Articles

Sometimes, we forget that the children we teach are just that—children. Humor, silliness, playfulness, and showing off are hallmarks of childhood, and we should expect to experience some at every grade. Just for the fun of it Children often act silly or show off because these are ways to have…

Here's a Morning Meeting message idea from 80 Morning Meeting Ideas for Grades 3–6, by Carol Davis: Use a message like this one to tap students' prior knowledge and engage them in their learning. (7+5)/(30–10)/(2020–9) Good Morning, Geometry Greats! Today, we are going to begin having fun with geometry. Do…

Here's a Morning Meeting activity idea from 80 Morning Meeting Ideas for Grades 3–6, by Carol Davis: Encore! Students team up to connect vocabulary words with favorite songs. How to do this group activity: Place students into small groups of four or five. Call out a word or topic related…

Here's a Morning Meeting sharing idea from 80 Morning Meeting Ideas for Grades 3–6, by Carol Davis: Who Remembers My Favorite Book? Playing a fun remembering game builds on children's listening and memory skills. How to do this around-the-circle sharing: Tell students they each will have a turn to share…

Here's a Morning Meeting greeting idea from 80 Morning Meeting Ideas for Grades 3–6, by Carol Davis: Secret Handshake Greeting Creating secret handshakes taps students' creativity and builds community. How to do it: Students pair up and take a few minutes to create and practice a secret handshake and a…

Double-digit kids, tens can take on almost anything and love almost every minute of it. It didn’t take me long as a teacher to latch onto the understanding that if you want to teach in “middle childhood,” there is no better age than ten, no better grade than fifth. Children…

Nine is not always an easy age, but it is an age of growing social awareness, of intellectual stretching, wondering, and clamoring. These are the “ing” kids: the kids who are doing, questioning, doubting, arguing . . . sometimes seemingly just for the sake of it, with no clear goals…

More homework. That’s the response of many school districts feeling increasing pressure to enhance student achievement. It’s a response that can burden not just students, but also parents, who are already short on time and energy to help with homework. Teachers, too, can feel stress related to assigning more homework.…