Mossy Oak Musings

Looking for some great mentor texts for your February reader's workshop block? Struggling to get your kiddos to discuss their reading independently? This shares 6 + love-themed titles and activities and lesson ideas for your February reader's workshop.

This post introduces a year-long empathy project designed to develop students' discourse skills. It outlines the fifth grade class project, identifies essential questions and the data points (WIDA/WAPT & Serravallo Conversation Progression). Empathy-themed books are identified, as well as ways to teach discourse.

Mondrian & Math! It doesn't get any better than this combination in our 4th grade classroom.

Every year, without fail, I use math games to review skills and teach collaboration, discourse and social skills. YOU CAN TOO! I don't want to use games that teach new concepts because I want to watch my students interacting independently. If I have to step in to reteach new math concepts, I can't observe. I want to be able to see how Andrew interacts with others when he's losing. I want to know how Bella handles mistakes, or how Tom behaves when he trounces Emily.

Looking for perseverance-themed kid lit? You need this post! It outlines lesson ideas, and recommends four fantastic fiction and narrative nonfiction books your kids will love. I promise!

Ask any kid about heroes, and he or she will rattle off names like Batman or Superman, or a list of professional football or hockey players' names. And yet every January when my team and I begin teaching our civil rights unit, my kids view King, Mandela, Gandhi, Helen Keller, and other activists with round eyes. Whenever we read a biography or picture book about these people, I can see my fifth graders mentally placing superhero capes over the shoulders of these activists.

Too often, we teachers grapple with issues we have no control over. We feel defeated, unsuccessful, and burned out when we forget about our circle of control.

Too often, we waste our energies fighting fights we can't win. What would happen if we remembered our circles of control?

Looking for some pleasure reading titles? We’ve got 4 recommendations just for you, plus teacher fun freebies to accompany your fun!

From WILD CHILD DESIGNS, these FREE posters are designed to review powers of tens and the vocabulary used when talking about them in your math class. They're perfect for student math journals or binders, or for your classroom wall! Enjoy!

Do you your kids struggle with those "About the Text" questions on Fountas and Pinnell assessments? You know, the ones where they're asked to identify descriptive language in the passages? This post is FOR YOU! This creative approach might seem "fluffy" to some teachers, but I can assure you it's not. Found poetry created rigor in my classroom!

Teacher fashions have sure changed through the years... thank God! Are you ready to giggle?

March is Reading Month and Read Across America shenanigans don't have to be stressful! 3 + ways to make your celebrations student-centered!

Teaching and learning gratitude is not an easy feat. Explore three book suggestions for upper elementary and middle school students. Free resources and suggestions...as well as a $100 giveaway!

Valentine’s Day can be a hard holiday to navigate with upper elementary kiddos... the hormones... the precarious friendships...the hurt feelings. Here’s an idea that’s fun, easy to implement and COMMON CORE ALIGNED!

As we're bullied about on a day-to-day basis, it's so easy to forget our "why." Sometimes, we're reminded in unexpected ways.