 I always liked to start the day in my classroom with Bell Work. You may know this as Bell Ringers, Seat Work, Morning Work, there are so many names! Basically, it is something the students have to work on when they first arrive in the morning that is meaningful and aligned to the learning standards. When students have a meaningful activity to start the day it gets their brains activated for learning, and it also gives the teacher a chance to collect papers, talk to students, take attendance, and complete other administrative work.
I always felt it was best when the students had a similar activity to work on each day, that way they knew exactly what to do and didn't have questions. This is why I made Bell Work for the ENTIRE SCHOOL YEAR!! I have 36 weeks of 5th Grade Math Bell Work worksheets and quizzes! This is made so it is so easy on the teacher! There are 4 questions per day Monday-Thursday, the questions all follow a similar format so once the students understand what to do Monday, there shouldn't be many questions the rest of the week. I always would go over the correct answers with my students each day and have them keep the sheet in their folder for the next day. Then on Fridays I would give a 4 question quiz in the exact same format as the 4 questions they had been practicing all week! Not only would this give me a grade for each student on a weekly basis, it also made the students take ownership in this daily activity because if they were paying attention during the week, it should be easy points in the grade book! Quarters 1 & 2 have questions on Place Value, Multiplication & Division, Fractions, and Decimals. Quarters 3 & 4 have questions on Factors & Multiples, Algebra, Geometry, and Measurement. Each week builds on the previous weeks and becomes increasingly challenging. I included all answer keys, of course! This should be SO easy on the teacher, it will be something students become very comfortable with and something that does not take up much time, while still giving the students purposeful learning. As always, if you have any questions, please email me at [email protected]! Enjoy! ♡
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 I always liked to give the students a final review of ALL the math concepts, I wouldn't take it for a grade (my personal choice), I just wanted to see and have the students see how well they retained the information taught over the course of the school year. My students usually thought it was fun, especially the questions from earlier in the year that they now considered 'easy.' I would go over the answers as a group and make it a fun review where they could earn points for bragging rights. :)
So, I made this 52 question review of all the main Common Core State Standards of 5th grade math! It has 2 questions per main CCSS and of course comes with an answer key! If you don't want to give it as a final exam you can use it so many other ways, including:
Enjoy! ♡  I don't know about you but I used to work so hard to find meaningful work for my students to complete while I met with guided reading groups. The activities I found were too easy for some and too hard for others, the students found boring, and it took forever for me to schedule when the students would work on each activity. Stop the madness! Work smarter, not harder!
This was when I decided that graphic organizers were the answer! We want to teach so many reading skills throughout the year and as much as we want the students to keep these skills fresh in their mind, it is so hard to find time to revisit these skills after the week is over. What I did was take the 9 skills I wanted to teach first quarter and I made a graphic organizer to go with each skill. I would go over these 9 graphic organizers with my students at the beginning of the quarter so they would know how to complete these activities, they would use their guided reading novel and apply the reading skills to it. I would have them choose 3 activities a week, I asked them to even illustrate each graphic organizer so we could do some left brain/right brain activation. I would say that each graphic organizer should be presented to me as if it were a book report, I want to see page numbers to show proof, I want new and interesting vocabulary words, I want detailed writing! Then, the next quarter, there would be 9 new reading skill graphic organizers! The best thing about these guided reading literacy centers is that every student in the class can complete the same activity, regardless of ability-the teacher differentiates her assessment, not the assignment! Two activities could be completely different but both receive full credit if that was the best effort and ability for that specific student. This particular product is for the full school year although in my shop I have them broken down by quarter and even individually! The 33 reading skills included for this quarter are:
Each graphic organizer has easy instructions for the students to follow. You will notice I included the Vocabulary activity each quarter as I always wanted my students to continue to build upon their vocabulary throughout the entire year. I have added 33 reading skill facts sheets to help teach these skills and for students to keep as reference all year long! These are perfect for introducing the reading skill each week, and having students develop a deeper understanding of how they can apply that skill to their reading. These are a great way to teach reading skills and continue to reinforce them throughout the year! As always, email me with any feedback at [email protected]! Enjoy! ♡  I always had so much fun teaching poetry to my students, even my hesitant writers enjoyed the sense of accomplishment they got from writing a poem. I created this poetry packet because it is so easy on the teacher! Most of your upper elementary, or middle school students will be able to write these 10 poems with very little assistance. Each poem has directions as well as 2 examples. I leveled the examples, one is more basic and one is more advanced. You can edit this document (the whole packet is a Google Doc so 100% editable!) to include one example or the other, or instruct certain students to follow the first example and others to follow the second example, depending on their writing abilities.
The 10 Types of poetry are taught in this packet:
There is a rubric included at the end in case you want to use it for grading, and again, you can edit it to better fit your reporting system. You can end the fun there, the students have written 10 personal poems! Or you can take it a step further... I would have my students complete the packet for a grade using the included rubric, and then I would have each student choose their favorite poem for the class book! If you are interested in the class book this is what I did: 1. Order hardcover blank books-one for each student and the teacher(s) 2. Have each student select their favorite poem, then type & print it 3. Students illustrate their poem using pencil only 4. Teacher copies each student's poem enough for each book purchased. 5. Student gets a pile of 25ish poems to color in their illustration using crayons or colored pencils (markers would get too messy and bleed through the paper). 6. Students then cut out their poems and has a stack of 25ish, cut and colored. 7. Students make a line around the room and carefully place one poem on each student and teacher desk. 8. Everyone now has one poem per person in the class, it is time to use glue stick and glue one poem on each page 9. Decorate the covers of the poetry books 10. Display at Open House and now students have a wonderful memory of their time in your class! No matter how far you take this activity, I hope you and your students love using it! My hope is that is is very user friendly for both the teacher and the students! Enjoy! ♡ |
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