Tips for Teaching Math in the Upper Elementary Classroom

Tips for Teaching Math in the Upper Elementary Classroom


Teaching math in the upper elementary classroom does not have to be scary! 


No matter which program or approach you use, being consistent and having high expectations go a long way to creating students who are mathematicians who practice critical thinking each day. 


Whether you are just starting the school year, or knee-deep in teaching students important problem-solving strategies, the tips in this post will help you grow your students as mathematicians. These tried and true tips for math instruction have helped me over the last 18 years turn timid students afraid to tackle multiple-step word problems into confident mathematicians. 



Tips for Teaching Math in the Upper Elementary Classroom


Math Activities to Get to Know Your Students

This quick-read blog post has ideas, tips, and activities to get to know your students as mathematicians and promote critical thinking in your classroom.



math bulletin boards for the classroom



4 Math Bulletin Boards to Leave Up All Year Long to Support Students

Let math concepts and strategies shine in your classroom with these math-focused bulletin boards that are easy to hang, informative for students, and perfect to leave up all year long!



teaching growth mindset in the elementary classroom


Growth Mindset Strategies for Your Upper Elementary Classroom

Help your students persevere, persist, and develop a life-changing growth mindset that will not only help them during math but in so many aspects of their lives.



teaching math discourse in the upper elementary classroom


4 Simple Ways to Engage Students in Meaningful Math Discourse

Help your students get over the fear of being wrong during math and encourage meaningful conversations in your classroom.



problem solving tips 3rd 4th 5th grade


5 Ways to Instill a Love of Problem Solving

Encourage a positive attitude and math a time of the day that both you and your students look forward to with these easy tips!



open ended math strategies in the classroom



How to Incorporate Open-Ended Math Questions

Weave in open-ended problems in your classroom to help show students that there is more than one way to attack a problem that will engage students of all levels.



tips for teaching multiple step word problems


5 Quick Tips for Teaching Multiple Step Word Problems 

Engage and and motivate your students with these techniques that target multiple-step word problems.


error analysis tips for 3rd 4th 5tgh grade



4 Reasons Why You Need to Use Error Analysis 

Error analysis is a game changer in the classroom. It truly brings critical thinking and math discourse into the classroom. Read this post to understand how you can help your students grow as deep thinkers as they defend their math thinking in your classroom.



error analysis activities for 3rd 4th 5th graders


A Closer Look at Error Analysis Math

Read about my story of bringing error analysis into my fifth-grade classroom in this quick-read blog post.



Make this the school year, month, or day that you enjoy teaching math with these tips and ideas. Not sure where to start? Feeling overwhelmed? Just pick one post and try one idea to help you get started. Remember, teaching math in the upper elementary classroom does not have to be scary!




Looking for critical thinking math activities? Click HERE.


critical thinking math performance tasks  upper elementary







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Tips for Teaching Math in the Upper Elementary Classroom



*affiliate links: “Think Grow Giggle is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.” (source: Section 5)


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Teaching Grammar with Picture Books for Upper Elementary

Teaching Grammar with Picture Books for Upper Elementary



Ahh, grammar. The never-ending list of rules we need to make interesting enough to be engaging, AND find the time to make sure we get it into our daily schedule!


Luckily, there is a multitude of amazing picture books to reinforce these grammar rules, engage students, and help us make sure we are addressing important grammar skills each week. There really is no better way to introduce, teach, and review important grammar skills than with an engaging picture book.


While you can read just about any picture book and pull out mentor sentences and examples of grammar rules in action, the following picture books are must-reads for any upper elementary classroom when focusing on specific grammar rules.

 


1. The King Who Rained: written by Fred Gwynn


picture book for homophones



Although it’s a little older (I read this back in elementary school as a student) it is one of my favorites. The illustrations are perfect for creating a visual understanding of homophones and homonyms.  Challenge the kids to come up with their own hilarious “daddy says” homophone, and put them together in a class book to enjoy. The illustrations truly make the book memorable, solidifying this tricky concept for students.

 


2. Cows Can’t Jump: written by Dave Reisman


picture book for teaching verbs



In this simple book, readers are introduced to a wide array of very diverse and richly dynamic verbs. Verbs like “saunter” and “slink” can spark great conversations about how vivid verbs can transform students' writing pieces.  The class will enjoy defining (even acting out) these interesting verbs. A read-aloud of this book can be expanded into a research project to determine if these facts are true or not true about each animal.

 


3. Chicken In the City: written by Maria Fleming


picture book for teaching nouns


There is no shortage of cuteness in this book, and that is only one of the reasons I love it! The idea of a chicken throwing her corn kernels in a suitcase, grabbing her pearl necklace, and heading to the big city just makes me giggle a little every time. This book is great for so many reasons, but it is the perfect noun resource. Some of the pages are explicitly labeled with nouns. Another reason it shines and has to be on the top grammar picture book list is that there is a change of setting. You see the array of farm nouns, and then she heads to the city and there are nouns there too. This opens the door for a great compare and contrast opportunity. Make it extra fun by turning the circles of your Venn diagram into oval eggs! Or keep it simple and have your students create a list of nouns that they see in their classroom or at home!

 



picture book for teaching collective nouns

Once that basic noun knowledge has been activated, there are some books that are perfect for diving into the different categories of nouns. When you want to talk about collective nouns, this is a go-to book. It’s engaging in that it introduces students to animal groups they may not be familiar with, and who doesn't love hearing new animal facts? Extend this book read by having students name their family as a collective noun. A _____ of Smith’s, Wilson’s, Brown’s, etc. Go one step further and have them explain and defend the collective noun they choose to use.


Try these free and engaging noun activities to help you get in grammar this year!




5. Pig, Pigger, Piggest: written by Rick Walton


picture book for teaching superlative adjectives

Adjectives are one of the most colorful grammar units to teach, and when you specify with superlatives, it can be even more fun! The illustrations alone are worth this read- the three pig brothers make me laugh every time I look through it. As you read this book, guide students to describe the pigs in great detail, emphasizing that superlative detail in the Piggest Pig of all. Extending this with a simple art project is so much fun! Have students draw three circles with three objects. In each circle, have your students draw a picture of objects to match a given superlative set of adjectives: small, smaller, smallest or try yummy, yummier, yummiest. Students love this activity and get more creative with each illustration. 

 


6. Dear Deerwritten by Gene Barretta


homophone read aloud for grammar lesson
This book is another one that focuses on homohones in a fun and simple way. Each page has one sentence, but that is all it takes to help students understand the different meanings of words that sound the same. Brainstorm lists of more homophones have students create their own page to add to this book. 



7. Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What is an Adjective: written by Brian P. Cleary


adjective picture book read aloud


This book is a fun read and truly breaks down the concept that adjectives can describe how many, what kind, and how big something can be. Since adjectives describe nouns, review the concept of nouns as you read aloud this book. Create an anchor chart sized T-chart. On one side label it adjective and on the other side label it noun. As you come across an adjective, ask the students what noun it describes. Keep track of all of them in the book. This will lay the important ground work for your unit on adverbs and how they describe verbs.



8. Eats, Shoots, and Leaveswritten by Lynne Truss


picture book for teaching commas


Comma usage is always so tricky for students! This read-aloud will help your students understand the why commas are so important to use as writers. The author writes two different sentences, one with a comma and one without. The illustrations truly help the students see how different the meaning of the sentence becomes when you forget to use that comma! This book will help to make teaching students how to use commas correctly an important part of your punctuation and grammar lessons!



9. Semicolons, Cupcakes, and Cucumbers: written by Steve Newberry


picture book for teaching punctuation


This fun read-aloud follows different punctuation marks as they have a conversation showing off how they work! I love that commas and semicolons are included in this book. As you read this book, be sure to change your voice and expression to match each punctuation mark, to truly help students see how punctuation is not only important to them as writers, but also as readers. Invite students up to help you "act out" this read-aloud, taking on the role of the different punction marks. Grab a free activity to use with this book right HERE


Add these books to your grammar units for instant engagement and memorable lessons for your students! You will find that by using grammar skill-specific and focused picture books students will understand the skills better and independently apply the strategies they learned to their own writing.




Looking for more meaningful grammar activities for your students? Try these!


grammar activities for upper elementary







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Teaching Grammar with Picture Books for Upper Elementary








*affiliate links: “Think Grow Giggle is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.” (source: Section 5)

 



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