But over time, I realized something frustrating:
many students weren’t actually using the charts.

The charts were technically on the wall, but students often stopped noticing them after a while. Some became overwhelmed by too many visuals, while others struggled to locate the information they needed quickly enough to use it independently during math tasks.

That realization completely changed how I approached math anchor charts in my classroom.

The Problem With Traditional Math Anchor Charts

Don’t get me wrong — I still believe anchor charts are incredibly valuable.

Visual references:

• support student independence,
• reinforce vocabulary,
• strengthen conceptual understanding,
• and help students organize their thinking.

But I also think there are a few common problems teachers run into with math anchor charts:

Too Many Charts

By the middle of the year, classroom walls can become overloaded with visuals.

Inconsistent Organization

If every chart looks different, students sometimes struggle to quickly locate and process information.

Charts Become “Wallpaper”

Students stop actively using them because they blend into the background of the classroom.

Handwritten Charts Take SO Much Time

I love a good handwritten anchor chart, but realistically, keeping up with them during a busy school year can feel impossible.

And honestly?
Some of my handwritten charts looked a little rough by the end of the week anyway.

My Math Anchor Chart Hack

Eventually, I started simplifying my system.

Instead of constantly creating brand-new anchor charts from scratch, I began using printable math anchor charts with consistent formatting and organization throughout the year.

That consistency made a huge difference.

Students knew:

• where to look,
• how the charts were organized,
• and what kind of information each chart would include.

The charts became tools students actually used instead of decorations hanging on the wall.

One of my favorite parts of this system is that students can also keep personal copies for reference during independent work, math centers, small groups, or homework. That additional accessibility helps students become more independent problem-solvers because they do not have to rely entirely on teacher assistance.

Why This Works Especially Well in Upper Elementary

As students move into upper elementary math, the content becomes significantly more complex. Having clear visual references available can reduce frustration and help students feel more confident tackling challenging tasks.

I’ve also noticed that consistent visual supports are especially helpful for:

• struggling learners,
• students with attention difficulties,
• visual learners,
• and students who need additional reinforcement of vocabulary and concepts.

Printable Math Anchor Charts

Because these charts worked so well in my own classroom, I eventually created printable versions for all upper elementary math standards.

These printable math anchor charts:

• use consistent layouts,
• support student independence,
• reinforce important vocabulary and strategies,
• and save me an incredible amount of time during the school year.

They’ve honestly become one of the most useful tools in my classroom.

✅ 1. Covers Every Standard—Without the Stress

No more wondering if you’ve covered it all. These charts are aligned to every 3rd grade and 4th grade math standard. From operations and algebraic thinking to geometry, fractions, measurement, and base ten, every major topic is clearly laid out with age-appropriate language and visuals.

✅ 2. Print-and-Go Convenience

Forget about the markers and chart paper. These charts are designed to be ready when you are.

You get two size options for every standard:

• Large Posters (18×24) – Great for whole-class lessons. Print on 6 standard pages and tape them together or send them to a low-cost poster printer.

• Small Posters (8.5×11) – Perfect for math folders, stations, or one-on-one support.

✅ 3. Supports Visual Learners & Struggling Students

Let’s face it—math can be abstract. That’s where visuals become your best friend.

These anchor charts are clean, consistent, and easy to read. Students with reading challenges, visual processing issues, or attention difficulties benefit from seeing clear text, bold headers, and structured layouts they can return to over and over again.

✅ 4. Creates a Cohesive, Polished Math Environment

There’s something powerful about a classroom that looks put together. These anchor charts give your room that unified, intentional look—which not only helps you stay organized but also signals to students that math matters.

It’s a small change that makes a big impact.

Ready to Simplify Your Math Instruction?

These math anchor charts are the kind of resource you’ll use every day. And best of all? Once you print them, you’re set for years to come.

Click on what you need to grab your set now and give your students the consistent support they need to succeed in math.

3rd Grade Math Anchor Charts

4th Grade Math Anchor Charts

I had a lot of request for other subjects, so here’s more of what you may need!

Reading Anchor Charts

Social Studies Anchor Charts

Science Anchor Charts

Let’s make math visual, accessible, and a whole lot easier—for everyone.

The post Math Anchor Chart Hack appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

It’s not a big revelation that this year is an incredibly challenging school year. What has been surprising is that academics aren’t most teachers’ biggest concern. Yes, there is an academic impact from the past two years, but the behavioral effects appears to be even more significant. Due to the conditions of the past two years, many students have developed bad, or not conducive to the classroom, work habits.

There were dozens of “solutions” to teaching during the pandemic-virtual, hybrid, face-to-face, alternating schedules, and more. There was also a range of expectations from students-from all work is optional to expecting students to maintain the same pace as pre-pandemic instruction.

This means we’re all seeing different behavioral effects. Some teachers are trying to change the mindset that work is optional. Others are working with students who have been conditioned to stay on task only when an adult sat and worked with them one-on-one. Teachers are seeing students who lack independence and stamina.

These behaviors cannot be corrected with a magic fix – trust me, I’ve looked! Instead, it will take time, consistency, and support.

In this post:

• Academic Independence
• Desktop Helpers
• Math Notes
• Behavior Independence

Academic Independence

To support students in becoming independent, I’ve found that it’s essential for me to provide students with scaffolding. I find that students will eventually quit using these resources when they feel confident in themselves. I don’t view this scaffolding as a “crutch,” because students are using tools to assist in learning, not to replace learning.

Writing

I always have a few students who need a little extra support with spelling, so I’ve created a personal word wall for these students. The word wall contains high frequency words (mostly Dolch sight words), number words, color words, synonyms, proper nouns, social studies words, and science words.

The proper noun section was requested by my students. There are many names and places that students frequently use in their writing, and they thought it would be helpful to have a visual reference for those words.  I included an editable file for social studies, science, and proper nouns, because those words will be specific to your grade level, standards, and students.  You can check it out in my TpT store here.

Math

After seeing the usefulness of the personal word wall for spelling, I created a similar resource for math. I’ve included a fraction table, which is especially helpful teaching equivalent fractions and comparing fractions. There is a measurement conversion table and a types of lines chart. There is a big multiplication table, which is easy for students to read and a place value chart. You can find the folders here.

Desktop Helpers

Another resource that I love is my Desktop Helpers: math and language arts. We move around the classroom all of the time, so while students do have a desk, they don’t sit at it all day. These cards are interchangeable, because I do not use the same set of cards all year. I originally placed self-adhesive pockets on students’ desks, and I can easily swap out one card for another. The vinyl pocket is something I found on Amazon. The pockets lasted a year, but by the end of the year the didn’t look good. I now attach magnets to the back of the cards and attach them to the side of students’ desks. I found this is a little neater and more out of the way.

Math Notes

I love using Scribble Notes during my mini lessons. They are fun and student friendly, and they provide a reference and examples that students can easily refer to during math. These notes can be used for modeling during your mini lesson and are a great help in guiding instruction.

Anchor Charts

Anchor charts are another great way to encourage independence. I have a huge bulletin board that I can use as a focus wall. That’s where I display our standards, essential questions, and vocabulary. I also use this space to display our anchor charts. Since I teach math to multiple groups, I don’t make a fancy anchor chart for each group. As I teach I create what I think of as my rough draft. Then, I display a polished version of what we made together. I have many different options of anchor charts, and you can find those here.

Behavior Independence

I’ve found that changing this mindset is far more challenging than academic independence. As student needs vary from student-to-student so will our responses to those needs. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Productive Struggle

This year more than ever students have to learn how to work their way through a problem-academic and non academic. Allowing children to struggle with something goes against our instincts. When I see a child having difficulty, every pore in my body wants to take over and fix the problem. However, that is exactly what I should not do. Struggle time is an essential part of the learning process.

I’ve found that defining the struggle makes it much less intimidating and overwhelming for my students. In my classroom we call it “Struggle Time”. After introducing the idea of struggle time, I work with the class to create an anchor chart that defines and explains what to do if they are “stuck”. I want students to know that they will all struggle with something during the year. This is the time when real learning occurs.

We also discuss what not to do. I added run away to the chart, because I often see students avoiding challenging work by going to the restroom, asking to to get water or refill water bottles, asking to go to the nurse, etc. I see that frequently, and I think students are surprised that I notice. The final and most important thing for students to not do is to just sit there. I explain that I would MUCH rather see them try and fail that not try at all.

Prove It

As a teacher, I don’t want students to say, “I don’t get it” or “I don’t know what to do” after making no attempt. We set a classroom expectation that they student must show me a strategy they tried before asking for help. Students must show an effort to get started and to overcome their challenges. Waiting to be rescued doesn’t help the learner. When we rescue students, we’re communicating that we don’t believe the student can solve the problem. Once I see the effort, I ask guided questions that help the student get started.

If I see that a student is completely confused and not making any forward progress, I will work with that student individually or in a small group if there are other students in the same situation.

Stamina

Raise your hand if you’ve seen a decrease in student stamina this year. Yeah, me too.

We have to retrain our students, and more than likely we’ve had to take several steps back in order for our students to be successful. Once again, it’s helpful to give the word a definition and set set the expectation of stamina in the classroom.

During this lesson I love to share a personal story and to explain why stamina is so important. You can even have students share their own stories. That would be a fun tie-in to personal narratives! Role playing is a great way to model what stamina is and isn’t. You can even have your students develop their own situations where stamina would be needed in the classroom.

It’s important to have realistic expectations. After teaching about stamina and setting your expectations, you still won’t see a huge jump. It takes time and consistency, so expect to take baby steps. You may want to set goals for different parts of the day such as independent reading time or math work time (whatever is a struggle for your students). During those parts of the time, project a timer to monitor how long students can meet the class stamina goals.

The post Increasing Student Stamina and Independence appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

When it comes to shopping for your classroom, never forget you do not need all the things! As a new teacher, I felt an immense amount of pressure to purchase things that I later realized I absolutely did not need. My advice is to focus on the essentials and the resources that will have a direct impact on your students. In this post I’ve shared a brief description of my top 10 favorite back to school resources. Even if you don’t use these specific resources, I hope to at least give you an idea of potentially useful tools.

Jump to a resource:

1. Focus Wall
2. Math Bulletin Board
3. Words of the Week
4. Anchor Charts
5. Desktop Helpers
6. Open House
7. Introducing Paragraphs
8. Back to School Escape
9. First Days of Math Workshop
10. Nonfiction Text Structures

1. Focus Wall

Of course, I can’t put together a list of my favorite back to school resources and not include focus walls. Focus walls are nothing new, and there isn’t a set-up of focus walls I haven’t tried! One option I’ve used for a focus wall is to keep all my standards, essential questions, and vocabulary together. I added a heading for each subject and posted an illustrated “I Can” statement underneath the heading. Below the standard I added essential questions and vocabulary for the standard.

Another option for a classroom focus wall is to keep all of your standards together. The large charts are from my math anchor charts, and there’s more on that soon!

You can find the focus walls at the following links: Third Grade, Fourth Grade, Fifth Grade

2. Math Bulletin Board

I have one bulletin board dedicated to math strategies. On the bulletin board, I included problem solving steps and accountable talk sentence starters. I also added four levels of understanding which is great for standards based grading. You can find the math bulletin board here.

3. Words of the Week

I also love my words of the week bulletin board, and consider it one of my essential back to school resources. It’s overwhelming and unrealistic for students to grasp a huge number of prefixes and suffixes in a short period of time, so I introduce one prefix or suffix a week to my students. For just a minute or two each day, we discuss the affix and practice using it in a sentence. I use those words to create a Word of the Week bulletin board. You can combine this bulletin board with my Homophone of the Week which is is the same format at the Prefix of the Week.

4. Anchor Charts

I certainly agree that anchor charts are best created together with students to give students’ ownership over their learning. However, I teach multiple groups, and there’s no way I could take the time to make an attractive set of posters for each group. It would take me hours, and that’s not the best use of my time! (P.S. If you’re one of the lucky ones who can whip one up—I envy you!)

Instead, I made an anchor chart with each group that is sort of a rough draft. After the lesson, I would hang my nice looking anchor chart. Over the course of several years, I’ve created several sets of anchor charts. The thing that I LOVE about these charts is that they are BIG! The information on the charts should be readable for all students, so I created 18″x24″ charts.

Since some teachers would rather have a regular 8.5″ x 11″ poster, so I created those as well. You can see below the difference in size of the two posters.

Here are the links to my anchor charts: third grade math, fourth grade math, reading, social studies, and science.

5. Desktop Helpers

These desktop helpers or name plates are different from typical ones, because I don’t add student names. We constantly move around the classroom, so while students do have a desk, they don’t sit in it all day. Instead, I prefer using that extra space on the desktop helper for different topics.

I find that adding a huge range of content is overwhelming to students, so I like to focus on one unit at a time. I place self-adhesive pockets on students’ desks, and can easily swap out one card for another. The vinyl pocket you can see below, I found on Amazon. The pockets lasted a year, but by the end of the year they didn’t look good.

I have a language arts version that includes a range of reading comprehension strategies, writing graphic organizers, writing checklists, and parts of speech.

The math version of desktop helpers also includes several different options for representing multiplication and division to working with fractions. The measurement conversion help is a huge help for my fourth graders when we’re in our measurement unit.

6. Open House

Open house is often when we make our first impression with our new students and their families, so it’s critical that we present our best face and at least appear ready to go. I like to place activities that are easily completed, yet purposeful for students. I also like activities that get people up and moving around the classroom. One of my favorite open house activities is an open house scavenger hunt that I have my students and parents complete on our Meet the Teacher Night. This frees me up to float around the room and introduce myself, and it answers many of their questions.

Some of the activities require students or families to fill out forms such as contact information or transportation forms. Other activities don’t require students to write anything but to observe things such as the classroom library or to find their desk. You can find the link to the open house activities here.

7. Introducing Paragraphs

I always struggle at the beginning of the year with determining how long to spend teaching rules, procedures, and various classroom management lessons. I absolutely believe that these management lessons are essential for a smooth school year. However, I also feel pressured to dive into my curriculum as quickly as possible, because extra time is luxury I don’t have. That’s why I love combining back to school resources/activities with academic content. In this resource, I use some of my favorite back to school picture books for writing mentor texts that explicitly teaches students how to write a well developed paragraph.

There is at least one printable for each lesson plan. All of the graphic organizers follow the same format, so students can become familiar with one graphic organizer. The graphic organizer starts small and gradually expands as students learn how to write different parts of a paragraph. You can check it out here if you’re interested!

8. Back to School Escape

One of my favorite back to school resources are escape lessons. I absolutely LOVE using escape lessons or breakout activities to make my instruction fun and engaging for my students. I know that my students aren’t ready for an academic breakout lesson early in the school year, so this Back to School Breakout isn’t directed toward a specific grade level or standard. Instead, this focuses on critical thinking and puzzle type activities that are suitable for multiple grade levels.

I love the challenge and fun this will provide my students during this busy time of year! You can see the activity here!

9. First Days of Math Workshop

The first few days of school are crucial for developing the procedures that will guide the class for the rest of the school year. Students respond best when procedures are taught in small chunks of time, rather than trying to teach every procedure in one lesson. I’ve found that the most efficient way to do this is to teach a brief lesson on a math workshop procedure prior to teaching my math lesson.

In my First Days of Math Workshop resource, you’ll find detailed lessons on teaching 10 essential procedural lessons that are important for face-to-face instruction and distance learning.

10. Nonfiction Text Structures

I love introducing this challenging concept at the beginning of the year. This gives students the time they need to process and and apply nonfiction structures in all content areas throughout the year. You can find these lessons here.

In the compare and contrast activity, students find similarities and the differences between their current grade level and their previous grade level. You can use cause and effect relationships to help students understand the reasoning and importance of your classroom rules and expectations. The sequential order activity allows you to review arrival and dismissal routines. One option for the descriptive writing activity is to have students describe what math workshop or what reading workshop looks like and doesn’t look like. Problem and solution text structure gives students the opportunity to practice finding solutions to common problems.

You can find all of the lessons above in my Nonfiction Text Structures With Back To School Activities resource.

Hopefully, these back to school resources and ideas will give you a little back to school inspiration!

The post Favorite Back to School Resources appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Do you ever wonder what 4th graders should know or be able to do? Changing grade levels is difficult. I still remember crying my eyes out the first time I had to change grade levels. It was devastating! It’s hard to sort through years worth of blog posts, resources, and articles to find just what you need to get started. I know how much of a challenge it can be when you’re new to teaching 4th grade, so I’ve written this post to help get you started. Even if you’ve been a fourth grade teacher for awhile, you’ll probably find something useful!

If you’re looking for a similar post for third grade teacher look here!

Classroom Set Up

If you’re a new(er) teacher, you can feel pressured to go out and create a designer classroom. That’s not necessary. At all.

The priority should be organizing, not decorating, your classroom. Of course, I’m not saying that having a cute or decorated classroom is a bad thing. I spend more awake time in my classroom than anywhere else, so I want an environment that makes me comfortable and happy.

But, you don’t need to go out and spend lots of money creating a Pinterest classroom.  Make sure your room is clean, not too busy or distracting, and organized.

You can see my classroom here! You can read more about organizing your classroom here.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Pacing Guides

It’s important to begin the year with a plan. Of course it’s necessary to keep in mind that it’s just a guide, not rules that are set in stone. Below are my reading and math pacing guides for teachers new to teaching 4th grade. You can download example fourth grade pacing guides here. If you want to map out the year on your own, you may enjoy this blog post on Planning For The Year. Either way, it’s a great format to what 4th graders should know.

COVID and distance learning has changed so many things for teachers. It’s incredibly hard to know how to get started when you don’t know what you’re planning for. It’s next to impossible to determine what 4th graders should know if their time in the younger graders was limited. To provide even more support, I’ve shared a First 30 Days for reading and math. What makes this plan special is that it can be used for in-class instruction, distance learning, or a combination of both. You can find that post here.

Fourth Grade Morning Work

A good morning work routine is one of the most important parts of the day. It’s also a great way to continuously review what 4th graders should know. It sets your pace and allows students to feel organized and prepared. This post shares some of my favorite ideas for morning work. It also mentions how to incorporate a soft start to your day. This morning work activity reviews all major content that 4th graders should know by the end of the school year.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Reading

After years of blogging, there is simply no way to narrow down all of my reading and writing blog posts to just one! However, I was able to whittle it down to just a few. Keep in mind, all of these lessons are available as a print and digital resource.

Reading Workshop-In this post you can get a good overview of what should happen during reading workshop. The post also discuss the differences between reading workshop, guided reading, and literature circles.

Integrating Science and Social Studies-This post shares several ideas on ways to integrate your science and social studies standards with reading. Time is always a problem, so this is a big help.

Making Sense of Reading Assessments-Depending on where you’re coming from, reading assessments may look different. They may also be quite overwhelming! This post breaks down the how and why of various reading assessments.

Upper Elementary Guided Reading Groups – Reading groups in the upper elementary classroom are complex to say the least. This post is a great place to start.

Introducing Reading Workshop – This post shares procedural lessons to allow your students get started on the right foot.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Writing

Introducing Paragraphs – This is one of my all time favorite ways to begin teaching writing! If you’re new to teaching 4th grade, I highly recommend starting the year by teaching students how to write paragraphs through these back to school books!

If you want ideas on how to teach writing, this Guide To Teaching Writing is just for you! Remember, even if you recognize what 4th graders should know coming to you, it doesn’t mean they will know it.

Personal Narratives-Here is a blog post that shares how to teach students to write personal narratives. I do have blog posts for other writing genres, but this seems to be teachers’ favorite genre to start the year with.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Math

When thinking about what 4th graders should know, don’t forget about math! Math Workshop/Guided Math-This post describes how math workshop can be used in a fourth grade classroom.

Upper Elementary Math Centers-You don’t have to incorporate math centers in fourth grade. If you do utilize centers, you don’t have to use them everyday. There is so much flexibility! This is a great post to show how to use math centers in an upper elementary classroom.

First Days of Math Workshop-I highly recommend this post! It’s SO important in order to have success during the year. There are step-by-step lessons to teach math workshop with routines and procedures.

Math Manipulatives-Math manipulatives aren’t just for the little ones. Big kids need them too! However, you don’t need to spend a fortune, and there are important things to remember when using manipulatives.

Multiplication Facts-There are few topics in math that cause more anxiety (for students and teachers) than math facts. This post helps take that away. There are TONS of fun ideas and freebies to make learning multiplication facts fun AND meaningful!

What 4th Graders Should Know – Social Studies & Science

Far too often social studies and science are neglected in third, fourth, and fifth grades. When you teach content heavy grade levels, it’s incredibly hard to find the time to squeeze it all into the day. This is one of the primary reasons I love integrating as often as possible. In this post I share a few ideas on how to integrate social studies and science into language arts and math.

Testing

Yes, fourth graders have to participate in state testing. I can say with 100% certainty that the best test prep is high quality instruction all year. It’s important to be extremely careful to approach testing with the right attitude with students. I don’t use it as a fear mechanism for motivation or over emphasize the importance of test scores.

While I can’t take away all of the stress relating to testing, you can make the year easier by integrating review into your instruction all year. You can see some of my favorite ideas here.

It’s definitely not possible to share all of my resources with you, but I would love to give you some ideas. The items below are my top 10 favorite resources for teachers who are new to teaching 4th Grade.

What 4th Graders Should Know

Top Ten Resources for Teachers New to Teaching 4th Grade

This Reading Workshop Bundle is probably my favorite product! It’s one of those that really does have everything! There are 180 reading comprehension lesson plans and printables to go with each lesson plan. I’ve also included fluency practice, vocabulary, and reading homework.

My Fourth Grade Math Units is a compilation of YEARS of work! This bundle includes 10 math units with hands-on lessons, skills practice, and task cards!

I honestly don’t know what I’d do without my Weekly Word Problems. I now use the updated version with the constructed response practice for my morning work. It’s one of my favorites!

Once again, I’d be lost without my Fluency Passages! I use these for weekly fluency and comprehension homework. The best part is that the entire pack is integrated with science and social studies!

My Language Arts Morning Work is an excellent spiral review. This will help keep tricky grammar and reading skills fresh all year. (I know the cover of this one says third, but I’ve linked the 4th grade version. My fourth grade cover is in the middle of being updated 🙂

Writing can certainly be tricky, which is why I love having the Writing Bundle ready to go! This contains three writing units  aligned to the Common Core Standards: informational, opinion, and narrative!

I love these Multiplication Facts Booklets! Teaching multiplication facts is a year long process, so I incorporate these booklets all year long. The are a great way to teach conceptual understanding and memorization of multiplication facts.

I use the Prefix of the Week packet along with my Homophone of the Week for weekly vocabulary and word work. This makes a cute bulletin board and comes with different booklets!

I use this Math Constructed Response packet at least once a week. This is one of those concepts that requires practice all year long, rather than taught as an isolated test prep skill.

I’m cheating a little here! I actually have a few 4th grade assessment packs, and I love them all! I especially like the language arts assessments, because it’s often difficult to find reading assessments that include the passage and assess one standard at a time.

You are going to love fourth grade! One of the best things about fourth grade is that students are young enough to still love school and have a desire to please their teacher. Yet, they are independent enough to participate in really fun activities. Plus, the older students are awesome at catching my corny jokes! Like all students, they need love, consistency, and strong procedures for optimal success. Don’t sweat the test! Your preparation starts from Day 1 and with good instruction your students will be ready!

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions! I’m always happy to help.

The post What 4th Graders Should Know appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Do you wonder what 3rd graders should know? Are you new to teaching third grade? Or, is it your first time teaching third grade in a long time? If so, you’re in the right place! If you’re looking for the same post for fourth grade teachers look here!

It’s no secret that changing grade levels is hard! As someone who doesn’t like change, it’s definitely not something I enjoy. Although, I do think the experience helps shape us into better teachers.

I’ve spent 10+ years teaching third grade, so I’ve accumulated a lot of resources and ideas. This blog post shares some of my favorite tips, articles, and resources for understanding what 3rd graders should know AND how to get them there. It’s definitely one of my favorite grades to teach, because the kids are still sweet but they’re also independent. At this age, they still love to learn!

Classroom Set Up

If you’re a new(er) teacher, you can feel pressured to go out and create a designer classroom. That’s not necessary. At all.

The priority should be organizing, not decorating, your classroom. Of course, I’m not saying that having a cute or decorated classroom is a bad thing. I spend more awake time in my classroom than anywhere else, so I want an environment that makes me comfortable and happy.

But, you don’t need to go out and spend lots of money creating a Pinterest classroom.  Make sure your room is clean, not too busy or distracting, and organized.

You can see my classroom here! You can read more about organizing your classroom here.

What 3rd Graders Should Know – Pacing Guides

It’s important to begin the year with a plan. Of course it’s necessary to keep in mind that it’s just a guide, nothing that should be set in stone. Below are my 3rd grade reading and math pacing guides, which gives you an idea of what 3rd graders should know. You can download a copy of the pacing guides here. If you’d like to develop your own pacing guide, you may enjoy this blog post on Planning For The Year.

Morning Work

Your morning work and morning routine helps set the tone for the day. It’s also a great way to continuously review what third graders should know. Over the years my routine has changed and will continue to change. I now implement somewhat of a soft start to the day. My students arrive in my classroom from 7:30-8:00, and they eat breakfast in the classroom. If I have 30 minutes worth of assignments, my students who arrive at 8:00 will begin the day behind, and my students who arrive at 7:30 will already have a lot of work completed. I now give all students must dos and then may dos where they have options.

This doesn’t mean that I no longer utilize any spiral review morning work. That definitely still has an important place in the classroom. You can read about those math and language arts morning work assignments here.

What 3rd Graders Should Know – Reading

In third grade students transition from learning to read to reading to learn. This is a natural transition for many students, but for other students this can be a real challenge. Students will continue to need support with guided reading groups. In this post I layout my plans and format for teaching reading.

To help make your transition a little easier, I’ve developed a Reading Workshop Starter Kit. It’s packed full of content and resources to get your started. You can download it for free here!

What 3rd Graders Should Know – Writing

When thinking about what 3rd graders should know, writing varies widely. I highly recommend starting the year by teaching students how to write paragraphs through these back to school mentor texts. Don’t assume that students will already know how to write a paragraph. Plan on teaching that step-by-step. You can read more about Introducing Paragraphs here. I like to teach students how to write a paragraph at the beginning of the year, because they will apply that skill consistently in science and social studies.

Once I teach students how to write a paragraph, it’s time to dive into one of the writing genres. Most teachers like to start with personal narratives, which you can read about here.

What 3rd Graders Should Know – Math

When thinking about what 3rd graders should know, math is always a popular topic. It’s is probably my favorite subject to teach. In third grade, multiplication facts will be a HUGE part of your year. In fact, I think I’ve written more content on multiplication facts than any other math concept. While facts are important, the concept of multiplication is just as important. It’s easy to favor one over the other, but your students will need both.

You can use this post for ideas on how to teach and practice multiplication facts.

Even though third graders are independent, they still need explicit instructions in math workshop and/or guided math procedures. I love spending a few minutes each day teaching math workshop with routines and procedures. You can read more about those lessons here.

Most teachers begin the year by teaching place value. That’s a great starting place, because it helps build essential number sense, and it’s the foundation of other math concepts. You can read more about teaching place value here.

I don’t know what I’d do without my RTI binders and progress monitoring assessments! It’s shocking to see hard hard these are to find! You can read more about math progress monitoring here.

You can read more about place value intervention lessons here.

What 3rd Graders Should Know – Social Studies & Science

Far too often social studies and science are neglected in third, fourth, and fifth grades. When you teach content heavy grade levels, it’s incredibly hard to find the time to squeeze it all into the day. This is one of the primary reasons I love integrating as often as possible. In this post I share a few ideas on how to integrate social studies and science into language arts and math.

Testing

When thinking about what 3rd graders should know, we can’t eliminate testing. Yes, third graders have to participate in state testing. I can say with 100% certainty that the best test prep is high quality instruction all year. It’s important to be extremely careful to approach testing with the right attitude with students. I don’t use it as a fear mechanism for motivation or over emphasize the importance of test scores.

While I can’t take away all of the stress relating to testing, you can make the year easier by integrating review into your instruction all year. You can see some of my favorite ideas here.

It’s definitely not possible to share all of my resources with you, but I would love to give you some ideas. The items below are my top 10 favorite resources for teaching third grade.

What 3rd Graders Should Know

Top Ten Resources

This Reading Workshop Bundle is probably my favorite product! It’s one of those that really does have everything! There are 180 reading comprehension lesson plans and printables to go with each lesson plan. I’ve also included fluency practice, vocabulary, and reading homework.

My Third Grade Math Units is a compilation of YEARS of work! This bundle includes 10 math units with hands-on lessons, skills practice, and task cards!

I honestly don’t know what I’d do without my Weekly Word Problems. I now use the updated version with the constructed response practice for my morning work. It’s one of my favorites!

Once again, I’d be lost without my Fluency Passages! I use these for weekly fluency and comprehension homework. The best part is that the entire pack is integrated with science and social studies!

My Language Arts Morning Work is an excellent spiral review. This will help keep tricky grammar and reading skills fresh all year.

Writing can certainly be tricky, which is why I love having the Writing Bundle ready to go! This contains three writing units that are aligned to the Common Core Standards: informational, opinion, personal narrative, and fictional narrative!

I love these Multiplication Facts Booklets! Teaching multiplication facts is a year long process, so I incorporate these booklets all year long. The are a great way to teach conceptual understanding and memorization of multiplication facts.

I use the Prefix of the Week packet along with my Homophone of the Week for weekly vocabulary and word work. This makes a cute bulletin board and comes with different booklets!

I use this Math Constructed Response packet at least once a week. This is one of those concepts that needs to be practiced all year long, rather than taught as an isolated test prep skill.

I’m cheating a little here! I actually have several No Prep packs, and I love them all! I especially like that many of the printables are much more than a worksheet. I’ve included several interactive games in each of the packs as well as many pages that require higher order thinking skills.

You are going to love third grade! One of the best things about third grade is that students are young enough to still love school and have a desire to please their teacher. Yet, they are independent enough to participate in really fun activities. Third graders should get to have fun too! Like all students, they need love, consistency, and strong procedures for optimal success. Don’t sweat the test! Your preparation starts from Day 1 and with good instruction your students will be ready!

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions about what 3rd graders should know! I’m always happy to help.

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Reading worksheets have gotten a bad rap, and that doesn’t have to been the case. My favorite way to teach reading is through authentic and high-quality children’s literature. Students participate in read alouds, book clubs, novel studies, literature circles, guided reading groups, and book talks.

However, there is a need for reading practice through reading worksheets, which don’t have to be low level or boring. I never want to make that the bulk of my instruction, but there are skills that need to be taught and practiced through this type of resource.

In this post, I’ve shared five of my favorite reading worksheets and practice assignments. I wouldn’t recommend using all of the resources at the same time, but they’ve all found a place in my classroom instruction.

In this post:

• Prefix and Suffix Reading Practice
• Spelling Patterns
• Science & Social Studies Paired Passages
• Poetry Reading Practice
• Paragraph Editing

Prefix and Suffix Reading Practice

This reading worksheet gives students practice with prefixes and suffixes. Students receive a passage with a focus on either two prefixes or two suffixes. Then, they sort the words with begin with the prefix (or end with the suffix). Students also answer three general comprehension questions.

On the second page of the reading worksheet, students retell the story in their own words for additional comprehension practice. Students also write examples of words that begin with the focused prefix or suffix and then write a sentence using two of those words. My personal favorite section of the review includes root words and antonyms. In the root word section, students write the root words from words with the focused prefix or suffix. In the antonym and synonym section, students are given a pair of words. Then, they determine if the word pair is an example of an antonym or synonym.

You can find the Prefix and Suffix Reading Passages here. You will get the print and digital version of the resource.

Reading Worksheets – Spelling Patterns

The Spelling Patterns resource is something I use with students who need extra phonics instruction. This reading resource focuses on long vowel spelling patterns. I’ve found that this is the area I most frequently need to target with my students who need extra support. The format is similar to the prefix and suffix resource

The primary difference is that students spell and write words with a focused spelling pattern. This reading worksheet has been great practice for some of my students.

You can find the Spelling Patterns Reading Practice here. It’s been a hit with many teachers!

Science & Social Studies Paired Passages

I love integrating science and social studies with reading instruction, which is where these paired passages come in. Student receive two passages based on related science or social studies topics. On the first page of the reading worksheet, they use context clues to write the definitions of three vocabulary words for each passage. They also annotate the text by color coding.

On the second page of the reading worksheet, students answer three text dependent questions for each of the passages. This is in a multiple choice format.

In the next section of the reading worksheet, students focus on nonfiction text features and nonfiction text structures, as well as main idea and supporting detail. Those are some of the most challenging concepts we teach all year, so the extra practice is incredibly valuable.

In the final section, students have the opportunity to extend their thinking through integrating the two texts and answer extended comprehension questions. This incorporates all of the informational reading standards.

I don’t try to implement all of the sections of this resource at the very beginning of the school year, as my students aren’t ready for this level of comprehension. However, I do gradually introduce them on an as-needed basis. You can find the science passages here and the social studies passages here.

Reading Worksheets – Poetry

The poetry paired passages are in a similar format to the science and social studies paired passages. Obviously, the major difference is that the focus is on poetry.

There are text dependent questions for both poems.

In the next section of the reading worksheet, students work with figurative language and making inferences.

Then in the final section, students extend their thinking by work with higher level questions that require students to apply what they’ve learned throughout the year.

I typically don’t try using this resource until after my poetry unit. I like to give authentic instruction, before I have students practice. You can find the Poetry Paired Passages here.

Reading Worksheets & Paragraph Editing

This reading worksheet focuses a bit more on language arts skills, but it’s been incredibly useful. In the review, students edit a paragraph with five specific errors. The mistakes include one of the following: spelling, run-on sentence, incomplete sentence, subject-verb agreement, and capitalization. Students find and correct the error using color coding. There are also five multiple choice questions to support the vocabulary within the paragraph.

The digital version of this resource is in Google Forms, rather than Google Slides like the previous resources.

You can find the Paragraph Editing resource here.

Hopefully, these reading worksheets and practice assignments can help you out! For more ideas on reading assessments, be sure to check out this post!

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In addition to the PDF version of this file, there is a digital copy of all student files.

What’s Included?

Each of the six units includes 30 day-by-day lessons. Each lesson contains directions for a mini lesson, independent reading time, and closing. There is also an additional handout or guided practice activity for each of the lessons. These lessons will work with any guided reading or reading workshop lessons!

That’s not all!

Each week of the unit also includes the following:

• reading choice board for homework
• fluency passage
• vocabulary words and vocabulary quiz

All of the mentor texts are suggested texts. You may replace any of the texts with a book of your choice. I like to integrate my informational mentor texts with my social studies and science lessons.

Unit 1

• procedures
• visualizing
• connections
• asking and answering questions
• inferring
• predictions
• summarizing

Unit 2

• characterization
• setting
• plot
• nonfiction text features (table of contents, index, glossary, captions, diagrams, maps, insets, sidebars, hyperlinks, charts, and tables)
• nonfiction text structure (compare & contrast, cause & effect, sequential order, question & answer, problem & solution)
• main idea

Unit 3

Third grade lessons are taught through traditional literature: fables, fairy tales, tall tales, folk tales, myths, and legends.

• compare and contrast
• summary
• using illustrations
• finding the central message
• identifying the speaker
• point of view (including first and third person)
• cause and effect
• supporting details
• figurative vs literal language

Unit 4

Unit 4 is organized around six author studies with one week of instruction for each author.

3rd Grade Version:

• Patricia Polacco
• Chris Van Allsburg
• Eve Bunting
• Seymour Simon
• Gail Gibbons
• Brian Floca

4th & 5th Grade Version:

• Patricia Polacco
• Chris Van Allsburg
• Eve Bunting
• Patricia C. McKissack
• Jacqueline Woodson
• Jerry Pallotta

Unit 5

• Figurative Langauge (similes, metaphors, idioms, proverbs & adages)
• Poetry (stanza, rhyme, meter)
• Prose
• Drama (cast of characters, stage directions, setting & description)
• Standardized Tests

Unit 6

• Includes one lesson from each of the language arts Common Core Standards (reading for literature and reading for information).

Vocabulary

Each week’s vocabulary instruction follows the same format to provide consistency and easy to follow routines. All vocabulary words are Tier 2 words from the mentor texts in the reading units. Students create a vocabulary notebook or journal for their vocabulary words. The first few pages of the notebooks are used for a general word bank. The next set of pages include a word bank for prefixes and suffixes. The remainder of the notebook is for students’ weekly vocabulary practice.

• Monday: As a class produce brief definitions for each word.
• Tuesday: Brainstorm examples and non examples of each vocabulary word.
• Wednesday: Draw a picture representation of each word.
• Thursday: Students write words in high-quality sentences.
• Friday: Students take a brief vocabulary quiz over the six terms.

Fluency

Since repeated reading is one of the best ways to improve students’ reading fluency, there is one fluency passage for each week of instruction. The fluency passages should be sent home on Monday, and students should read the passage orally to an adult each night of the school week. These passages may be sent home on an as-needed basis.

Reading Centers/Literacy Centers and/or Reading Homework

There is a weekly choice board that can be used as part of your centers or as a homework assignment. As with all parts of this unit, the choice board is completely optional. On the choice board, there are 9 reading activities for students to choose from. You can set the parameters on what activities to complete, how many activities to complete, etc.

Total Pages: 1270+
File Size: 227 MB

PREVIEW

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Geography
-Types of Maps
-Landforms
-Seven Continents
-Hemispheres
-Longitude and Latitude
-Major Rivers
-Mountains
-Rural, Suburban, and Urban
-Regions
-Individual Regions
-Cardinal & Intermediate Directions

Government
-Levels of Government
-Three Branches
-Individual Branches of Government
-Checks and Balances
-Direct Democracy vs. Representative Democracy
-Senate vs. House of Representatives
-Bill of Rights
-How a Bill Becomes a Law
-Rights and Responsibilities
-Important Documents
-U.S. Symbols

U.S. History
-Ancient Greece vs. United States
-European Exploration
-Native Americans
-Individual Native American Tribe
-Plymouth & Jamestown
-13 Colonies
-Westward Expansion
-Lewis and Clark
-Louisiana Purchase
-Gold Rush
-Impacts of West: Telegraph, Locomotive, Cotton Gin, and Steamboat
-Trail of Tears
-Underground Railroad
-The Great Depression
-The New Deal
-Civil Rights Movement

Military
*Cause & Effect – same templates for each of the following
-Blank
-French and Indian War
-Revolutionary War
-War of 1812
-Civil War
-WWI
-WWII
-Vietnam
-Korea

*Major Battles (same template for each of the following)
-Blank
-French and Indian War
-American Revolution
-War of 1812
-Civil War
-World War One
-World War Two
-Vietnam
-Korea

*Beginning, Middle, and End (same template for each of the following)
-Blank
-French and Indian War
-American Revolution
-War of 1812
-Civil War
-WWI
-WWII
-Vietnam
-Korea

Historical Figures
*Option 1 (same for each of the following)
-Blank Form
-Paul Revere
-Harriet Tubman

*Option 2 (same for each of the following)
-Blank Form
-Frederick Douglass
-John Adams

*Option 3 (same for each of the following)
-Blank Form
-Susan B. Anthony
-George Washington

*Option 4 (same for each of the following)
-Blank Form
-Eleanor Roosevelt
-Benjamin Franklin

*Option 5 (same for each of the following)
-Blank Form
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
-Thomas Jefferson

*Option 6 (same for each of the following)
-Blank Form
-Mary McLeod Bethune
-Patrick Henry

*Option 7 (same for each of the following)
-Blank Form
-Thurgood Marshall
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton

*Option 8 (same for each of the following)
-Blank Form
-Lyndon B. Johnson
-Sojourner Truth

*Option 9 (same for each of the following)
-Cesar Chavez
-Dr. Martin Luther King

Economics
-Supply and Demand
-Productive Resources
-Import and Export
-Needs and Wants
-Saving and Spending
-Taxes
-Producer and Consumer
-Economics Vocabulary-Scarcity, Trade, Profit, Opportunity Cost, and Interdependence
-Goods and Services

Check out these other social studies products!
Great Explorations
Elementary Economics
American Government Activities and Worksheets
U.S. History STEM Lessons

Total Pages: 221
File Size: 21 MB

PREVIEW

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Teaching American government doesn’t have to be boring or overly complicated. Government is an abstract concept, and many students have a difficult time making connections to the concepts. The vocabulary is also difficult for upper elementary students. Fortunately, there are many ways to make this unit meaningful AND fun for students,.

Teaching Government Through Simulations

Students always enjoy a good simulation, simulations tie in perfectly to social studies. When I teach government, I use a direct democracy and representative democracy simulation to engage students. It’s a fun way to make a difficult concept concrete and meaningful. In this simulation, students determine which new playground equipment should be purchased.

They first vote on the new playground equipment through a direct democracy. Then, they vote on the playground equipment through a representative democracy. In this version, students vote on a student council representative. They have to decide which representative best reflects their own opinions, and they see that there may not always be a perfect fit. The simulation is a part of my American Government Unit.

Government Reading Passages

I love integrating social studies and science units with reading and writing, and it’s a great way to present new content to students. I’ve created a Government Close Reading packet that I incorporate this into my social studies lessons, rather than my reading lessons. I only focus on one passage a week, so it doesn’t take us too much time to complete. Here’s a glimpse at how I use the close reading passages:

• Monday:  We read the passage together. Students write notes and ask questions.
• Tuesday:  Students answer the first read questions and cite text evidence.
• Wednesday:  Students reread the passage, highlight key words, and circle any unknown words.
• Thursday: Students reread the passage and answer the second read questions.
• Friday:  Students answer the third read question.

The passages are written on three different reading levels. This helps teachers differentiate their instruction.

There are three sets of questions for each passage. The first set of questions requires students to answer explicit questions using information from the text. I always have my students underline the answer in the passage. On the second set of questions, students focus on vocabulary and nonfiction text features. This is also where students think about main idea and author’s purpose which are always challenging skills for students. The third set of questions is where students apply informational writing strategies with a constructed response question.

Government PowerPoint

Powerpoint (or other presentations) are a good way to introduce new topics. I often start my government unit by teaching about the three levels of government. I made a little PowerPoint presentation that explained the three levels of government in student friendly terms. You can download a copy of the PowerPoint presentation here.

Government Graphic Organizers

You can use several different graphic organizers to teach levels of government and branches of government. Another great strategy is to incorporate interactive notes, which helps students organize information. The graphic organizers below are part of my American Government Unit.

Government Interactive Notebook

As students learn new content, they can add entries to their social studies interactive notebooks. This is a wonderful tool that allows students to take focused notes in an engaging and purposeful way. I have students add to their interactive notebooks on the day after I introduce a new topic. This gives students an opportunity to explore and process the new information the previous day. You can find my Social Studies Interactive Notebook here.

Branches of Government Sort

Government Task Cards

You can also incorporate task cards into your government instruction, because I don’t know if I can ever provide enough review for my students! We enjoying playing Scoot with our government task cards. Be sure to download the free task card here.

Teaching Government With Games

One of students’ favorite government review activity is the government review fortune teller (Cootie Catchers).  There are three different versions of the review game, and my students LOVE playing with them! Just a warning, you may have to force students to put them away.

The only materials needed for my favorite game are three pieces of paper, tape, and a marker. Write each branch of government on a different piece of paper and tape the paper into three different locations in your classroom. Give students a clue or question where the answer is a branch of government. Once the clue is read, students must walk to the sign that reflects the answer. Once students are in place, any student standing at the wrong area of the room is out and must sit down at his/her desk or table. To keep students reasonably calm, I did add a ‘no running’ rule to the game. Anytime a student ran to a corner, s/he was out. (I also had to add a ‘no sliding into the corner’ rule.) Continue calling out questions until there is one student standing, and that student was the winner.

The Concern

We probably played ten rounds of this game during a 30 minute segment. As I was making up this game, one of my concerns was that students would just follow each other, and that’s exactly what they did. However, that didn’t last long. In one of my first questions every student but one went to the wrong corner. That was perfect, because it let me know I need to spend more time talking about the General Assembly, and let my students know that they should follow their own instinct. One of my best and most unexpected surprises was how my students reacted when they were out. In a lot of games, once a student is out s/he just tunes everything else out. This was not the case. My students got out their social studies interactive notebooks and started pouring over the government entries. As soon as I called out a question, they were searching for the answer in their notebook. They knew they would have plenty of opportunities to get back in the game.

Government Centers

I also love having a government choice board that can be used as a social studies extension project or for student centers.  This choice board incorporates the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, so students will analyze, combine, forecast, expand, construct, create, explain, hypothesize, and improve. The activities included in the choice board are also a great way to integrate reading, writing, and social studies. This is also in my American Government Unit.

American Government Project

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Novel studies are the perfect addition to any elementary classroom. I LOVE children’s literature. I love picture books and chapter books, and I’m always torn on which I should use for my mini lessons and small group lessons. When I originally created my reading units, all of the mini lessons were based on picture books, and my guided reading groups were centered around short texts. After many requests, I created novel study editions for my original reading units. In these units, I replaced the picture book mini lessons with novel study lessons. Many teachers love these units, and that’s awesome! However, many teachers wanted to continue using picture books for my mini lesson AND have students practice what I taught in the mini lessons through novel studies. So, I created a different version of my novel studies to meet the needs of as many classrooms as possible.

This post shares optional ways to use my reading units and novel studies and explains the difference between each style of unit.

Reading Workshop Units-This includes 180 reading mini lessons that are perfect for third, fourth, and fifth grades. The majority of the mini lessons use a picture book as a mentor text, where you only need one copy of the text. There is a fluency passage and vocabulary words for each week chosen from one of that week’s mentor text. There are also comprehension printables for each lesson.

I have also included an alternate version of the lesson plans for teachers using my novel study booklets (more information on these below) in their reading groups. The plans are EXTREMELY similar to the original lesson plans. I have moved a few lessons around, and changed some of the wording in the independent reading time portion of the lesson plan to reflect the changes to the reading group time.

You can learn more about these novel study units with this brief video.

Reading Workshop Novel Study Units – These units use chapter books, rather than picture books, for the mentor texts in the mini lessons. The order and flow of the lessons are the same as in my original reading units, but these are designed for whole group novel studies. Each printable is designed for the specific novel study. Each day’s lessons share what chapters to read in the mini lesson and what chapters students should read independently.

In these units, the chapter books are the catalyst used to teach the third, fourth, and fifth grade reading standards. I read a portion the novel for my mini lesson. I have three options included in the plans.

1. The first option is for the teacher to read all of the text to students. Read the chapter, teach the mini lesson, read the follow up chapter.
2. Another option is for the teacher to read the first chapter and teach the mini lesson. Then, students read the follow up chapter independently.
3. The third option is for the teacher to teach the mini lesson, read the chapter, and then have students read the follow up chapter in their guided reading groups.

Once a week, rather than using a chapter book for the mentor text I’ve included a nonfiction picture book. This means that 20% of the units are nonfiction. I also have a stand alone nonfiction reading unit in addition to the novel study units. To keep the price as low as possible, I did not include fluency or homework in this unit. However, I did select six vocabulary words for each week, and those words were chosen from that week’s text.

Since many teachers (myself included) wanted to include novels without replacing the picture book mini lessons from my original reading units, I have also included even more options with novel study booklets. These booklets are for those who wish to use the original reading units based on picture books and to incorporate novel studies in their small group instruction.

In the booklets, each day’s task or printable will correlate with the reading workshop mini lesson. Students will apply what they learned in the reading lesson to a component of the novel they are reading.

Students will primarily focus on one standard in each novel study. After taught, that standard will be reviewed in the subsequent novel studies. These novel study booklets do NOT address informational standards, which should absolutely remain a part of your reading instruction. In fact, informational reading should be about 50% of what students are reading. I continue to teach informational reading in my mini lessons, and I like to integrate my informational reading into my social studies and science.  They also do not replace or eliminate students’ self selected reading time. This is to be in addition to that time.

I print all of the student printables and staple them into a book. I distribute these to students to complete throughout the course of the unit. Each page indicates which chapters the student should read for the day, and each lesson complements the mini lesson. I use these novel studies primarily with my students reading on or above grade level. I am still teaching some students how to read. These students see more benefits with traditional guided reading group lessons that focus on phonics, vocabulary, and shorter text.

There you have it! I hope that this post helped clarify all of the different options for teaching reading using novel studies. Please let me know if you have any more questions! If you’d like to dig deeper into teaching upper elementary reading, be sure to check out this post!

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