These engaging strategies to incorporate movement in the classroom are perfect for the fidgety students & kinesthetic learners in your class!

Let's talk about disrespectful behaviors in the classroom. The child who talks back. The student using their cell phone, even after being told to put it away. The kid who refuses to do their work, and even loudly tells you, "no!" when you try to politely give some encouragement. The student who joke

Your students will learn and retain information more with this research based strategy that just reading it alone. Jigsaw is a fun, engaging cooperative learning strategy that requires the participation of all students and they are mutually dependent on each other for a successful outcome. In this r...

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

It's so important to have students practice solving unknown word meanings every day. Grab some ideas to implement word analysis strategies instruction in your upper elementary classroom right away!

This cooperative learning strategy has been around for decades, but how well do you really know it?

Here are four steps to teach your middle school students how to find the central idea of informational text. It's a step by step method you can follow to determine the central idea.

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

8 ideas to keep students engaged and having fun with a simple worksheet

Discover hands-on beginning of the year science activities that will excite your students and build the foundation for future science lessons!

Hey, friends! I’m teaming up with my good friend Elyse from Proud to be Primary to bring you a whole slew of classroom management tips and tricks… plus, a bunch of classroom management freebies! This

Stop taking away recess and using other punishments to control your students. Find success with 10 powerful classroom management strategies!

Do you get stressed trying to squeeze in all the curriculum you need to cover? This is Deanna from A Primary Owl and believe me this is my daily struggle! I teach third grade and the amount of Social Studies and Science topics we have to cover is crazy....plus we take District Assessments over all these topics so nothing can be skipped or else my students will bomb the tests. One of my go-to strategies is one that has been around a long time, it's one of those oldies but goodies. So when I am crunched for time, I have my students JIGSAW the topics and let THEM be the experts. They love this part, I tell them they are going to be the teachers. Third graders just eat that up:) STEP ONE: Here is a great website that can give you the break down of all the steps but the first thing I decide is how I want to break apart the material being studied. Often for me, it is a chapter in a textbook. For example, right now we are studying the Habitats of Georgia so I divided the groups into the different regions. STEP TWO: Then decide how many students will need to be in each group. I let my students pick the group they want to be in but you can also assign groups. Then give the groups their guidelines on how they are going to study and present the material. This is where large chart paper comes in handy! I almost always have my groups make a chart. STEP THREE: After each group has time to study the material and decide how to "teach" it, it is time to do the presenting. The idea is that you take one expert from each group and form the JIGSAW groups, where each person presents their material to a small group. Sometimes, I have the groups present to the class as a whole (depending on the subject matter and how many groups I have). STEP FOUR: One important step, is to make sure you have a way for students to demonstrate what they learned from each group. You may want them to take notes as each person presents, or have a short formative assessment. FREEBIE: This strategy works so well and students love it. They enjoy learning from their peers and I love being able to cover topics in an efficient way. You can get a copy of my planning guide by clicking the picture: So don't forget about this awesome strategy the next time you're trying to squeeze it all in! Don't forget to keep checking back with us, we've got some great tips for fall coming up!

Let's dive into some new options to teach vocabulary, for those who have the time and energy to pursue them. In this post and podcast, I'm sharing ten ideas for making the study of vocabulary something students might even look forward to.

Getting students engaged in lessons dosen't have to be complicated or time consuming. I'm sharing my go-to student engagement strategies. These strategies..

HyperDocs have become one of my favorite tools for creating lessons that promote the 4 C’s. If you are unfamiliar with HyperDocs, I highly encourage you to visit the HyperDoc website for thei…

Using strategies to make thinking visible can be incredibly powerful. Their power, however, hinges almost entirely on how willing teachers are to learn about their students. Far too often, I see vi…

Teaching growth mindset can be done with read-alouds! Rosie's Glasses is a great book for this. Get ideas for using this book to teach being positive.

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

Photocopy limits are the pits! I once taught at a school with a ridiculously tight budget and found myself almost in tears when something copied out wrong - all those wasted copies! They can be particularly frustrating when we come across wonderful printable resources which we'd love to use with our

Quick strategies to get your kids talking about the RIGHT stuff at the RIGHT time!

Simple strategies to monitor and manage classroom behaviors and turn your classroom management style into a positive learning environment.

In order to boost virtual classroom participation and reduce achievement gaps, it is essential that teachers explore different strategies to see which ones motivate their students to learn.

At the beginning of last school year, I was excited to be teaching a new grade at a new school in a new district. I had made a big change, and it was just what I needed. To add to all of the "new", I was starting the year with 30 students. Thirty is definitely on the big size as it is, but we all know that new kids trickle in over the course of most school years...and last year was no different! By the time the school year was over, I was sharing my classroom with 34 awesome 5th graders. We all learned a lot, grew a lot, and had a pretty good time while doing it! It was definitely a learning process for me, and hopefully I can share some of what I learned to make your year better for you! 1. You've Got to Embrace It Here's the thing, your class size is your class size whether you like it or not, so you've got to embrace it. It's going to be crazy. It may get chaotic. It's going to be crowded. But your attitude will be a major determining factor in the kind of year you and your students have. Now, I'm not saying that my teammates and I didn't take time to vent about the added challenge we were facing; we're only human! But throughout the year, I'd joke "I'm mentally preparing for how I'm going to respond when [my principal] comes to tell me that I'm getting my 33rd/34th/35th student." You may have to "fake it till you make it" but having the most positive attitude you can will go a long way. 2. Room Arrangement While I'd wrapped my brain around having a big bunch of kids, I was having a harder time figuring out how all those desks were going to work in my smallish classroom. That might have been the part that was the most stressful for me. Luckily, my students were OK with all the experimenting I did while trying to figure out the best room configuration for us. I want to share with you guys some of things that worked for me. Push groups of desks together. I started the year with 8 teams of 4 since my district is a big believer in Kagan cooperative learning. That meant that there were teams and desks wall-to-wall. Then I decided to push the teams together so desks were in groups of 8-9. This made a HUGE difference. Kids were still in their teams of 4-5, but we gained a LOT of floor space which made it easier to move around. Find a way to give kids space to spread out. One thing I noticed as the year went on was that we were so packed in there that kids didn't have a lot of personal space and I could see levels of grumpiness increasing because of that. I let them work at my small group table, in a quiet spot on the floor, etc. You have to get a little creative, but your students will thank you if they have a place to momentarily "escape". Get rid of your desk. It's surprising how much extra space this will give you. Use your small group table as your "headquarters". Give flexible seating a shot. When I got my 34th student, I knew that I could either fit 34 desks into my classroom or keep my sanity. I couldn't do both. I'd used flexible seating at my old school, but was trying to not rock the boat too much at my new school. I reached out to my principal and told her I'd like to try some flexible seating. I know not everybody is ready to jump into flexible seating, but here are a few things you could try. Sweet talk you custodian like I did and see if any tables are available. They take up a lot less room than desks. Take the legs of a table and have a low table. It doesn't technically give you more space, but the room will feel more open. You can get rid of a handful of desks and provide some floor seating options like pillows, stadium chairs, or rocker seats. These all can get tucked away nicely at the end of the day. Move to community supplies and if you don't have cubbies, etc., provide bins (they can be cheap!) for your kids to keep their personal supplies in. 3. Have your students help! One thing that every teacher deals with is having about a million things at a time running through their head. Having a large class can make that even worse. There are just SO MANY moving pieces. And teachers (including me) often have a hard time delegating responsibilities. At one point, it really hit me - "There are 34 people in this room who are not me. How can they help me more?" I know that I am lucky in that I teach 5th graders who are pretty capable of having different responsibilities in the classroom, but I think that students at any age can do a lot more in the classroom than they may be doing. And I found that having students help with the little things honestly freed up some much needed space in my brain as well as making the classroom run more smoothly. Plus, kids of all ages LOVE having jobs to do! Here are some of the little "tasks" I had students help me out with: Changing the date on the board Being in charge of taking our library cards to/from the library Putting homework in student mailboxes Grabbing my walkie-talkie at recess time Turning on and/or connecting the projector when we were going to use it (I've got kind of a clunky set up) Taking tardy passes down to the office on the way to lunch or recess (without me asking!) 4. Delegate I know we're not all lucky enough to have parent or other volunteers, but if you do, USE THEM! It took me a while to get into the swing of the best ways to use volunteers, but I found that using them to both work with students and help me out with tasks was the best combination. I've always had parents who can't come in to help because of work, but say they could help at home. In the past, I never used them much, but once I realized that I could send laminating home to be cut or booklets to be stapled, those parents became a great resource. Even if students were playing a math game or something like that and were fine working on their own, I'd ask a parent volunteer to take them into the hallway or another common area to work just to free up a little space in the classroom. Let go of the perfectionism and have volunteers hang up bulletin boards or classroom displays. If it's not perfect, I promise you're the only one who will notice. Get in the habit of asking yourself, "Could somebody else do this?" and if the answer is yes, and you have someone that can do it, let them. That frees up more time for you to do the things only you can do like planning and grading. 5. Don't grade it all! It's hard to ignore the fact that you've got a big class when you have a giant stack of papers to grade sitting in front of you. Thirty plus math tests, essays, reading assessments, etc. is a LOT. One of my good friends is also a 5th grade teacher in my district and she only had 19 kids. I spent way to much time lamenting the fact that I had 15 more math tests to grade than she did! Grading those summative assessments is unavoidable, but really think about what else you need to grade. Do you need to take the time to look over 30+ homework assignments, or could you review them with the whole class? Do you need to grade every piece of classwork or can you quickly scan through it to use as a formative assessment? Can you give a short exit ticket at the end of class and not have to review entire pages of math to see if your students got the concept? This is one area where you can really save yourself some time and sanity. 6. Make time for every student One thing I found was that when you have so many kids in your class, it can be really easy to unintentionally let some kids slip through the cracks during the day. So I made a point to be at my door in the morning to greet everyone (while I let the students take on some of those beginning of the day tasks I mentioned above). All of my students have numbers, and those numbers are on popsicle sticks to make sure everyone is getting called on during the day, but I'd also write a few kids' names on sticky notes and stick them on my cart or my projector. That may make me sound like some kind of absent-minded professor, but if you've had a big class you know that it's easier than it should be for kids to "hide" when there are a lot of classmates around. I also did"lunch with the teacher" for small groups at the beginning of the year just for a chance to get to get to know all of my students a little in a smaller setting. Then it was a popular reward/incentive for the rest of the year - I think we all enjoyed spending time together with a little less chaos. Whatever system or structure you use, make sure you are intentional about making every student feel like they are seen and heard - even if you have to leave sticky notes for yourself! :) 7. Routines & Procedures I know that I'm not telling you anything new when I say it's important to have routines and procedures set up to make things run smoothly in your classroom. We all know that. But with 34 students in the room, I found that I had to run the ship a little tighter than usual. Normally turning your homework in when you come in in the morning is a simple process, but have you ever watched 3 dozen kids try to turn their homework in at once? Gets a little crazy. I added a second homework turn in location, and then gave a student the job of collecting both piles. (See Tip #3!) We ended up having to form two lines when lining up after lunch or recess because it's hard to get an orderly line when you have students waaaaaaay back at the end of the line. Each classroom is (obviously) different and those are just examples of two things I put into place last year to help me manage all my students and keep my sanity! I encourage you to think about ways you could put a routine into place where maybe things have been a little free flowing? What's making you the craziest? Can you change a procedure or make a "rule" to help out with that? It'll help you keep control of the chaos and your students will appreciate the structure, too! If there are some behaviors popping up in your students that you'd like to get a handle on before they get too out of control, click here or on the picture below to check out how I use Individual Behavior Goals in my classroom. Do you have a big class this year? Leave a comment to tell us how many students you have and any tips or tricks I haven't mentioned!

Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!

This week I have been visiting third grade classrooms to do lessons on strategies for success on the SOLs. Third grade students will be taking the SOLs for the first time starting May 13th. Some of them shared that they are feeling scared, nervous, worried, excited, etc. The goal of this lesson is to build their confidence and give them strategies to help them do their best. The lesson is titled "You're In Control". We started by watching this video: Next, we moved on to identifying strategies that can help students be successful on the tests. There are many things students can do before, and the day of the test to help them do their best. We talked about being in control of our success. We used the buttons on a remote control as examples for things we can do to stay in control. As a class we came up with lots of ideas and then students picked their top 10 for their remote control. Here is an example of what your student might be bringing home: Here is a list of some strategies the classes came up with: Prepare and study-use your resources Take your time, you have as long as you need Relax and take deep breaths Flag questions you want to go back and review Reread Get enough sleep Eat a good breakfast Take breaks: water, walking, bathroom Circle key words Wear comfortable clothes and dress for success Cross out wrong answers Use your tools remove distractions BE CONFIDENT! You're going to rock this test!

Whether you're new to teaching or a veteran, this list has you covered for 4th grade.

Filler Activities for ELA (blog post) What can you do with five extra minutes in secondary ELA? Here are a few ideas to engage students until the bell.

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

On A Peach for the Teach on Facebook, I invited people to ask their most challenging behavior questions. We got some great questions, each of which really tied together. Dona asked, I have a student that comes to me from second grade (I teach 1st) for my entire reading block, who likes to shout out talk back and just shuts down when you ask him to do something. He then treats his 2nd teacher with severe disrespect when he goes back to class. Rebecca asked, I have a class of 25 this year. 1 student is below K level (I teach 1st grade), 2 are identified as ADHD, we are working towards another student getting identified as ADHD, and I have 2 students who have really disrespectful attitudes. I have tried talking with parents, I have changed their seating, I have tried encouraging them and pointing out the positive......nothing seems to be working. Ideas? Lindsay asked, I need motivation tips for kids who can do the work but basically refuse to... These are such common issues that teachers face daily. I think they all tie together and have similar interventions, which led me to write this blog post-- How to Help Calling Out and "Class Clown" Behavior. "If you put a kid in the position of choosing between looking bad or looking dumb, he will choose to look bad." - Rick Lavoie, Motivation Breakthrough When a student is performing at a level lower than his peers, he is often aware of that. That could be part of the reason for the acting out. Maybe the child is embarrassed and would rather be seen as a class clown than struggling. It allows the child a sense of control over a situation where he would otherwise feel out of control. Try giving him some control in a positive way. To intervene, start with an informal play meeting. Meet with the student individually when he is calm, to play a preferred, non-academic game at the beginning or end of the day. He may be more likely to open up honestly in that type of setting through informal conversations (e.g., favorite TV shows, games, etc.). Casually ask what he likes and doesn't like about school, and "admit" to him that you always had a hard time with [insert his least preferred subject]. Try not to make it obvious that this is the whole point of your conversation. He might give you some insight into what's causing this. It's also great for establishing rapport, which will help you to get the student on your side. Give him some sort of task with which he can be successful, and give him positive attention for completing it. Avoid patronizing him or making it obviously at a level lower than the other students. Instead, try non-academic leadership positions, like a class helper, teacher's assistant, etc. Maybe give him the opportunity to call on students with questions. "Class, today we are going to try something new." Next, set limits. Start by telling the whole class that today we are going to try something new. Starting today, the teacher will no longer answer any calling out. Explain that we need to practice raising our hands and not calling out. Demonstrate, practice, and ask for volunteers to show you what hand raising looks like. Establish a non-verbal cue (e.g., a cue card with an image of a hand, or simply hold up your hand), and completely ignore calling out. Instruct the class to also ignore calling out. Have students practice calling out while you ignore it. Explain why you're doing this, so the student knows it's not just him being ignored. Ignore the behavior, not the child. You might want to give one verbal cue, such as, "I'd be happy to answer you when you raise your hand." This is your new procedure that will happen every single time a student calls out. You could still say it in a positive tone of voice, but it's all you will say. Give a Little, Get a Little Use positive language to elicit positive language. If a student is using disrespectful language, being threatening will teach the child to talk back with threatening language. Think about your reaction when somebody confronts you with doing something wrong. You initially feel a little attacked, so you want to react. Give the student the opportunity to save face. For example, instead of, "How dare you speak to me that way?" try a, "Whoops, that sounded disrespectful. I know you could ask me using nicer words," and only respond when he uses nicer words. If he doesn't, say, "I'll be over here when you're ready to use nice words to ask me." Dodge the Power Struggle To nip disrespect in the bud, we need to avoid power struggles-- even when a student questions what we're doing. That's the part that really tricks even the most skilled behavior interventionists. We want students to believe in, trust, and respect us. When they question what we're doing, we want to tell them. Please don't. You don't need to justify yourself in this moment. You may be skilled with planned ignoring, but when the child asks, "Why are you ignoring me?" it's too tempting to reply with an explanation, but resist the urge. If you planned and practiced this procedure previously, the child already knows why you're ignoring him. He may try to get you to give him anything other than the ignoring. Stick to the ignoring, and he will eventually try using nice words to get you to reply. It may also be helpful to teach a lesson on the words "disrespect" vs. "respect." Teach the meaning, and explain situations and words that are unacceptable. Teach this with empathy, and practice it. If the child uses negative language in class, prompt with a, "Please use your nice words if you need me to respond to you." Completely ignore anything else. I know that using a firm prompt followed by planned ignoring sometimes feels like you aren't doing anything to stop the behavior, but that's the best thing about it-- doing "nothing" stops the behavior. It completely eliminates the power struggle and argument. The child will be forced to use kind words to get any type of reaction out of you and to gain access to his wants/needs. This also works with whining. I told my little ones that my ears can no longer hear whining, and they all stopped whining. Now if only I could use planned ignoring on messes to make my kitchen clean itself! Words of Caution Sometimes when implementing planned ignoring, the child may initially test the limits and engage in more attention-seeking behavior. This is typical and should pass when he sees that he won't get a reaction. I got a comment on this post that really made me think and add another word of caution about this strategy-- exercise caution when using this for students with bonding and/or attachment needs. We certainly do not want to intensify feelings of abandonment, and we want to be sure that we are responding to their needs. It is vitally important to make sure that we are ignoring the behavior, not the child. Give the child plenty of positive attention for positive behavior. Make giving positive attention during appropriate behavior part of your behavior protocol for this child. When the negative behavior ends and the child begins acting positively, give positive attention. No need for a lecture at that moment. After the Procedure is Learned Once you are sure that the student understands how he will appropriately gain access to wants/needs, you can begin to address the calling out caused by impulsivity and habit. Make a T-chart, and write the positive behavior on the left and negative on the right (e.g., "Called Out" and "Raised My Hand"). Instruct the student to tally when he does each. This alone is often enough to curb the negative behavior. Other times with more severe behavior, it helps if tallies are tied to reinforcement. For example, the student can earn [something preferred] if he has more positive than negative tallies at the end of each block. You could also set goals based on baselines. For example, if the student reduces his calling out by ___% or does not exceed ___% incidents of calling out, he can earn [something preferred]. Class Dojo is another fun way to track this! The teacher can track the behaviors throughout the day, or the students can self-monitor behaviors on their T-Charts and plug them into the Dojo at the end of the day. Establish a procedure that students must earn more green (i.e., "positive") than red (i.e., "needs work"), or a certain percentage of green, in order to earn a reinforcer, positive note home, etc. Another helpful strategy is bonus free time. It's often harder for a student with ADHD and/or behavior needs to attend to instruction for a given length of time, so plan three breaks in the day. I call them "five minute free time" to play with something fun, and I end each of my subjects with it. It gives me five minutes to clean up or correct work, and it gives the students five minutes to regroup. If you're strapped for time, you could have students complete exit tickets, assessments, etc., and give the student with ADHD the special free time. It also gives him something to word toward, as he has to earn the free time. If a student engages in negative behavior or work refusal, I ask if he is earning his free time or if he is to make up his work during free time. Never underestimate the power of a question instead of a demand. A simple, "Are you earning your free time?" is often enough to set the behavior back on track. An additional motivational tool is a task chart where students rank their tasks by preference. They earn little reinforcement for easy/preferred tasks and high reinforcement for non-preferred tasks. You can download that chart for free here. What are some ideas you use in your classroom to help calling out and "class clown" behavior? Do you have any questions about behavior challenges? Please share in the comments below! A Peach for the Teach

Although my blog name is "Teaching Fourth," I have not always taught fourth grade. I started my teaching career in sixth grade. The following year I had an

A new school year usually means a new teacher, new expectations, and new routines, so our students sometimes don't respond as we'd hoped when we try to get

Today I'll be sharing why I think substitute binders are so important and what information you should include in your "sub tub."

Multiplication can be challenging for kids to learn and for teachers to teach! Here are a few tips to make teaching multiplication easier.

This simple behavior management strategy allowed me to anticipate possible behaviors that would happen and plan my reaction or consequence.

Is homework stressing you out? Here are my top 6 strategies for simplifying your homework systems.

Mrs. Miller is in the middle of a thrilling lesson on symbolism when she asks the class what types of symbolism they noticed in chapter 12. She scans the room, and her eyes lock on Billy, who just happens to be looking at anything and anyone other than Mrs. Miller. "Billy, what types of

Use these six classroom management strategies in your science classroom on the first day of school. Back to school for new science teachers.

Over the past few years, I have struggled and struggled with my students on their innate desire to stand up at the end of class. I would make an almost daily reminder that they need to stay in their seats until the bell rings. I would get frustrated that just as it seemed that the procedure would […]