top of page
The Productive Teacher
I use the latest in brain science research to create lessons that are engaging for students and easy for teachers.
There are tons of activities, presentations, and reading passages to help teach (and learn) a variety of topics! Click the topics to learn more!
Search
Decoding the Letter P
The most common sound of the letter p is the /p/ sound. Introducing the Letter P Look at the pictures below and point to the letter...
3 min read
Decoding the Letter T
The most common sound of the letter t is the /t/ sound. Introducing the Letter T Look at the pictures below and point to the letter...
3 min read
Decoding the Letter A
The Basics The letter A is a vowel. That means we have to open our mouths to make the sound. All vowels make more than one sound. In this...
3 min read
Decoding the Letter S
The Basics The most common sound of the letter s is the /s/ sound. Introducing the Letter S Look at the pictures below and point to the...
2 min read
Learning to Decode Scope and Sequence
Hey everyone! If you have a child who is just learning how to read, you are in the right place! This scope and sequence will take you...
3 min read
Our Second Grade Phonics Scope and Sequence
Knowing what to teach and when to teach it is one of the most basic parts of planning your phonics instruction. Unfortunately, many...
3 min read
Learning About Mechanical Energy Conservation
Energy is the ability to do work. In science, work means using a force to move an object. So, bouncing a ball is a type of work because...
3 min read
Ecosystem Food Chains, Food Webs, and Energy Pyramids
Every organism on Earth needs energy to live. Except for newly discovered species living in the deepest parts of the ocean, every species...
4 min read
What is the Difference Between the Asthenosphere and the Lithosphere?
The lithosphere and asthenosphere are both mechanical layers of the Earth. The layers of the Earth can be organized by composition (what...
5 min read
What are Landslides?
Landslides change the surface of the Earth. They happen when rocks, soil, and anything else on the ground falls down a slope after...
2 min read
Learning About How Volcanoes Form
Volcanoes are mountains formed around vents or fissures in the Earth’s crust that release lava, ash, rock, and gases. When volcanoes...
4 min read
Learning About Pangaea the Supercontinent
Designua /Shutterstock.com For most of human history, people believed that the continents didn’t move. However, as technology improved,...
3 min read
How did Scientists Discover Seafloor Spreading?
Seafloor spreading happens at divergent plate boundaries under the ocean. As hot rocks rise in convection currents within the...
3 min read
Everything You Need to Know About Minerals
What are Minerals? Minerals are naturally occurring, inorganic, solids with definite chemical compositions and ordered internal...
6 min read
What is the Evidence for the Theory of Plate Tectonics?
The theory of plate tectonics is new, but some of the evidence for the theory of plate tectonics dates back millions if not billions of...
2 min read
What is the Difference Between Genetics and Heredity?
Science is all about precision. Two things may seem the same at first glance, but we see that nuance makes them different when we dive...
3 min read
Learning about the Theory of Continental Drift
An Overview of the Theory of Continental Drift The theory of continental drift argues that Earth’s continents are moving. It claims that...
2 min read
What are the Three Parts of an Atom?
Don’t you love the alliteration of learning all about atoms? If you are teaching middle school science, then your students need to know...
4 min read
What are the Physical and Chemical Properties of Matter?
Lukas Kovarik/Shutterstock.com Everything around you is matter. Matter is all of the stuff in the universe. It has mass and takes up...
2 min read
Learning About the Law of Conservation of Mass
The law of conservation of mass describes the phenomenon that scientists have observed that mass stays constant throughout a chemical...
3 min read
bottom of page