Homework.  It is definitely a love-hate relationship that I have with that word.  On the one hand, I think the practice time is incredibly valuable for the students.  On the other, I know that with after school activities and the fact that the kids spend 6 + hours at school, they need a break.  With this in mind, I have formulated a homework plan in my room that is quick, to the point, easy to follow, and, most importantly, useful. For me, as I am sure is the case with many of you, homework consists of pages that I *would* assign during class if time allowed.  It is not busy work.  It is useful items that I believe provide consistent and necessary practice of skills that we are learning in class.  So what do I assign? Nightly, the students have the following. Read for 20 minutes. Complete a reading log response for the reading. Math Review Page Comprehension Paragraph of the Week Root Words I know...looks like a lot.  But it actuall......

It is that time of year again, when the students present their culminating project for the Native American unit that we have been entrenched in for the past few weeks.  I love when these projects come through my doors each year.  The learning they did becomes immediately obvious and it is just such a joy looking them over and learning about the tribes from the students!  I wanted to take some time to tell you about them AND show them off to you :) At the beginning of this unit, I pass out the entire report and presentation packet to my students.  They choose a tribe they would like to research (I make sure there are no overlaps, as they turn in a "decision form" to me early on) and I send them on their merry way.   During class, we are learning about the general culture groups.  At home, the kids get to be more specific.   They learn about the basic Pre-Columbian housing, crafts, clothing, geographical area, and customs of the tribe t......

Ok...so that is a bit dramatic.  But really, I am not exaggerating. If you have read my blog for any length of time, you have no doubt heard me talk about how much I love Calendar Math .  I mean, I have written about it more than any other single subject on my blog.  It is something I feel so strongly about that I preach it to anyone who will listen (especially you, my faithful blog readers :)) But, a second math component that I talk about occasionally, but really has just as much impact on my math teaching is my spiral math homework .  I literally could not live without it. Let me tell you why I love these two pieces of my math block puzzle.  You see, these both take care of those rote standards that I need my kids to know, yet they just don't seem to grasp from that one lesson I teach that one day of the school year.  Things like place value (have you ever tried to get the kids to remember to write expanded form in March????), plotting on number ......

Every year, as summer reaches its midway point, I sit down and think about what I would like to do the same the next year, what I would like to get rid of, and what I would like to try.  This summer has been no different. When I sat down and really thought about what programs make my year as a teacher run smoothly, four things popped up into my mind: 5th Grade Spiral Math Calendar Math Paragraph of the Week Essay of the Month Math Homework Calendar Math Essay of the Month Paragraph of the Week I can honestly tell you that these year long programs save my sanity.  Each one of them helps me to build eager, excited, motivated, and skilled scholars from my students.  Each one of them makes my day as a teacher fly by.  Each one of them lets me leave the classroom at the end of the day knowing that I did all I could to teach the standards and enable my students to excel. How do they do that, you ask? Well, all f......

You can see the homework here. If you are a follower of this blog, you know that there are certain things I do in my room that I am really passionate about and truly believe in.  One is Calendar Math . I could go on for days and days about it (and from all of my posts here, I probably have ;) )  Another is the Spiral Math Homework.  You see, when I first started teaching, there was no such thing available to me.  I would give the kids the problems from the math book that we just had worked on that day and never go back again.  Doesn't make for very good retention.  So when I was teaching 3rd grade for the first time (back in....gosh...SO long ago...2003)  I started to create my own spiral math homework. It was simple.  A few problems from all that we had learned, sprinkled in amongst stuff we did that day.  To my great surprise, the kids retained it all...and their scores soared!  They were learning the rote basic math, leaving me ......

As most of you know, I am all about getting the most "bang for my buck" when it comes to teaching.  I really want the kids to be doing most of the work, while I just "impart the knowledge".  So when I plan, I try to use every resource I have that will enable me to do as much as I possibly can with them. And, as most of you also know, when it comes to math I SWEAR by Calendar Math and Math Homework .  Using my time to do the computation stuff in a spiral way really, truly frees me up to do more math thinking in class (which really, isn't that what math is???)  I can honestly say that after implementing these two programs in my room, I never, ever, ever worry about math instruction.  Ever.  I don't worry that I won't get to everything before the state test.  I don't worry that the kids won't "get it". Because, you know what?  They always do.  I really can't shout this from the rooftops enough.  Calendar and HW have saved my sani......

One of my least favorite parts of teaching upper grades are multiplication tables.  SO much of what I teach in 5th grade is dependent upon the fact that my students are fluent in multiplication.  If, for example, they don't know what 3 times 4 is, it is really hard to ask them to find Least Common Multiples or Greatest Common Factors.  Finding the percent of a fraction, division in general...all really, really hard if you are struggling with your multiplication facts. So what to do?  I can't take out gobs and gobs of time to work on the tables.  We simply don't have gobs and gobs of time.  However, I do one thing that seems to have worked for my students over the past 14 years....timed tests. Did I hear an audible gasp???  I know it is SO very old school.  But sometimes, old school works.  I use a program that I got while student teaching in San Diego called Lightning Rod.  It is no longer in print (such a shame) but I did find one......

I don't know about you, but it seems like writing always gets the shaft in my room.  I start off every year with this grand scheme to make sure my students write daily, yet when something needs to go off of my schedule, it always seems that this subject is the one on the chopping block. Honestly, it just isn't fair to my students.  They will not become better writers unless they are actually writing.  So what I started to do, to ensure that they would write daily, was begin a Paragraph of the Week. The basic idea is simple.  The students are given a prompt to write a paragraph about and they have the week to do it at home.  However, I knew that if I just gave my students a prompt and let them at it....all heck would break loose.  They *needed* some scaffolding and a bit more accountability to decent sentences than that.  So I thought and thought about what I do to teach a basic paragraph in my room. I always start off with a brainstorm/pre-writ......

Short and sweet today.  After a little bit longer than I thought initially thought, the 4th Grade Quarter TWO Math Homework and Quizzes is READY!!  I know many of you have been patiently waiting for it...and now it is up and ready to go.  I am so glad when you email me to tell me how much you are enjoying the math hw.  Glad to know it isn't just me who likes it ;) Also, don't forget to enter to win a $50 giftcode from Educational Insights! (and if you haven't heard about this homework, Quarter One is available here....as well as 5th grade ...and here is my blog post about it!)...

I don't know about you, but the thought of giving my students candy on Halloween is NOT appealing.  Don't get me wrong.  I am all for celebrating and having a good day (I really do love Halloween), but I mean, the day is already filled with so much candy, why do I want to add more?? So something I tend to do with my students is give them homework passes.  I love these little things.  Seriously, they are better than candy for the kids...and they are FREE for me!!  :)  So I just print these babies out, hand them to the students on Halloween day.  They have no homework, and I don't have to go out and buy candy to be in a "festive" mood. Now, if you have been reading my blog for a while, you know this is a trend for me.  I do the same thing at Valentine's Day .   I find that my kids just love the passes so much...and who am I to deny them that little piece of happiness ;) Here are some Halloween Homework passes for you.   And,......

This is just a quick little note to let you know that Quarter TWO for the 5th grade Spiral Math Homework is now available!!  I know many of you have been patiently waiting....so here it is.  This one has a lot of geometry and fractions on it (which is what took so long.  Formatting that sucker was tricky!!) There is also multiplication and division of both whole numbers and decimals. And, in case you didn't know, Quarter ONE of 4th grade is also posted. I have been getting so many emails from those of you using the Calendar Math and the Math Homework and I am THRILLED that you are having so much success!  Thank you so much for your kind words and your enthusiasm for it.  I really love hearing how it is going in your room....and it makes me happy that *I* am not the only one who finds these things valuable.  Thank you again for joining me here on this blogging journey.  I am so grateful to you all for reading....

One of the most favorite things I do all year is teach my students Greek and Latin Roots.  I just feel like if they can master these roots, from which so very much of our English language is derived from, the expansion of vocabulary and word attack strategies will increase ten-fold.  So I dedicate time each week to these important pieces of language.   Last year, I wrote a few posts about how I taught them ( you can find the posts here ), and this year I have revamped it just slightly....and I wanted to share. I really don't have a Root Word program (though I honestly am still searching!  I would love to have a more prescribed way of doing this other than what I just came up with)  Like last year, I teach my students 2-4 root words per week.  I am actually thinking of upping that number as the year progresses.  I really believe they can handle it.  But for now, it will stay at 2-4.  Like before, to introduce the words, I have the stu......

Every once in a while, an idea pops into my head out of necessity for something better.  Years and years ago, I was actually teaching 3rd grade at the time, I became fed up with the lack of repetition in my math program.  There just wasn't enough review built in for the kids to grasp anything.  I would teach a concept once and move on.  Done and done.  The problem was, the kids just didn't get it. After scouring the internet, reading tons of books, and using my own bag of tricks, Calendar was born.  And, if you follow my blog, you know I LOVE Calendar.  But it just wasn't enough.  The kids needed more practice then even Calendar could provide.  Word problems, higher level computation.... So I decided that their homework was what needed to change.  I took a complete departure from everyone at my school and created a spiral homework.  It was 10 problems a day, not of what we just learned, but of EVERYTHING that we learned. The ki......