Blog - Your Thrifty Co-Teacher

Engaging Prefixes and Suffixes Activities

Being an upper elementary school teacher, it's easy to assume that students do not need additional lessons on affixes. However, implementing prefixes and suffixes activities can help students master vocabulary reading strategies. Knowing the meaning of affixes can help students understand the meaning of unknown words. As discussed in a previous post, regularly implementing root words, affixes, ... Read More about Engaging Prefixes and Suffixes Activities

Activities for Root Words: Expand Vocabulary with Root of the Week

Exposing students to a variety of new words is important for vocabulary acquisition. However, to effectively figure out the meanings of unknown words they encounter, it is crucial to engage them in activities for root words. These activities help students develop strategies to break down a word into its simplest form - the word's root and affixes. To do this effectively, students must understand ... Read More about Activities for Root Words: Expand Vocabulary with Root of the Week

Fun and Effective Grammar Lessons

When you ask your students what their favorite subject is, chances are slim-to-none that the first thing they'll say is grammar. Am I right? Well, let's turn that around. Here are some fun grammar activities that can make elementary grammar lessons into quick and effective learning opportunities for your students that they will not soon forget. A little background on my experience with ... Read More about Fun and Effective Grammar Lessons

Spiral Review CAN Save Your Sanity

Let's talk Spiral Review. Have you ever taught a new concept or skill to your students, and a week or two later you're shaking your head wondering if it was just an illusion because just a few of them remember what to do? Yup, we've all been there more times than we care to share. Whether it's the steps to long division or the proper ways to use commas, students' retention of new skills can ... Read More about Spiral Review CAN Save Your Sanity

Easy Ways to Teach Grammar

Grammar can be a teacher's nemesis, can't it? As stated in my last post, "Why Spiral Review Can Save Your Sanity" (which discusses how and why spiral review works), sometimes it can be so frustrating to see students forget and not apply concepts we've already taught them through our grammar instruction. To add insult to injury, it can take so much precious time out of our already very ... Read More about Easy Ways to Teach Grammar

Reading Strategy: Teaching Students to Use Visualization

A couple of years ago, the parents of one of my fifth grade students sat across the table from me and explained to me that their child had difficulty with the concept of visualization. She had a hard time visualizing characters, settings, and events in books as she read. When I later spoke to that student and inquired about this, she explain to me that she didn't see the pictures or movies ... Read More about Reading Strategy: Teaching Students to Use Visualization