Holiday Movie and/or Book Activities for ELA Grades 3, 4, 5, & 6

 

It's that time of year! The most wonderful time of the year... except in my classroom where my kids are bouncing off the walls! 

Just kidding! 

(Sort of.)

Seriously though, the month of December can be a little rough in the elementary classroom. Teachers are exhausted from juggling their busy lives and cramming in extra holiday activities and the students are bubbling over with holiday cheer and energy galore. Perhaps it is different in your neck of the woods, but here in the Virginia mountains my students are quite literally bouncing!

As the countdown to Winter Break nears into single digits, I've found a fun Reading activity that keeps my kiddos busy, practices important reading comprehension skills, teaches about different holiday traditions and customs, and is so low-prep that it makes my life a lot easier.

Teachers Pay Teachers Back to School Sale!

 

August 2nd and 3rd Get Some Real Deals!

Hi, Teacher Friend! I just wanted to make sure you remember that today and tomorrow are the days to save big on TPT. I already have my wishlist open and ready to go!

If you're a fellow TPT seller, today is a great day to purchase clipart, fonts, digital paper, seller templates, and more.

If you're a fellow upper elementary teacher, today's a wonderful day to stock up on lessons and activities for this school year. (I have my eye on a writing resource that I'm pretty sure will be sliding into my cart today.)

I have a few products that may interest you:

Back to School Grades 3, 4, & 5 Bundle of Resources - Growing BUNDLE

Five Tips for Preventing Teacher Burnout

 

Let's be honest.

Teaching is a hard job. Harder than any of us imagined it would be. And the pandemic has increased the problems and difficulties, and it looks like it will be a very slow return to "normal." In fact, according to recent surveys conducted by the National Education Association, "high percentages of teachers [are] thinking about leaving the profession." 

I have been one of them.

Teacher burnout has always been around, but it seems to be especially high right now. The good news is that you can come back from burnout and feel excited about teaching again. Let's talk about 5 tips for preventing (or reversing) teacher burnout.

Five Tips for Preventing (Or Reversing) Teacher Burnout

Brain Breaks FREEBIE!!! (And doesn't everyone like free stuff?)

Confession Time: When I first began my teaching career I made a dreadful mistake. (Pathetically, I admit I repeated this mistake for years.) I only used breaks when they naturally occurred or, even worse, when my students began to resemble CW zombies in need of "food." Don't get me wrong! I love watching CW's iZombie, but in my classroom?!?! Yeah. Not a good thing.

This was a horrible mistake, as I learned, because a break before the glazed-over stage takes place is ideal for student learning and the brain's memory storage. Once the glaze occurs, well, it is too late. That is when breaks help students the most. (I highly recommend all teachers reading up on the research that backs this.)

Anyway, I now use brain breaks more than ever. Sometimes we use GoNoodle, but my students really seem to enjoy using our brain break jar too. On my desk sits a plastic jar with neon green polka dots and lid that I found at a local dollar store a few years ago. Inside the jar are 18 slips of paper, each one detailing a fun, but quick, brain break activity. I'm telling you, they love it! We take turns pulling a slip from the jar and then doing whatever crazy activity is written on the slip of paper.

These brain break activities have been such a great thing in my classroom that I decided to retype them for you to have. They are FREE and can be found in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. I really hope you'll download them and enjoy using them in your classroom. Please let me know what you think.

To access them, please click on the image above or the TPT link in this post or near the top of my page. Thanks!

Our Reading Log Journal

Hey everyone! While many folks out there are cursing the massive snow that is hitting the mid-Atlantic states, I'm finally finding time to get caught up on things. Two of my rugrats have been playing basketball, so our family has been running seven days a week lately. It is nice for us to finally get a chance to breathe, thanks to the cancellations. (I just hope no one loses power!)

I finally uploaded the reading log journal pack onto TeachersPayTeachers. 

Yay! 

It only took me three full months to manage this. Pathetic, I know. Like I said, we've been busy.

I LOVE this reading log journal because it really holds my students accountable for their independent reading and allows me to interact with my students. Last year I tried a log that required a parent signature but didn't require any type of response. This turned out to be an epic FAIL! Some parents/guardians forgot to sign it on a regular basis. Some parents lied for their children. (I suspected a few, but a few parents confessed that they signed it weekly without ever seeing their child crack open a book. Sigh.) I feel that independent reading is extremely important, especially when our entire Language Arts block in 4th grade is only 70-90 minutes long, so I couldn't just toss it aside. I read several teacher blogs this summer and someone (I'm sorry I forgot who) said he/she had encountered the same problem until a weekly reader response was required. This, folks, was a lightbulb moment for me. 

So, I scratched the parent signature and added a short weekly response assignment that reflects the skills we are currently working on in the classroom. It has made a great difference. I will never go back to the old way of doing reading logs.

My reading log journal pack includes a journal cover, a letter to the student and their family explaining the expectations, a list of 22 ideas for reader response assignments, two rubrics for assessing the journal, and two reading logs -- one page with a filled-in example week and two blank weeks and one page with three weeks worth of recording space.

Honestly, this journal has made a difference in my classroom and I believe it could help others. If you try this, please give me feedback on TPT under your "My Purchases" page. 

Have a great day! It's time for me to go play in the snow.

Daily 5 in the Intermediate Classroom... Continued... Finally!

This fall was an absolute whirlwind and here we are, on break and strolling into the winter season (even if it is an unseasonably 71 degrees here in the Virginia mountains).


While on break, it's good to reflect on the successes and areas still in need of success in my Language Arts classroom -- and my modified Daily 5 routines are a definite success that I'd like to share.