Explore, Laugh and Learn

🍎 Back to School Made Simple: The First Four Weeks Bundle
Stop planning. Start connecting!

The first weeks of school set the tone for everything that follows, and they're also the most overwhelming to plan. The First Four Weeks is a complete back-to-school bundle of print-and-go activities that helps you welcome your students, establish classroom routines, and build a genuine classroom community from day one.
No more late-night scrolling for first-week-of-school activities. Everything is sequenced, planned, and ready.

📅 What's Inside Week by Week
Every resource is laid out on a visual monthly planner showing the suggested teaching sequence, so you always know what comes next.
✅ Week 1: Welcome Back!: First day of school activities and getting-to-know-you routines
✅ Week 2: All About My Name: Name recognition, literacy, and identity
✅ Week 3: What I Like About Me: Self-esteem and social-emotional learning
✅ Week 4: The Colours of Us: Diversity, belonging, and inclusion
✨ Every Week Includes
📊 Ready-to-teach slides with suggested activities
🗓️ A daily planner to keep you on track
✂️ Differentiated templates: cut, paste, colour, and write options for every learner
📚 Back-to-school social stories to support students transitioning into a new school, new classroom, or new routines

💛 Perfect For
Kindergarten, Primary, and Junior classrooms • First-year teachers • Supply and LTO teachers • Special education and inclusive classrooms • ESL and newcomer students • Anyone who wants their first month planned and ready!!!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Such a vast amount of resources to help you through the first few weeks of school. It was useful knowing I had these resources for my first year of teaching." — Ashley G.

🎒 Four weeks. Zero guesswork. One bundle.
Grab The First Four Weeks and walk into September calm, prepared, and ready to build the classroom community you want all year.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/explore-laugh-and-learn

The Classroom Supplies and Materials BUNDLE includes all the visual instructions you need to explain the responsible use of classroom resources, demonstrate expectations, help students to develop skills, and build a growth mindset.

Providing the students with specific guidelines about using the materials (not too little, not too much, just right!) and manipulatives (tools, not toys) is an effective classroom management strategy.

The lessons, social stories, visuals, schedules, and activities will promote ownership and responsibility.

This BUNDLE includes:
✏️ Math Tools vs. Toys
✏️ Glitter and Glue: A Social Story About Classroom Materials
✏️ Visual Instructions For Writing And Math Activities
✏️ Practice Makes Better (Social Story)
✏️ Oops! I Made a Mistake (Social Story)
✏️ BONUS! Classroom Schedule

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Classroom-Materials-BTS-BUNDLE-Visuals-Socials-stories-And-Activities-11799262

The First Four Weeks is a collection of carefully selected resources designed to help you welcome your students, set clear expectations, and build a strong sense of classroom community. LINK IN BIO!!

From engaging activities to thoughtful routines, this bundle takes the guesswork out of those crucial first weeks—so you can focus on connecting with your students and setting the tone for a great year.
These resources are organized week by week on a visual monthly planner to show the suggested sequence.

✅Week 1: Welcome back!
✅Week 2: All About My Name
✅Week 3: What I Like About Me
✅Week 4: The Colours Of Us

Each week includes its own set of slides with suggested activities, a daily planner, and differentiated templates (cut, paste, colour, and write).

This resource also includes a collection of social stories to facilitate the transition into a new school year!

JUST UPDATED!!! The Social-Emotional Learning package is a growing BUNDLE created to teach self-regulation skills to children in an engaging way. Each mini-book focuses on a different topic or character trait. I created this resource for my own classroom, and I use it all year long. https://bit.ly/44Qld6o

The bright multicultural pictures make it easier for children to relate to the social stories, and the easy-to-read sentences showcasing high-frequency words will engage all learners.

Get it before it goes up in price!!! https://bit.ly/44Qld6o
If you already purchased it, download it again to access the new additions!!

It includes:
❣️No Bad Words NEW!
❣️It's Not Fair
❣️It's OK To Be Scared
❣️Practice Makes Better
❣️I Can Be A Good Friend
❣️What Is Peace?
❣️It's Not Funny!
❣️Change Can Be Great!
❣️I Am Loved

Coming soon!!!
Food vs. Not Food
Stay In The School (eloping)

This product supports social-emotional learning and is recommended for primary and special education classrooms❤️

Every year, I begin by sharing with parents a little bit about my own journey as the mom of two young adults on the spectrum. It is important to me that families understand that I get it. I know what it feels like to sit on the other side of the table, to worry about your child, to wonder if they are receiving what they need, and to try to make sense of a system that can feel very overwhelming.

Most of the time, sharing this part of myself helps us establish rapport and build trust. But once in a while, it doesn’t go as planned. When I don’t feel a connection, I have learned to switch gears to create a safe space for my own mental health.

Here are some of the things to keep in mind:

Some families are still processing.

When you teach in a primary special education classroom, many families are just beginning to process a diagnosis or adjust to a school experience that looks very different from what they once imagined. As teachers, we may already be thinking about goals, strategies, supports, and next steps, while parents may still be trying to understand what all of this means for their child.

It is a lot. And I mean a lot of information. Families are learning a completely new language filled with acronyms that seem to use every letter of the alphabet: IEPs, IPRCs, ISTs, ILPs, and many more. What feels like everyday bread and butter to educators may be completely new and confusing to a parent.

Advocacy can be both a blessing and a challenge. A diagnosis can leave parents feeling powerless. Advocacy may become the tool of choice to help them regain some sense of control over a future that suddenly feels uncertain. At the same time, some requests may not be realistic or may go beyond what a school or board is able to provide. That can leave teachers caught in the middle, trying to honour their efforts while also being honest about what is actually possible.

None of this means accepting disrespect or allowing every interaction to affect us personally. Understanding what may be behind a parent’s response helps me lead with patience and empathy, while still maintaining the boundaries I need to remain professional and sane!

If you want to know what has worked for me, stay tuned for Part II.

The Classroom Supplies and Materials BUNDLE gives you the visual instructions, lessons, social stories, schedules, and practice activities you need to teach students how to use classroom resources responsibly😍

I love the visual instructions, lessons, social stories, schedules, and hands-on practice activities. Instead of repeating the same directions all day, I can refer students back to the visuals and give them a clear reminder of what responsible use looks like.

It includes:
✏️ Not too little, not too much—just right!
🧮 Manipulatives are tools, not toys
✂️ How to use classroom materials safely and independently
💪 Growth mindset

This is one of my favourite resources to use at the beginning of the school year and to revisit whenever my students need a little reminder!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/explore-laugh-and-learn

Less “What do we have to do?” and more independent learning! 🙌

Visual Instructions for Reading and Math is one of the most-used resources in my classroom. Clear visual directions help students understand expectations, follow each step, and complete activities with greater confidence and independence.

It’s a simple but powerful tool for any inclusive classroom, especially for visual learners, autistic students, multilingual learners, and students who benefit from predictable routines and reduced verbal prompting.

Less repeating. More understanding. More independence 😍

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/explore-laugh-and-learn

Reviews like this make all the hard work feel worthwhile. These days, AI can create a long-range plan in seconds, but it can’t replace the human touch that comes from years of classroom experience, finding the right resources, making thoughtful cross-curricular connections, and knowing how to bring expectations to life for students.

This LRP includes a month-by-month annotated guide that shows where those connections happen and offers practical ideas for approaching the expectations in ways that feel meaningful and engaging. It was created with real classrooms and real students in mind, and I’m so grateful when other educators recognize the care that went into it. 🤩

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Grade-12-Long-Range-Plans-Ontario-Curriculum-2024-10036460

There are school years that fill your cup. There are school years that teach you something new. And then there are school years that simply remind you that you're human.

Last year was one of those years.

It will definitely go down as one I'll never forget, and not for the good reasons.

We all know education is changing. Every year seems to bring new expectations, new challenges, and classrooms that look very different from the ones we started our careers in. But this isn't another post about how everything is falling apart. We all have those stories, and they're real.

Last year challenged me more than any other year in my career. It made me question myself. It made me tired in ways I didn't know were possible.

A few weeks ago, if you had asked me how my year went, I probably would have told you about the lack of support, the behaviours, the constant feeling of putting out fires, and how exhausted I was. And all of that would have been true. But after stepping away for a little while, I've realized that I still love teaching.

I love watching children figure something out for the first time. I love the relationships, the little moments that nobody else notices, and the opportunity to be part of something that matters to a child.

I can't pretend it wasn't hard. But I can choose what I take with me.

So instead of focusing on everything that went wrong, I'm choosing to hold onto the pieces worth saving. The lessons. The growth. If you have a great year, I love that for you. If you, like me, had a year that made you wonder if it’s too late for a change of career, let’s work together to shed the fear of going back to the place that many of us see as a second home, our classrooms.❣️