One of the things I do every year that really makes a difference in my students' learning is having them use notebooks to store notes, examples, work, and
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
Writing lesson plans shouldn't be painful or overly time consuming. These elementary lesson plan templates save you time!
See our 2018-2019 homeschool curriculum choices. These are independent subjects for fourth grade and second grade homeschool curriculum!
One of the things I do every year that really makes a difference in my students' learning is having them use notebooks to store notes, examples, work, and
I'm linking up today with 4th Grade Frolics for another edition of Monday Made It! Bonny had to head back to New Jersey at the end of January, and of course, it was right when the big snow storm hit. Her flight back was cancelled three times! So, we decided we had to drive her back. Timm and I "made it" to New Jersey and back to Michigan in 30 hours! Ugh. It was not fun. It was nice to spend a little more time with Bonny, but it was exhausting. We arrived at her apartment, helped her shovel out her car... grabbed some Chick-fil-A, and then headed home. We got home about 11:15 p.m. and had to be to work bright and early the next morning. I've been working on making some new reading intervention groups and activities for a few of my kids. I got out the whisper phones I made a few years back and have a student working on his oral reading fluency. I also signed up for a free two week trial with K5 Learning. This is an online program for reading and math, though so far, I am only using the reading part of it with three of my students. It starts out by giving them a placement test to determine what areas they need to work on and what level they are at in each of those areas. I was surprised by how accurate the levels were that they came up with compared to the DRA and STAR test results that I have for each of my kids. After that, the students can start working through lessons which seem to be very interactive and engaging. One of my students that I have working on this program has struggled with staying on task and motivation. He is now coming to me throughout the day to ask if he can work on another K5 Learning lesson when he finishes other tasks. He completed five lessons in just a couple days, which I can see by logging in and clicking on his report. I'm hoping to use money from the PTO to continue my membership once my free trial is over. If you would like to check it out and start your own free trial, just click on the button below. My third Made It is my Homework Club that I started this year after I saw this pin from I Love Labels... Here's my version... I have had these awesome little magnets that you can slide a piece of paper in forever! They were perfect for this! I have been holding onto them for years, knowing that someday they would be just what I was looking for! This is how the Homework Club works. On the first day of the month, everyone is in the Homework Club. If you have a single late assignment, however, you are out for that month. I found this great little box that I keep on the marker board ledge for the magnets of the kids that are out. All the kids that are still in the Homework Club on the last day of the month earn a prize. To be honest, the September Homework Club was really small, only a handful of kids. Their reward was popcorn and pop during silent reading time. That did it! October Homework Club was about triple the number of kids! I just finished putting together my Homework Club Board set which includes everything you need to create a Homework Club of your own. You can find it in my TPT Store. Check out all the other Monday Made Its at 4th Grade Frolics! Also, make sure you stop by next week for another edition of Show & Tell Tuesday! I'd love for you to link up!
Tired of showing your students where to turn in their homework or sharpen their pencil? Here are 17 ways to review classroom procedures that won't make you tear your hair out! P.S. The kids love them too!
Learn how to provide math intervention that will make an impact in your classroom while making your life easier!
I wanted to stop by today and share some a few of my “go-to” activities during the first week of school to build our classroom community and set expectations for […]
4th Grade Math Reference Sheet! *Aligned to 4th Grade TEKS! THIS INCLUDES: -Multiplication table (products 1-12) -Key words -Protractor (TEKS aligned 4.7C) -Quadrilaterals with pictures (TEKS align…
Thinking about implementing a Daily Three reading structure for reading rotations? Check out this post for details and example activities for each roation.
Daily Academic Vocabulary is designed to support students to build the academic language skills needed to be successful in school. While many students have a strong conversational vocabulary, they lack the exposure and understanding of the Tier 2 words commonly used in the classroom and on standardized assessments.
Do your students need help summarizing informational text? Use the TAAMIO strategy to write great informational text summaries.
Get helpful tips for how to manage data folders in the primary classroom. Download the free student data folders kit to get started!
Worksheets are a snoozefest...try this Super Fun Engaging Activity for ANY SUBJECT + a freebie!
Not sure what to teach the first week of 3rd grade? Here's what we did!
Drawing Conclusions Practice Drawing Conclusions Graphic Organizer Drawing Conclusions Center Activity...
A Collection of Science Experiments for Kids that will lead to discovery and more at your house!
For the most part, reasoning, deducing, inferring, and critical thinking are not skills that come naturally to our students. Rather, they must be nurtured and developed. We want our students to become critical thinkers so they can reason and apply logic to solve novel problems throughout their lives. These skills will set them up to...
Hey y'all! Over the past couple of weeks I've had some questions from teachers about how I use Class Dojo in my classroom and utilizing my...
I found several pins with a variety of questions to pose for my class on the 1st day of school. I chose six that I felt were appropriate for my group of kids and LOVED it! There was a lot of information to gather from my students apart from their answers - I looked at spelling, engagement, and how they followed directions. Very informative. I went over each poster (in Spanish as well -- one of my students doesn't speak English! -- thank goodness for iTranslate!) and passed out dots and sticky notes to everyone. The were able to address each poster on their own and I wandered around to help individuals. Great activity!
Over the years, I have created dozens of anchor charts in my classroom. I am a huge proponent of creating anchor charts with my students, and I strongly believe that the perfect anchor chart isn't always pretty. The posts below feature many of my anchor charts.
If you are looking for some high-interest activities, try using animated shorts to teach inference. Free handouts focus on student learning.
Hi there! It’s Deb Hanson from Crafting Connections, and I’m going to share a free context clues lesson with you today. This lesson is arranged in a similar way to a character traits lesson that I shared with you last year! If you do decide that you want to try this activity with your students, be sure to click on the image below. The cup labels and sentence strips for this lesson are available in the FREE download. I almost always start my ELA units with a PowerPoint presentation to introduce the topic. Therefore, on the first day I would show my Context Clues PowerPoint to my students, and this lesson would occur on the second day of the context clues unit. To start this lesson, I would use an anchor chart to review the five main types of context clues. After distributing a white board, marker, and eraser to each student, I would present five plastic cups by spreading them across a table or chalkboard tray. As you can see, the cups have been labeled with the five types of context clues, and each cup is assigned a number. I also have the small strips of cardstock printed and cut apart. These strips contain short sentences with underlined words. Before I begin reading the sentence strips, I will explain the sequence of the activity: I will place one of the strips beneath a document camera and read the sentence aloud. Students will attempt to use context clues to determine the meaning of the underlined word. They will jot down a simple definition on their white board. They will also document which type of context clue they used by writing a cup's number on their white board. Students will discuss their answers with a partner. If students wish to change their answer at this time, they can certainly do that. As a class, we will discuss the meaning of the word, and the type of context clue provided.** We will drop the sentence strip into one of the cups. **It is important to note that context clues can often fit into multiple category types. For example, a context clue could fit as both a definition and a synonym. Furthermore, according to your students' language levels and background knowledge, different students may use different strategies to determine the meaning of an unknown word. For instance, a student who does not know the meaning of the provided antonym may have to infer to the best of his or her ability. In terms of deciding which cup to drop the sentence into, you may want to let the majority determine your class's final answer. After we work through all fourteen sentence strips, I conclude the lesson by having students add a context clues page to their interactive notebooks. Students glue the title and the magnifying glasses into their notebooks, and then they write their own sentences that show examples of each of the five types of context clues. If you have time, hop over to my blog, where I explain how I use two published books to further analyze how context clues are used in books. If you are looking for additional resources for teaching context clues to your upper elementary students, feel free to check out the following resources. I have placed my bundle images here, but all of these items are also available for individual purchase. A Context Clues Bundle designed especially for students in 2nd and 3rd grade: A Context Clues Bundle designed especially for students in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade: Thanks for stopping by today! FREE Newsletter! Blog TpT Store Instagram Facebook Pinterest My YouTube Video Pin for future reference:
Geometric Art
I feel like I need to introduce myself because it's been so long since I had the chance to sit down and write a post! With two daughters in high school, my life is crazy right now! This past week at school, we worked on drawing conclusions. This year I am making it a point to read at least one picture book a week (along with the chapter book I'm reading to the kids). Reading great picture books is the one thing I miss about teaching first grade! I'm not sure why I thought this had to stop once I moved up to a 3rd/4th high ability class. I choose my book for the week depending on the comprehension skill we are practicing. It just so happens that picture day and drawing conclusions fell on the same week. I knew I had to read the book Picture Day Perfection by Deborah Diesen. This book is hilarious and is perfect for students to infer their way to a conclusion at the end of the story (which is usually the wrong conclusion!). I started the week with an anchor chart from my soon to be released Anchor Chart Toolkit for Comprehension Skills (this will be a companion to my Anchor Chart Toolkit for Comprehension Strategies). We worked on making inferences last week, and how they help us draw logical conclusions. As I read the book, students had to take notes on clues that would help them draw a conclusion at the end of the story. Before I read (or students could read) the final few pages, they had to complete a drawing conclusions graphic organizer. If you haven't read Picture Day Perfection, you need to go straight to the library or book store! We were able to do so many activities using this book as a mentor text. If you would like to grab a free copy of my Comprehension Companion for Drawing Conclusions, click on the picture below... I would love to know what mentor text are your favorites and books that you use for drawing conclusions!
I am so excited to launch my first "series" of blog posts! It's making me feel all grown-up and blogger-like :)My first series is going to be on increasing student engagement in the classroom. Over
Several years ago, I invented my rounding snowball fight game and every year since my students beg to play it. They say it is the BEST game ever!! The year I invented this game I had a high number of kinesthetic learners and I was constantly trying to think of ways to let them move and learn at the same time. The idea came to me after a rounding unit. I wanted an informal assessment to see if my students were ready for a test. I grabbed a stack of blank copy paper and wrote one number on each page with a sharpie. I wrote the numbers large so that they could be seen across the room. Next, I underlined one of the digits in each number. I made enough sheets so every student would have 2-3 pages. I gave each student 2-3 pages to crumble into individual snowballs and told my students we were going to have an indoor snowball fight. Before the game, I told the students my expectation: 1) Don’t run 2) Aim below the shoulders. They all pushed in their chairs, I set a timer for one minute, and then I told the students they may begin. This was one minute of pure happiness for my 4th graders. Afterward, I asked each student to take one snowball back to their seat and to leave the others on the floor. One at a time, each student opened their snowball, and rounded the number on the snowball to the underlined place. I asked them to hold it so that the other students in the class may see as well. After everyone rounded their snowball, it was time for another snowball fight. It is super is easy it make yourself or if you want to just hit print. Click Here to Download my Rounding Practice Snowball Fight.
Practice doesn't always make perfect, especially when it comes to main idea! Students need lots of scaffolding with this difficult skill. And it's hard to find resources that provide good scaffolding, so do yourself a favor and download 3 of mine for free here!
When I looked at my last post and realized it was Christmas themed, I realized I was long overdo for a blog post. This new year has brought...
Do you look on Pinterest for Anchor Chart ideas and give up at the thought that your Anchor Chart could never look that amazing? It actually doesn’t have to be that difficult to make an amazi…
Every teacher needs a few fun, fast, easy, tricks up his/her sleeve. Here are a few easy classroom management tricks I've picked up over the years. Need a Second to Get Ready for the Next
Hi Friends! Confession time…writing is my LEAST favorite subject to teach. I know, I know…teachers shouldn’t have favorites! In all seriousness, teaching writing to first graders was not my favorite subject to teach. I was in a place where I thought, “If it’s boring to me, isn’t it boring for them?” I desperately needed to spice things up. That year I made it my professional goal to improve my writing instruction. I spent time reading, researching best practices and developing a system that would work in my classroom. As a result the Daily Quick Writes were born. The idea behind the quick write is to focus more on the quality of writing, instead of the quantity. A quick write prompt should only take 5-10 minutes…we all have time for that! The prompts are versatile and cover a wide range of topics. They were designed to encourage your students to express themselves as they learn the art of writing! I typically used a writing prompt a day as a writing workshop warm-up, however it can be used any time that works for your classroom. The original Daily Quick Writes were designed for kindergarten and 1st grade students. When I moved to 3rdgrade I developed Daily Quick Writes for BIG KIDS. The prompts are similar, providing an amazing opportunity for differentiation! Over the past few years I have had many requested for a blank version of the Daily Quick Writes paper. I have good news friends, I FINALLY did and it is a FREE download! Daily Quick Writes Subscribe to get the your download & check your email! Subscribe Powered By ConvertKit Daily Quick Writes for BIG KIDS! Subscribe to get your download & check your email! Subscribe Powered By ConvertKit
Download your complete guide to the fourth grade reading standards for both nonfiction and fiction texts. This is handy tool for guided and shared reading.
