By the time we finish testing, I’ve taught all, or most, of the standards, so I have a little more flexibility than normal. I certainly don’t want student learning to stop, but it keeping our momentum can be a challenge. As the school year winds down, it’s beneficial to both reteach and enrich. Student work […]
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It seems like during the weeks leading up to testing all I can think about is preparing for our state test. Then after testing, my lesson plans are wide open. For the most part, I’ve taught all of my essential standards, but I certainly don’t want the learning to stop after testing. Each year as
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Types of word problems are always a challenge for students. There are so many processes involved in solving word problems that it can be challenging to pinpoint concerns. Is it reading comprehension? Is it computation? Are students overly relying on key words? And the list goes on. One of my favorite strategies is to make
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Writing about math is an important part of math instruction. When I was in elementary school reading was reading, writing was writing, and math was math. Each subject area was defined and limited to one thing. Now it seems like one subject blurs into another. We have students writing about what they’re reading and reading
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High-stake testing evokes a passionate response in almost all teachers. While I have strong feelings about testing, I recognize that standardized tests are going to be part of my life for the immediate future. Regardless of my thoughts, my students will have to take a high-stakes test this spring, and my value as a teacher
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Having only taught upper elementary, I’d never worried about 100th day activities. It all just seemed a little too young to me. I start feeling the pressure of our state testing after Christmas, so I don’t like giving up class time for anything other that what’s essential to teach. However, every year the 100th day
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After I made my Common Core Math Assessments, I had many requests for a similar language arts assessment version. After months of work, I’m thrilled to announce that I finally finished them and let me just way “Whew!” That was a big project-much, MUCH bigger than I expected! Third Grade Language Arts Assessments & Fourth
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These Christmas literacy activities should make the days leading up to Christmas vacation a little easier for you and fun for your students! No matter how crazy it is, the week before Christmas vacation is one of my favorite weeks of the school year. I have more flexibility to let loose a little and have
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There is something about this time of year when I start getting excited about Halloween, Thanksgiving, and even Christmas! I love, love, love all of the fun and craziness that the holidays bring. In this post, I’ve shared some of my 3rd Grade Halloween Math Centers. I may have sneaked in a few language arts
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I never thought writing a post on noun lessons and activities would be exciting. To be perfectly honest, I’ve always dreaded teaching parts of speech. I know that if I was bored teaching it, my students had to be extremely bored studying it! I integrate parts of speech and grammar instruction into writing workshop, but I
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