Fabulous Feedback Link Up and Teacher Appreciation Sale

Are you guys SO excited for Tuesday and Wednesday? I know I am because it's TpT's Teacher Appreciation Sale! TpT is taking an additional 10% off any stores' sale price.  My store will be 20% off.  Click here or on the sales graphic below to check out my store.

Thanks so much much to the sweet Beth of Zip A Dee Do Dah Designs for the adorable graphic.

Some of my favorite teacher blogging friends are joining forces for a super fun link up highlighting some of our favorite products, with a twist! :) 

 
Click on the image above to check out the Fabulous Feedback posts from some of my dear blogging buddies! 
 
We are highlighting some of our favorite products with a special twist.  Below are images for three of my favorite products and some of the fabulous feedback that I have received from my fabulous customers.  Guess what? If I highlighted your feedback, you get a FREE item of your choosing from my TPT store, just email me at lisa@fourthnten.com if I did, I just ask that you be honest. :) 

One of my favorite products is my Fabulous Back to School Fun pack.  Although this school year isn't quite over, my mind has been thinking a little bit about next year too! I love, love, love building community with my students at the beginning of the year and getting to know my students before the pressure of the curriculum starts. :) 

 
Click on the link or picture above to check it out on TpT. :) 

One of my goals as a teacher this year was to improve my students' fluency.  Many of my students were far below grade level in fluency this year, so we've played lots and lots of fluency games but Straight A's is probably my kiddos' favorite. They love the dog ate your homework cards, they always make them giggle.  

Click on the link or picture above to check it out on TpT. 

Another favorite product of mine is my end of the year memory books. :)  I have them for second, third, and fourth grade.  Last year my second graders loved filling them out and they were the perfect way to fill some of those awkward empty spaces during the end of the year.  Plus it makes a great memento of your class' year together.

Click on the links above or here, second, third, and fourth, to check them out on TpT. 
 

Also, lots of you have asked for school themed roll and covers, and I am happy to say they are available! :) Click on the link or picture below to check them out on TpT.

 

Check all my fabulous friends' posts below and see if your fabulous feedback made you a winner! :) 

  

Pass the Tardy Sauce...Five on Friday on a Sunday

So every week, I have great intentions of joining up for Five for Friday and well then Friday slips away from me. I'm sure falling asleep on the world's most comfortable coach at 8:00 doesn't help. ;) I'm serious, I have the world's most comfortable couch. I fall asleep on it pretty much every night and head up to my bed at about 2:00 in the morning. 

 
So let's get started! :)

ONE: We changed seats this week.  PTL. :)  We do A LOT of cooperative learning in my class and my kiddos are always talking and working together.  Which is great but after a few weeks, the bickering starts, which lets me know it's time for a change. :) Since I don't want to change seats again before the end of the year, we did lots of talking about what we wanted from our group members and each group made little promises to each other that I hung up in the room. 

  

 

They've been great for solving little bickering that has come up.  "Do you remember that you said you would be _________ blank?" was all I had to say and it stopped. #magic :)

TWO:  We went on our field trip to Great American Ballpark, home of the Cincinnati Reds, and had a great time on Thursday!

 

We had a great time touring the stadium and creating our own baseball teams.  Each group of students was given a budget and they had to create the best team they could.  Then we toured the Reds' Hall of Fame and Museum.  I have lots of baseball fans in my room and we all had a great time!

THREE: The weather has been super nice lately.  So my yard and grill has been getting lots of attention. :) 
 

FOUR: We started our Mother's Day Cookbook project last week.  I have to say this years' class is a huge fan of spaghetti and brownies!  It's always fun to put these cookbooks together because usually some kind of theme unfolds. One year it was very appetizer heavy and then next pretty much every recipe was sometime of sweet! You can check this project out on TpT {here}.

FIVE: Fourth and Ten is now on Instagram! I have had a personal Instagram for a few years now and LOVE it. :)  So I'm excited to be have one for the blog as well. :) 

 

 Click {here} to follow Fourth and Ten!

Have a great week! 

Mother's Day Cookbook Project

I don't know about you, but May is a crazy time in my classroom.  Personally, my class has four field trips and a handful of all day events that take us out of our classroom.  So, sadly sometimes Mother's Day gifts are really rushed and well not that great.  

My first year in third grade, I decided to have my kids make a cookbook and we've done it ever since.  The kiddos and moms in my class love them! What I love about this project, is that it is meaningful BUT doesn't take a ton of class time to complete. 

To make our cookbooks, I send home a recipe card and letter home with each of my kiddos asking their mom to write out the recipe for their child's favorite dish.  I try to be very mindful during this process and have two letters that I send home.  I use different clip art to keep them straight.  One goes home to the kiddos that are having mom fill out their card and one for those who are having stepmom, grandma, aunt, dad, etc. 

Then, once all the cards are turned in, we spend a class period or two filling out a page that goes on the back. 

Now, I could be super picky about this page, but I'm not.  I have my kiddos write their responses in pencil first, I do a quick check, and then have them write their copy to be included in the cookbook in pen.  I always LOVE reading what the kids write.  Previously, I had my kids write how to make their mom's recipe too, and well I got way more compliments about this version, and the kids like this page so much better!

After the kiddos have finished their page, I run it with their mom's recipe on my copier 1-2 sided with their mom's recipe on top.  Once I have double sided copies of the mom and kid's recipe card, I attach the cover and make enough for my class.  I have included an editable cover page for you in the file. I let my kiddos color theirs. 

   
The moms and kids in my class love this project.  Not only do they get to read some sweet nothings written by their kiddos, they get a yummy collection of new recipes! :)  One year, a student in my class and his mom made EVERY recipe in the cookbook.  It was so fun to get his emails that summer with his little reviews. :)  I also have my mom submit a recipe and my kids get a kick out of it!  

If you are interested in creating our Mother's Day Cookbooks, click {here} or on any of the pictures is this post to check it out on TpT!

Paper Saving Memory Books

Friends, the end is near.  We are on letter F of our ABC Countdown tomorrow.  Letter F....where has all the time gone?  Since the end of the year is quickly approaching, I decided to freshen up my end of the year memory books.

I always love doing memory books with my class, but the one I usually used required way too much paper.  There is a lot less paper to go around these days at my little school.  I might even have to take in a ream or two of paper from home to get through the year!So, I decided to go green this year and make little memory books, so I could get two pages for each book on a page.  I love using little books in my classroom for math and vocabulary, so I know my kiddos will love these. I teach at a Title One school, so a lot of my kiddos aren't able to purchase yearbooks, and I love being able to send home a little keepsake of memories with them.   Of course, they are the most excited about the autograph pages. :) Especially if I let them use markers. 

Since I have taught second, third, and fourth grades, I have memory books for all three!

If you're interested, all three of these memory books are available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  

During My Days in Second Grade

Teachers Pay Teachers

During my Days in Third Grade

Teachers Pay Teachers

During my Days in Fourth Grade
Teachers Pay Teachers 

Testing Treat Freebies and a Flash Sale

On Tuesday, my little sweeties start our state testing. On Tuesday, they will take the reading test and on Thursday, they will take the math test.   

Typically, I always put something out of my kiddos desk the morning of testing.  I try to make this not sugary candy related.  Our student council gives each kiddo that is testing some candy with a little motivational note but I pass those out the day before we take the tests, I tell them that they are smart candies and they have to eat the them the night before the test. :) 

Usually, the first day of testing they get a brand new pencil. 

    
Then on Wednesday, I put a few peppermints on their desks. My English teacher in high school always gave us peppermints before big tests to help calm our nerves.  So I do the same with my sweet friends. :)

 

I have uploaded both of these little notes to Google Drive for you.  Just click {here} to download the file.  If you download, I'd love it if you leave a comment, follow my blog, OR like my Facebook page. :) 

I copied our fourth grade ABC countdown on Friday night before I left school to pass out tomorrow.  Our countdown starts on Tuesday and our last twenty-six days will be busy! Our last few weeks are filled with field trips, a visit to the school my babes will be attending next year, award ceremonies, a poetry tea, a DARE community service project, book clubs, our fourth grade party, AND field day.  

I'm thinking about starting our memory books tomorrow just to fit them in! :) I know many of you are in the same boat, so my end of the year items pictured below are 15% off until tomorrow at midnight.  Click {here} to check out all my end of the year goodies on TpT! :)

 

We are doing lots of cooperative learning/team review tomorrow in ELA to review and have some fun before the test, so I guess I better go get that finished! Have a great night! :)

 

Five for Friday Time and an Annoucement!

Woohoo! So excited it's Friday and to link up with Kaci! :)

 

1) Next week, I'll be participating in interviews.  I've been waiting to tell y'all some big news, now that it's official, I can!  Next year, my little school will be adding an extra class to my grade level, so I will no longer be self contained.  While parts of me are sad, I do love getting to know my kids really well and the community that develops throughout the year in a self contained classroom. However, I'm really excited to focus on one area and teach it well. 

So, what will I be teaching? 

   

I will really, really, really miss teaching math BUT teaching reading is my passion and I just couldn't deny that. :)  Since I LOVE creating math materials, I still plan on sharing and creating some math goodies for y'all...just not as often. :)

2) We are still loving our fluency tubs but I've implemented a change in the fast few weeks.   Mainly, switching our fourth tub to task cards on skills I feel we need extra work on, which has been great so close to our state assessments. I own a lot of task cards, so this change has been quite easy for me. :)  This week, we worked on Rachel's Context Clue Task Cards.  The kids have responded really well to this change and have really benefit from the extra practice.  I check them right away and am able to clarify any misconceptions immediately!

 3) Blank Walls

We take our state tests in reading and math next week, so I spent some time after school "OAAing" my room.  My focus wall looks so lonely with the one rogue fourth quarter book report that was turned in early this week.  

4) Our school mascot is stars, so I took that theme and ran with it this week as we did our final surge of test prep.  My kiddos loved it. :)  I don't think anybody enjoys test prep, but it doesn't have to be ugly! We made these stars today as fun final way to remind ourselves of good testing strategies and I customized a Walk of Fame Star for our themed online and hung it up outside our room.  They really loved this extra touch!

  

5) Crafty Test Prep 

We need a little bit of extra reinforcement on some important terms that will appear on the vocabulary section of our state test, so I tried to do some crafts to make the topics stick.  The anchor charts aren't pretty BUT my kiddos really did enjoy these activities and I think served their purpose quite well!

The cinammon rolls were inspired by the sweet Cara at The First Grade Parade.  For the antonyms activity, I just used some flip flop clip art I had and had them list pairs of antonyms on the flip flops.  We also did my friend Jen's Rainbow of Similes, I just forgot to take a picture of them!

I'm off to enjoy House Hunters!  :)  HAPPY FRIDAY! 

April Spelling Contract

Hey friends! Sorry this is a little late for some of you but we just had our first day of school in April today. :)  I'm exhausted but I did want to share April's spelling contract with you.  I am hard at work on a year round file to share with you soon in my little TpT store. 

 Two contracts available because I know that not everyone uses Spelling City. :) Just click on the pics or {here} to download a copy.   If you download, I'd love it if you followed my blog or my blog's Facebook page!