Classroom focus walls are nothing new, and to be quite honest there isn’t a set-up of focus walls that I haven’t tried! I greatly regret not taking pictures from my past focus walls, especially the year I partitioned a classroom wall with painters tape to create grids based on concepts within units. It actually wasn’t […]
Focus Wall in the Classroom Read More »
Does anyone else’s students think that the minute state testing is over, they are finished with school for the year? While that might sound nice, it just isn’t possible with 20 days left of school. I may have taught all of my standards, but there are still concepts I want to reteach and a few
Teaching Math Outdoors Read More »
As the year draws to an end, especially after testing, it can become more challenging than ever to keep students on task and engaged. It’s that time of year when I feel I have to step it up a bit with the fun factor for my students. And a great way to introduce fun math
Food and Sports Math Lessons Read More »
My teaching partner recently introduced me to my new favorite vocabulary review resources-Quizlet. I know that Quizlet has been around for several years. In fact, I remembered using Quizlet several years ago. According to the site, I made a quiz back in 2010, but I never used the website, because I didn’t see anything more
Student Approved Review Game Read More »
This is the first year I’ve ever had the opportunity to teach about the solar system. I had always thought it would be one of those incredibly fun units to teach, but it was never part of my standards… until now! This classroom solar system project was hands-down my favorite science unit of the year
Classroom Solar System Project Read More »
A few years ago, I absolutely fell in love with The Brown Bag Teacher’s March Madness Tournament of Books. I thought it was the best idea ever, and I really wanted to try it! Unfortunately, it was one of those ideas that I loved, pinned, and then completely forgot about. This year I have a group
Tournament of Books Read More »
I’ve had an idea brewing for a few days now that is a great way to introduce or review the concept of division and remainders. {Sorry, I couldn’t resist.} Last week I started my division unit and noticed that my students had some trouble determining the difference between the number of groups and the number of
Candy Corn Division Read More »
Over the years, formative assessments have become a larger and larger part of my classroom instruction. These are the assessments I use as part of my instructional process, such as written responses, graphic organizers, exit slips, discussions, quick checks, etc. I use these assessments to form math and reading groups and to guide my lesson
Using Student Data Read More »
It literally took me months to finish my new 4th Grade Division Unit. It was the first time in any math product I’ve ever created where I hit a complete wall. I love teaching the concept of division and could think of plenty of lessons to introduce division (or review it from third grade), but
4th Grade Division Unit Read More »
Rounding to the nearest thousand, hundred, and ten is often difficult for students. In my adult brain, it seems so natural and easy. That is not the case with some students though, and the concept can be incredibly challenging for children. After years of teaching this concept, I’ve come to realize that students who lack
Rounding to the Nearest Thousand Read More »
