11 Fun Poetry Activities Middle School Students Will Love
There are so many fun poetry activities middle school teachers can easily bring into their classroom! Bring poetry alive with these 11 ideas.
Classroom Library Ideas: How to build a diversity audit into your classroom library inventory spreadsheet
Making a classroom library inventory spreadsheet doesn’t have to be a complicated process! In this post, I explain how I built a super-simple diversity audit into my classroom library inventory system.
The Power of Chloe Cho: The Importance of Diverse Books for Kids
A few years ago, I read Mike Jung’s Unidentified Suburban Object to my fifth-grade class for the first time. As always, I introduced the protagonist before I began. Her name is Chloe Cho, so I wrote that on the board. One of my students, who shared her last name, shoved his hand up in the air and asked why his name was on the board. “Because that’s the character’s last name,” I said…
Black History Month FREEBIE!
February is Black History Month in Canada and the US, and I’ve got a free article with questions for you English and/or Social Studies teachers! The Colored Hockey League was founded in 1895. They were a huge hit in Nova Scotia, but they’re virtually non-existent in our history books. What caused their untimely demise?
6 Inference Activities for Elementary
Making inferences is such an important reading strategy, and it’s one that I find many of my students struggle with at the beginning of the year. In the upper elementary grades, we spend less time worrying about decoding and start to shift our focus to that deeper comprehension. That requires the ability to make inferences, and inferencing is a skill that needs to be taught!
Breathing Life Into Your Upper-Elementary Read Alouds
Read aloud time is my favourite time of day in my classroom, and my students love it too. In fact, on the very rare occasion where we have a day without a read aloud, I am almost guaranteed to hear grumbling. This didn’t just happen on its own! Check out this post to see some ways you can breathe life into your read aloud time!
Teaching Poetry in Middle School & Upper Elementary
I love poetry and I want to share how I break down my poetry unit and teach different poetic forms. The upper elementary and middle school years are a great time to dive in and get kids excited about poetry!
My Favourite Read Aloud Novels for Grade 5
I love how whole-class read alouds level the playing field and help build community by letting all the kids share a reading experience. These are some of the books that my fifth-graders have loved best!