Low-Prep, Standards-Based Resources for Upper Elementary

Show and Tell Tuesday: January

Happy Tuesday! Today I’m linking up with Stephanie over at Forever in 5th Grade for Show and Tell Tuesday. Here’s what I’ve been up to recently in the classroom and on the blog!

Last week (our first week back from break) was a short week and the end of the quarter, so we eased in with a few fun activities!
Having fun with a parts of speech coloring page and a writing prompt!
The left side is an Art with Jenny K Parts of Speech coloring sheet (which they LOVED), and on the right side the kids imagined all the things they would do on a snow day. Since we don’t have snow days in Florida, I was impressed with the amount of ideas they came up with!
Both my 3rd and 4th grade classes were able to do this activity, so I was able to do something a little fun when they finished. The 3rd grade class voted on the top 5 posters from the 4th grade class, and vice versa:
Students voted on their classmates' work to see which posters would be displayed!
The students did a little gallery walk and marked tallies on the Post Its for the 5 posters they thought best represented “Scholar” work. I was proud of how serious they were as they looked at each others’ work! Their picks ended up being very similar to what mine would have been,
Another fun activity we did was originally a Michael Friermood writing center that I adapted into a whole group activity. My 4th graders paired up and wrote a skit with one prop: a paper plate. The catch was…the plate couldn’t actually BE a plate. We had UFOs, fans, tablets that held the mysteries of the universe (don’t ask), but my favorite was the pair that used it as an oar:
Writing scripts is a fun way to work on dialogue and proper nouns!
They were too cute paddling their “boat.” I love activities where their creativity really gets to come out!
I wrote about my One Little Word for 2017…yes, we’re still in January but I’ve found that thinking about my word is keeping me motivated, especially on days when I’m just not feeling it. Do you have a word for the year?
I am (slowly) working through TPT Focused Success from Shelly Rees and I love it! Her advice is great and it’s motivating me to put some new products out there. I just added a Valentine’s Day Choice Board to my store:
I can’t wait to do this with my students! The choice board comes with guidelines for each activity, activity templates, and a rubric:

Make sure to check it out! If you have my Choice Board Growing Bundle, it has already been added!
Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to stop by Forever in 5th Grade to see what everyone else is sharing.