Analyzing writing curriculums, planning writing workshop and teaching writing lessons can be overwhelming. You might think, how am I going to fit everything in and produce successful writers? Where do I start? What skills do they need? This post will share the 7 BASIC WRITING LESSONS that every teacher should teach! With this basic knowledge, students will be able to perform other writing assignments more effectively. The following skills are not only effective in upper elementary, they are often needed at the middle school level for review or the primary level for differentiation. So yes, every teacher should teach them! If you start with these 7 fundamental skills, it will set the expectations for your writing lessons and assignments throughout the year! Frequently Asked Questions What are the basic skills and what order should I teach them? Sentence Structure 1. Complete Sentences Lesson for complete sentences 2. Fragments Lesson for fragments 3. Run-ons Lesson for run-ons Paragraph Writing 4. Topic Sentences Lesson for topic sentences 5. Relevant Details Lesson for relevant details 6. Transition Words Lesson for transition words 7. Closing Sentences Lesson for closing sentences How much time should I dedicate to teaching these fundamental skills? I recommend one day for each skill. If you spend a whole writing block for each skill, students will benefit from the practice. How do I teach each skill? First: Start with an anchor chart explaining the skill. (See each lesson link above for effective anchor charts.) Second: Provide examples. Students can share examples too! Next: Students should take notes. I love using Interactive Writing Notebooks to take notes. Research supports the use of interactive notebooks through studies on multiple intelligences, the brain and note taking. Here are a few videos to Set Up Interactive Writing Notebooks. Click photo for the Upper Elementary Version. A Primary Version is also available. Then: Identify the skill. Provide practice sheets and task cards for students to practice identifying the skill in sentences and paragraphs. Last: Apply the skill. Students should have the opportunity to write their own sentence or paragraph to apply the particular skill. What if I can't fit the lesson in one writing block? If you can't extend the days to complete them, there are other ways to get the whole lesson in. You can put practice sheets or task cards in a center, or you can have students apply the skill for homework or morning work the next day. What if my students, some of my students, or absent students can't do interactive notebooks? Make a small anchor chart to put in their notebooks with the same information! If you don't have a printable poster, take a picture of the anchor chart you used in class and print them off! I hope you found this post helpful and your students become successful writers this year! Connect With Me! TPT Store Facebook Pinterest My Blog

Teaching similes and metaphors is the first step in moving your students beyond literal meaning and teaching them to mature as writers. Students need to see and hear figurative language many times before they will use it in their own writing. Transferring these skills into writing is a long...

Character traits is an important skill to help students understand characters. This post shares strategies and free character trait activities.

Follow this step-by-step lesson plan to teach your students how

If you are looking for some high-interest activities, try using animated shorts to teach inference. Free handouts focus on student learning.

If you ask me (and I am pretending that you did), third grade is the BEST grade to teach! Third graders are still young enough to love school, love their teacher and get excited over simple things like coloring. However, they are old enough to be independent workers and thinkers. Most third graders know how to read

Hello darlings! Amy here from That Teaching Spark! If you are like me, you use some semblance of technology in your classroom. You might be 1:1 with each student having a device or you may have access to a few devices for your entire class! I'm lucky enough to have a class set of chrome carts to share with my grade level of five teachers. We rotate the chrome books around to each other. I also have four devices that I use for math rotations every day! I have to admit, I would be lost without them! There are so many amazing websites and resources out there! I asked all of you in the All About 3rd Grade Facebook Group, to share the websites you use on a daily basis. I have reviews those websites and have included the ones most often recommended in this All About 3rd Grade Symbaloo. A Symbaloo is simply a bookmarking site. You can copy and paste this link on your classroom website, Google Classroom, or other learning platform for your students. Then students can click the icon to take them to the recommended page. https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/allabout3rdgrade Most websites that I included are free or at least allow for a free version with less bells and whistles. Here are 3 of My Favs 1. Epic Epic is perfect for sharing books on your projector. It has over hundreds of popular books! They have some books read aloud but I really like it for the nonfiction and collections that it offers. You can even create quizzes for your students. Watch this video for a little overview. 2. Prodigy Play Math Prep My kiddos use Prodigy everyday in math rotations. I can assign them any standard I want and it will create questions for them. This is what students see. They create little avatar wizards and then battle through lands that they unlock. They even earn pets that can have powers! They unlock and earn power ups by answering question correctly. You can assign the skills or have the game do it for you! In this video, I explain how to assign test prep, but it is the same directions for other assignments. 3. Go Formative This is a new website for me! I am super excited to try it next year! create online assessments, classwork or homework connects seamlessly with Google Classroom ANY GRADE, ANY SUBJECT, ANY DEVICE create a class & track student data students can type, draw or upload images get LIVE results & give instant feedback to your students very easy to use FREE & PAPERLESS for both teachers and students Check out the video for a sneak peek on how it works! Join us in the All About 3rd Grade Facebook Group to learn more amazing tips like this!

These easy to use techniques can be used by teachers for students in upper elementary and middle school to develop stronger reading comprehension skills.

Paragraph writing is a big challenge for many students. This post includes a step-by-step method to help your students write great paragraphs in no time.

teaching ideas, upper elementary classroom ideas, reading ideas,resources for the upper elementary classroom, teaching grammar, graphic organizers

So you have 100 minutes, but how exactly do you plan and schedule your language arts block for the junior grades?

Grab these states of matter worksheets to learn about solids, liquids, and gases with no-prep printables. Perfect science for kids!

Supercharge your morning work with I Heart Literacy! Each page features a fun theme so your students will not only be practicing reading and ELA skills, but will also be learning about a curriculum-based topic. A wide variety of Common Core skills are addressed. Try these five free pages for free! Happy Teaching! Rachel Lynette ... Read More about Morning Work ELA and Reading Freebie!

14 Brilliant Ways to Quiet a Noisy Class! Check out these behavior management strategies for classroom management!

Salut! Hi everyone! If you teach French, you know how tough it can be to find resources for your classroom. Of course, I'm talking about QU...

Fact fluency – It’s a BIG deal. Our state standards call for fact fluency and we all know how much easier it is for students who just “get it.” So how do we support fact fluency in our classrooms and help those students who stumble. Ugh. The struggle is REAL! Over my years of teaching I have learned a few tricks that make fact practice time fun, engaging, quick and help my struggling students see their improvement! So they may never win if we player “Round the World” (aka – they may never be the fastest in their class at facts), but I can help them feel SUCCESSFUL! Since I teach 3rd Grade, I will be sharing mostly about multiplication, but many of these ideas can be modified for other facts. Differentiating Fact Fluency Practice - Great Intervention Last year I learned about the free online fact practice site called XtraMath. At first, I wasn’t convinced, but after sticking with it anyway, boy am I glad I did! It allowed my students to progress at their own pace and level, and now that I have done it for over half of the school year, I can see it has made a difference. I had students who were just struggling with addition facts at the beginning of the year, but now they are much quicker and it has tremendously helped with multiplication (even though some of them are still working on addition or subtraction in January in XtraMath). I often teach my students strategies such as, if you know 5x6=30, then you just add 6 more for 6x6. For students who are fluent in addition, this is no problem, but for our strugglers, it is a HUGE deal - cue the counting fingers from 30 to 36. Since I have used XtraMath everyday, I see less finger counting and more confident students. This is also wonderful RTI (INTERVENTIONS) data. You are intervening at their level and pace. I do teach my students their multiplication facts whole class, but XtraMath allows me to continue supporting their intervention needs. Multiples with Music If you can’t use YouTube in the classroom, I apologize in advance, because that is where this links to. We can teach our students just about anything, but if it is set to music, they are much more likely to remember it. Not too long ago, I was getting ready to introduce the multiples of 7 to my 3rd graders. I told them about the fun multiples of 7 song we were going to learn, and I said “I bet even the 8th graders remember this song!” Well of course inquiring minds want to know. So we called down to the 8th grade (small school privileges) and guess what? They rocked it! My heart was beaming because even 5 years later, my former students remembered it! Sooo, without further ado, here is the amazing video we rock out to with out pretend guitars and microphones, ever year! Disappearing Skip Counting Sooooo, I could explain this, buuuuut a video is so much better! Once we learn a song or jingle like the song I linked to above, I will quickly write the numbers on the board and each time we sing the song, I will erase a few numbers. This is especially helpful for visual learners, because even though the number gets erased, they can still "picture it in their mind." Fact Fluency Tents I was so tired of copying flash card for my students, taking the time to cut them out and write the answers on back, only for them to lose some of the cards! So, that is why I created fact fluency tents! It's like having 50 flash cards on one page! Yay! How do I use them? Almost everyday, we pair up right after recess and practice just like in the video here with the green x2 fact tent. Once we get the routine down, it literally only takes us 5 minutes. I also assign it as homework every night. My students write their progress down on a fact tracker sheet and I check to see if they completed it as homework and have a parent leave their initials. You can grab a FREE sample of these fact fluency tents here. >>> Free Fact Fluency Tents Excited about the fact fluency tents and want them all now? >>> Fact Fluency Tents Bundle (You can buy fact fluency tents separately. Just look in the description on TpT for links.) Growth Mindset One of the BIGGEST changes I have made in the last 3 years is teaching "the power of yet." So often, students feel like they fail when they can't beat the "fastest multiplier in the west." I say that is bull-oney! The BEST tactic I have ever instilled is NOT fastest or best; it is "I am not good at this YET, but I WILL be great!" I have my students track the number of facts that they finish in one minute each day so THEY can see THEIR OWN GROWTH! At the end of the week (or when we are finishing up a fact), I allow my students to share their growth if they want to. I am always amazed by how many of them share and how many really encourage each other with positive affirmations. My students will share their growth with, "I started by finishing __#, and today I finished ____#." For some students those numbers are 3 to 24 and for others it is 14 to 52. Whatever the progress, I make sure and reply with a positive affirmation, and I love it when other students join in with their positive words. This is the FACT TRACKER SHEET I use for each fact. You can snag it for free with the Free Fact Fluency Tents. Donut Math I use donut math when my kids have the wiggles and we just need to get up out of our seat. This is a fun team competition type of game that my friend Kim from Elementary Antics explained in a previous blog post here in All About 3rd Grade. Check out the donut math post here with all the simple step by step directions! Silly Fact Sayings Some of the facts just need a silly saying in order to memorize them, so here are some ideas: Skate x Skate = Slicky Floor, 8 x 8 = 64 I tell my students to imagine that they have ice skates on and they are making figure eights on the slick icy floor. Four wheel drive when I am 16, 4 x 4 = 16 I do come from a rural school where lots of families have 4 wheel drive vehicles, plus you can get a drivers license in our state when you turn 16. I am not sure if some states have changed the license age. 5, 6, 7, 8.... 56 = 7 x 8 6 x 8 is really great, 6 x 8 = 48 6 x 7 is stuck in glue, 6 x 7 = 42 3 x 7 is lots of fun, 3 x 7 = 21 Games and Centers I am a fan of fun and hands-on! If I can make it "click" with my students using activities rather than worksheets, I am all over it. Multiplication and Division Bump My students often choose this as a free time Friday (if they have earned it) activity or an indoor recess game. Yay! Basically the students are playing against each other on a multiplication or division game board and trying to claim as many spots on the board before their opponent knocks them off. They can claim spots on the board by correctly answering a math fact, but an opponent can also knock them off it they draw (or roll with dice) the same fact. If you are interested in bump games, you can see several different bump versions here in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Multiplication and Division Sorts These are my favorite! Why do I love sorts? My students can do this activity again and again, unlike worksheets that can only be done once. I send sorts home as homework, use them in my centers, send them with anyone who may be working with my students for interventions, use them in my small math groups....... you get the picture. Repetition is the key with multiplication and sorts allow you to have students repeat a sort again and again without having to reinvent the wheel. You can easily make some sorts just using index cards and colorful markers. If you are pressed for time, you can also get your students involved and have them help you make some sets or you can purchase some on TpT. I have several sorts available because I am a huge fan of math sorts. They are available in these bundles or you can check out the individual resources within the description. 3rd Grade Math Centers Year Round Bundle 3rd Grade Math Centers Winter Theme 3rd Grade Math Centers Spring Theme I hope that you can go back to school tomorrow with at least ONE NEW IDEA and you feel inspired to be able to help your struggling multipliers tackle the "POWER OF YET" for their multiplication facts. You can do this!

We are on our 4th week of measurement in my class! PTL the rulers are put away this week because we've moved onto learning about area! After 3

Do you want your students to learn about hyperbole? They embellish reality in a fun and exciting way to engage students while they learn. This literary element will help with your students’ creative writing and you can use it when discussing the author’s craft in their reading. Read on

Looking for new and fun ideas to help teach making inferences? I've got 5 engaging mini-lesson ideas for you to try in your elementary classroom!

Do you want to keep your students engaged and reading during reading time? Read this post to learn about 10 reading centers for upper elementary.

Grade 3 science lessons and ideas for teachers... especially in BC! These lessons, ideas, projects, experiments, and inquiry, cover all topics and will have you ready to teach science to students in third grade.

From making a graph paper "person" to making your own mosaic, here are creative ways to teach area and perimeter activities.

I love teaching a split-grade class. I know this may not be a popular opinion in teaching, but there it is. In reality, many of us teach split-grade

Dive into magnets and magnetic force with these STEM challenges, activities, and videos for 3rd grade science. Discover how magnets work and get hands-on with these magnet activities that align to NGSS.

I’m back to share some more tips on how you can stop the stress and anxiety and have your best first week ever! One of the best things you can do at the start of the year is set up strong classroom procedures, routines, and expectations for every part of your room. Make sure your...

Thinking about implementing a Daily Three reading structure for reading rotations? Check out this post for details and example activities for each roation.

Are you one of the many teachers who is struggling to teach summarizing? Summarizing can be a difficult skill for students to master. It requires strong reading comprehension since students need to be able to

Get helpful tips for how to manage data folders in the primary classroom. Download the free student data folders kit to get started!

Analyzing character traits is a key fiction reading skill that is needed for successful comprehension. In most cases, authors do not just come out and tell readers the traits that a character possesses. By teaching

Are you looking for ideas for an end of year ceremony? You will find creative ideas for before, during, and after the ceremony! Your students will be engaged, your parents will be shedding tears, and you will be a rock star! Read on to find out more and grab a freebie! BEFORE THE CEREMONY 1. WIGGLE WORMS: All children get a little wiggly when it comes to sitting for a lengthy period of time. Promise a handful of gummy worms after the ceremony and tell them to wiggly the worms into their mouths! 2. INDEPENDENT ACTIVITY: Students need an independent, quiet activity while you are gathering last minute materials or you are all waiting to be called to the auditorium. Here are some great ways to motivate students and keep them engaged while you run around making sure everything is ready! a. Memory or Reflection Activities Ideas the can easily be written on the board: * Favorite memory of the year. * Write to next year's class and tell them what to expect. (This works well to place on the bare bulletin board at the beginning of the year!) * Create a list of favorite things: (subject, sport, friends, special area, outside school activity, food, color, music, etc.) * What do you want to be when you grow up? * What do you think you will do when you graduate high school? (I like to do this one and keep them! When my fourth graders graduate from high school, I send them a graduation card with this in it! Kids AND parents LOVE it! I include my email and address in the card and their responses are priceless! b. Free Brainteasing Task Cards * Idioms * Analogies * Guess the number * Brainteaser questions * Hidden meaning * How many words can you make out of summer? DURING THE CEREMONY 3. PHOTO SLIDESHOW: Dig through all the pictures you took throughout the year. Place them on a photo slideshow. Play it either before and after the ceremony with music. Or have it running during the ceremony. A selection of music to play: * The Time of My Life: David Cook * Hero: Mariah Carey * Good Riddance (Time of Your Life): Green Day * Beautiful Day: U2 * Happy: Pharrel Williams * Just the Way You Are: Bruno Mars * What a Wonderful World: Louis Armstrong * It's My Life: Jon Bon Jovi * Fly Like an Eagle: Steve Miller Band 4. AWARDS: Academic, perfect attendance, and end of grade awards are staples to be given at the ceremony, but each child should get a personal award to reflect their year in your class. Make it fun by holding your own ceremony in your classroom to give out a personal award to each student! These are unique awards where each student is given a notable person award. There is a description of why the student got that person's award AND a quote from the famous person. Super Cute! There are also directions to add students' pictures and how to make a video 5. POEM TO STUDENTS: After a whole year with your precious babies, let them (and their parents) know how much they mean to you. It is time to get sentimental! Copy this and fill in the blanks! What About Me? I'm proud of all the strides you've made, And now you are ready to move onto _______ grade. You are probably saying, "The end is finally near!" And I see how much you've grown this year. I thank your parents for being there the whole year through, My job was easier because they supported you. You've become writers, scientists, mathematicians, and more, Your eagle wings are ready for you to soar! It is now time to send you off on your way, But do you ever wonder what happens to me at the end of the day? After the hugs and graduation handshake, I sit down exhausted and look forward to a summer break. I reflect on how much you touched my heart in many ways, I only hope that you remember me and your _____ grade days. I will always cherish you and keep you close to my heart, And give you never ending well wishes while we are apart. I hope that some day you will come back to visit me, We will share your news and remember how it used to be. AFTER THE CEREMONY 6. ICE CREAM BAR: There are cute ideas on Pinterest like diploma cookies and graduation cap cupcakes, My favorite is an ice cream buffet! Get big tubs of ice-cream, some waffle bowls, and tons of ingredients to top off the cool delicious dessert! Use signup genius to list ingredients and ask parents for help! Ideas for ingredients: * strawberries * rasberries * chocolate and strawberry syrup * caramel * bananas * oreo crumbles * Reese pieces * marshmallows * cereals like Rice Krispies or Cheerios * graham cracker crumbles * gummy bears * Sour Patch Kids * whipped cream * sprinkles 7. DANCE PARTY: Since the kids have to sit still during the ceremony, promise them a dance party afterwards! Put on some fun music and let them dance! Even if you do it for 10 minutes, they will thank you! Idea: Occasionally turn off the music and they need to freeze. Turn it back on and they start again. Fun! 8. AUTOGRAPHS: Give the students time to get each other's autographs! Ideas: * Have students bring in a T-shirt * Include it as part of a memory book * Give them a beach ball 9. GIFTS FOR STUDENTS: * Letter to students- Write a nice little note to your students. Idea: Include your address. Tell them that you will write to them over the summer and ask them to reply! * Flash drive of music played throughout the year. * A framed class picture. Creative Ideas: * Frisbee- This year flew by! * Popsicle- Have a cool summer! * Bubbles- You blew me away this year! * Ball- This year has been a ball! * Kool-Aid- Have a Kool summer! * Candy- You made this year sweet! * Cookie- You are one smart cookie! * Chalk- Chalk it up to a great year! CHECK THESE OUT: 10. LETTER TO PARENTS: Send a sweet note to parents thanking them for sharing their children and trusting you with them. Include some ideas for summer reading! I hope you found some ideas to help your ceremony be a success! Connect With Me! TPT Store Facebook Pinterest My Blog

Are you teaching 3rd grade rounding numbers? In this blog post, I'll go over the easiest way to introduce this skill to your students by using a number line.

Practicing counting in groups is LOTS of fun with free printable Skip Counting Mazes! No prep worksheets to practice counting 2s-10s at various levels!

You just found out you are teaching a split grade class next year. For most teachers the idea of teaching a split is overwhelming. You have twice as many

Morphology walls are a great tool in 4th and 5th grade classrooms! Read more and sign up for free posters to make your own morphology wall!

While I am a firm believer in students reading real books that they choose and doing this often, I also love to include reading games and reading centers in

Activities that boost fluency all year long…and that you only have to prep once!

Making inferences worksheets and activities aren't always easy for students, but there are fun ways to teach this challenging reading skill.

Geometry can be a lot of fun OR it can be really confusing. This post shares 10 ways to review attributes of geometric shapes to make it fun!

Are you new to teaching third grade? Whether you’re a newbie or a veteran teacher, here’s what you need to know: 1. Multiplication is king. Multiplication RULES third grade math. Our standards say that students must memorize facts within 100, but it doesn’t say how we have to do it. Lots of games and teaching ... Read More about New To Teaching Third Grade?

Teaching theme is not an easy task! Not only do students need to have a strong comprehension of the story's elements (like plot, setting, and characters), but they also have to be able to make inferences to find the author's message, since most themes are not overtly stated by the author. So, what are some of my favorite activities for helping kids understand theme? I'll list a number of them here. 1. Make an Anchor Chart Anchor charts are a great way to make learning visual and to have a record that kids can refer to when they need a bit of extra support. Theme may be defined in a number of ways. To me, the theme is the author's message or what he/she wants the reader to take away/learn from the story. It is a BIG idea, with a real-world or universal concern and can be applied to anyone. Besides talking about what a theme is, you'll also want to go over what it isn't. For example, some kids confuse the main idea of the story with its theme. To help students understand the difference, it's helpful to use stories that everyone in the class knows, like previous read alouds or classic stories like The Three Little Pigs. You can take each story and discuss the main idea (what the story was mostly about - specific to the story) vs. the theme (the lesson the author wants the reader to know - not specific to the story), to contrast the two ideas. The second area of confusion for some kids is that the theme is not specific to the characters in the story. In the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, for example. The theme would not be that...A little mouse named Chrysanthemum learned to accept the uniqueness of her name. The theme would be larger than the book and would be something like...It's important to accept oneself. Also, you'll want to explain to your students that often times, a book has multiple themes and there are several answers which work equally well to describe a book's theme. Since theme is very subjective, I tell students that I will accept any answer, as long as they have the text evidence to prove it. For example, in the book, Wonder, by R.J. Palacio, one might argue that the theme is about friendship, another might say family, or even courage, or kindness. Any one of these themes would be right, and counted as such, since they each fit the story and could be supported by text evidence. 2. Use Pixar Shorts to Practice Theme Besides the sheer enjoyment which comes from watching these mini-films, your students can learn a lot about reading concepts from these. They're great for ELL students or for struggling readers, and for all readers really since the text complexity piece is removed. You can find these clips on YouTube, but you'll want to make sure to preview them first, so you're more familiar with the plot and are able to focus on theme questions. Here are some of my favorite Pixar Shorts for teaching theme: Piper Partly Cloudy Lava Boundin' 3. Use Mentor Texts Mentor texts are one of my go-to teaching tools as picture books are able to portray examples of just about any reading concept you need to teach. One thing I like to do when using mentor texts for theme, is to vary the types of questions I ask. Rather than always saying What is the theme?, I might ask... What is the deeper meaning of this story? After reading this book, what do you think matters to this author? Which idea from the story do you think might stay with you? What did the author want people to learn from this story?... Once kids answer, you might say, Ah...so that's the theme! Some of my current mentor text favorites for theme include the following: Ish by Peter H. Reynolds I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe Journey by Aaron Becker (a wordless book) Beautiful Oops by Barry Saltzberg The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal Pete and Pickles by Berkeley Breathed If you're looking for more titles, I have a FREE Mentor Text List for Literature which includes a page on theme which you can download from my TpT store. 4. Use Posters with Themes to Chart Book Themes I like to choose 8 - 10 common themes and place posters of them in the classroom. These are included in my Theme unit but you could easily make them yourself if you'd like. After we finish a class novel, a read aloud, or a mentor text as part of a mini-lesson, I like to have the kids discuss the theme of the book. Once we decide on the theme, I place a miniaturized copy of the book's cover (about 3 x 3 inches or so) under the correct theme poster. You can also make the posters more interactive by allowing kids to write titles of books they have recently read on sticky notes, under the posters as well. 5. Use Songs to Practice Finding the Theme I love to add music to the classroom whenever possible. Not only does it add instant motivation for some kids, but it is also just good for them in so many ways. There are lots of songs you can use to teach theme, from current pop songs to oldies, rap songs, and country songs. While all of these work well, I especially enjoy using Disney songs. Disney songs are easily recognized for some kids, have catchy, fun tunes, and have lyrics that need no censoring (yay!). You can easily find the lyrics online to project on a smartboard or document projector, and the song clips may be found on YouTube, Here are some of my favorite Disney songs which work well for theme: Hakuna Matata from Lion King Just Keep Swimming from Finding Dory Reflection from Mulan Let it Go from Frozen Something There from Beauty and the Beast A Whole New World from Aladdin 6. Introduce Short Texts Using Task Cards Using task cards for theme gives your students a great deal of practice in a short period of time, which makes them a perfect way to begin to practice finding the theme using text. I love the fact that students can read multiple task card stories and practice finding the theme 20 - 30 times, in the time it might take to read a story and find the theme once. You can do task cards as a center activity, to play Scoot, or as a whole class scavenger hunt. One thing I like to do for the scavenger hunt is to make sure everyone has a partner and to pair stronger readers with struggling readers. 7. Add Some Writing After students have worked on theme for a week or two, I like to have students create their own short stories which show a strong theme, without directly stating it. This changes each student's role from a theme finder, to a theme creator and gives students insight into how authors create a situation that allows a theme to unfold. When I introduce this project, we refer back to the task cards we just completed, as an example of story length and rich content. In a matter of 2 - 3 paragraphs, students learn that they can include enough information to let our readers know our message. After students are finished creating these short stories, it's fun to share them in some way, to give more theme practice. Sometimes I have students meet in small groups to share out, with group members guessing the theme. Other years, I leave a stack on my desk and grab several if we have a few minutes. Either the students or I read the short story out loud, and the class discusses the theme. 8. Move to Passages, Short Stories, and Novels. Once we have scaffolded a great foundation for the understanding of theme, there comes a point where kids have to move on to text which is more challenging. I like to use page-long passages which I have created, before using short stories, and ultimately novels. If you're looking for some ready made materials to help you teach theme, here's a packet I love to use which works well for 4th and 5th Graders. Click here to read more about the Theme unit. Want some more teaching ideas and activities to teach theme? Click here to read Teaching Themes in Literature. If you like this post, make sure to share it with a teacher friend! Thanks so much for stopping by! For more ideas and strategies focused on upper elementary, be sure to sign up for The Teacher Next Door's free email newsletter! Bonus, you'll also gain access to my FREE Resource Library which contains exclusive upper elementary freebies that you won't find anywhere else! I'd love to connect with you! The Teacher Next Door's Website Pinterest Facebook Instagram TpT Store