If you are an elementary teacher looking to learn more about using graphic organizers in your classroom, then you found the right place! This post focuses on using graphic organizers for reading comprehension to improve students’ literacy skills. Graphic organizers are a powerful tool students can use to help them
Before I go into the details of Guided Math Workshop, let me first tell you about my journey and how I launched the Math Workshop model. There is no denying that children have changed over the years. Attention spans are shorter and more and more children struggle to sit and
Before I share chapter book read alouds you should add to your reading list this summer, let my share how the end of every school year typically played out for me. I would count the seconds to summer vacation with jubilation. Sure, I shed some annual tears as I said
It is always challenging to meet the varied needs of the learners in your classroom. Ideally, you want your students to be working on the same activity, but you understand that each learner has different needs and abilities. These printable spelling activities for any word list allow you to easily
If you haven’t implemented student-made board games in your elementary classroom yet, you must keep reading this blog post. They are a great tool to increase student engagement during times of the school year when their minds are wandering, like right before winter holidays and summer vacation. They successfully engage
Whether you are doing a simple animal study or a fully integrated science, reading, and informational writing unit, this animal research project for kids includes everything you need. From the graphic organizer worksheets and guided note templates to the writing stationary, printable activities, projects, and rubrics. Thousands of teachers have
There are tons of strategies for analyzing texts. This post will focus on teaching students to annotate important parts of the text, which is called text annotation. Teaching text annotation is a great way to support your 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students because it’s an effective reading comprehension strategy
Are you looking to learn more about student portfolios and perhaps begin implementing them in your classroom? Did you already take the leap of faith and begin using them but haven’t found an organization tool you love? Wherever you are on your student portfolio journey, know this… Student portfolios can
It is officially spring! I couldn’t be more excited about that. I’m already looking forward to teaching my Life Cycle of Plants and Flowers Unit because we had so much fun with it last year. It’s packed with a ton of Plant Life Cycle project ideas and activities! What I really
Prior to teaching fractions, I find it very helpful to teach the geometry standards. I had an absolute blast teaching 2D Geometry to my third graders recently. It’s a concept that lends itself to lots of hands-on learning and project-based learning experiences. I was really impressed with how quickly my
Regardless of what grade you teach, I have a free student check-in system resource for you that will help you better understand the relationships between your students. This system includes a classroom check-in form that helps you identify which student or students need some extra attention. It was inspired by
When you draft your lesson plans, you have the following resources on hand: computer with internet, teacher manuals, thematic resources you’ve accumulated, pacing guide / curriculum maps, Common Core Materials and Standards, and plans from previous years. Wow, that’s a lot! Check out the tools for organizing lesson plans below to
