your students excited about math with the Gingerbread Fixer Upper budgeting activity. Select your grade level and give your students a project based learning experience. Can they stay within budget and use their addition, subtraction, and multiplication skills to transform the Gingy's home into the gingerbread house of their dreams? The classroom transformation kit includes table numbers, tickets, and everything you need to make
Do you use the depth and complexity icons in your teaching? Are you looking for a quick and easy way to make frames for ANY content? This EDITABLE frame with icons allows you to take any lesson and increase the rigor through the depth and complexity icons. Included is: - Editable frame - Resizeable depth and complexity icons - Directions This product allows you to make your own frames to fit your personal classroom needs, or frames for purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers when credit is given. At
Nothing gets my students more excited about writing than a writing project. Your students will love creating the main character of their Thanksgiving narrative, and writing a story that includes rising action, and a character that finds acceptance among ALL the other "normal" turkeys on the farm. The task:It's nearing Thanksgiving and all the turkeys on the farm are unwittingly stuffing their faces and getting fat. The farmer couldn't be happier. But wait, there is hope. One turkey on the farm i
This bundle includes the Thanksgiving Narrative writing as well as the Editable Thanksgiving Turkey Math Practice. Bring in holiday fun to writing and math practice this November. The Turkey Narrative has a been a real winner in my classroom. Students develop a plot and character through this multi-day writing activity. Extend the turkey festivities into other areas such as math with the editable turkey craftivity. You decide the content and students will practice skills while putting togethe
This beginner Scratch guide will lead your students through planning and coding any explanation through Scratch. Perfect for small group instruction, centers, or whole group instruction, the individual student cards are designed to be used by students and walk them through the process of choosing a setting, sprite, and coding dialogue to explain a concept. Whether you're learning math, social studies, science, or even retelling a story, your students can use coding skills which is extremely eng
Deciding which operation to use in a word problem can be a challenge. It's not just about tuning into KEY words, but also being able to understand the context of the problem. In this editable activity, you and your students can examine math operation words that YOU are encountering in your learning. Whereas this master was made for fifth grade with fraction problems in mind, it works for any grade level. Just edit it to meet your needs. Included is: -Editable student direction slide. -Editable
Are you using STEM in your classroom? Do have some amazing ideas, but want your students to focus on the engineering and design process while doing so? These STEM Think Sheets follow the engineering and design process and walk your students through a more reflective process while they are doing STEM activities in class. There are three versions (without lines, with lines, with smaller lines) that can be used for ANY STEM activity in your classroom. Help your students think like engineers as they
This menu offers a non-traditional approach to book reports that uses the multiple intelligences learning profiles as a basis for activities. Not only do I offer a sample menu, but a frame to guide you in making your own tailored to the learning styles and interests, as well as grade level, of your class.
Wanting to increase math discussion in your classroom? Whether working in whole group, small group, or individually, asking challenging questions that encourage our students to struggle and explain their thinking will improve their math reasoning skills and competency in math discourse. These 28 cards can be used as you facilitate discussion, either from you or by distributing the cards to students so they can ask questions of their peers about their work. You can also hand them out to small gr
Wanting to use Scratch with your students but not sure where to start. This FREE beginners guide includes step by step directions for creating a FREE student account, as well as student login cards to keep track of student created user names and passwords. More will be coming, so FOLLOW me by clicking the star underneath my store name to be kept in the loop of new ideas, products and MORE! Don't forget to rate this free product! If you like this, you might also like: STEM Think Sheets
Jennifer Van Blair is a current third grade teacher. She has taught 3 - 5 grade for 13 years, and has experience with combination based classrooms. She has a Master's in Educational Leadership and a background in natural sciences and outdoor education.
Teaching style
She enjoys using hands-on learning with regular use of manipulatives, visual learning, models, and student-led exploration. She is inspired by the work of Peter Liljedahl, Jo Boaler, and Carol Dweck.
Awards & shining teacher moments
Contributor to Byrdseed TV creating lessons for GATE classrooms.
My own education history
UC Santa Cruz - Environmental Science and Education
San Jose State - Elementary Education Credential
Upper Iowa University - Masters in Teacher Leadership