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Shaped

A community-driven blog supporting educators, building lifelong learners, and shaping the future of education.* 

 

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Featured Posts

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Why HMH Performance Suite Is "Huge" for Liberty Elementary: A Conversation with Learning Director Lisa Nelson

Learn how HMH Performance Suite with Into Math helped Liberty Elementary students improve their math scores.

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How to align instruction with the science of reading

How to Align Instruction with the Science of Reading

Discover five key principles that policymakers, district leaders, and educators should keep in mind to help drive stronger, more equitable literacy outcomes.

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Professional Learning Goals for Teachers: Setting Purposeful Growth at Every Level

Michelle White

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9 Back-to-School Science Activities for Elementary Students

Explore these back-to-school science activities and experiments for the first day of science class.

Alicia Ivory

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Beyond the Acronyms: Multilingual Learners (MLL) vs. English Language Learners (ELL)—Why the Terms We Use Matter

Explore why is it important to understand the difference between multilingual learners (MLL or ML) vs. English language learner (ELL) and how educators can appropriately support each group in the classroom.

Dr. Giselle Carpio-Williams

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Latest Posts

Hanukkah activities games elementary

11 Hanukkah Classroom Games and Activities for Elementary Students

Celebrate the Festival of Lights with these Hanukkah classroom games and activities for elementary students.

Jordan Friedman
Former Shaped Editor

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2025 International Literacy Day Activities for All Ages

Get students reading, writing, and learning more about the importance of literacy with these 2025 International Literacy Day activities.

Alicia Ivory
Shaped Editor

Women's History Month Books for Students HERO

11 Women’s History Month Books for Elementary Students

Use these Women’s History Month books for elementary students and activities to teach about women’s contributions to history.

Alicia Ivory
Shaped Editor

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Progression of Phonological Awareness Skills

This blog post explores the progression of phonological awareness skills and ways you can support developing readers.

Alicia Ivory
Shaped Editor

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Grades 1–2 Daily Reading Activities: Animals

Give your kids an inside look at the animal world with five days of reading lessons for first and second graders.

Shaped Staff

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Grades 1–2 Summer Reading Activities: Family Time

Explore five days of reading and learning activities designed to engage your child in an exploration of family and spending time together.

Shaped Staff

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Grades 1–2 Daily Reading Activities: Teamwork

Engage your child in an exploration of how great things can happen when we work together with these reading activities for Grades 1-2.

Shaped Staff

Lets Eat

Grades 1–2 Daily Reading Activities: Let's Eat

Engage your child in an exploration of food and how it is important in our lives.

Shaped Staff

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Grades 1–2 Summer Reading Activities: Incredible Insects

Welcome to Incredible Insects! We’ll provide five days of reading and learning activities designed to engage your child in an exploration of butterflies, bees, and other bugs.

Shaped Staff

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Grades 1–2 Summer Reading Activities: This Is America

Discover five days of reading and learning activities designed to engage your child in an exploration of our country and its symbols.

Shaped Staff

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Conferring Is Differentiated Instruction: How to Hold Student Writing Conferences

Writing conferences are one-to-one conversations and give teachers a crucial opportunity to meet each student’s individual needs.

Carl Anderson
Author and Literacy Consultant

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Grades 1-2 Remote Learning Summer Science Activities: Up in the Sky

Explore a variety of scientific learning activities to engage your child in objects in the sky.

Shaped Staff

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Grades 1–2 Summer Reading Activities: The Great Outdoors

Discover five days of reading and learning activities designed to engage your child in an exploration of nature all around us.

Shaped Staff

Graphic organizers reading

Free Graphic Organizers for Reading Comprehension

Try these free graphic organizers for reading comprehension for all grade levels to help students visually organize their thoughts about literature.

Shaped Staff

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Interactive Read-Aloud Strategies: Build Strong Relationships with Students

What is an interactive read-aloud? Learn interactive read-aloud strategies to build strong student-teacher relationships in the classroom.

Monica Fitzgerald
Reading AIS Teacher, Gillette Road Middle School

WF1333496 Hero

34 Mother’s Day Writing Prompts

Celebrate moms with these Mother's Day writing prompts for your K–3 classroom. Have students practice descriptive language or get creative with a short story.

Ali Habashi
Former Shaped Editor

May Memorial Day

9 Memorial Day Activities for Elementary and Middle School Students

Use these Memorial Day classroom activities for elementary and middle school students to honor those who sacrificed for their country.

Jordan Friedman
Former Shaped Editor

Coaching3

What Is Student-Centered Coaching? Consider These Examples

What is student-centered coaching? To meet students’ individual needs, teachers may consider coaching that analyzes data and formulates student-centered goals.

Michelle Smith
Professional Services Consultant, HMH

AWARDS & ACCOLADES

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Shorty Awards

Audience Honor, 2023, Shaped

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Digiday Content Marketing Awards

Finalist, 2023, Shaped

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People’s Choice Podcast Awards

Finalist, 2021 & 2023, Teachers in America

*The views expressed in our blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.