Teaching with Jennifer Findley
Upper Elementary Teaching Blog
Point of view is a tricky skill for our students. A lot of the skills we teach in 4th and 5th grade are new to our students and this is one of them. So, that makes it challenging to get some of our students to understand it quickly and then move to the deeper levels required. This post will share a few point of view activities that will hopefully give you a few more tools … [Read more...] about Free Point of View Activities
Teaching 4th and 5th grade reading is not easy! The standards begin to get really tricky and the gap between what the students should be able to do in reading and what they can do can be pretty wide. One of the those standards that is tricky is theme. On this post, I will share some tips to help you teach theme to your 4th and 5th graders, including what students should … [Read more...] about Tips for Teaching Theme (And What To Do When Students Struggle)
One of the best ways to measure if a student has truly mastered reading skills is if they can apply that reading skill over and over to new texts (including texts of their choosing). And the tricky skill of determining the theme of a story is no different. In order for students to truly master this skill, they need to be able to apply it consistently to new texts they … [Read more...] about Free Theme Activities
I never realized I had a strong opinion of the writing graphic organizers I exposed my students to until a few years ago when I worked closely with other teachers (I worked as an ESOL teacher who supported the students in writing). Each writing prompt the students were given had its own specific (and very cute) graphic organizer to go with it. The problem was that the … [Read more...] about The VERY Simple Writing Graphic Organizers My Students Use | Free Writing Graphic Organizers
Teaching students to answer constructed response questions correctly and with sufficient text evidence can be quite the feat. A good starting point is to use an acronym such as RACE to help guide the students. But, that is just one part of instruction. The most difficult part is teaching students to find text evidence and then cite it appropriately to fully support their … [Read more...] about Text Evidence Activities and Strategies – Tips for Teaching Students to Find Text Evidence
Decimals can be tricky for some students. To help, I use re-teaching as needed and regular review. An easy teaching resource to use for review and re-teaching are task cards. This post shares a free set of decimal task cards that reviews 5th grade decimal skills, along with ideas for using this decimals review with 4th and 6th grade students. Using the Free Decimals … [Read more...] about Free Decimals Review Task Cards
Fractions are always one of those tricky skills that need lots of strong instruction, spiral review, and re-teaching/remediation. I always found that frontloading 3rd and 4th grade fractions review helped my 5th graders master grade level skills. This post will share a free set of fraction task cards that you can use in 3rd-5th grade (depending on your needs - more … [Read more...] about Free Fractions Review Task Cards
Division can be very scary for students, even basic division. A strong conceptual understanding of division will help build students' confidence with division and help as they progress into multi-digit division (and even division of decimals and fractions). This post shares a quick 2-page division intervention assessment that I use to assess gaps in my 4th and 5th … [Read more...] about Conceptual Understanding of Division Intervention Assessment
Do your students struggle with their multiplication facts? Despite what I thought my first years teaching, they don’t need more flashcards. They definitely don't need timed drills or tests. Instead, they need strategies to help them use what they do know (easier multiplication facts or addition facts) to solve any problem. Check out this post to read about the 6 … [Read more...] about Multiplication Strategies for 4th and 5th Grade
One of the biggest struggles with teaching 4th and 5th grade math is that a lot of our students don't know their multiplication facts. They don't have their multiplication facts memorized and (more importantly) they don't have strategies to find the answer quickly. Students often struggle with multiplication fact fluency and automaticity because they lack a conceptual … [Read more...] about Conceptual Understanding of Multiplication Intervention Assessment
One of the best ways to see if your students have mastered a reading skill is to see if they can apply it in their writing. I love doing this with themes (read more about how I teach theme and use a working backward activity by clicking here) and text structure. It also works perfectly with context clues. This post will share a simple (but rigorous) context clues activity … [Read more...] about Free Context Clues Activity for Grades 4-5
One of the many things that they don't teach you in college is just how crazy it can get before and right after a holiday, especially a holiday that is a kid favorite. The day after Halloween is probably one of the craziest days in the classroom. The students are excited about their trick-or-treating adventures from the previous day and more than likely, they are … [Read more...] about The Day After Halloween Math Activity (Free!)
