3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students don’t often automatically grab biographies and autobiographies off the classroom library shelf. But the inspiring biographies below will have your upper elementary students begging for more! Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans In my classroom I’ve often found that biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs are a bit of a hard sell. Besides selecting only the …
Written by guest blogger Daniela Garay Point of view is one of those topics that become significantly more complex in upper elementary (third, fourth, and fifth grade), but that could still be taught in fun ways by using familiar stories and videos. In fifth grade, students need to be able to describe how the narrator or speaker’s point of view influences …
Helping children learn to become more resilient and be able to overcoming any obstacles or challenges that might come their way is an important job for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers. The book list below will help you add multicultural, inspiring books to your classroom library and read alouds. Written by guest blogger Amanda Bletsh From a very early …
What is a rubric? Well, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” and honestly, a rubric is just a fancy name for a user-created table for the distinct purpose of evaluating a student’s work. That’s it! So why would teachers even bother to use rubrics for grading? You and I know that any teacher worth her salt …
Helping students to think and monitor their comprehension while they read is the most important part of reading. Without comprehension, reading is pointless. And while building fluency is an essential stepping stone for comprehension, teaching 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students to develop comprehension strategies and the ability to self-monitor is the priority.Common Self-Monitoring Strategies That Don’t Always WorkWe’ve all …
Once students reach 3rd and 4th grade, they have already been introduced to the basics of cause and effect. However, they still need a chance to practice and review this skill in a way that challenges their thinking. Below are some ideas for creating cause and effect centers that will be engaging to upper elementary students. You can use these …
Making inferences in our daily lives comes naturally to most of us. We walk past a bakery and smell the aroma of fresh baked goods and decide to stop in for a treat. But wait – how did we know this establishment would provide us with warm baked goods? Easy, our background knowledge, or prior knowledge, of bakeries and smells …
I don’t know any 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade student that wouldn’t benefit from fraction centers that provide more practice and review with fractions. It’s a difficult skill that requires a solid base of understanding. Drills, worksheets, and other district mandated curriculum can get boring fast, so finding ways to make fractions more engaging is essential if students are going …
Words of a Advice for a New Teacher Written by Veteran Teacher Cindy Koopmans This is Part 2 of a letter giving words of advice for a new teacher from a veteran. The first 5 tips were: Love and enjoy ALL your students. Win their hearts and their minds will follow. Self-care is essential to your success. The word will still …
Written by guest blogger Daniela Garay Are you looking for a fun and meaningful narrative writing unit for your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students? Here it is! Language arts teachers strive for a stronger cross-curricular relationship between reading and writing that interconnects both subjects more purposefully and meaningfully. This point of view writing unit does just that! It takes the …