Creating a year-long plan for when and where you will teach your standards is crucial. I took out all the hard work for you! I developed the order in which I teach reading and language throughout the third-grade year. In this plan, you will find the reading standards, language standards, writing standards, and themes for the week, plus resource links! How do you decide which order to teach? When I look at my whole year I follow this order: I add review weeks. I schedule ... Read More about A FREE 3rd Grade Pacing Guide for ELA!

Students need to learn and understand all the reading skills in your elementary classroom in order to comprehend what they are reading and pass those lovely tests! :) Whenever I am teaching a brand new skill (i.e. theme) to my students I break it down in a staggered approach. Each day I am teaching it in a new modality and with a new group of students. I also am going to make sure that each day I do a small group strategy group for the students who are not quite catching on yet! Below I am ... Read More about How to Teach a NEW Reading Skill

Working in reading centers gives you time to do small group with your students which is ESSENTIAL! I do reading centers in my classroom every single day for 20-30 minutes. There are tons of resources in this blog post to make setting up your reading centers simple and easy! Centers/What to Prep I have four centers in my classroom and teacher time. I have done a mix of Daily 5 and other center ideas that are found online. Working with Words Writing Time Listening to Reading ... Read More about SIMPLE and IMPACTFUL Reading Centers

I LOVE a good classroom transformation. They engage students and they cover high-level content. It is a win, win! But they can also be overwhelming and can cause anxiety. Let's answer a few questions first. What is a transformation? A transformation is where you add items to your room to turn it into a new learning space and experience. You then prepare content that matches that learning space. For example, you could turn your room into a doctors office and do reading surgery! Or you ... Read More about Make Classroom Transformations Simple with these Easy Tips!

Teaching character traits is SO.MUCH.FUN. I love looking at character traits, motivation, and feelings! The students love digging in deep to their character traits as well. My first lesson is always sticky note traits! For this lesson, you introduce character traits with students and then give them a post-it note. They have to write a trait you have and provide proof of where that trait comes up. They then get to stick it on you. I usually let them do this with each other too! Then we ... Read More about Teaching Character Traits in Upper Elementary