3-5 Upper Elementary

Inquisitive hooks, or activities designed to spark students’ curiosity, make the start of a new lesson fun, boosting their motivation to learn.

New elementary science teachers can build student engagement and enhance learning by using the explore-before-explain approach.

How math choice boards can enable new elementary teachers to meet the needs of their individual learners while employing mathematical rigor.

Encouraging middle school students to read books of all genres and reading levels can reignite their interest in reading.

When students pretend they’re at a fancy party making small talk, a simple brainstorm for writing ideas becomes more lively, more cooperative—and more effective.

When students need to get their wiggles out so they can settle down to learn, this simple movement-based brain break does the trick.

When students explore new words through movement, they understand them better, retain them longer, and feel more empowered to use them.

With these examples for grades 1 to 5, students can develop social and emotional skills while they learn to analyze data through graphing.

At a primary school in the UK, both students and teachers have become more engaged and curious as a result of a shift to a fully play-based approach—and learning has become more joyful for everyone.

Many students struggle with these skills, which are tied to academic success. Here are a few ways to teach them explicitly.

Sometimes mixing in formative assessments that go a step beyond exit slips and low-stakes quizzes can inject some fun—and creativity—into learning.