Do you want to introduce your students to the genre of historical fiction, but not sure where to start? I recently planned out an in-depth historical genre unit, and I wanted to share some of the things I decided to include and why! What is historical fiction? Before you begin […]

Let’s be honest – as a teacher, holidays are the perfect excuse to whip out a new, exciting activity! I compiled a list of my favorite Thanksgiving activities for upper elementary, so your students can celebrate the holiday, while also reviewing skills. ELA Thanksgiving Activities Choice Boards  These choice boards […]

When I was a freshman in high school, I was given the great challenge of reading The Odyssey. Embarrassingly, I spent most of the book wondering whether the Trojan War was real or not! As a teacher, I think about how being exposed earlier to Greek mythology could have saved […]

Every year I look forward to teaching my science fiction reading unit to my elementary students. Maybe you can relate to this, but it is a struggle to find great science fiction texts to read in class! A few years ago, I started reading The City of Ember with my […]

We have all heard of the buzzword “strategy groups.” Our principals tell us to work on strategy groups. We say “oh of course we are doing strategy groups…”. But in reality we have no idea what a strategy group is. What are strategy groups? Strategy groups are groups that are […]

Albert Einstein said that if you want your kids to be smart, read them fairy tales. The same goes for fifth graders. Just because they are 10 and 11, it doesn’t mean they don’t want to hear all about fairy tales. Trust me, the 5th graders love fairy tales. Lesson […]