When talking with my colleagues, one of the frustrations they experience is finding good social studies lesson plans. Of course, one can always go to Teachers Pay Teachers to find lots of lessons, but many teachers are on a strict budget. They need high-quality resources for free. This post reviews two websites that offer elementary […]
Quick and Easy Reading Workshop Mini-Lessons for Busy Teachers
Can anyone explain why reading workshop mini-lessons, which last only 10 minutes, take an hour to plan? What’s up with that?! Am I the only one that wishes a mini-lesson had a minimum amount of prep time? I didn’t think so. Read on, teacher friends, about how you can quickly plan your reading workshop mini-lessons […]
Using Online Children’s Books as Mentor Texts
I am halfway through a 3-year reading/language arts training program at my school district. The training has been wonderful, but rebuilding our entire ELA curriculum from the ground up has been overwhelming. Fortunately, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My “big picture” understanding has also sharpened so I feel more […]
Nonfiction Summary Graphic Organizer with the 5 W’s Strategy
Teaching students how to summarize nonfiction text can be quite a challenge. Fortunately, with the use of some colored pencils and a handy nonfiction summary graphic organizer, my students were doing it with confidence…and yours can, too! Summarizing Power Writing a concise, yet descriptive summary is an important skill upper elementary students need to learn. […]
Halloween Idioms ~ Fun Activities for Upper Elementary Students
Teaching upper elementary students how to understand Halloween idioms offers teachers many opportunities to incorporate fun activities into their classrooms. I recently taught my own students 24 commonly used Halloween idioms and phrases and it was a blast! Digital Task Cards Activity It’s never too early to start celebrating Halloween with kids so use that […]
Fun State History Project Ideas for Elementary Students
What better way to introduce your students to a short online research project than with a state report? There are lots of fun state history project ideas for teachers to share with their elementary students to get them excited about the unique history of their state. These ideas don’t have to involve lots of prep […]
