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Classroom | Distance Learning

Distance Learning Lessons You Can Implement Tomorrow!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve thought a lot about how I can best support teachers right now while they try to figure out how to best do distance learning. I’ve spent days converting my existing resources to have digital…
READ POST Distance Learning Lessons You Can Implement Tomorrow!
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Building Community | Classroom | Distance Learning | Literacy | Picture Books | The Parent Connection

Using Picture Books to Support At-Home Learning

Wow! When I published my last post nearly a week ago, I don’t think anyone could have anticipated exactly where we’d be today. Who knows where we will be at this time next week. Over the past week, I have…
READ POST Using Picture Books to Support At-Home Learning
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Building Community | Classroom | Distance Learning | Literacy | Picture Books | The Parent Connection

Supporting Student Learning at Home

Hi There! This feels unprecedented. This feels scary. This is unknown territory. Ever since the cascade of school closures began (including all of our schools in Colorado Springs), I have been wracking my brain about how I can best support teachers across…
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test prep review ideas upper elementary
Classroom | Test Prep

Test Prep: Engaging and Meaningful Ways to Prepare for State Testing

It’s March, and that means it’s time to start preparing our students for state testing.  If I’m being honest, I try my hardest to not make “test prep” a big deal to my students. Instead, my goal is always to…
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Classroom

Tips for Teaching Interviews

It’s that time of year! Schools are beginning to look at their staffing for next year. Current teachers are making plans for their future. New teachers are keeping a close eye out for teaching job opportunities. Here, I’ve compiled some…
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Anchor Charts | Literacy | Literacy Anchor Charts | Reading Skills

Teaching Character Conflict

I’ve posted about teaching character conflict before, but I have a few updates to share and a NEW free resource for teaching the types of character conflict! Here’s a link the original blog post if you are looking for even…
READ POST Teaching Character Conflict
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Anchor Charts | Math | Math Anchor Charts

Teaching Precise Math Vocabulary

A few years ago, I was heavily pregnant, and my students were scheduled to go on a field trip three hours away from the school.  Since I was so close to my due date (and we all know how school…
READ POST Teaching Precise Math Vocabulary
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Anchor Charts | Literacy | Literacy Anchor Charts | Reading Skills | Using Pictures to Teach

Teaching Students To Use Observations to Infer

If you’ve ever tried to teach students the concept of making inferences, you know this is never a simple task! That’s why I have always taught my students how to tell the difference between literal and inferential questions and observations….
READ POST Teaching Students To Use Observations to Infer
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Free | Literacy | Reading Skills

Main Idea Vs. Theme with Song Lyrics

Hands down, one of my most popular posts is teaching about Main Idea vs. Theme. Ever since I started teaching the concepts together (in the upper grades), it has completely changed how my students think about and generate their main…
READ POST Main Idea Vs. Theme with Song Lyrics
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Task Cards | Anchor Charts | Fluency | Free | Homeschool | Literacy | Literacy Anchor Charts

Teaching Oral Reading Fluency

One of the top questions I get is always about how I run my math and reading rotations. As I prepare to share those formats with you, I’ll be sharing some of the components of them individually as well. Today’s topic…
READ POST Teaching Oral Reading Fluency
Using Pictures to Teach Reading Skills isn't a new idea over at Teaching With a Mountain View, but it sure has evolved over the years!
Literacy | Anchor Charts | Literacy Anchor Charts | Using Pictures to Teach

Using Pictures to Teach Reading Skills Part 2

Using Pictures to Teach Reading Skills isn’t a new idea over at Teaching With a Mountain View, but it sure has evolved over the years! Before you read this post, I highly recommend reading my original post about using pictures to…
READ POST Using Pictures to Teach Reading Skills Part 2
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Literacy | Back to School | Building Community | Building Community | Classroom | Classroom Management | Homework | Seasonal | Writing

Weekly Letter Writing to Build Community

Years ago, I shared this idea as a free resource on TpT, but I’ve never gotten around to explaining my weekly letter writing procedures over here on my blog! It’s definitely time. When I was student teaching, I had truly the…
READ POST Weekly Letter Writing to Build Community

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hey there!

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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🍂👻 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! ❤️❤️
Podcasts in the classroom are SO fun while still b Podcasts in the classroom are SO fun while still being academically worthwhile! 👏 🎙️ I designed them to address listening and reading comprehension skills in an engaging, relevant format. Each one comes with show notes and assignments and covers topics ranging from sports and science and tales and more! 🥰 Comment below, and I’ll send you all the info.
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