You’re a hard working teacher with too little time on your hands. That doesn’t mean you are willing to sacrifice the quality of instruction that happens in your classroom. That’s where I can help.
I’ve collected all my favorite, tried-and true lessons and activities and made them available to the public. I already did the planning.
Now you get to do the fun part…TEACH!
Choose from a collection novel studies for over 50 of the most read stories for 3rd-6th grade. Each study comes with comprehension questions for every chapter that spark deeper thinking and conversation, pages to practice reading skills like making connections to the text, sensory language, inference, and summary. They also include several writing prompts so no matter which type of writing you are working on, you’ll have a writing activity to tie directly to your literature lessons. There are even some bonus pages to help students practice basic grammar skills tied to the story they are reading. These work great for class read-alouds, guided reading, and literature circles. There’s no need to spend your weekend planning for your next novel. All the prep has been done for you so–just print and go.
Revising. Editing. Grammar. Reading Skills. Spelling. These are all essential skills for upper elementary students, but making time in the crowded daily schedule to teach each individual skill can be a struggle. My secret for maximizing the time I do have is to use these daily language practice pages as a morning warm up. Then I put one copy under the document camera and we correct it together, discussing the mistakes, fixes, and grammar rules along the way. It takes just a few minutes a day and by the end of the year we discussed every standard multiple times. The best part is that by the time they kids turn these in, they are already graded. I just put a smiley face on it and call it done! I know these will save you valuable planning time and instructional time.
Task cards are my favorite engagement hack. They ask all the same questions as a boring worksheet but allow teachers to be much more creative and offer peer interaction. You can hide them around the room scavenger-hunt-style, place them at stations, or use them as the content for your favorite cooperative learning structure or game. I especially like to use task cards to pull in the theme or help us look forward to the next holiday on the calendar. Check out the link below for holiday-themed task cards for grammar, vocabulary, or reading skills. From Winter task cards for the first week back to school after the break, to Christmas task cards to save your sanity the week before the break, and every holiday in between–I’ve got you covered.
