Author: Jessica Boschen

Jessica shares her passion for teaching and education on What I Have Learned. Jessica has 16 years of elementary teaching experience and currently homeschools her two middle school boys. She enjoys scaffolding learning for students, focusing on helping our most challenging learners achieve success in all academic areas.

Reading

Literacy Centers vs Daily 5: Which Works Best for Small Group Instruction?

If you’ve ever tried to run small groups while the rest of your class is supposed to be “working independently,” you already know the truth. It’s never as quiet or…

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Math

Things That Come in Groups: 100+ Examples from 2s to 12s

Things that come in groups is a great way to introduce multiplication to elementary students. Brainstorm objects that come in 2s, 3s, 4s, etc. Then show students how these groups relate to multiplication when there are multiple groups. #multiplication #thingsingroups #equalgroups

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Math

Teaching Multiplication Arrays in 2nd Grade: A Hands-On Flower Pot Activity

Arrays are one of the most important conceptual models for introducing multiplication in second grade. When students can see 3 rows of 4 flower pots and connect that image to…

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Math

Candy Box Arrays: A Hands-On Multiplication Activity for 2nd and 3rd Grade

When students first encounter multiplication, they need more than a number sentence on the board. They need to see equal groups organized into rows and columns—and they need a reason…

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Math

Balance Equations – Hands-On Equalities Sorting Activity with Snowflakes and Hearts

Understanding the meaning of the equal sign can be challenging for most first-grade students. They often think it simply signifies the answer, with the left side presenting an expression and…

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Classroom Management

Free Small Group Rotation Template for Classroom Centers

Get a FREE Center Rotation Sequence that groups students heterogeneously. No student has the same rotation as another student. This is a fun way to easily group a whole class of students for special events and holidays.

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Social Studies

Teaching Landforms in 2nd Grade: Activities, Crafts, and Resources

Second grade teachers typically encounter landforms 2nd grade content in two places: social studies, when students learn to read and label physical maps, and science, when students study how wind…

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Instructional Strategies

Make a Small Booklet Out of a Piece of Paper

Want to learn a fun way to fold a booklet for students? I taught my students how to fold this little booklet to record the results of a multiplication game….

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Writing | Winter

Write about Reindeer – Caribou Informational Writing Activity for Elementary Students

Holidays are a great time to infuse informational writing into your reading and writing curriculum. Students get to learn about animals from around the world and learn to write informational paragraphs…

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Math

Fraction Go Fish Game for 2nd and 3rd Grade

Teaching fractions can feel like one of the trickier units of the year. Students need to recognize fractions in multiple ways, as numbers, as parts of a whole, and as…

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Writing | English Learners

How to use a Grammar Wall in Elementary Classrooms

As I worked through grammar and spelling activities with my students, I noticed they kept forgetting the names of grammar terms like apostrophes, contractions, and compound words. These are genuinely…

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Writing | Differentiation | English Learners | Social Studies

How to Teach Compare and Contrast Text Structure in Social Studies Using Urban and Rural Areas – Scaffolded Writing Task for English Learners

Scaffold student writing in the content areas by providing them with word lists, a way to organize the words and sentence frames. Find out how I help my English learners and struggling writers to organize their thoughts when comparing and contrasting urban and rural environments.

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