Teaching Dependent and Independent Clauses

I had never really understood the importance of teaching dependent and independent clauses until I started to closely analyze my students' writing. Do some of your students often write incomplete sentences or sentences that seem to go on and on? 

Every year, I have quite a few students who start off just like that. Helping them identify the types of clauses is a necessary stepping stone to teaching them the different types of sentence structures. It results in them becoming better writers and understanding how to vary their sentences when they write.

So how can this be implemented in an engaging way that sticks with students? Let me show some of the activities we have done that have helped my students master dependent clauses and independent clauses.

20+ Teacher Gift Ideas for Christmas or Any Occasion

Looking for some ways to show appreciation to your coworker or your child's teacher this holiday season? Here are some teacher gift ideas for Christmas or any other occasion that are sure to be used by your most appreciated teachers.

Free Opinion Writing Graphic Organizer for Grades 4 & 5

Text-based opinion writing is a form of essay writing that is usually taught beginning in fourth grade. In this type of writing, students are asked to read anywhere from 2 - 4 sources. Then, they respond to a prompt by stating an opinion and supporting it with evidence from the texts. As you can imagine, this is a very complex and multistep process. As a teacher, it can be difficult to know where to even begin. Breaking it down into mini lessons supported by anchor charts and an opinion writing graphic organizer is extremely helpful. It can really help you organize your teaching and help stack the building blocks needed for students to develop a solid essay.

This post will share how to introduce an opinion prompt, teaching students how to gather text evidence, and create a solid plan for their writing by using a graphic organizer as a planner.

How to Make an Escape Room for Your Students

Have you ever considered creating an escape room that covers the skills or standards you have taught, but you didn't know where to start? These engaging scenario games make reviewing skills fun for students, but they seem so complex to create. The good news is that they do not have to be. I recently created a simplified version for my upper elementary students, and they absolutely loved it. In this post, I am showing you how to make an escape room that you can tailor specifically for your students.

Fun Subject and Predicate Activities for Upper Elementary

Subjects and predicates can be a complex concept for students to understand, especially when you throw in the terms complete subject, complete predicate, simple subjects and simple predicates. However, it's important that students understand that each sentence much have each of these parts to be considered a complete sentence. Using engaging subject and predicate activities can not only make the lessons fun, but they will help the students master these terms in no time.