Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “books”
Thank You Mr. Falker is a heartwarming story that contains themes of overcoming obstacles, persevering, and how kindness can make a huge difference. Patricia Polacco, the author and illustrator, wrote this to tell about the real teacher in her life that encouraged and helped her, and it will encourage your 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students. Below, find comprehension questions …
Enemy Pie is a sweet story of friendship where a boy finds out that his enemy is not really an enemy after all, but a friend. This theme of friendship makes it a great book to read aloud at the beginning of the school year to help you set a positive classroom culture in your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade …
Turkeys. Family. Feasts. History. Thankfulness. Thanksgiving covers so many different themes, and so the best Thanksgiving books for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students also cover a wide variety of topics and themes. Below, find a list of Thanksgiving books that will be engaging for your upper elementary students. While not every facet of Thanksgiving is covered in the book …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans On last week’s exit ticket, I asked my students what they enjoy most in class. The majority of them said, “Reading my Choice book.” That makes this reading teacher want to jump for joy. Now in my twenty-fourth year of teaching, I’ve finally arrived at what I believe to be a winning formula for …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans Hope. Right now, we need it more than ever. 2020 was hard. We are all, to some degree, the walking wounded here. We are all a bit weary of pep talks, we are all feeling the strain of social distancing and wearing these (insert expletive here) masks…ready to throw up our hands, crawl into …
One of the first steps to getting your reluctant readers excited about reading is getting to know what interests them as readers. A reading interest survey is a great way to do this. Written by guest blogger Cindy KoopmansReading Interest Surveys – Through Conversation, Paper, or DigitalYou can get to know what sorts of books interest your 3rd, 4th, and …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans Let’s start with something familiar: the story of Cinderella. Then let’s take a trip around the world and transport this classic tale to many different settings and cultures. Let’s use the story of Cinderella to teach point of view, theme, compare and contrast, and summarizing. Doesn’t this sound like a fun reading unit? …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans It can be a challenge to stock your classroom library with quality literature, especially if you are living on a teacher’s salary – with no additional side hustle or supportive spouse and no one is offering to give you money to buy books. I’ve been in your shoes and here is how you solve …
Whether you are looking for a way to celebrate President’s Day, wanting to make history more engaging for your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students, or looking for a nonfiction read aloud about one of our past U.S. President’s, then the book list below is for you.The Best Books for President’s Day or Engaging Students in U.S. History Written by …
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 …