Sometimes whole class reading of a text together is necessary, but as teachers we worry that it might not be the best use of our limited time. It is easy for 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade students’ minds to wander, and it hard to hold them accountable for following along in a way that doesn’t shame students. In …
When teaching theme, we tend to focus on questions that center around how to find the theme of a story – questions like, “What is the theme?” But your upper elementary students will understand theme better and more comprehensively when you use a variety of questions for teaching theme. Use the 36 questions below to help you as you teach …
Identifying the Theme of a Story Slideshow from kbaker4 How to Use This Free Theme SlideshowThe free slideshow above can help you teach your 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade students how to determine the theme of a story. It includes short reading passages where students have to identify the best theme, activities to help students practice distinguishing between …
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 have to use tricks in order for students to understand rounding, then your students are showing you that they have some …
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 …