Amazing Materials for You

Here is my latest creation that can be found on Teacher’s Pay Teachers! I taught this lesson on Friday, November 17th and it was a great success! My students LOVED the story.

Finding the main idea and the theme of a text can be challenging. I find that repeated teacher modeling and student practice helps considerably! I like to emphasize that there is an element of opinion in a theme whereas a main idea is a statement or very short summary of a work.

Ada’s Violin, by Susan Hood is a great text to use for determining both main idea and theme. In this presentation, teachers and students are guided to find both. You can also add a very brief geography connection by having students find Paraguay on a world map or globe. In addition, I have included a list of vocabulary words for discussion before reading.

Students love learning about real people and their stories of perseverance and triumph. Children can never have too many role models!

This lesson is aligned with Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as well as Virginia SOLs.

Ada’s Violin

Blogging is something I’ve considered doing for quite some time now. It took me a couple of years to muster up the courage. I spent the past two years thinking, “What will I say?” Then, over the summer of 2017, I became a Teachers Pay Teachers seller and, voila! Now, I have something to say.

Although I’ve only been marketing my products since July 2017, I have created them for (and more importantly tested them on) my fifth grade students since 2011. Kids are tough critics. I’m proud to say that they’ve responded well to my lessons. I hope that your students will, too.

I’m excited to begin sharing teaching anecdotes with you on this blog.