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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

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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 3–5 Daily Reading Activities: Let's Eat!

Have your children in Grades 3-5 explore food and how it is important in our lives.

Shaped Staff

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Grades 3–5 Summer Reading Activities: Incredible Insects

Explore 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 3–5 Daily Reading Activities: Creativity Counts

Have your children in Grades 3-5 explore arts and creativity with these activities.

Shaped Staff

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Grades 3–5 Summer Reading Activities: Family Time

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

Shaped Staff

Teaching How To Write An Email

You’ve Got Mail: How to Teach Email Writing to Students

Learn how to teach email writing to students and focus on proper email etiquette so they can ask questions and send greetings to teachers, school staff, and even parents.

Sally Doulton
Teacher, Manhasset Secondary School, New York

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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 3–5 Summer Reading Activities: Fun and Games

Explore five days of reading and learning activities designed to engage your child in an exploration of sports, games, and puzzles.

Shaped Staff

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Grades 3-5 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 3–5 Summer Reading Activities: This Is America

Explore five days of reading and learning activities for Grades 3-5 designed to engage your child in an exploration of our country and its symbols.

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

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Teaching Students How to Write an Expository Paragraph

Want to help your students develop their organizational, analytical, and research skills? Teach them how to write an expository paragraph.

Alicia Ivory
Shaped Editor

G3 5 The Great Outdoors hero

Grades 3–5 Summer Reading Activities: The Great Outdoors

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

Shaped Staff

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

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.