The Periodic Table

The Periodic Table of Elements is a 5th grade standard in my state.  It is such a hard thing to teach the kids, because there is just SO much to grasp when looking at it.  

This year, I tried to tackle it a bit and make it a little more manageable by adding in some easy to use and fun resources for my kids.  We did a great little foldable, that had the kids looking at the various groups, and we did some Periodic Table Spelling...that the kids LOVED! Come on over to my blog to read in detail how we did it and pick up your freebies so you can do it in your room too.

Who doesn't love free bookmarks?

Hello everyone! It's been pretty hectic lately with school starting, but I'm dropping by to share one of my favorite things about back to school - BOOKMARKS! Ever year I have a bookmark for each subject ready to go. These print out 3 to a page, so I can print them all on one pack of cardstock! I'd like to share with you my Interactive Notebooking Bookmark, which I personally use in Math, and my Close Reading Bookmarks.

Click on the images to download the bookmarks for free!

We've already gotten good use out of both bookmarks. I see students pulling out the Close Reading Bookmark as a reference every time we read. That makes me SO happy!

I also have a free Close Reading lesson on Theme up on my blog if you want to see pictures of us using the other side of the Close Reading bookmark!

Mentor Text & Interactive Notebook Pages: The Perfect Combination!

Hi everybody! I'm April from Performing in Fifth, and I'm so excited to bring you a freebie for your 5th grade Reading block! I began using interactive notebooks during Reading, Writing, and Math in my classroom a couple of years ago. Interactive notebooks are a great way to allow students to be creative in the classroom, while taking notes that they can use all year! 

One of the issues I had when I first started using interactive notebooks during Reading time was that my notebook pages weren't necessarily filled with concrete examples. I had cute pages for theme, character traits, plot, and more, but none of the pages had examples from actual books. I love using novels in my classroom, but I needed something quick and easy to go with my interactive notebook mini-lessons.

After using Mentor Text in my classroom to model writing, it dawned on me that I could pair this same text with my interactive notebook pages to give great examples of the standard in a short, understandable story. Then, I could transfer this learning to different chapter books at differentiated levels for each student. Below is a free download of the mentor text mini-lesson for Common Core Standard RI.5.3. 

Do you use Mentor Text in your classroom?