Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes


Classroom Setup, ELA, Fourth Grade, Third Grade, TpT Store

One of the bulletin boards I always set up at the beginning of the year is my Greek and Latin Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes board. It starts out blank, but by the end of the year, it is packed with cards and we refer to it quite often as we are reading or discussing vocabulary. Some years I just add cards as we go, sometimes I post them by word part, and one year we had so many cards that I took them down halfway through the year and put them back in alphabetical order. I’ve been adding new cards […]

Mini Anchor Charts


Classroom Setup, Daily Life, DIY, ELA, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Math, Printables, Third Grade, TpT Store, Writing

I love anchor charts. I hate hanging anchor charts on my walls. They either take up precious bulletin board space, or they constantly fall down (or just wave at me from one droopy corner). So, a few years ago, I created a set of mini anchor charts for my tables using IKEA’s Tolsby Frames. After much frustration to get everything just the right size, I finally had a small set of charts. Multiplication chart, synonyms for overused words, math talk stems, commonly misspelled words, and more. And I also made some cute motivational cards to keep it fun and positive!

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Printable Post-Its


Daily Life, DIY, ELA, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Printables, Second Grade, Third Grade, TpT Store, Writing

A friend asked if I had ever used or created printable Post-Its to use in my classroom. A logical question, since I do love Post-Its! While I had never printed on them before, my curiosity was piqued and I was on it the next morning! It took a few days, but I finally had a full set of printables that I could see myself using in the classroom (whenever we head back, that is!) Positive notes of praise, notes of encouragement to keep going, sentence starters for those days when I want to be more specific, writing checklists (my stamp

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NaNoWriMo Update


DIY, ELA, Fourth Grade, Writing

I have posted before about taking on the NaNoWriMo challenge with my students. For the last two years, I have spent the month of November plugging away at a novel with a goal of 30,000 words. They wrote and published their own books and told me that I should do the same with my two novels. So I figured, why not? It was many hours of proofreading, formatting, researching information about self-publishing, more proofreading, and more formatting, but I think it was all worth it in the end. The proof of the second book is already on its way, and

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NaNoWriMo


ELA, Fourth Grade, Reading, Writing

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. During the month of November, people from all over get together and set their own personal word count goals, with the big idea being that you get a novel drafted in a month (or at least a good start to a novel). Last year, I happened to find the NaNoWriMo website just a tad late, on November 1st. But as it was a weekend, I figured I had a whole day and a half to revamp my writing plans for the month and bring out a new challenge! My students had mixed reactions,

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Mad Libs – Part 2


Daily 5, ELA, Fourth Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, TpT Store
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As a follow up to one of my most popular items, School-Themed Mad Libs, I have put together a set of 4 Animal-Themed Mad Libs which is available on TpT! There is a separate recording sheet for the list of words before students put their answers into the story so the teacher can then check the list of words for correct parts of speech before having the student their list of words into the actual story.You can also find my original Mad Libs which are school-themed on TpT.

Biography Partner Projects


Cooperative Learning, ELA, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Printables, Reading, Third Grade, TpT Store

My students recently finished a biography partner project, which was designed not only as a reading and research project, but also to help students work on their organization, time management and cooperative skills. I wanted to stress the process and quality of work with this project. I used the ‘Who Is/Who Was’ series of biographies, since they are all about the same length, and they include a starting place for the timeline requirement. The entire project took 4 weeks, with children working on this both in class and for homework. I started by grouping students into pairs, keeping in mind

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Student-Led Portfolio Conferences


Assessment, ELA, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Math, Printables, Reading, Science, Social Studies, TpT Store, Writing

November is a time for Parent-Teacher conferences, which I must admit are not my favorite. I spend so much time trying to think of everything I need to say to a parent, organizing my ideas, gathering work samples and finding just the right way to phrase some of those difficult messages. And inevitably, the minute a parent leaves or an hour later it hits me… the one thing I forgot to tell them! Spring is another conference, but this time around students are leading the way. Over the next few weeks I will spend time reflecting with my students, sharing

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Spelling Headaches Finally Solved


Assessment, ELA, Fourth Grade, Homework, Technology

It’s always a challenge moving to a new grade level, and I’ve been feeling like I’m trying to dig my way out of a hole ever since the year started.  All of the wonderful plans I had put together in my head, and in some cases on paper, finally had their chance to be implemented, and while some of them worked out well, some of them didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. Spelling has been my biggest nemesis so far this year, but I think I have finally gained the upper hand! Last year I continued using Words Their

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