George Lucas Educational Foundation

3-5 Upper Elementary

Explore and share tips, strategies, and resources for helping students develop in elementary school grades 3-5.

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  • How to Provide Cost-Effective Sensory Spaces for Students

    School counselors can offer teachers a variety of tools to use in their classrooms that support students’ mental health.
    Sheila Garth
  • Exploring Writing, Social Studies, and Math in a Map Challenge

    Encouraging students to bring their creativity and imagination to challenging content makes it more accessible—and helps them learn it more deeply.
  • Assigning More Meaningful Math Homework

    A small set of problems or even one substantial problem can be enough to supplement classroom instruction.
    1
  • Exploring Before Explaining Sparks Learning

    New elementary science teachers can build student engagement and enhance learning by using the explore-before-explain approach.
  • The Benefits of Using Choice Boards in Math

    How math choice boards can enable new elementary teachers to meet the needs of their individual learners while employing mathematical rigor.
  • A Framework for Building Older Students’ Literacy Skills

    Encouraging middle school students to read books of all genres and reading levels can reignite their interest in reading.
  • The Sensory Room: Helping Students With Autism Focus and Learn

    Imagine a safe space where students with autism can go to calm their bodies and then get back to the business of learning.
    1M
  • Incorporating the Calming Corner Into Station Rotation

    Elementary students benefit from opportunities to take a break from academic learning and explore activities that support their emotional development.
    2
    1.5k
  • How to Use Universal Design for Learning to Create Assessments

    Providing elementary students with multiple means of action and expression helps ensure that teachers create equitable, valid assessments.
    2
    136
  • Activating Learning by Milling to Music

    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.
    14.9k
  • Making Students Feel Safe

    A trauma-informed approach ensures that students feel safe, supported, and nurtured—to improve their chances of academic success. 
    129.6k
  • How Poetry Supports Emotional Intelligence

    Teaching poetry can be an effective way to encourage students to thoughtfully consider their experiences and build connections with their peers.
    1
    429
  • Illustration concept showing reading comprehension

    Is it Time to Drop ‘Finding the Main Idea’ and Teach Reading in a New Way?

    Some schools are changing the way they teach reading—based on research that shows background knowledge is more critical to comprehension than general skills like ‘finding the main idea.’
    54.8k
  • Adapting Chalk Talks to Promote Student Engagement

    A teacher describes how he modifies a thinking routine developed by Harvard’s Project Zero to keep it from becoming too routine.
    8
    954
  • A Daily Support System for Students

    Students who need extra social and emotional support have a quick check-in with an adult at the start and end of each day.
    89.9k

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George Lucas Educational Foundation

Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.
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