Back to School Season is here! Click to see my favorite first week of school activity.
Addition and subtraction with regrouping is a tough concept! This concept is abstract and often our students are not ready to understand the process. In this post I will highlight some strategies I use to help my students become great at addition and subtraction with regrouping. Have you ever seen this e-card? 8 year old…
Teaching upper elementary does not mean you have to miss out on all the holiday fun! Try this fun Thanksgiving writing activity with your big kids before Thanksgiving break. As Thanksgiving approaches, I love taking time to help my students pause and reflect on what they’re thankful for. Gratitude writing can be tricky for upper…
Common Core requires third graders to begin to find the central message of their fictional texts. This means the theme or message will be written in a short sentence. Instead of “Friendship” students will have to choose a phrase like “Always be loyal to your friends.” Third grade is the first year when this hard…
Multiplication is a big deal in 3rd grade. It’s the first thing that pops in my mind when I think of 3rd grade math. I make an effort to spend a lot of time really teaching my students the math behind the multiplication facts because I fully believe that helps them master their facts. We…
In my previous post, I wrote about branching out from traditional number talks and incorporating content. You can read my post about what this looks like in my classroom & the benefits I saw from making this change. Today, I will highlight my place value number talks and the different activities that I chose to…
I love the idea of beginning my math class with number talks. My students were engaged in discussion with their peers about the computation process. They were sharing different ways to solve the same problem. There were lots of smiles and “ahhh! I get it” moments. But, I like to keep things fresh in my…
I certified in Literacy: Reading and Language Arts in 2017. This is one accomplishment that I am very proud of but it was also one of the hardest things I have ever done. The idea that only “40% pass their first attempt” was always in the back of my mind. While I was working, I…
You only have 76,775 minutes with the students in your class each year. That seems like a lot of time, but school days are busy and pass quickly. Because of this, you should choose purposeful activities to pack the most learning and growth into every school day as possible. Number talks are a powerful way…
I use groups a lot in my classroom. I try to ensure that my kids get up and moving as often as possible, instead of sitting in their desks working all day. I use both homogeneous & heterogeneous groups in my classroom depending on my lesson. But, for classroom activities where students will be engaging…
Our biggest goal as math teachers is to help our students become critical thinkers and problem solvers. I help my third graders develop critical thinking skills by using multi-step word problems in my math class every day. Think about when you use math in your daily life When you need to find how much fencing…