A Smarter Balanced (CAASPP / SBAC) 5th grade ELA practice test workbook for teachers, with a pretest, skill practice for all 24 standards, mixed review and 2 full-length practice tests. Answer key included, so test prep is ready to go.
This group reading activities worksheet helps 2nd grade teachers record how each student asks, answers, shares, and listens during a small reading group, with lines to log the text and genre.
This nonfiction fishin' activity gives 3rd-5th Grade readers six graphic organizers for different kinds of nonfiction text, a model article and practice, with an answer key included.
Track nonfiction reading with this reading informational texts worksheet for 5th grade. Students log history, science and technical texts, recommend their favorites and rate each one with stars.
This Reading Prose and Poetry Worksheet gives 5th grade readers a reading log for recording titles and authors, naming each form and rating every piece they read on their own.
Using Reading Informational Texts Book Review Activity, students read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts.
This what have you read this year activity helps 2nd-5th grade students track genres, review each book they finish and choose their top three favorite books of the year.
Using this Three Amigos Poetry Drama Prose Activity, students sort the word cards by genre (prose, poetry, and drama). Use the sorted cards to label and fill out a Venn Diagram.
Find your next favorite kind of book
Fifth graders learn to tell genres apart by how they work, not just what they are about. They compare prose, poetry and drama: stanzas and lines, acts and scenes, stage directions and dialogue. They sort fiction into types like realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction and mystery, and they read informational text, biography and autobiography too. They notice that genre changes how you read: a mystery makes you hunt for clues, a biography makes you track a life. The click comes when a student picks a book and says, "I'm in a historical fiction mood."
Fifth graders are ready to read like critics. These moves get them noticing how each genre is built.
Give small groups one short piece of each and a chart with three columns. They list what they see: stanzas, stage directions, paragraphs. Then hand them a mystery piece and see if they can name it from the features alone.
Why it works: the U.S. Department of Education's guide for teaching elementary math recommends moving from hands-on objects to drawings to numbers.
Try it withThree Amigos Poetry Drama Prose ActivityActivitiesOpen it →Mix nonfiction and fiction excerpts in a bucket and let kids "fish" one out. They read it and prove which it is with one clue from the text. Quick, active, and great for a review day.
Why it works: in a well-known study, a few short sessions of a simple number board game measurably boosted young children's number skills (Ramani and Siegler, 2008).
Try it withNonfiction Fishin' ActivityActivitiesOpen it →Pair a poem and a prose passage on the same topic, like a storm. Kids read both and answer: What did the poem do that the story couldn't? Mixing genres side by side makes the differences pop.
Why it works: shuffled practice teaches kids to choose the right strategy, not just repeat one, and it improved test scores in research (Rohrer and Taylor, 2007).
Try it withReading Prose and Poetry WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Get kids reading wider, and talking about it.
ActivitiesKids log every book they have read this year by genre, then spot the genre they haven't tried yet.
Open What Have You Read This Year Activity →
ActivitiesWrite a quick review of an informational book: stars, best fact, who should read it.
Open Reading Informational Texts Book Review Activity →
WorksheetsSmall groups read the same genre and share what makes it special with the class.
Open Group Reading Activities Worksheet →Teacher favorites right now: Smarter Balanced (CAASPP / SBAC) 5th Grade ELA Practice Test Workbook, Group Reading Activities Worksheet and Nonfiction Fishin' Activity.
Fifth graders study prose, poetry and drama, plus fiction genres like realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction and mystery. Nonfiction genres include informational text, biography and autobiography.
Prose is written in sentences and paragraphs, like most stories. Poetry is written in lines and stanzas and often uses rhythm or rhyme. Drama is written to be performed, with characters, dialogue, scenes and stage directions.
Each genre sets up what to expect, so it changes how you read. Knowing the genre helps kids predict, look for the right clues, and understand the author's purpose.
Try a genre challenge: one book from each of five genres before summer. Let them pick the titles, and talk about which genre surprised them. Audiobooks count too.
Loved by 2 million teachers & families
Printables, songs and games for every subject, Preschool through 6th. Ready to teach today, and kids beg for more.
