Elementary Explorations

To help students take notes on the 8 parts of speech, use this fun graphic organizer in the shape of a PIZZA, complete with 8 labeled slices and toppings where students can record their notes or examples! This can be used when presenting each part of speech or as a fun review activity.

This is a 9 slide PPT presentation that includes 8 journal entries over the classic novel Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter. The journal entries are for every 3-4 chapters in the book and include 3 questions per slide. Display or print these questions for students to answer in their literature response journal or use them to guide your discussion over the book. Enjoy! Journal Entry Slides: Ch.1-3 Ch.4-6 Ch.7-9 Ch.10-13 Ch.14-17 Ch.18-21 Ch.22-25 Ch.26-30

This is a great scavenger hunt for Open House. This allows the students to guide their parents around the school to get familiar with their daily routine. It also allows movement around the WHOLE school so you don't have a room full of kids and parents at all times. If the students get their parents to initial 5 boxes in a row, they get a prize from you. You can add extra credit for those students who get the all of the boxes initialed. Have fun!

This 10 slide PPT includes a simple way for students to remember that THEME means "THE MEssage". The author's message of course. It gives them a great visual and includes two practice passages with answer choices. The last slide gives an optional activity where students can work in groups to read passages of your choice and write the theme of each on a piece of paper. The students then place the paper in a bottle to represent "THE MEssage in a bottle." My students LOVED this activity and never f

This PPT introduces the strategy of a "Hand Summary". Students can use the visual of their hand to remember the 5 parts of a story; character & setting, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. There is an example of the hand story structure using the familiar Disney film Aladdin. Then, it gives the students an opportunity to create a summary over their own book.

This is a PowerPoint presentation that introduces how to infer through the use of the trash bag activity as well as reading receipts. (Teacher brings in a trash bag full of items that can be used to have the students infer who the trash belongs to. GREAT "hook" activity!) There is also an example of a receipt and an activity that goes along with the receipts at the end of the presentation to practice making inferences.

This graphic organizer allows students to take notes over important text features while the teacher leads discussion. Also includes an example of a text features anchor chart to be used for visual display. This organizer can also be used as a scavenger hunt for students to find the features in a text. Many ways to use this great resource!

This is a fun activity to help students review how to correctly write irregular verbs in a sentence. This activity is called "Love It or Fix It". The teacher will hang the sentences around the room and the students are to decide if the "Love" the sentence (correctly written) or if they need to "Fix" it. If so, students will check the box accordingly and rewrite the sentence with the correct use of the irregular verb. Fun way to assess and get the kids moving and discussing!

This is a project rubric where students will be assigned a famous Texan or Texas landmark. Students will complete research through textbooks, online, or other resources provided by the teacher. Once research is done, students will choose one of the following projects to complete. (Poster, essay, timeline, shoebox, or tissue box) This includes a rubric, instructions, and the options for the topic of research.

Use this quick checklist when students practice writing a strong thesis statement with a partner. The checklist asks 3 important questions and allows their partner to circle Yes or No and initial by each question to assure peer review. Does your thesis answer the question? Does you thesis take a position? Does your thesis give 2 reasons? There are 6 checklists on one page to save paper when printing for all students.

This is a great activity to help students learn or review the 10 comma rules. This brochure lists the 10 comma rules and leaves space for students to write their own sentence and draw a visual using the coma rule correctly. Fun way to assess what the students know while creating a brochure that can be easily referred back to when needed!

This is a personal narrative writing prompt that would be great for the first day or week of school to get to know your kiddos. The prompt asks the students to tell about an experience that allows their teacher to get to know them better.

This is a PPT with seven 4th grade writing prompts (4 narrative and 3 expository prompts) This PPT can be used in its presentation form to have the whole class write, or it can be printed and hung around the room for students to move in groups to discuss their ideas. Great for STAAR review!

This PPT presentation shows the template to create a cinquain and includes an example using a snowflake as the topic. The last slide is used for students to then create their own cinquain poems over an assigned topic.

Use this Thesis Statement Road Map game to allow students to check that their thesis meets these 3 criteria questions: Does my thesis answer the question? Does my thesis take a position? Does my thesis provide topics for the paragraphs? Students can use any manipulative (my kiddos used a toy car) and "drive" to each stop sign where they make sure their thesis meets the criteria to get to the finish line of the map. I placed these in pocket protectors but you could easily laminate them to make t

This six page pack includes 3 questions for parents to answer and 3 questions for students to answer. Great for Meet the Teacher Night or the first day of school. Post these questions around the room and ask the parents and/or students to answer them using sticky notes. Great way to build communication and expectations for both your students and parents. Questions for Parents: What do you expect from your child this year? What do you expect from your child's teacher this year? What can I expec

These notes over the 4 types of sentences can be used as a foldable or simple notes page to be put into a student's interactive notebook.

This PPT is great for the first day/week of school or even parent meetings. It allows you to edit each slide with the information you need. Great template to use that will save you time!

Fun activity for students to complete while getting the first day tasks complete!

Great way to make your student's writing more elaborative, or as I like to say "colorful". This is a PPT presentation that introduces how to color code writing and includes an example. Students are encouraged to use all of the colors in their writing to strengthen their details. My students use colored pencils to "color up" their writing as a part of their revising process. Colors include: Red- Talking, Hearing, Smelling Yellow- Thinking Green- Action Blue- Seeing