teaching fifth grade

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teaching fifth grade
By Carolyn

I teach fifth grade. I had also been down in the lower grades before I came up. It is a bit different up here.

You will need to ask that your fifth graders obtain materials which will help you help them with instruction.
Start by asking them for these items: three-ring binder for keeping loose papers, along with dividers to keep things in order by subject level; some wire-bound notebooks, one of which can be used, for example, for daily journal writing; some folders, one of which should be a take-home folder for homework so that they will leave their three-ring binder at school; a plastic three-hole

pencil pouch for their three-ring binder; some zip-lock bags to keep on their desk for crayons, erasers, colored pencils, etc.

You may also want to go to the teacher supply store to obtain some fifth grade materials, such as a cursive alphabet wall display. Protractors and other routine school stuff is cheaper at the discount stores like K-Mart and WalMart. I would look for some basics, such as the Teacher's Mailbox for the Intermediate grades at the teacher supply store. They are full of ideas for math, writing, and other subject areas. I bought several books this past year which had day-by-day journal topics, writing ideas by type (one for persuasive, one for descriptive writing, etc.).

You will enjoy the independence of the older kids. They are fairly big kids, but still little kids at heart, many of them. You will find some who are too "old" for their years. You can rely upon the older kids to do certain tasks for you, much more so than you can with the little kids. They can put up and take down bulletin board displays for you, for example. Many of them do seem to want to take on various types of responsibilities, and this is a good opportunity for them to do so.

Please feel free to e-mail me if you need some other specific ideas or suggestions.