Teaching with Jennifer Findley
Upper Elementary Teaching Blog
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
Confession: I used to spend a week teaching affixes (prefixes and suffixes) and then another couple of weeks teaching roots. I’d assess and we'd move on to my next language/grammar standard. Sure, I may have spiraled them through grammar review and even mentioned them implicitly if it came up in texts we were reading. But I didn’t explicitly plan for morphology … [Read more...] about Teaching Morphology in Grades 4-5 (with Free Resources)
There are two specific core memories I have from my teaching career when I needed syllable type instruction to help my students with decoding multisyllabic words...and I didn't know it. During my first teaching observation, I presented a student with the word "udder." He said he couldn't read it because it had two ds. I had no idea what to do to guide him. Now, I … [Read more...] about Decoding Multisyllabic Words: Using Syllable Types (Free Posters)
Word problems can be overwhelming for students and honestly for teachers, too. Teaching students how to use strategies and confidently work through word problems can be tough. This post will share a list of questions and prompts you can use as you support your students before and after they solve word problems. This will help you guide the students through solving the … [Read more...] about Helping Students with Word Problems – Free Questions & Prompts
Are you looking for a way to engage your students with reading comprehension activities? An easy way to do this is to incorporate seasonal events and holidays into reading instruction or texts students are reading. This post will share with you a free set of Labor Day reading activities that you can use with your students as the holiday approaches. About the Free … [Read more...] about Free Labor Day Reading Activities
Read alouds are not just for reading and writing! This post will share math read alouds that are perfect for back to school (or anytime really) with ideas for using them in the classroom and free activities. 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 … [Read more...] about Math Read Alouds for Upper Elementary
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Word work is an effective way to help students practice and work with words in engaging ways. But it can be difficult to find engaging and rigorous word work activities for 4th and 5th graders. Rainbow words and writing words in sentences are not the most exciting (or rigorous) ways to work with words. This post will share more details about what word work is, why it is … [Read more...] about Word Work Activities for 4th and 5th Grade
