Are you looking for a fun test prep idea for 4th and 5th grade math? Switch things up with a Tic-Tac-Toe relay race during your test prep or testing time. You can use my Color by Number for Big Kids resource that I have for both 4th grade and 5th grade or any set of task cards to play this fun … [Read more...]
Test Prep Coloring Pages: Encouragement and Motivation for Test Time
During test prep and test time, our students could use a little encouragement and motivation. This time can be so stressful for students and teachers. I've found that coloring pages with motivational quotes can really help students during the testing season. To ease the stress, I've created these … [Read more...]
The Benefits of Project-Based Learning
Why is Project-Based Learning Important? As educators, we all know that having students passively learn facts and information and then regurgitating those facts for a test or quiz is not sufficient. It does not prepare our students for the real world. Instead, we need to allow our students … [Read more...]
How to Sharpen Your Students’ Critical Thinking Skills
For the most part, reasoning, deducing, inferring, and critical thinking are not skills that come naturally to our students. Rather, they must be nurtured and developed. We want our students to become critical thinkers so they can reason and apply logic to solve novel problems throughout their … [Read more...]
How to Completely Transform Your Teaching with Exit Tickets
Whether they're completed on a piece of paper, a tablet, or a whiteboard, exit tickets are a powerful tool to use in your classroom. What are Exit Tickets? Exit tickets are formative assessments that provide information about your students' learning and understanding of a topic … [Read more...]
Teaching Differentiated Area in Math: Ideas to Make Practicing Area Fun
Each year, I find that many of my students struggle to grasp the concept of area. Even though it is a standard that should be mastered in lower grades, most of my students still don't have a proficient understanding of this concept. I have found that the best way to help students learn is to … [Read more...]
Simple and Easy Ways to Make Math Visual in the Upper-Elementary Classroom
Most educators know that engaging students in visual representations of math is extremely helpful for their learning. The big misconception is that visual math can't be implemented for higher levels of math, but that is not true. Most manipulatives like geometric solids, two-colored counters, … [Read more...]
Fraction Anchor Chart Freebie and Hands-on Fractions
I'm here to share a fraction anchor chart freebie and a hands-on mini lesson idea I used with my math intervention students. When we started our unit on fractions and did our pre-assessments, I quickly learned that I have a small group of students who need quite a bit of intervention. Unfortunately, … [Read more...]
Math and English Language Arts Daily Morning Work
In my classroom, students start each morning by completing a page from my Daily Morning Work resource. Before we started a morning work routine, our mornings were chaotic. Students were were lingering in the hallway, socializing, or using the time to read or finish work from the previous day. … [Read more...]
Color by Number for Big Kids
I know many of you are probably on Spring Break, but most of us here in the north have a few more weeks of school! Hopefully those of you that have break are relaxing and enjoying the much deserved time off! Yes, I said relaxing! Between all of the snow days, indoor recess days, sick days, and test … [Read more...]
