High-stake testing evokes a passionate response in almost all teachers. While I have strong feelings about testing, I recognize that standardized tests are going to be part of my life for the immediate future. Regardless of my thoughts, my students will have to take a high-stakes test this spring, and my value as a teacher […]
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Having only taught upper elementary, I’d never worried about 100th day activities. It all just seemed a little too young to me. I start feeling the pressure of our state testing after Christmas, so I don’t like giving up class time for anything other that what’s essential to teach. However, every year the 100th day
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After I made my Common Core Math Assessments, I had many requests for a similar language arts assessment version. After months of work, I’m thrilled to announce that I finally finished them and let me just way “Whew!” That was a big project-much, MUCH bigger than I expected! Third Grade Language Arts Assessments & Fourth
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These Christmas literacy activities should make the days leading up to Christmas vacation a little easier for you and fun for your students! No matter how crazy it is, the week before Christmas vacation is one of my favorite weeks of the school year. I have more flexibility to let loose a little and have
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There is something about this time of year when I start getting excited about Halloween, Thanksgiving, and even Christmas! I love, love, love all of the fun and craziness that the holidays bring. In this post, I’ve shared some of my 3rd Grade Halloween Math Centers. I may have sneaked in a few language arts
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I never thought writing a post on noun lessons and activities would be exciting. To be perfectly honest, I’ve always dreaded teaching parts of speech. I know that if I was bored teaching it, my students had to be extremely bored studying it! I integrate parts of speech and grammar instruction into writing workshop, but I
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Homophone lessons are not exactly my favorite thing to teach, but homophone instruction and practice is so necessary. Homophones are a concept that students can usually grasp in isolation, but are frequently misused in student writing. This blog post shares five lessons and activities you can use to teach homophones, so that you can see
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It can be quite challenging to find high quality standards based math assessments. Many times the assessments include more than what I need for authentic standards based assessments, or they’re not a just right match to the standards. Plus, there are multiple types of math assessments that I like to incorporate into the classroom. Short
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Morning work plays a crucial role in my 3rd and 4th grade classroom. It’s what I use for a daily spiral review in math and language arts. Since I’ve been implementing my morning work routine, I’ve seen a significant improvement in students’ overall retention of skills. That retention of skills has reflected in an substantial
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This heat unit includes some of my favorite heat experiments. The heat experiments are easy to prep, and the activities really helps students understand the concept of insulators and conductors (which almost always gives my students trouble). All you need is a glass cup, plastic cup, and 2 Styrofoam cups (one with a lid and
