Caroline Jones

These two rubrics are simple to use for grading weekly Writing Journals and Readers Notebooks for the intermediate grades.

Have you heard the amazing story of Austin's butterfly? You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqh1MRWZjms First grader Austin was asked to make a scientific drawing of a butterfly. With the help of peer critique, he made five drafts, each one better than the last. His results will astound you and your students. This lesson is not a "nuts and bolts" of how to edit and revise. This memorable lesson is designed to inspire your students, demonstrate the power of editing and rev

Bullying has really been in the news lately, at least in my area. This term is thrown around a lot, but often people don't really understand what it is. I created this product after a workshop about the differences between bullying and conflict. I wanted to share with my students the differences between the two and given them real-world scenarios to practice the difference. This product includes ideas for creating your own anchor chart for your classroom, 8 scenarios for students to classify

This two-part PowerPoint is a great way to introduce your students to the regions of the US. It starts with the definition of a region and a matching game of important vocabulary words to learn when studying regions, such as climate, resources, culture, and landforms. The second part expands the concept of regions and has students discover the regions of their home state. Students use the same vocabulary they learned in part one to decribe regions within their own state. The PowerPoint also i

Page 1: Fourth grade Everyday Math introduces the partial product algorithm for multi-digit multiplication using a game called "Tag Team Wrestling". My students love the game, but many have a hard time lining up the numbers of the partial products. So I created a worksheet that has boxes instead of lines for the partial products. Page 2: I also created a template that can be used to transition students more gradually to the partial product method. It has less prompts than "tag team wrestli

Using a number line to order decimals is a great way to show all types of learners to relationship among decimal numbers. This product contains two worksheets (with answer keys) where students use number lines to order and compare fractions using benchmarks. In the first students use funny holiday riddles to self-check their placement of decimals on a number line. In the second, students place the decimals themselves and determine the nearest benchmark.

This is my favorite end-of-year math project! Students decorate 3-D shape "nets", then assemble and hang them from a hanger to be a mobile. It's a great way to review the year and assess the properties of 3-D shapes at the same time. Can also be easily adapted for other times of year.

Use this PowerPoint song to help your students memorize the 13 colonies to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw". Not sure of the tune? An audio file of me singing the song is included in the PowerPoint. The slide features the lyrics to the song along with a labeled map of the 13 colonies. As a bonus, you can use the animation to block out the name of each colony, one at a time to further improve students' memorization skills.

Newton's Cradle is five steel balls suspended from a frame. You can buy a small one for only a few dollars at www.officeplayground.com. It's a great tool for students to learn how Newton's 3 Laws of Motion work. In this activity, students make predictions about how the balls will move using three different variables. It makes a great center activity.

This PowerPoint presentation introduces the four ways remainders are used in long division word problems: drop it, round up, only the remainder, and the remainder written as a fraction. It gives students suggestions for when to use which and twelve example problems (with answers) to solve.

This single-sided worksheet contain a mix of 8 word problems where students must find area or perimeter. Answer key included. Students also have to show their thinking by choosing whether the problem talks about the outside or inside of the shape.

Citing text evidence can be really challenging for upper elementary students. But it's also a simple way to increase their score on standardized testing. This active presentation gives students the tools to make them look and sound smart when using evidence from the text. The presentation starts with the Common Core Writing standard. Then students practice several sentence starters in a variety of funny ways. They prove it like a baby, a robot, a pirate, and others. Finally, students use

This performance task was created for grade five for the culmination of a study on Weather, but can be used with any intermediate grade. Students use a website to find out the effects of El Nino on any state of their choosing. Then they use that information to create a 1 minutes public service announcement (PSA) to inform the residents of their chosen state and recommend what they should do. The project includes all materials (including the rubric) and website URLs. The rubric assesses Speak

If your students struggle with metric conversion, this is the product for you. Created by a team of fourth grade teachers and tested in our classrooms, this activity with manipulatives makes metric conversion thinking visible. It's engaging and fun but, best of all, each one of our students was successful. This product has a chart for the students to fill in, digit cards, and teacher instructions (including a sample of the filled in chart). This lesson can be a whole class period or can be use

Many students struggle with the idea of writing a topic sentence. They don't understand how important the topic sentence is to give the reader context. This PowerPoint presentation uses the metaphor of a box to teach students that your topic sentence is like a "box" (main idea) and the details are like the contents. The slides follow the "gradual release of responsibility" model, starting with guided practice. Then each slide features a "turn and talk" with directions for both partners. Fin

This 30 slide PowerPoint is perfect for intermediate grade students and fits perfectly with my Structured Writing Journal. Each section begins with the characteristics of a given mode of writing. Narrative, Expository, Persuasive, and Descriptive modes are included. Then there are 6-10 slides, each with a prompt, that students complete during the week. This is a perfect compliment to your writing workshop instruction. You can easily see the impact of your teaching, yet students still have f

Students with good sentence fluency include complex sentences in their writing. Using this worksheet, students "try out" using words like although, because, when, before, and after. This worksheet is also a great way for students to practice the use of commas, phrases, and clauses. Perfect for the following Common Core Standards Language Skills: Grade 4: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.3a Choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely.* Grade 5: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.2b Use a comma to separate an

These journal questions and vocabulary worksheets are broken up by chapters (1-2, 3-4, etc.) and include extra credit questions. They go with The Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson.

Transpiration and photosynthesis can be challenging concepts to teach intermediate grade students. This PowerPoint has four creative activities to teach these concepts: a science journalling activity and a rap to teach transpiration and a printable art activity and related video to teach photosynthesis. It is a great review prior to a test.

This mini-unit contains: three different strategy lessons for long division word problems, five pages of long division problems (both "easy" and "hard"- a total of 30 problems) and an answer key. These strategies can be used with both the traditional and partial quotient algorithms to teach an entire class or a small intervention group. Download the FREE template (preview file) to use these strategies with the partial quotient algorithm. Another classroom-tested activity from Caroline Jones