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Start planning for May in your upper elementary classroom with these May-themed holiday activities and ideas. May is filled with many opportunities for celebration and appreciation in the classroom. I have always loved May. The weather is warmer, spring athletic seasons are in full swing, and we can start to

Help students understand their impact with these 12 ways to celebrate Earth Day! Although Earth Day is a specific holiday celebrated in April, you can truly celebrate Earth Day all month long with these 12 ideas for activities, lessons, and projects. #1 | Earth Day Close Reads In this Close

Similes, Metaphors, and Idioms…oh my! Exploring the 7 types of figurative language you need to teach in upper elementary! I know I say it all the time, but I love teaching figurative language.  It is the language of poetry and romance, and a good metaphor or some simple but spicy

Gamify your instruction by turning typical activities and lessons into games. Today, we’re introducing 5 games you can play with ANY set of questions from any subject area. Do you ever have days where your students are just not picking up anything you’re putting down? You know the kind of

Check out these 20 April-themed activities and ideas for upper elementary that will keep your students guessing what might come next! April showers bring… a whole bunch of fun holidays to celebrate with your upper elementary students. Whether you are playing April Fools’ pranks on your students or setting goals

If you are looking for more ways to engage your students during reading time, you’ll want to learn how to make any reading passage into a game using this donut-themed game board! Gamification continues to be a highly engaging and effective way to help students practice skills, and I am

Get students interacting with their learning with these 7 activities for increasing students’ understanding of volume! One of the best things about teaching volume is that volume makes for a great hands-on activity. Whether students are manipulating blocks, filling containers with water, or playing games, they get lots of opportunities

Introducing main idea in 5 days is easy when you follow this simple implementation plan! Have you ever tried to put together a puzzle without looking at the box? I honestly can’t remember ever doing that. If I did, it was one of my children’s puzzles, and it was not

If your students are getting stumped as they practice multiplying and dividing fractions in word problems, you may want to try some of these strategies! Multiplying and dividing fractions can stump even the smartest of adults, so it is crazy to think that it’s something we were first introduced to

Scaffold reading comprehension by teaching these 5 types of text structures to practice in upper elementary. In education, one of the most important questions teachers need to be able to answer is ‘why.’  It’s not just the questions like  “Why is the Earth round?” Or “Why does 2 + 2