Will you be teaching Wonder by R.J. Palacio in your curriculum? This post describes how I taught it to my 6th grade English langauge arts class.
Upper Elementary Novel Study Ideas - favorite book suggestions and novel study ideas for upper elementary ELA classrooms.
Find strategies for teaching vocabulary in the upper elementary classroom. Get actionable steps you can take today!
Are you looking for engaging vocabulary activities? These 10 Fun Vocabulary Activities are sure to be a hit in your classroom.
Students in 4th and 5th grade still need decoding strategies and instruction. This post shares my go-to decoding strategies with activities.
Checking for Understanding Formative Assessment Exit Slips
Reading functional text is an important skill for upper elementary students to learn! So how do we teach the skills to read authentic text?
Teach students in upper elementary, middle school, and high school
Students in 4th and 5th grade still need decoding strategies and instruction. This post shares my go-to decoding strategies with activities.
Engaging vocabulary activities that don't require any prep? Yes please!
Why should we include homophones activities and other vocabulary learning opportunities in our upper elementary classroom? Isn’t teaching context clues enough? These might be some of the questions that run through our heads when we think of explicitly teaching vocabulary. As teachers, we know that there is a direct correlation between strong vocabulary and reading ... Read More about Homophones Activities for Upper Elementary
Although we may only think of using fables in lower grades, using fables in upper elementary can be very beneficial. Not only are fables an excellent genre for teaching morals and themes in stories, but because they are short, they are wonderful to use when comparing and contrasting the treatment of similar themes and topics. Using these short stories can be both beneficial and fun, even for our older students. Finding Free Resources Finding free resources for teaching fables is easier than you may think. One wonderful resource can be found at Library of Congress. This website contains a list of classic Aesop fables that you can print or display with your overhead projector for your entire class to use. Another website is Aesop's Fables that also contains a large list of fables. A Fun "Fable Strip" Activity Recently, my students read a variety of fables that I printed from Library of Congress. The students discussed the morals of each fable, compared fables, and completed a fun writing activity. For the "Fable Strips" writing activity, students worked in groups and chose a favorite fable. Then each group collaborated together to create a comic strip style "fable strip" to display. Students sketched and planned three or four scenes about the chosen fable. Once the "fable strip" was planned, students continued working in their groups to draw and color each scene on white paper. Then they cut out each one and used a speech bubble to write the dialogue. Each group created three to four scenes for their fable strip that were then displayed on the bulletin board. Students wrote the moral of the fable on a yellow strip of paper. The moral was then placed below each "fable strip." The final result was this fun fables bulletin board. Graphic Organizers If you follow my blog, then you are not surprised that if I'm discussing reading, I must include graphic organizers. I am a huge fan of using graphic organizers to help students write about their reading, to help them increase their thinking, and to help improve comprehension. This graphic organizer is one of three that are designed specifically for fables. All three graphic organizers can be found HERE in my best selling Reading Graphic Organizers for Literature. Plan a day or two for your students to have fun with fables. They will love it! Thanks for stopping by! Connect with Me: Blog TpT Store Instagram Facebook Pinterest
This post shares a list of free literacy apps for elementary students that can be used for different ELA concepts + a FREE Google resource.
Correlative conjunctions... they are fairly easy for students to recognize, but they aren't always the easiest sentences to write! In fact, when it was time to teach a grammar lesson on correlative co
Reading comprehension skills like making inferences, finding the main idea, and recognizing cause and effect are critical curriculum elements in any ELA classroom. As our students build their reading skills, they need to develop their understanding of 12 different reading comprehension skills. One of my favorite ways to teach students about the reading skills is with doodle notes. Don't worry...I've put together a 20+ page set of doodle notes that you can download for FREE! (Sign up at the bottom of this post!) Have you tried doodle notes in your classroom? If so, you know that... ⭐ Doodle notes are a great way to introduce students to important information. These doodle notes include definitions for 12 different reading skills. In addition, there are tips provided for each reading skill to help students use each in their reading. The definitions are simple enough for students to understand, but specific enough to help students recognize the differences in each. ⭐ Doodle notes tap into multiple learning styles. Doodle notes are obviously great for visual learners. They also create a connection between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. This leads to an increase in learning, focus, and retention. The doodles on the note pages also help a variety of learners connect images with information. The free set of reading doodle notes also includes 4 versions for easy differentiation. There are doodle pages for lower grades, upper grades, as well as notes that are filled-in or in a guided notes format. ⭐ Doodle notes expose students to skills they can use in the classroom. Doodle notes are a fun and engaging spin on traditional notes. The free set of doodle notes focus on reading comprehension skills. Therefore, they work perfectly as a review of skills before students show off their learning while reading passages. Of course, I think reading passages should be engaging, too. So, some of my favorites to combine with the doodle notes are these... --- Reading Passages and Text-Based Evidence - R.E.A.D. Strategy --- Social Emotional Learning Passages - Read, Doodle and Do --- Nonfiction Reading Passages - Doodle and Do ⭐ Doodle notes are extremely motivating and therefore work as awesome introductions to units. The free set of reading comprehension skills doodle notes are such an awesome way to introduce students to more in-depth reading units. You could easily have students complete the packet of doodle notes before diving deeper into each reading skill. Or, you could have students complete one section of the doodle notes as they learn about different skills. The good news is that I've already created 12 reading mini-units for each reading skill. Find them here. ⭐ Doodle notes help students review and reinforce information naturally. When students complete doodle notes, first, they do the work of adding the notes to their pages. However, their learning doesn't end there. Students are super motivated to doodle, color, and embellish their note pages. As they get creative, they naturally read over and review their learning. It's the perfect way to mix creativity and learning! If you'd like to add this FREE set of reading comprehension doodle notes to your classroom, just add your email and name below. Then, check you inbox for your exclusive freebie!
Engage upper elementary and middle school students with a differentiated
Learn for easy lesson ideas you can use for teaching theme to your students in upper elementary.
I always look forward to teaching figurative language in my classroom, and idioms in particular. Students get such a kick (note the idiom here) talking about and learning new idioms and we really enjoy doing some fun activities to help kids build a stronger language base. In this post by The Teacher Next Door, you'll read about seven different activities that reinforce idioms and have worked well in the classroom:
Do your students struggle with theme? Teach them how to find a literary every time with a few simple steps. This post provides a step-by-step process for students to find the message of the text. Get them to ask the right questions to identify the theme every time.
