Teaching with Jennifer Findley
Upper Elementary Teaching Blog
While I am a firm believer in students reading real books that they choose and doing this often, I also love to include reading games and reading centers in my instruction. On this post, I will share three of my favorite types of reading games and centers for 4th and 5th grade, free reading games and centers for each type, and links to buy more if you are interested in … [Read more...] about FREE Reading Games and Centers for 4th and 5th Grade
Spiral review is truly the most powerful thing I do in my classroom to help my students master skills, retain skills, and make connections between the topics they are learning. In this post, I will break down all the ways I make spiral review work for me to help it work for you and your students. Why Use Spiral Review? Recently, I had a conversation with a teacher … [Read more...] about How To Make Spiral Review Work for You and Your Students
The holidays are the perfect time of the year to teach students the importance of being kind. To do this, I like to have my students complete random acts of kindness throughout the month of December using a Holiday Themed RAK bingo to guide us. On this post, I will share the bingo board that I use with tips for how to use it in your classroom. Ways to Use the Random … [Read more...] about Random Acts of Kindness Ideas for Students: FREE Christmas RAK Bingo
Fourth and fifth graders are definitely not too old to enjoy Christmas games (or holiday games). This post shares some of my favorite Christmas games for the classroom. Many of these ideas also double as Christmas gifts. The games are pure fun and not educational. If you are looking for educational Christmas activities for your 4th and 5th graders, then click … [Read more...] about Christmas Games for the Classroom
I love all things holiday and am always looking for ways to engage my students and keep them motivated to behave and work during the months leading up to a major holiday. Even though my students are fifth graders, I still want them to enjoy a bit of the magic of Christmas. On this post, I will share a super engaging Christmas mystery bag activity that works well for a … [Read more...] about Christmas Party Activity for Upper Elementary
The holidays are the perfect time to engage your students with activities that you don't get to do during the regular school year. This Christmas STEM activity is a student favorite and perfect for engaging your students in engineering and math skills while also sneaking in some holiday fun. STEM Focus: The focus for this Christmas STEM activity is engineering and … [Read more...] about Christmas STEM Activity: Gumdrop Christmas Tree
Do you dread teaching division each year? I used to be in that camp. My students struggled big time with division because they lacked number sense and conceptual understanding. However, and thankfully, I learned that it doesn't have to be like that. I can use division strategies that are not only developmentally appropriate but that also make sense for my students. In … [Read more...] about Division Strategies for 5th Grade
With the sights, sounds, and smells of Christmas surrounding us for almost a quarter of a year, have you ever stopped to consider how all the Christmas objects and decorations actually came to be? Who invented it and when? This whole class or individual student Christmas craft (or simply a Christmas reading activity) is a great way to bring in some holiday cheer into your … [Read more...] about Christmas Craft for Upper Elementary | Christmas Inventions Activity
Have you seen those puzzles floating around social media where you have to determine the value of different images and then solve a final equation? Those are super addictive and I always stop my scroll and solve them. Most of the time, the fifth grade teacher in me gets them correct. However, I have been tricked a time or two. ;) After solving my fifteenth one this past … [Read more...] about FREE Thanksgiving Puzzles | Math Logic Puzzles
Holidays are the perfect time to engage your students in experiments and activities that are a nice break from the normal curriculum, but still valuable learning opportunities. On this post, I will share a Thanksgiving science activity involving bending turkey bones! This is more of a demonstration than an activity and will take a few days (2-3) so make sure you … [Read more...] about Thanksgiving Science Activity | Bending Bones
If you are familiar with my blog or my resources, then you know I love seasonal and holiday resources and activities. I love taking the students' excitement and channeling it into productive, engaging work. My favorite activities to do each year are Thanksgiving writing activities involving pie tasting. Materials Needed At least two different types of pies - I … [Read more...] about Thanksgiving Writing Activities | Pie Tasting
Science experiments are such an important part of students’ learning. However, sometimes I felt that my science standards didn’t lend themselves to the kind of experiments that my students really needed. Implementing seasonal themed science experiments was a great way to incorporate engaging science experiments that I felt really benefited my students. This post shares … [Read more...] about Apple Oxidation Science Experiment with FREE Science Reading Activity
