Guided reading has always been a staple in my reading instruction. But, as much as I love guided reading, it is so easy (like scary easy) to have a jumbled mess of lesson plans, running records, and other random forms in piles upon piles at my guided reading table. To combat this, I streamlined my guided reading binder into a super functional organizational tool with all ... Read More
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New to Teaching 5th Grade
Are you teaching 5th grade for the first time this year (or the upcoming school year)? If you are anything like me when I was moved to 5th grade (from 3rd after teaching for only one year), I was a bit overwhelmed by the idea of teaching 5th grade. I remember spending the summer before that year googling all things related to 5th grade in between taking long walks with ... Read More
Fundraising Ideas for Schools and Teachers
With budgets decreasing more and more, many schools require teachers to have fundraisers to supplement field trips or pay for club functions. Today I want to share some tried and true fundraising ideas that are easy and students love. Many of these require no money up front and can be started immediately. My teaching experience has been exclusively in Title 1 schools so ... Read More
Free Word Study Activity for Upper Elementary
A few years ago, I wrote a blog post about how I used a variation of Daily Three in my reading classroom. Since writing that post, I have gotten several questions about a word study activity I mentioned in the post. As an upper grades teacher, I have always struggled with finding word study activities that are appropriate for my students. To be honest, I still struggle ... Read More
Winter Activities for Upper Elementary
Winter time in the classroom, specifically December to March, can be quite stressful as upper elementary teachers finish pacing guides, start test prep, and some even administer state tests this early. It is CRAZY! However, I always like to bring some winter fun into my classroom through seasonal activities that are specifically for 4th and 5th grade students. I want to ... Read More
Winter Break Packet Ideas for Upper Elementary {Freebie Included}
Each year, I seem to go back and forth about whether or not to send a winter break packet with my students over winter break. Ultimately, I always decide to send something for a few reasons: 1.) I always have a handful of students who specifically ask for a packet and 2.) The majority of my students do not go on vacation and most don't have things to occupy their time. ... Read More
Behavior Management Ideas for Surviving the Holiday Months
Behavior management can always be a little tricky during the month of December and other holiday months. The students are ready for break, the teachers are ready for break, and everyone is a little excited by all the different activities that happen during December. I always like to have a some special behavior management ideas in my bag of tricks to keep the students ... Read More
Candy Cane Activities for Upper Elementary {Free}
Candy canes are a staple for the month of December and in Christmas decorations. I love incorporating candy cane activities into my classroom. I wanted to share my favorite candy cane activities for upper elementary in this post. There is a little bit of everything, so hopefully you can find something to use no matter what subject or grade you teach. These activities ... Read More
Using Wonder to Teach All the Common Core Literature Standards
The summer of 2014, I read Wonder by R.J. Palacio and fell in love. I immediately knew I wanted this to be my first read aloud of the year. Not only are the messages and themes in this book fabulous for children today, but the book literally allows you to teach all the Common Core Literature Standards with this book! Seriously....Read on to find out how. This ... Read More
4th and 5th Grade Reading Center {Low Prep and FREE!}
One thing that I have discovered teaching 5th graders is that sometimes you need to gamify a task or activity (even in the smallest way) to get student buy-in. For math, I did this easily with my roll and answer math centers and my students really enjoyed the slightly different way of practicing computation skills. For quite some time, I have wanted to create similar roll ... Read More
Interpreting Remainders {Anchor Charts, Ideas, and Activities}
Well, I don't know about your students, but every year, it seems that interpreting remainders is a struggle for my students. It is really a struggle for students who have difficulty understanding word problems or that have no conceptual understanding of what division is. This post will share some of the activities we did and a free anchor chart with sample word problems ... Read More
Daily Three Reading Stations
If you are considering implementing reading stations in your 4th or 5th grade reading classroom, Daily 3 or Daily 5 reading stations are a great option. If you are not familiar with Daily 3 reading, it is a variation of the Daily 5 reading which you can read more about here. Daily 3 reading is how I structure my literacy block to allow my students to complete daily ... Read More
