I had the great honor and pleasure to write a blog post for the Teachers Pay Teachers Blog. I chose to write all about how I use and teach non-fiction in my upper grade classroom!! Click HERE to learn about how I make non-fiction come to life for my students!! ... [Read More]
Reinventing Reading Response Journals
As teachers we are constantly REINVENTING THE WHEEL!! Although it can be time consuming, one thing I love about my job, is that I get the opportunity to learn, grow, create, and RECREATE year after year!! I have been using Reading Response Journals in my classroom for over 10 years, and each year I make slight changes in the process, style, and implementation. The Reading Response Journals that I am about to share are a culmination of ideas from the past 10 years!! I have found that reading ... [Read More]
Close Reading Toolbox FREEBIE!!
Well, my school year has barely ended, and call me crazy, because I am already planning and creating for next year!! I have a list a mile long of new ideas that I can't wait to try out for next year. My first one?!?! Close Reading Toolboxes!! This post contains affiliate links to amazon.com. If you make a purchase from amazon.com through the links on this page, CreateTeachShare will receive a small commission. This helps to support the blog, and allows me to continue creating and ... [Read More]
Social Studies Projects for the End of the Year
I love spending the final weeks of school working on projects with my students! While we complete a variety of projects throughout the year, my students become project-making machines after testing!! And we love every minute of it!! At this point in the year, the stress of fitting in curriculum has vanished, students have become project-completing experts, and frankly I just need some great content to fill our final days!! Social Studies is one of my favorite subjects to teach. ... [Read More]
Encouraging Summer Reading
I spend the entire school year working to instill a love of reading in each and every one of my students. It certainly is not an easy task!! I have to choose just the right read-alouds to engage all. I work with students individually to establish reading goals and to find books they love at their reading levels. We practice responding to texts in meaningful ways, teaching them important reading skills, while still loving to read. By the end of every year, I am such a proud teacher, when I see ... [Read More]
Narrative Writing with Picture Books Without Words
Even though I'm an upper grade teacher, not a single day goes by that I don't read a picture book to my class. I love using picture books to teach a wide range of reading and writing skills. Even though they are older, my kiddos still love to come down to our rug to hear a great story. This post contains affiliate links to amazon.com. If you make a purchase from amazon.com through the links on this page, CreateTeachShare will receive a small commission. This helps to support the ... [Read More]
5 OF MY FAVORITE NON-FICTION SERIES TO ENGAGE READERS
I love exploring non-fiction texts with my students!! Non-fiction can be fun, fascinating, and extremely engaging for students, especially when presented the right way. Unfortunately, as an upper grade teacher, many of the non-fiction texts that are "grade-level appropriate" for my students tend to lack such excitement, and although they might be rigorous, they can be somewhat daunting. So when we first begin to explore non-fiction in my class, I love to find the perfect texts to pique their ... [Read More]
DIY Text Feature Posters
I have fallen in love with Non-Fiction over the past few years. I used to find it so challenging to incorporate into my reading instruction. Now, it seems that there are endless tools, strategies, and resources for teaching non-fiction. I just couldn't wait to dive-in to some of our favorite non-fiction texts this year!! I always like to start things off with exploring TEXT FEATURES! Last year, I received this very cool poster with my order of Scholastic News.... My students loved how they ... [Read More]
Frightening Figures of Speech
I absolutely love to celebrate holidays like Halloween in my classroom!! However, I always try very hard to keep our celebrations as "educational" and FUN as possible. Today I thought I would share a quick fun activity that I have used over the years to teach idioms, while also celebrating the Halloween season!! Last year my students worked with "Frightening Figures of Speech". We spent time discussing different idioms with a Halloween theme. After discussing their meanings, and writing ... [Read More]
Teacher Toolbox Makeover!!
This post contains affiliate links to amazon.com. If you make a purchase from amazon.com through the links on this page, CreateTeachShare will receive a small commission. This helps to support the blog, and allows me to continue creating and sharing educational content with my readers.3 years ago today, I shared a post about the Teacher Toolbox I created to use in my classroom. From there (thanks to Pinterest), Teacher Toolboxes took off and are now ... [Read More]
