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Elementary
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From the Blog…
Fractions:
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,...
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...
Place Value:
No More Computation Errors
Tired of your students making the same computation errors over and over?!! Here are 5 ways to help them understand, find, and correct their own errors: 1. Look for patterns. Sometimes, kids are making the same kind of mistake over and over because of a...
Place Value in Upper Elementary
Teaching place value in upper elementary is just as important as it is in the lower grades. By the time students get to 4th and 5th grades, they should already have strong conceptual understanding of the following place value concepts: -counting by ones, fives, tens,...
Stop Teaching Rounding ‘Tricks’
My very first year teaching, I taught a self-contained special education class of 16 students in a New York City public school. Did you know you can do that with absolutely no experience or qualifications? Yeah…. I had absolutely no idea what I...
Differentiation:
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...
Common Core Math Capture Games
What is Capture?Capture is an old, very basic card game for two players. Sometimes it's also called "war." It's a comparing game that can be used to practice just about any value- based concept in math. If you can compare two things and find which is...
Student Portfolios
With testing season also comes the question: When we test in the mornings, what do we do in the afternoons?? We don't want to further stress our kids out or place high demands on them. But we also want to maintain order, and we definitely don't have time...
Planning:
Student Portfolios
With testing season also comes the question: When we test in the mornings, what do we do in the afternoons?? We don't want to further stress our kids out or place high demands on them. But we also want to maintain order, and we definitely don't have time...
Empowering Students with Assessments
Assessments can be a stressful event for students. They can feel like punishment for not learning ‘enough’ or being ‘smart enough.’ Students can develop low self-esteem and feel unmotivated if they think that they “should’ be able to do...
How to Use GoodNotes for Teaching
GoodNotes is an app that's mostly intended to be used for note taking and as a planner. But GoodNotes can also be used by teachers to help streamline our planning, keep track of assessment data, explain concepts to students, and much more! Here are some reasons to try...
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