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Upper elementary classroom management tips. Put these essential routines in place NOW for success all year.
Classroom Management | Back to School | Building Routines | Classroom | New Teachers | Seasonal

Classroom Management Tips: Essential Daily Routines

As you begin thinking about back to school, it’s likely that classroom routines and classroom management tips have been teaching topics on your mind. It doesn’t matter how long I’ve been teaching, I always reevaluate and improve my classroom routines…
READ POST Classroom Management Tips: Essential Daily Routines
Back to school read alouds are a great way to build community, get to know your students, and discuss important topics for the year.
Back to School | Book Recommendations | Literacy | Seasonal

A Complete List of Back to School Read Alouds

Back to school is a time filled with lots of emotions – anxiety and excitement included! (And I’m not just talking about the teacher.) Including back to school read alouds into your daily routine is a great way to talk…
READ POST A Complete List of Back to School Read Alouds
TWJ2022Blog 1
Informational Texts | Literacy

Teaching Informational Text Skills

I am always searching for engaging informational texts to get my students and children excited about reading. About two years ago, I discovered The Week Junior, a weekly news magazine written for kids ages 8-14, and I fell in love….
READ POST Teaching Informational Text Skills
Download free Skill of the Day weeks for spiral review in reading, math, and language from Teaching with a Mountain View.
Back to School | Free | Literacy | Math | Seasonal

FREE Skill of the Day Week

Skill of the Day is my favorite resource I’ve ever created. Now you can download a free skill of the day week for each subject! Skill of the Day Difference What makes this different than most other spiral reviews? I…
READ POST FREE Skill of the Day Week
Math flip books are mini anchor charts, reference books, and practice activities as great alternatives to interactive notebooks.
Math

Math Flip Books: An Engaging Way to Teach Key Math Skills

It’s no secret that I love using math anchor charts to introduce new concepts and hold our learning throughout each unit. They also serve as valuable reference charts throughout the year, but it can be difficult to find space to…
READ POST Math Flip Books: An Engaging Way to Teach Key Math Skills
Book recommendations and related activities for the best morning meeting read alouds in upper elementary.
Literacy | Book Recommendations | Morning Meeting | Picture Books

10 Morning Meeting Read Aloud Activities

Anyone else a picture book collector? I love accumulating picture books to use in my classroom, and I love using them for my morning meeting read alouds. Using picture books during morning meeting provides a great opportunity to build relationships…
READ POST 10 Morning Meeting Read Aloud Activities
If you are scratching your head wondering how you can best utilize your classroom parent volunteers, here is your guide!
The Parent Connection | Back to School | Building Community | Classroom | New Teachers | Seasonal

How to BEST Utilize Your Classroom Parent Volunteers

I have always been fortunate to work at schools where parents want to volunteer! I was tickled pink that I had so many classroom parent volunteers who wanted to join, but I also wanted to make sure I was using…
READ POST How to BEST Utilize Your Classroom Parent Volunteers
Math tips and activities to start the year strong in upper elementary. Includes ideas for morning work, centers, and review.
Back to School | Free | Math | Prepping for the Academic Year | Seasonal

Math Tips To Start The Year Strong

Last week I shared literacy tips and ideas to help you start the new school year strong, so today I’m sharing similar math tips. I find that a little bit of prep and planning now saves me so much time…
READ POST Math Tips To Start The Year Strong
Literacy tips and activities to start the year strong in upper elementary. Includes ideas for morning work, centers, and review.
Back to School | Free | Literacy | Prepping for the Academic Year | Seasonal

Literacy Tips To Start The Year Strong

Each summer I spend time reflecting on the previous year and thinking about changes I’ll make when back to school time rolls around again. Of course I spend a lot of time relaxing and enjoying summer break, but I personally…
READ POST Literacy Tips To Start The Year Strong
This ultimate list of professional development books for teachers has something for every need, from management to curriculum!
Teacher Ideas | Professional Development

Professional Development Books for Teachers

Looking for a summer reading list of professional development books for teachers? Maybe you are looking for some new teaching ideas or need a crash course in classroom management. Or you might want to hear some inspiring tales to remind…
READ POST Professional Development Books for Teachers
Upper elementary language skill activities to teach conjunctions, interjections, articles, and prepositions. Download a FREE reference guide.
Grammar | Anchor Charts | Literacy | Literacy Anchor Charts

Language Skill Activities: How to Teach Conjunctions, Interjections, Articles, and Prepositions

Will you think I’m a huge nerd if I tell you how much I love teaching language skills to my upper elementary students?! Language skills and rules for conjunctions, interjections, articles, and prepositional phrases are the “math” behind writing. Teaching…
READ POST Language Skill Activities: How to Teach Conjunctions, Interjections, Articles, and Prepositions
Amazing reading skill videos to teach key upper elementary reading skills. Includes activity ideas for each video and related resource too.
Reading Skills | Literacy

Amazing Reading Skill Videos

Sometimes the best way to review or practice reading skills is through video. That might sound a little counterintuitive, but when we are helping our students master reading skills it can be helpful to make connections between those skills and…
READ POST Amazing Reading Skill Videos

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I’m Mary

Welcome to my blog! I started blogging in 2011 and have amassed hundreds of posts full of engaging, research-based, and classroom-tested teaching ideas. Enjoy exploring!

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I’m obsessed with every single one of these fall b I’m obsessed with every single one of these fall books! 🍁 🎃 👻 They are all beautiful stories that kids actually love all while mastering the art of integrating important character education topics! Some stand alone wonderfully (Prunella, Little Ghost, Gustavo), while others provide AMAZING opportunities for paired texts (the leaf books and Millie Fleur) and character development and comparison. Comment below, and I’ll send you my FREE lessons I’ve designed to make these high-impact read alouds in your classroom! 🧡
🍂👻 The leaves are changing, so it’s the perfect ti 🍂👻 The leaves are changing, so it’s the perfect time to share THREE of my FAVORITE fall picture book lessons, and they are PACKED with meaningful reading comprehension skills and can be adapted for a huge range of grade levels. These are tried and true lessons that I’ve used in my classroom and absolutely LOVE! 🧡

🍂 Comment below, and I’ll send you the links to more info about all three lessons, including the FREE printable for the Leaf Peeps.

I LOVE pairing picture books that share similar themes, and I’ve come up with MANY different paired sets. It’s research-based and gives students opportunities to compare characters, analyze how different authors develop similar ideas, and make connections across texts—all while keeping fun, seasonal themes with authentic texts!

Here are the three lessons I’ve been LOVING over the past few years:

🍁 The Leaf Peeps: We read four adorable leaf-themed books and compare their topics, themes, and important life lessons. These books pair together extraordinarily well and work well anytime between now and Thanksgiving. BONUS: I have a FREE lesson guide and reflection for this one!

👻 Gustavo’s World: You can use any combo of these books, and the kids just love them. We explore character traits, character change, and theme with these sweet spooky stories. Then students create their own characters (with Play-Doh!) and imagine a new book for the collection!

🎃 Stand Out: We pair Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden, Beatrice Likes the Dark, and The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt to explore what it means to stand out and embrace our differences. The discussions are SO good, and the lessons behind the books are so impactful!

These are the kinds of lessons I always LOVE most. Simple to prep, rich in discussion, and full of opportunities for students to think deeply about what they’re reading AND grow as little human beings. 💗
Picture books are one of my FAVORITE ways to teach Picture books are one of my FAVORITE ways to teach character development skills in upper elementary, and these are some of the very, very BEST! 📚❤️

Every week (and sometimes more often), I use a carefully selected picture book to help my students explore some big personal growth concepts! I incorporate books about everything from managing big emotions and navigating friendships to embracing differences, building confidence, and working through challenges. 🫶 

I love how a single picture book can lead to some of the most meaningful conversations we have all week!

I’ve rounded up several of my favorites, along with a specific learning objective for each one, so you can see exactly how I use them in my classroom.

And YES, picture books absolutely belong in upper elementary classrooms! 🥰

Which of these have you read with your students? Any favorites I need to add to my collection?
Can I tell you about one of my FAVORITE types of n Can I tell you about one of my FAVORITE types of novels to teach (I mean, if you know me, you know they are ALL my favorite, but this type is a ✨ students ✨ favorite — and not just while you’re teaching poetry)!📚🩷

🥁 Novels in verse! If you haven’t tried teaching one with your upper elementary kiddos yet, this is your sign.

I’ve found they’re the perfect way to get my readers to actually SLOW DOWN and pay close attention to the text — what’s said and what’s left unsaid. When there are only a handful of words on a page, every single word has a job to do. A line break changes everything. A word sitting all by itself on the page? Figurative phrases that tell more than an entire paragraph alone could? There’s a reason the author made every single choice. 

🌟 And for teaching inference? Oh my goodness. So much is left unsaid in these books. Truly, so much. My students have to piece together what a character is feeling from tiny details, and the conversations we have are AMAZING.

I just put together a whole blog post with everything I love about teaching them, my favorite titles for grades 4, 5, and 6+, and a giant list of annotation ideas you can use right away. 🎉 Comment below, and I’ll send the info your way!
Book beads ➡️ Book Lanyards ⭐️ No matter which one Book beads ➡️ Book Lanyards ⭐️ No matter which one you choose, your kids are going to love this reading celebration!! 🥰 

Comment below, and I’ll send you all the info or both options!
❇️ I have a few must-have anchor charts in my clas ❇️ I have a few must-have anchor charts in my classroom each year, and these are two of them! 🚨 BUT, I don’t just hang them up and go. It’s so important to spend time teaching my students how to use the prompts in their reading responses, how to develop their questions using each prompt, and discussing how to answer each type of prompt. 

Once students are familiar with how to use the prompts, they are able to have so much ownership over their reading response while also thinking critically about the book or chapter being discussed!

🎉🎉Comment below, and I’ll send you a link to three free sets of reading response resources and my favorite reading response task cards!
You won’t ever catch me in an ELA teaching positio You won’t ever catch me in an ELA teaching position where I’m not teaching word parts. 🩷💚 I believe wholeheartedly in the value of teaching morphology, especially in the upper grades! 

Comment below, and I’ll send you info on ALL my resources, including an entire FREE starter kit for teaching your students the basics of prefixes and suffixes!
🎉We start every math class the same: I read just a 🎉We start every math class the same: I read just a few of these mental math cards orally, step by step, and when I’m done, I count down from three silently using my fingers. When my students see a closed fist, they share their answers in unison. It’s so quick, simple, and low stakes for kids. They increase in complexity throughout the year, and I’ve seen massive gains in my students’ mental math abilities.

Comment below, and I’ll send you the info! ❤️❤️
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