A Fun Way to Introduce Character Traits to Your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th grade class - with a fun character traits mobile freebie

Introducing Character Traits With a Fun Freebie

When introducing character traits, making it relevant to students is the best way to get them interested and engaged. Instead of introducing character traits with a lesson that has students read other texts and identify traits of different characters, have students think about their own character traits. There are several fun and easy ways to do this with your 2nd …

Questions for your text feature lesson plans to help promote higher level thinking in 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders

Higher Order Questions for Your Text Feature Lessons

When we question our students about text features, we often focus too much on having students identify different nonfiction text features.  While this is essential, it is equally important to get our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students thinking more deeply about text features – moving past knowledge and recall questions and into more higher order thinking questions. Below, find …

a free printable (pdf) text features chart for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students

Free Text Features Chart

There are so many different types of nonfiction text features – titles, headings, labels, diagrams, captions, photographs, sidebars, bullet points, bold text…the list could go on forever!  It’s no wonder that 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students get confused. To help students keep track of the different types of text features, download the free printable below, or check out this …

An easy classroom job system for upper elementary students

An Easy to Implement Classroom Job System – for 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade

I resisted giving my upper elementary students classroom jobs for several years. Having to come up with a cute organizational system and procedures for my students to use the classroom job system seemed like a lot more trouble than it was worth. Rotating jobs daily or even weekly wasn’t appealing to me.  I knew that every time my students changed …