Each year, my good friend, Cortney, does a presentation for elementary school kids about Chinese New Year. She was nice enough to let me share this Chinese New Year PowerPoint presentation with you. It explains the basics of the holiday and has pictures to go with it.
Click here for the presentation: Chinese New Year 2014
Many of you have probably already seen this idea and it was mind-blowing! It’s such a good idea! Here’s a picture of it:
I love how the math trend is teaching kids deeper number sense and relationships between numbers by giving them plenty of exposure to the patterns easily identified on a hundreds chart. I thought this idea would be great for a worksheet to extend the idea further. Hence, I give you my first (of many to come) hundreds chart more than/less than worksheets:
Click here for the free printable PDF: hundreds chart- more than- less than CAMPING
(Can you tell I could go for a camping trip sometime soon?! )
Another part of the Common core is learning homophones (to, two, too). The 4th grade standard says “Correctly use frequently confused words (e.g., to, too, two; there, their).” Here’s my free homophones worksheet: Homophones worksheet
One of the standards in the Common Core is to “Order adjectives within sentences according to conventional patterns (e.g., a small red bag rather than a red small bag)” (4th Grade). So here’s my worksheet to help students practice ordering adjectives: Adjective Order Worksheet. I will be updating this worksheet when I have the time. For now, give your students a gold star if they find something that needs to be updated. 😀
This was too cute not to share. This teacher gives her students “brownie points.” But the problem was that brownies look kind of weird up at the front of the room. brown squares weren’t as cute and motivating as sweet cupcakes. She uses a brownie pan as the “tracking sheet.” The cupcake papers are laminated and attached to magnets. Here’s a picture:
I saw this idea in an upper grade classroom and thought it was pretty cool. It’s a bulletin board about the things a good reader does: C R A F T
Comprehension: I understand what I read
Response to Text: I respond with thought and detail
Accuracy: I can read a variety of words
Fluency: I can read with accuracy and expression
Text Features: I understand and utilize text features
The teacher focuses on a reading skill and makes anchor charts that go with it. The anchor chart goes on the bulletin board to be referred to later.
This poster is an example of how students should do their math work. The poster shows how students should do their math work: specific heading, numbered problems, write problems left to right in rows rather than columns and the answers are circled. It’s a great way to help students remember what they need before turning in a paper. In addition, it’s a great reminder of how to do some basic math algorithms (in case your students forget).
Here’s an idea submitted by a reader. This teacher has a “calm down box” in her classroom. She put stress balls, timers and other tangible things in the box and when students get overwhelmed or need some alone time, they can sit at a table with the box and calm down.
It’s always good practice to let your students know what they’re being graded on. So here’s a generic writing rubric you can use to grade any elementary school writing project. There are 4 on a page, so it won’t waste paper. I always put a stack of these next to the turn-in tray and have students attach the rubric (along with their outlines, rough drafts, etc.) before turning it on. It saves me SO much time having them do it rather than me doing it. If I am having the whole class turn it in at the same time, I pass out the rubrics and send a few staplers around so everyone gets it staples in before they’re passed to me.
Click here for the PDF of the printable rubric: Writing Rubric – 4 per page
Squarehead Teachers 