George Lucas Educational Foundation
Edutopia

K-2 Primary

Explore and share tips, strategies, and resources for helping students develop in elementary school grades K-2.

  • 60-Second Strategy: Pom-Pom Jar

    Explicitly teaching and celebrating kindness is a simple yet powerful way to build a positive classroom culture.

  • The Benefits of Teaching Ethical Dilemmas

    Teaching ethics can not only help students become better decision-makers, but it can also help develop crucial academic and social and emotional competencies.
    Laura Lee

  • An Entrepreneurial Mindset Beats Coding Skills

    Computer coding may be valuable in the current marketplace, but for long-term success, students need to develop entrepreneurial mindsets. 
    Laura Lee

  • The Sensory Room: Helping Students With Autism Focus and Learn

    Imagine a safe space where students with autism can go to calm their bodies and then get back to the business of learning.

  • How to Teach Handwriting—and Why It Matters

    Teaching young students how to write by hand before moving on to keyboarding can help improve their reading fluency as well.
    Brooke MacKenzie

  • Making Students Feel Safe

    A trauma-informed approach ensures that students feel safe, supported, and nurtured—to improve their chances of academic success. 

  • Time to Play: More State Laws Require Recess

    Unstructured playtime is making a comeback in schools as frustrated teachers, parents, and advocacy groups demand legislative action.
    Brittany Shammas

  • A Daily Support System for Students

    Students who need extra social and emotional support have a quick check-in with an adult at the start and end of each day.

  • Portrait of a Turnaround Principal

    What does it take to turn a low-performing school around? A principal finds success by focusing on both love and high expectations.
    Bekah McNeel

  • Evidence-Based Scheduling With Daniel Pink

    The best-selling author explains why the order of the school day should look different for elementary and high school students.
    Laura Lee

  • Bringing a Dog to School

    A veteran teacher and administrator makes the case for having a therapy dog in elementary school.
    Shari Feeney

  • A Public School Makes the Case for ‘Montessori for All’

    A Title I public school in rural South Carolina is proving that Montessori education can work well anywhere.
    Nora Fleming

  • Supporting LGBTQ Students in Elementary School

    Three strategies elementary school teachers can use to foster a sense of inclusion for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students.
    Paul France

  • 60-Second Strategy: 3-Read Protocol

    Demystify math word problems with this simple technique that helps kids see the story beyond the numbers.

  • What Doesn’t Work: Literacy Practices We Should Abandon

    The number one concern that I hear from educators is lack of time, particularly lack of instructional time with students. Although we can't entirely solve the time problem, we can mitigate it by carefully analyzing our use of class time.
    Nell K. Duke