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Elementary
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From the Blog…
How to Teach Subtraction Across Zeros
In upper elementary, it's pretty common for teachers to struggle with teaching fractions and decimals. They are tough concepts and kids need lots of time and quality instruction and interaction with the content to build those concepts deeply. Ask any third, fourth, or...
Why Fact Triangles Work
When I first started teaching, way back in the year 2000, the world was a very different place. One of the first math teaching tools I found in my special ed classroom back then was a giant stack of punch out fact triangles. There were addition/ subtraction and...
Holiday Activities to Review Geometry
Every teacher knows that even the best kids go a little loopy around holidays. And the bigger the holiday (or the more sugar involved!) the more crazy things can get. It can be super tempting to just throw on a movie or slap together some craftivities. And honestly,...
Teaching Third Grade Fractions
Nothing strikes fear into the heart of third grade teachers like being the first to introduce these adorable, innocent children to the world of fractions. Teaching third grade fractions can be intimidating, especially if you're a grade-change and come from lower...
Teaching Fourth Grade Fractions & Decimals: Everything you Need to Know
In fourth grade math, the giant list of standards kids have to master can feel overwhelming, especially for new teachers (grade changers, we see you, too!). There's problem solving, factors & multiples, place value & rounding, division computation, angles,...
Student Assessments: How to Choose
Assessing our students is more important than ever, especially post-pandemic. We need to know what they understand and what they missed, in order to know where to begin teaching. Even under normal circumstances, good teaching almost always starts with assessing what...
Managing Chaotic School Days
Every teacher has those days. Halloween, the day before Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Parent-Teacher Conferences, the last week of school. Of course, we want these hectic school days to be semi-productive, but we also don't want to pile even more stress onto our...
Why I Teach Geometry at the BEGINNING of the year
Most of us naturally tend to think to teach Geometry math units at the end of the school year. Most commercial math curricula leave it for last. Even the Common Core Math Standards put Geometry at the end of the list. It makes sense to our teacher brains- leave the...
Team Points for Classroom Management: How to do it & Why it Works!
In my classroom management, I like to implement systems on three levels of accountability: hold students accountable individually, as teams/ small groups, and as a whole class. This is how I use team points for small group accountability: How I use team points in my...
Teaching Teamwork in the Elementary Classroom
Teamwork is one of the most important skills we can teach our students. It’s one of those things that they will need to rely on in almost every aspect of adult life, and yet sometimes it gets pushed aside in our busy teaching schedules. Here are...
Adding Language Skills to your Read Aloud
It can be really hard to fit everything in to our ELA instruction. Often, it’s language and grammar that gets left out, but these are important skills that our students need in order to become truly literate. One way to fit these sills in...
Including Speech & Language Standards in Daily Instruction
With everything upper elementary teachers need to think about and cover, it can be really easy to let some things slide. The speech and language standards tend to be one of those things. These skills are important because they lead to more...
End of the Year Awards that are Non-Academic
* leader * problem solver * fixer * engineer * peace keeper * teacher * great teammate * good sport * songbird * comedian * finder * helper * sharer * artist * referee * caring * dependable * responsible * unique * positive * hard working...
FUN Summer Learning: 10 ideas
Did you know that kids can lose 2-3 months of learning over the summer? No one wants to start the new school year already behind!! Here are 10 FUN things that kids can do over the summer to keep their brains sharp: 1. Play with water. Use plastic tubes, things...
End of the School Year Ideas
The end of the school year can be a fun, but stressful time. We want to make sure our students are learning up until the last day, but we also want to review, tie up loose ends and have time to reflect. Here are 10 ideas for ways to have fun and keep...
Managing Math Games: 6 Structures for Elementary Teachers
I love using math games in my elementary school classroom. But they can be difficult to organize, especially if you're trying to differentiate and manage student behavior at the same time. Here are some structures for managing math games in a way that helps everyone...
28 Reasons to Use Math Games
Math Games…promote strategic thinking teach cooperation allow for student choice provide an opportunity for self-monitoring are VERY motivating encourage mathematical communication help kids practice social skills/ turn taking can be...
Math Games Checklist
I love using math games in my classroom. I have many reasons why I (and my students) love playing math games. But how do I decide which games to spend our precious class time playing? What makes for quality math games? Below is a list of the criteria I use when...
Pictograph & Bar Graph Surveys
I love teaching graphing and data. Kids are naturally curious, as every teacher & parent knows, and they get very excited about collecting their own information about the world around them. It's really fun for them to have the opportunity to choose their own...
Teaching Line Plots – Why are Line Plots SO Hard?!
I don’t know about your class, but my students have always had a harder time understanding line plots than they did with pictographs and bar graphs. Line plots just didn’t seem to make sense to my kids, so I started thinking about why that is and how to teach line...
Engaging Computation Practice- Really!
Reciprocal Learning is a cooperative learning technique that works really well for material that students need to review and/ or practice. In reciprocal learning, students work in pairs to coach each other through problems. Ideally, the ‘just...
Teaching Equivalent Fractions with Folding
Teaching equivalent fractions can be a confusing concept for students. It’s counter-intuitive to change both the numerator AND the denominator, especially if students have been working on composing/ decomposing fractions or adding and subtracting fractions. Why...
Geometric Attribute Sorts
What is a Geometry Sort? A geometry sort is when students are classifying shapes into categories based on the geometric attributes of those shapes. Why Geometry Sorts? -Geometry sorts help students focus on the identifying geometric attributes (number of sides,...
Foundational Reading in Upper Elementary
Foundational reading skills are the basics of phonic, decoding, and fluency. It’s the actual reading the words part of reading (as opposed to the comprehension part). In primary grades, students are largely ‘learning to read,’ meaning they learn...