Teaching with Jennifer Findley
Upper Elementary Teaching Blog
I have a love/hate relationship with test prep. I dislike it for all the obvious stressful reasons: the stress on the students and teachers, the time it takes away from instruction, and how monotonous it can get. But, this year my teammate and I have been very intentional about planning engaging test prep activities that the students (and teachers) love! Here is my new … [Read more...] about Test Prep Dress Up – Engaging Test Prep
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience (as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases- which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link, I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you any extra). Click here for more information about my disclosure policy. I recently had the opportunity read Angela Watson's new book Unshakeable: … [Read more...] about Unshakeable – Uncover the Compelling Reason for Every Lesson You Teach!
Every year, my family and I love prepping for our family Easter Egg Hunt. We have a large yard with great spaces for hiding eggs, so we love having the hunts at our house. We usually hide mostly plastic eggs with candy in them. Sour Patches and Skittles are some of the favorites! To plan an Easter Egg Hunt, you definitely need math, so this is a perfect "real world" … [Read more...] about Plan an Easter Egg Hunt Freebie!
Test prep doesn't have to be boring and stressful for the teachers or the students. We try to keep some of our test prep activities super engaging and high-energy to keep students (and teachers) from getting stressed. This post shares details about one of my favorite engaging test prep activities that works perfectly during the spring, which is right at test prep season … [Read more...] about Test Prep Egg Hunt Activity
A few months ago, my class created some old-school Great Depression Poster Projects. I know we are in the technology age, but many of my students don't have access to computers outside of school. In order to give them an assignment that could be completed 100% outside of classroom, I had to keep it old school. :D I gave the students a requirement page that … [Read more...] about Great Depression Poster Project Freebie
It may be Friday the 13th (yuck!), but I have teamed up with some great blogger friends to bring you some LUCK and some great St. Patrick's Day freebies! Some of these freebies are St. Patrick's Day themed and some are not, so check them all out to see which ones you can use! My "Golden Freebie" for you is a recently updated resource on perimeter and area. This … [Read more...] about Lucky You! St. Patrick’s Day Freebies
I don't know about where you live, but there is something about snow in the South that has people getting bread, milk, and measuring tapes! We recently had a pretty good amount of snow for North Georgia (although it was melted within two days...womp womp). All over Facebook, people were posting their measurements of the snow. I took this opportunity to make a fraction … [Read more...] about FREE Snow Day Fraction Word Problems
Interactive math notebooks are an amazing way to anchor your students' learning. In my classroom, our interactive notebooks become a personalized student textbook. The day before our mid winter break, I snapped a few pictures of my favorite interactive notebook pages from our math notebooks. I wanted to share these pages with you as a diverse look at all the different … [Read more...] about What Can You Put in an Interactive Notebook? {Freebie Included}
If any skill will be the death of me, it is definitely Fractions! They are so hard for 5th graders to wrap their heads around. And the standards for 5th grade? Gah, I remember learning some of these standards in middle school! But, unfortunately, they must be taught. In order to make Fractions a bit more tolerable, I created Fraction Tasks and Challenges … [Read more...] about Differentiated Fraction Tasks {And FREEBIE Computation Challenge}
This is probably the oddest freebie I will ever share on my blog, but it matches my post and it would spark an interesting conversation in the classroom, so here goes this 5.NF.3 Freebie! My sons love Spam. The thing with Spam is people either love it or hate it. Well, my kids could eat it every day of the week if I let them. The other day I was making them some Spam … [Read more...] about Math is Real Life – 5.NF.3 Freebie!
A few weeks, my team and I were told that there was a possibility that our 5th graders would be taking the state test online this year. Yikes! I immediately knew that I needed to up my game when it came to getting my students on the computer for assessments. (Note: I do not have 1:1 devices. Instead, we have a handful of computers and tablets to use.) After asking a few … [Read more...] about Preparing Students for Online Assessments {Online Test Prep}
One question I am constantly being asked is what my 5th grade schedule looks like as a self-contained teacher, so I wanted to share it with you. I personally love seeing other 5th grade schedules and how that plays into their instruction. I think see other teacher's schedules in the same grade level can help when developing your own class schedule. It can also really … [Read more...] about 5th Grade Schedule (Self-Contained)
