10 Creative ways to embed social studies into your literacy block. Find fun westward expansion activities that address literacy standards with center ideas.
Nonfiction, graphic novels, diverse options, mysteries—they're all here!
To make sure your upper elementary students receive high quality social studies, use this social studies interactive notebook!
Novel Studies that Promote Higher-Order Thinking If you read my Wonder post, you know that there is a great way to incorporate novel studies into your literacy classroom! No, not your traditional comprehension question and vocabulary
This FREE 4th grade reading comprehension resource is perfect for guided reading, shared reading, close reading, homework, or morning work. It includes 2 high-interest, professionally written reading passages (1 nonfiction and 1 fiction) that are designed to engage your students. 11-12 text-dependent questions (and answers) are provided for each passage.Want an ENTIRE YEAR of passages […]
Struggling with how to address phonics gaps in your 4th or 5th graders? This blog post shares strategies to reteach and review phonics skills.
A list of Early American activities for 5th-grade social studies to help students understand the importance of history.
Practicing revising with 4th graders has never been so easy! Bundle and SAVE BIG with 6 revising STAAR practice passages at your fingertips in just seconds. Each low-prep passage covers a different skill - perfect for teaching or reteaching each revising skill. A must have for STAAR test prep! Save 20% by purchasing the BUNDLE! ⭐Each question is written in a format that mirrors the RLA STAAR. ⭐The topic of each revising passage is a historical figure or hero from the 4th grade Social Studies TEKS. Texas teachers can get more bang for their buck by reviewing these historical figures and heroes and their impact on our state while practicing writing TEKS. The fourth grade revising bundle includes 6 revising passages: Combining Sentences: Sam Houston Adding Relevant Details: Enrique Esparza Deleting Details: Jose Antonio Navarro Revising Sentences: Barbara Jordan Word Choice: Mirabeau Lamar Clarifying the Central Idea: Ann Richards ⭐⭐Looking for more fourth grade STAAR revising and editing activities? Click here to see ALL of my resources that will help you prep your students to be successful with the writing portion of the STAAR test!⭐⭐ ⭐Follow my store to be the first to know when more fourth grade revising and editing STAAR prep passages are available to you!
Okay- so this have got to be my FAVORITE new project of the year. I saw someone post a picture on Pinterest from Artsonia where a CD was a rose window and then the Cathedral was drawn behind it. I was like "DUH!!!! What a PERFECT project for using CD's! How have I not thought of this? GENIUS!" I have been waiting for what feels like months for clay to be over and such to try out this idea. I finally had the perfect moment to start this with a group of 5th graders! I first spent about 45 minutes of planning the lesson trying to find an interesting/short/information video on Rose Windows to show my students.... man was that a task. I could find short boring videos, or interesting documentaries - but nothing that fit my whole criteria... well, that is until I found this: Okay - so it isn't exactly perfect and I managed to talk over the part where the guy says "bloody hell" and then I skip the part about the commission for a new rose window. (I am okay with mentioning religion when it comes in context of art/architecture - but I didn't feel it was necessary to bring in the modern religious icons.) The thing I love about the video, other than the accents, is that it shows rose windows, a brief history, and even a few ruins. So, after the video (or before if I remember) I give a little history - set the scene for these mammoth buildings. I try to explain to the kids that these are not 'just stained glass windows' but that these are THE WINDOWS. It is hard to really explain a life to kids where there is no real visual stimulation - there were no billboards, signs, advertisements, ipads, tvs, photographs and such during the time when these were built. People were not use to seeing images at all let alone on such a GRAND scale. I then show some stills of these cathedrals and point out how little the people are, or the chairs on the inside. It is hard to describe how LARGE these structures are without a point of reference. After I get done talking at them (which I try not to do - but sometimes it is necessary), we discuss what they notice about the rose windows while looking at some still photographs. -- Round, symmetrical, colors, patterns go around the center.... etc. I then explain to them that they are going to create their own Rose Window. They can either: A) Start right away - but there is NO erasing sharpie so they will have to problem solve their mistakes. B) Get a scrap sheet of paper and practice a few designs. I hand out CD's and Sharpies and let them go. The next time they come we look at a slide show of Gothic Cathedrals - complete with Rose Windows. After a few photos I put up the picture shown below with 6 Cathedrals side by side. I ask the students to look at them. Compare, contrast the different buildings. What do they have in common, how are they different? They discuss these things at their table, we share a few as a class -- 3 door sections, LOTS of arches, steeples (though not always symmetrical), rose window in the middle, 3 layers (doors, middle, steeple), recessed doors. Next, I pass out 'stone' colored construction paper with a handout containing pictures of the Cathedrals we just looked at. Students use these pictures to help them make their own Gothic structure. They draw with pencil, trace with Sharpie. Then, the last we do is some shading to give the Gothic structures some pizazz. I explain about the sun making shadows and how that helps us understand depth and shape. We discuss that depending on where our light source, the sun, is will determine where our shadows go. I show them how to take a black colored pencil and draw a shadow on the left or right side every line on their paper (excluding where their building and sky meet). (Some struggle with this idea more than others - but its all good). At this point if students want to be done - okay. If they want to go above and beyond I have them go in with a white oil pastel and do the same on the opposite side of each line and color the sky in with a sky color. These are spectacular to look at! I love how each one looks completely different. Amazing!
What do we need to do to experience revival? The Bible is clear: "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2
Root words, Suffixes/Prefixes Bell Ringers are the perfect and super quick way to teach your middle school students this important ELA skill.
FROM THE PUBLISHER: After leaving Uncle Chester's homestead claim, orphan Hattie Brooks throws a lasso around a new dream, even bigger than the Montana sky. She wants to be a reporter, knowing full well that a few pieces published in the Arlington News will not suffice.
The freebies have moved! Instead of having the freebies in a separate resource library, we have put all of our freebies in our shop. You can find the freebies by clicking right here!
Teachers of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students looking for STAAR revise and edit practice can check out this blog post full of resources . . .
You’ve been asking for this list for a long time... and we’re happy to have it ready for you! You’ve told us that our list of Books Boys Love (that aren’t just books for boys) has helped your boys go from feeling meh about reading to voraciously reading through stacks. With this new list, we’re
Fourth grade students are working on a composing unit. Students begin by drafting a composition using a plain piece of paper folded into 16 small boxes. Each box represents one BEAT. If a note is w…
Unlock strategies for 4th and 5th grade small group reading. Explore different focuses and a six-step process to use.
Blackout Poetry is SO MUCH FUN and I absolutely love how it allows my kiddos to apply a poetry skill with a book that we are currently immersed in. I feel like often times poetry is taught so independently that students struggle to understand how to actually apply it, but Blackout Poetry allows them to do just that. They are learning about poetry while applying it in a way that makes sense to them. We do blackout poetry once we finish the book "Chains". Students absolutely love the book we read, so they are invested in the pages and love pulling out words to create a poem. I love how connected they are to the book and how excited they are to create their poem. What is blackout poetry? Blackout poetry uses a written piece of text from a book, newspaper, or magazine to create a poem. Once you have found all of your words to make your poem, you "redact" all the words you don't want by blacking them out. You can take blackout poetry even further by creating an image or design to the page instead of just blacking it out. This can be done with literally ANY pre-existing text. How do I teach my students to do this? For our "Chains" blackout poetry projects, I provide my students 4-5 different page options that they can use. They are also allowed to dig through the book to pick one of their own, but I know that would be too challenging for some students. Giving them a choice of a few pages is plenty for most of my students. If this is your first time introducing your students to this type of poetry, give them page options that include very vibrant words, lots of details, etc. This will make it easier for them to create their first poem. 1) Once students have decided on a page, I have them skim the page for words that STICK OUT. They love this part because they don't have to read the page word-for-word. Ha. I tell them to circle word and phrases that they like. 2) Once they finish circling words that stick out, I have them pull out their writing notebooks and write down the words/phrases in order and then read through them. What words do you know longer want? Mark them out. What words need connecting words like "a" or "and"? If connecting words are needed they dive back into the text and circle those as well. 3) After they've gotten their words and phrases, I have them read it again to make sure it "flows" and follows a theme. What is the poem about? What are they expressing? At that point they create a title. 4) Once their poem is how they want it to be, I had them type it out and gave them a new BLANK copied book page for them to re-circle their used words and sketch their image. Blackout poetry can be simply that - blacking out the other words on the page, or students can illustrate an idea or image on the page as they cover up the words. Most students choose to do that because it is FUN. I have them block their words off with sharpie and then sketch out their image before they color anything. *Disclaimer: I am NOT A PROFESSIONAL at poetry - this is just what we do in my classroom. Haha. My kiddos really enjoy this poetry activity and I absolutely love seeing them make deep connections with the text we are reading. = )
If you are new to teaching 5th grade, you have come to the right place. This is a collection of blog posts and resources for 5th grade teachers.
Claire Small's musical journey was ignited after Johnny Cash visited her 4th grade music class and played a few numbers on his guitar. Johnny's intimate concert affirmed what Claire knew about herself-that she wanted to spend her life as a singer, songwriter, musician and live performance artist. While surrounded by the country music culture in her Nashville hometown and spending summers listening to the sweet sounds of pedal steel and bluegrass flowing from the honkytonks on Lower Broadway, her parents love for the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Carole King and CSNY laid a wonderful musical foundation for Claire. At nine, the first songs her father taught her to play on the guitar were quot;Bobby McGeequot; and quot;Eve of Destructionquot;. As Claire began to discover her own musical preferences, she found herself listening to the Doors, PJ Harvey, Nirvana and early Smashing Pumpkins. Understandably, Claire's writing became edgy and emotionally-charged. Claire was also influenced by the music she sang at her Jewish Temple. From an early age, she was exposed to the ancient chants and minor-scaled prayers that make up part of the services. Claire became a long-standing member of the Temple choir. Her first original composition, entitled quot;One Wish,quot; was recorded when she was 11 at summer camp. In the eighth grade she made her first compilation of songs and called it quot;Bubble Joy.quot; Recorded and duplicated on a karaoke machine in her bedroom, she manufactured copies of the tape which she sold to her friends at school for $3 apiece. In ninth grade Claire responded to an ad placed by a downtown Nashville venue seeking regular acts. At the audition, she caught the eye of honky-tonker Greg Garing. Though only fifteen years old, Garing took Claire under his wings, making her a part of the mid-1990's Lower Broadway revival that included acts such as BR-549, Paul Burch, and Lucinda Williams. In both '95 and '96 Claire became the youngest artist ever to play at the Nashville Music Extravaganza quot;breathing out the music of the angelsquot;, and quot;wowing a small crowd with technique far beyond her yearsquot; as reported by the Nashville Scene. Throughout the remainder of high school, Claire continued to play at local festivals and clubs. In the summer between her sophomore and junior years, Claire spent five weeks in Spain, solidifying her language education and discovering the rich musical heritage of the Spanish culture. She became enamoured with such artists as Tito Puente, Gil Gilberto, Cesaria Evora, and Ibrahim Ferrar. After graduation, she first moved to New Mexico and then to Boulder where she honed her performance skills and became more with her southern roots. The early music of blues musicians Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, and Mississippi John Hurt prompted Claire to return to Nashville and record a long-overdue album. quot;LEDGERquot; is Claire's follow-up to her 2004 EP quot;CANTILEVERquot; and contains 10 songs, each with distinct personalities and musical styles. The album was recorded at Nashville 'underground' producer Joe McMahan's home studio on 2quot; tape in a grassroots, low budget manner and keeps a cohesive sound between the musicians. Special guest appearances such Nashville talents as string-maestro Chris Carmichael, percussionists Dann Sherrill & Brian Owings, singer Jennifer Niceley, Lambchop's drummer Sam Baker, and Calexico's pedal steel man Paul Niehaus pepper the record with surprises at every melodic twist and turn. Claire's dynamic acoustic guitar and her bandmates'
Having a little time at the end of class is something my students look forward to because they have an opportunity to do fun five minute social studies activities. If you find yourself with a
Three week interactive Westward Expansion Unit for 5th-8th graders. With everything you need right there, this unit is easy to plan and engaging to teach!
Morphology walls are a great tool in 4th and 5th grade classrooms! Read more and sign up for free posters to make your own morphology wall!
Need a fun fraction review game? Try this basketball review where the students shoot hoops and then use that to review key fraction skills. 4th and 5th grade version included!
Learn more about my favorite Virginia Studies review activities that are easy for teachers to prep and fun for students to use!
Are you on the hunt for the perfect 4th Grade Spiral ELA resource? These morning work or early finishers worksheets offer what you need for ELA consistency!
Daily grammar practice is a tool that helps students practice and master grammar standards. Learn more about grammar spiral review in the classroom.
FROM THE PUBLISHER: India Opal is at the grocery store when she makes a new friend -- a dog she names Winn Dixie (after the store, of course!). Winn Dixie helps Opal navigate Naomi, Florida, and find the inner courage to learn about her mom who left when she was 3.
Love podcasts? Check out this post in the form of a podcast episode on The Classroom Commute Podcast :
Social studies has always been one of my absolute favorite subjects to teach. I get so excited about United States history, and I do my best to make a potentially boring topic come alive for my students! There are a lot of opportunities for hands-on, get out of your seat lessons and projects in the...
Okay- so this have got to be my FAVORITE new project of the year. I saw someone post a picture on Pinterest from Artsonia where a CD was a rose window and then the Cathedral was drawn behind it. I was like "DUH!!!! What a PERFECT project for using CD's! How have I not thought of this? GENIUS!" I have been waiting for what feels like months for clay to be over and such to try out this idea. I finally had the perfect moment to start this with a group of 5th graders! I first spent about 45 minutes of planning the lesson trying to find an interesting/short/information video on Rose Windows to show my students.... man was that a task. I could find short boring videos, or interesting documentaries - but nothing that fit my whole criteria... well, that is until I found this: Okay - so it isn't exactly perfect and I managed to talk over the part where the guy says "bloody hell" and then I skip the part about the commission for a new rose window. (I am okay with mentioning religion when it comes in context of art/architecture - but I didn't feel it was necessary to bring in the modern religious icons.) The thing I love about the video, other than the accents, is that it shows rose windows, a brief history, and even a few ruins. So, after the video (or before if I remember) I give a little history - set the scene for these mammoth buildings. I try to explain to the kids that these are not 'just stained glass windows' but that these are THE WINDOWS. It is hard to really explain a life to kids where there is no real visual stimulation - there were no billboards, signs, advertisements, ipads, tvs, photographs and such during the time when these were built. People were not use to seeing images at all let alone on such a GRAND scale. I then show some stills of these cathedrals and point out how little the people are, or the chairs on the inside. It is hard to describe how LARGE these structures are without a point of reference. After I get done talking at them (which I try not to do - but sometimes it is necessary), we discuss what they notice about the rose windows while looking at some still photographs. -- Round, symmetrical, colors, patterns go around the center.... etc. I then explain to them that they are going to create their own Rose Window. They can either: A) Start right away - but there is NO erasing sharpie so they will have to problem solve their mistakes. B) Get a scrap sheet of paper and practice a few designs. I hand out CD's and Sharpies and let them go. The next time they come we look at a slide show of Gothic Cathedrals - complete with Rose Windows. After a few photos I put up the picture shown below with 6 Cathedrals side by side. I ask the students to look at them. Compare, contrast the different buildings. What do they have in common, how are they different? They discuss these things at their table, we share a few as a class -- 3 door sections, LOTS of arches, steeples (though not always symmetrical), rose window in the middle, 3 layers (doors, middle, steeple), recessed doors. Next, I pass out 'stone' colored construction paper with a handout containing pictures of the Cathedrals we just looked at. Students use these pictures to help them make their own Gothic structure. They draw with pencil, trace with Sharpie. Then, the last we do is some shading to give the Gothic structures some pizazz. I explain about the sun making shadows and how that helps us understand depth and shape. We discuss that depending on where our light source, the sun, is will determine where our shadows go. I show them how to take a black colored pencil and draw a shadow on the left or right side every line on their paper (excluding where their building and sky meet). (Some struggle with this idea more than others - but its all good). At this point if students want to be done - okay. If they want to go above and beyond I have them go in with a white oil pastel and do the same on the opposite side of each line and color the sky in with a sky color. These are spectacular to look at! I love how each one looks completely different. Amazing!
