In this era of high stakes testing, preparing upper elementary students for state testing has become a necessity. Gone are the days where preparing students for a test simply meant meant teaching the content well. For better or worse (and most teachers would probably agree it’s for worse), test prep now includes everything from teaching test strategies, making sure kids …
Ahhhh….standardized tasting. An upper elementary teacher’s unavoidable nemesis. And while teachers don’t have the power to stop standardized testing, we can make sure we provide engaging activities and games to make reviewing fun for our 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade students. I surveyed over 800 teachers, asking each of them how they prepared for state testing. The ideas …
Teachers use all sorts of tricks to teach students how to round – tricks like rollercoasters, raps, step-by-step anchor chart instructions, rhymes, underlining digits, and more. Teaching rounding using easy tricks is a short term solution, though. If you are having to use tricks in order for students to understand rounding, then your students are showing you that they have …
Teaching theme to 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade students is just plain HARD. Theme is an abstract idea, making it really hard for teachers to put into words and even harder for students to grasp. If your students are struggling with understanding theme, rest assured that they are not alone! Teachers all over the world have this same …
Wordless picture books are an underused resource in upper elementary classrooms. There are so many ways to use them with your 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students to teach a variety of skills – from making inferences, to story elements, to summarizing, to writing dialogue. But not all wordless books are created equal, especially for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade …
Teaching theme to upper elementary students can be incredibly difficult because it is such an abstract idea. 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade students need a lot of practice in order to truly understand it. This no prep freebie (a printable pdf) can help your students get the extra practice they need with finding the theme of a story.Get …
If you haven’t had a paper snowball fight in your 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade classroom, then you should – and soon! This was one of my students’ favorite activities. They enjoyed it so much that they didn’t realize they were learning and being assessed! One of my favorite ways to have snowball fights was when I needed …
Strategy board games are great for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers to have on hand for things like “Fun Friday,” indoor recess, class parties, or board game days. My 5th grade teacher taught every student in our classroom how to play chess. Whenever we had any extra time, we got a chance to play this strategy game with a …
If you have 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade students that don’t like to read (and what teacher doesn’t?), then finding engaging texts is a must. Books about animals are universally appealing – and very few students can resist a nonfiction animal book with unbelievable and incredible true stories. The books below tell true stories of animal friendships, loyalty, …
No matter how long you’ve been teaching, surprise teacher observations will always be a little nerve-racking. Having your teaching skills evaluated based on a 5 minute stretch of time in a room full of kids that are constantly doing the unpredictable is stressful. During a planned classroom observation, upper elementary teachers generally pull out all of the stops, making sure …