ELA Anchor Charts

Next up - ELA Anchor Charts. If you saw my blog post on math anchor charts you already know I love anchor charts in my classroom and how they can help. 

Here are my ELA anchor charts. I print an 8.5 x 11 size and 3-hole punch it for students to keep in their ELA/Writing binder to reference back when they need to. 

There are six anchor charts in the bundle including: 

• Theme
• Character, Setting, and Plot
• Compare and Contrast
• Author's Point of View
• Text Structures 
• Main Idea and Key Details

You can buy them individually or save and grab the bundle. I provide step-by-step directions on how to print them in the anchor chart size of your preference. Click HERE to see the preview in my store for more information.

Math Anchor Charts

I absolutely love anchor charts. Having a visual up for my students to remind them of the strategies we are using in math really helps them and I constantly catch them looking over at them.

• Math anchor charts are visual aids that help students to understand and remember key concepts and skills in mathematics. Here are some reasons why teachers should use math anchor charts in their classrooms: 

•  Visual learning: Many students are visual learners, meaning that they learn best when information is presented in a visual format. Anchor charts are a powerful tool for visual learning as they use graphics, diagrams, and illustrations to make concepts more engaging and easier to understand. 

• Promote retention: Anchor charts can help students to retain information by providing a visual reference point that they can refer back to when needed. When students can see and interact with the information, they are more likely to remember it. 

• Encourage participation: Anchor charts can encourage participation and interaction in the classroom. By using sticky notes or other interactive elements, students can add their own thoughts and ideas to the anchor chart, making it a collaborative tool for learning. 

• Scaffold learning: Anchor charts can be used to scaffold learning by breaking down complex concepts into smaller, more manageable pieces. This can help students to understand the big picture and see how different concepts are related to each other. 

• Support differentiation: Anchor charts can be used to support differentiation by providing different levels of information for students with different levels of understanding. By creating different versions of the same anchor chart, teachers can provide support for struggling learners and challenge more advanced students. 

• Increase engagement: Anchor charts can make learning more engaging and fun for students. When information is presented in a visually appealing and interactive way, students are more likely to be interested and engaged in the learning process.

I created these math anchor charts for my classroom but could be used for any upper elementary grade level depending on your math targets and standards.

My primary teachers would like me to create anchor charts for their grade levels so be on the lookout for those this summer! (K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th coming soon!)

Here are a few anchor charts. All anchor charts come with step-by-step directions on how to print them based on your size preference. You can also buy them individually. Click HERE to see the preview in my store for more information.

Pear Deck for Learning and Assessment

Have you used Pear Deck yet? As part of my master's program, I choose Pear Deck for one of my assignments and just had to share with you how easy it is to use Pear Deck for learning and assessment in your classroom. Bringing technology into the classroom can provide a learner-center environment, provide authentic assessment, and meet the needs of diverse learners in the classroom. 

What is Pear Deck? Pear Deck is an add-on tool that works with Google Slides. Teachers can create a lesson in a slide deck and add Pear Deck to initiate interactions in real-time. I used an ELA lesson on characters, setting, and plot, and explain the sequence of events using a realistic fiction story.   

Let's get started!

Teachers can access Pear Deck to add to their lessons in Google Slides. Teachers will open their lesson and then go to Add-ons, Pear Deck for Google Slides, and Open Pear Deck.

2.     Once Pear Deck is open teachers can add interactive slides from Pear Deck’s template library or create their own activity slide from the Ask students a question. 

 Once the teacher has found the interactive slide that works best, they can add it to their slide deck. The teacher can edit the text, change multiple-choice answers, add text boxes, and rename draggable pieces.

 After the lesson is complete and the teacher has added all interactive Pear Deck slides teachers can then embed the lesson into Schoology for the students to access by following these steps.

After the lesson is embedded in Schoology students can access it in Schoology, click on the tool, and immediately begin the lesson. When they are in the lesson the teacher can open their dashboard and see live feedback during the lesson and be able to provide feedback to the students as well.

I hope these steps help you. Please reach out with any questions and I would love to hear about what you created in Pear Deck for your classroom! Check back soon for a Pear Deck on math that you can use in your classroom! 

Fraction Bars

Fractions can be tough for students to understand. When I introduce fractions I use several visual ways to show my students fractions. One visual I use is fraction bars. 

This visual really helps students compare one whole and breaking it in fractions. I made this sheet for my students. I have them glue it into their math interactive notebook so they can reference it when needed. You can grab my Fraction Bars in my store HERE.

Make A Wish!

I just had to share this! A student gave me this as a gift. I just absolutely love it! Today I made my wish and tied it on. Here is a link to the owner's shop on Esty where my student bought it from. She has a ton of other ones - for weddings, teachers, friends, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and more.

Head to her shop HERE

Speaking of teacher gifts - what are some of your favorites? I always ask for donations to my Donors Choose project. I am currently working on getting iPads for my classroom. Check out my project HERE. Donors Choose is an amazing organization and always helps teachers get needed items for their classrooms. Currently, they are matching all donations so my $800 project can be fully funded for only $400.00. If a donation of $20 is turned in then it becomes $40! No amount is too small and I have had several corporations donate to my causes - remember it also a tax write off!

My other favorite gift is a TPT gift card!! Who doesn't want one of those? I am constantly supporting TPT sellers with their amazing resources!

Lastly, another favorite gift would be gift cards to stores like Target, office stores, Ikea, any stores that I can buy items for my classroom.

I love that I get gifts that are for me but my true joy is to put back into my classroom, my students and my teaching.

School Is Out For Summer!!

I did it!! I successfully completed my first year as a 5th grade teacher......and they asked me to come back next year! So I must have done something right! Seriously - I love my school, I love 5th grade, I love my team, and I love the people I get to work with! I might be the only teacher who is excited to for the next school year!

So today was my first official day of summer break and I was up with the puppy at 5am.....so much for sleeping in. Good thing she is cute.

We added Violet to our family in April. She is the best silver lab! I love her so much and can't wait to spend my time with her. Of course in between my two son's and their travel baseball games! This summer will fly by and yet I have so many things I want to accomplish for the next school year.

Today I got my Erin Condren teacher planner and I couldn't wait to start decorating and planning in it. Yep, the first day of break and I am already planning! I absolutely love her teacher planners. This is my second year using her planners. I do not get any credit for mentioning her store or planners but I am of the mindset that if something is working for you to share it with others. Head over to her store here to get yours. I promise you will love it!

So here is how I left my room. We cannot get into our rooms until early August due to construction so I will be using these pictures to plan my room for next year. Now that I have a year under my belt with the school, teachers, and curriculum I have so many ideas that I want to implement. So many things I want to change for next year. So stay tuned for my room progress. Happy Summer!