Organizing Hanging File Folders

Before - nasty crooked writing ;-)

Hi Everyone!  It's Katie from Teaching: The Art of Possibility.  I'm excited to be apart of Fifth Grade Freebies and here is my first of many freebies I will be sharing with all of you.  

Neat - typed - beautiful

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm all about having a neat and organized classroom.  From the labels on my students' desks to the labels in my filing cabinet.  There was a time, when I would handwrite my hanging file folder labels but I HATED the way they looked.  Either my handwriting wasn't consistent or they weren't properly centered.  My reasons to not like it could go on and on.  (Have  I mentioned I'm a bit OCD? ;-) ) And because of this craziness need, I have created a SIMPLE little template to help make life easier. So Bam!  Here you go - a template for you to type in and have perfectly neat hanging file folder labels like me.  Go here to download it. 

Hope it helps you like it did me.  

Katie Lyon

Back to School Freebie: Sharpening Pencils Procedures

It's that time of the year again! Students will be entering your classroom ready to go. We are offering up a great FREE resource for back to school. 

We all know that we have to establish procedures for sharpening pencils. So included with this procedure is a teacher page with purpose, teaching ideas, modeling and role playing that you can do with your class.

Also included is a kid friendly poster that you can review with your students and even post in the room! You can download this free resource by clicking here. 

Fact Fluency Freebie

Hi, I'm Mercedes from Surfing to Success.  I'm currently a K-6 Intervention teacher.  Part of my desire to teach intervention came from my year as a 5th Grade Math teacher.

One of the biggest challenges teaching 5th Grade Math was the lack of background skills.  I found myself trying to teach a 5th grade skill to students that on a 3rd grade math level.  It is important to communicate with the students and parents what you expect.

Today's freebie has a poster that shows what students should be able to do fluently in grade K-6. 

Click here to get a copy.  There is a second version included that has the standard numbers.

There is so much to accomplish in 5th grade math.  Knowing that multi-digit multiplication is the Common Core Math Fluency goal, can help provide some focus.  

We start the school year screening for multiplication fluency so we can provide basic multiplication intervention for the 5th graders that need it before they fall too far behind.

from

40 Book Challenge FREEBIES

Hi everyone!  I'm Melissa O'Bryan from Wild About Fifth Grade and I'm so excited to share a recent FREEBIE with you!

Have you read the Book Whisperer and/or Reading in the Wild? This past year Donalyn Miller, the author of both, inspired me to incorporate a 40 Book Challenge into my reader's workshop.  I challenged each of my readers to READ, READ, READ as much as possible, to take every free minute, and to reach the feat of reading 40 books over the school year!  Many think there is no way they'll be able to accomplish the challenge, and some don't, but ALL were surprised at the end of the year with how many books they did read.  Myself included - there's something beautiful about visually keeping track of your progress and then celebrating what you've accomplished!

We started the challenge on the first day of school and we talked about it every day.  I kept track of the books I read on our classroom door. 

How cool was my door?? I loved seeing the books I read increase throughout the year, and I loved talking about those book with my own readers and even readers in the hallway who noticed a cover while passing by. I hated having to take it down at the end of the year, but I also can't wait to start again this year.  P.S. I've started my 40 Book Challenge this summer for this upcoming year so I can keep up with my readers.  :)  I'll post a few covers on the first day of school to kick off our 2014-2015 40 Book Challenge!

If you'd like to make a similar display on your door or a classroom bulletin board, click HERE for an editable FREE 40 Book Challenge poster of your own.

While I kept track of my 40 Book Challenge progress on our classroom door, my readers kept track of the books they read in their reading binders.  I created these record keeping pages for my students to log their progress.  And because I'm so excited for YOU to incorporate a 40 Book Challenge into your classroom, I'm giving away these record keeping sheets for FREE! Click HERE for the FREE 40 Book Challenge record keeping pages.  

Included in the FREEBIE are two options of student recording sheets.  One page (to be copied front/back) with 40 slots for each student to record the title and author of each book they complete, the genre and whether the book was easy (E), just right (JR) or challenging. There is a second option with the 40 left off in case you want to differentiate the challenge to fewer or more books for your students.  Secondly, there are two options of a genre requirement sheet.  The first has the breakdown of genres (how many of each genre) that my students are challenged to read for their 40 book challenge.  The second again is blank so you can create your own genre expectations if necessary.  

The record keeping sheets helped my students stay on track with their 40 Book Challenge progress, and I was able to spot check their progress during daily conferences and strategy groups.  Also, we also kept a total running record of our books read and had a little friendly competition with some neighboring 5th grade classrooms.  Gotta love a good competition!

I would love to hear about how you are incorporating Donalyn Miller's 40 Book Challenge into your classroom! 

Enjoy your last few weeks or days of summer!

Back to School Freebie: The Great Writer's Race

Welcome to The Great Writer's Race! Your students will be challenging themselves to complete creative writing activities as the school year progresses. There are over 40 creative writing ideas included!

Your students will have a blast "racing" to complete the activities. This is a great addition to Daily 5, writing stations, and for a creative writing unit. You can download it by clicking here. Enjoy!

Homework Pass Freebie

Homework, homework, homework! I know that homework can be a challenge for students and teachers alike, so I like to provide incentives for my fifth grade students. I'm simplifying it a bit this year. I'm going to record their homework in my grade book for completing (check) or not completing (x). At the end of each month, I am going to look back to see which students completed all of their homework ON TIME. Those students will receive a homework superstar certificate, as well as a homework pass that they can use on a future homework assignment. I don't mind excusing a student from homework once a month if I know I can count on them to do the rest, so it's a nice little incentive for students to stay on top of their work and develop good homework habits, which will be so important as we prepare them for middle school! Checking in each month will also allow me to identify any repeat offenders whose parents might need to be contacted, so this system is a win-win for teachers and students!

I've put together a little homework pass freebie for you. This freebie includes a basic homework pass, a back to school homework pass (I sometimes use these as incentive for attending back to school night/open house), and a fall/autumn homework pass. In addition, I've added three black and white versions of my homework award certificates. You can grab this freebie here: Homework Pass Freebie

Basic Pass

Back to School Pass

Autumn Pass

 Basic Award

 With owls!

No frame, in case you already have paper to print on! 

I hope that we all have lots of Homework Superstars this year!

from

Classroom Management - NOISE

I am so glad that we are getting this collaborative blog up and going again! Today I'm going to share with you a strategy that worked for my class when they were getting too loud.

If the picture is too small to read:

Every class starts out with NOISE (I trade classes throughout the day). As the talking gets to be too much, I start taking down letters, starting with the E. If they get to NO, they don't earn a sticker towards a class game day (or whatever you want the reward to be). If they lose the O, they owe me one minute after school (or recess, or whatever the consequence is). If they lose the N, then it's 5 minutes (or whatever you decide). It's available as a free download {here}.

FREE Reflection Tool: My Week in REARVIEW

Hi friends!

I'm Jessica from "Joy in the Journey"

I'm a 5th grade teacher in Washington.

I'm so excited to be collaborating on this blog by sharing some fabulous freebies.

Today I'm sharing an older product
...but it's got a new look :)

Each Friday I have the students fill out their “rearview mirror” with pictures and key words/vocabulary from different topics we've learned about that week. 

It serves several purposes:

1. It is a wonderful way for me to assess what they’re retaining and which activities they are really enjoying

2. It lets parents know what we've been doing in class and serves as a talking point on Friday nights

3. It perfectly complements my travel-themed classroom :)

I have included two templates:

you can do this as a weekly or a monthly activity

Once the mirrors are filled out, you can do a number of things with them:

1. Send them home each week

2. Collect them in a folder called “My YEAR in Rearview” to send home at the end of the year as a reminder of all the students have learned

3. Put them up on a bulletin board

4. Keep them in student portfolios

This could also be a good review for a particular subject/topic. 

For example, I've used it at the end of a social studies chapter: “1920s in Rearview”

 I also like to use it during the first week of school to have the students describe their summers. They write a short story to go along with their Rearview Mirror: 

Click the picture to check it out - and while you're there, leave feedback if you like it :) 

FREE Division in the Real World

How will I use this in real life?

I asked that question all the time in school. 

This activity gives the students a chance to see how important division can be. 

What do we all wish would happen in the real world?  Finding a pile of money, of course!

I gave my students a pile of (fake) money and this worksheet and let them figure it out. I made sure the pile had different denominations.

 My students weren’t very efficient.  If I found a pile of money with some friends, I’d count it, do a division problem and we’d each get our share.

My students took forty five minutes figuring this out.  Most used the one for you, one for you, one for me method.

The discussion they had involved the need for problem solving and logic which was a challenge for them.

The key to this was walking around and prompting them.  Here is an example of one conversation I had.

  “You have a remainder of $211?” I asked surprised.  “If this were real money would you leave that just sitting on the ground?”

  “We only have two hundred dollar bills and there are four of us,” they replied.

  “Hmmm.  There has to be a way to solve that problem,” I said while walking away.

The debrief was key.  Each team shared their methods and I did the long division with them on the board.  The students had an “Aha!” moment when they realized it took them 45 minutes and it took us 2 minutes to do it with long division.

  They hadn’t realized long division could make their life easier.

I hope you enjoy the discussions that this project can bring.

I’ve provided a blank in case you want to have them find something like a bag of candy or almonds. 

The possibilities are endless.

Click here to download the freebie.  If you enjoy it, please consider leaving feedback.

from

I'm linking up with

A monthly REAL WORLD math blog link-up hosted by

 4mulaFun, The Teacher Studio, Teaching to Inspire in 5th, AND MissMathDork,

Follow Fifth Grade Freebies on Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin