Do you ever find that those are some kids who just can't seem to get a skill after the millionth time you have practiced it? This was definitely me a few weeks ago while teaching measurement conversions. We were struggling with measurement conversions because they had little understanding of measurement and little to no knowledge of relative sizes of the unit. They ... Read More
Division Practice: Division of the Day
Division is by far one of the most difficult skills to teach students. The process is lengthy and requires strong number sense. There is also so much room for error that it can be quite frustrating for the students (and teachers!) Last week, I put together this packet of FREE repetitive division practice to keep my kids practicing division even after we have moved on to ... Read More
Guided Reading Organization
I blogged over at All Things Upper Elementary today about guided reading organization! All Things Upper Elementary is a collaborative blog with a wealth of information for upper grades. If you haven't check it out, I highly recommend that you do! For my post this month, I blogged all about my Guided Reading Organization Binder that I use to keep all my reading records ... Read More
Interactive Hall Displays
I jumped headfirst into using interactive notebooks this year, and I am loving it! My class is doing a great job of using their notes, keeping them neat and organized, and taking pride in them. I teach in a school with no textbooks so our interactive notebooks are becoming our textbooks. But, I did run into one snag using interactive notebooks. I had NOTHING to hang ... Read More
Give Them Choice with Reading Choice Boards
Happy Weekend! Tomorrow my sweet Brody turns 10. Yikes! He is getting so old! I wanted to pop in real fast to share some new resources that I created over the summer for reading and math. I don't know about your kids, but my kids LOVE choice! Even if it is all still the same kind of work and still the same skill, just something about being able to choose is so awesome to ... Read More
Teaching Main Idea of Nonfiction Text
By far, one of the hardest skills to teach is determining the main idea of a nonfiction text. Not only is determining main idea pretty difficult for some (or most depending on your class that year) students, it is also so critical for understanding nonfiction text. To make matters more complicated, so many other nonfiction skills are also dependent on understanding the ... Read More
How to Embed Close Reading in a Reading Lesson
I am taking a small break from my family on this holiday weekend to write a quick blog post about how I used close reading this past week in my CCSS aligned reading mini lessons. This post contains an Amazon affiliate link if you decide you want to purchase the book mentioned in this post. I was teaching the standard RL.5.3: which involves comparing and contrasting ... Read More
Classroom Tour
Hey friends, I am knee deep in back to school over here in Georgia. We are on our second week of school and going strong! I snapped a few pictures after the second day of school to share with you! This picture is of my library area and my marker board easel where I teach my mini-lessons. I bought the Chevron rug from a local carpet store that sells rugs for awesome ... Read More
Easy Prep Math Centers: Roll and Answer Games {Freebies}
Happy Thursday! This week has been super busy for me! I finally got to set up my classroom yesterday! School starts next week so I was working like a crazy person to get as much done as possible. I will post lots of pictures next week! I have had quite a few questions about my Roll and Answer Math Centers. I wanted to write a quick little blog post to explain how to use ... Read More
Writing Workshop Idea for Gathering Seeds: I Bet You Didn’t Know!
Hello, friends! I am back on this sunny Sunday with another post with another writing workshop idea about Gathering Seeds for Narrative Writing during Writing Workshop. Check out my previous post here for more ideas on generating narrative writing ideas. Today's post is a twist on making lists with a fun little organizer of sorts. Please don't judge my terrible ... Read More
Writing Workshop: Gathering Seeds
Have I told you guys yet that I am moving schools? Well, if not, I am moving schools! I will still be in 5th grade but I am teaching in a school that is known as a Literacy Collaborative School that uses Fountas and Pinnell with fidelity. I met with my literacy coach today to map out the first few days of school. While I was pulling out my seed notebook, I decided it ... Read More
Advanced Thinking Strategies in Math
I am back with another chapter review from What's Your Math Problem? I felt like this chapter was really key for those states that are shifting to Common Core. As the students are presented with more challenging problems, they need more advanced thinking strategies in their toolbox. Let's take a look at some of these strategies. I am in love with this advanced ... Read More
