Teaching with Jennifer Findley
Upper Elementary Teaching Blog
As a teacher, you know how important it is for your students to have a strong grasp of math vocabulary. Without a solid understanding of the language and terms used in math, students can struggle with problem-solving, understanding instructions, and communicating and explaining their math ideas and answers. To help you (and your students), this post will share free math … [Read more...] about Free Math Test Prep Task Cards for Vocabulary – Grades 4-5
One topic I look forward to teaching during ELA each year is figurative language. It is such a fun concept that my students always seem to enjoy. Even though it is enjoyable, the different types of figurative language can be tricky for students to keep straight, especially students who are English Language Learners. This post will share a free set of figurative language … [Read more...] about Free Figurative Language Posters for Grades 4-5
Those winter months can be long and cold, so I look for any opportunity to mix things up in my classroom. Celebrating holidays can often add a little extra and engage students in reading. Presidents' Day provides a great opportunity to teach some history, while also changing up the daily routine just enough to get a little extra engagement from students. This post shares … [Read more...] about Free Presidents’ Day Reading Activities (4th & 5th Grade)
Solving constructed response math tasks can be tricky for students. To help my students, we practiced this all year with different skills we are learning. The post shares more information about constructed response math questions and a few free 4th & 5th grade tasks with a winter theme that you can use to sneak in some extra practice with a relevant seasonal … [Read more...] about Free Constructed Response Math Tasks (Winter-Themed)
Are you wanting an activity that will boost your 4th and 5th grade students' vocabulary and morphology skills? Having a morphology word of the day routine is a great way to engage students and increase morphology and vocabulary skills. Read more about this morphology activity and grab free templates on this post. Morphology of the Day Routine There are many ways to … [Read more...] about Morphology Word of the Day Activity (Free Templates)
I remember being shocked (and more than a little frustrated) when I realized my fifth graders couldn’t restate questions in complete sentences... even simple questions. On the spot, I had to pivot my lesson. If your students struggle with restating questions, this post will share the tips and strategies I have learned and put in place that helped my students. Tip #1: … [Read more...] about Teaching Students to Restate the Question (with Freebies)
During those first few months following the holidays, teachers and students can find themselves stuck in the winter blues. When February 2nd rolls around, I am always excited to implement a few easy-to-use activities for Groundhog Day to spice things up a bit in the classroom. This post will share free Groundhog Day activities for reading skills and comprehension. … [Read more...] about Free Groundhog Day Activities (4th & 5th Grade Reading)
Are you looking for fun and engaging ways to celebrate the 100th day of school with your 4th and 5th grade students? As the years go on, the magic and fun of school slowly goes away for some students. However, 4th and 5th graders can have some "fun" celebrating the 100th day of school (and in a way that supports learning). This post shares ideas for math and literacy, as … [Read more...] about 100th Day of School Activities for Upper Elementary
Teachers know that vocabulary is an important part of reading and language comprehension but teaching vocabulary can be a challenge. One tool that teachers can use to increase student vocabulary is word matrix activities. This post will go into more detail about what word matrixes (matrices) are, activities you can do with them, and free teaching posters to help you get … [Read more...] about Using Word Matrix Activities to Increase Vocabulary (Free Posters)
Word walls for upper elementary? Try a morphology wall! Morphology walls are a great tool for teaching and reviewing prefixes, suffixes, bases, and roots. By using a "Morphology Wall" in your classroom, you can help your students better understand how words are put together and how to use that knowledge to determine the meaning of unknown words. This post will share … [Read more...] about Using a Morphology Wall in Grades 4-5
In order to become strong readers (and writers), students need to understand the meaning of words. Breaking words down into prefixes, suffixes, and roots/bases is a great way to help students understand how words are put together and what they mean. These free morphology posters (printable and digital!) will help your students (and you!) remember the most common prefixes, … [Read more...] about Free Prefix, Suffix, and Roots Posters (Morphology Posters)
The ability to decode multisyllabic words in reading is (to me) equivalent to knowing basic multiplication and division facts. Multisyllabic words make up the foundation of many texts our students read, just like multiplication and division facts are embedded in so many grade level skills. And just like with basic math facts, our students need strategies for tackling … [Read more...] about Decoding Multisyllabic Words in Grades 4-5
