Sunday, October 28, 2012

Trick or Treat SALE!

This post is short and sweet friends.  I don't have much to share from this week.  We did IOWA and CoGat tests all week.  So pretty much we spent way too much time coloring in bubbles on test booklets.  

We had our Fall Party on Friday afternoon, which was a great stress reliever for my kiddos! I survived being party planner extraordinaire, so I'm celebrating with a sale today and tomorrow in at my Teachers Pay Teachers store!


Next week, we are going to be using my BooHaHa Halloween Math Centers during math intervention time.

We are also going to continue reading Halloween books from the library and using my Halloween graphic oganizers to respond to the text. 

Of course, we'll manage to play a couple games of Trick or Treat as well. :) It's a FAVORITE of my kiddos. 

Next week, we are going to be starting a chapter book study of Bunniculua and if I get my act together, a  Halloween move about on the actual day of.  We did a Skittles math review that I usually use before testing on Friday before my party, and they loved it!  

Just click on the cheerleader below to head straight to my Teachers Pay Teachers store or the individual pictures themselves to check out the products highlighted on this post!



Happy Sunday! I'm hoping to have a relaxing and productive day!  I'm head to Target to pick up the supplies necessary to make these for my kiddos today! I have a sweet, sweet grandma who volunteers in my classroom on Mondays and she is kind enough to put them together for me! 

I'll also include a little homework pass for them too. :) What are you giving your students for Halloween? :)

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Trick or Treat: Sight Word Fun for Bigger Kids

Once upon a time, I was a student teacher in first grade.  I loved every minute of it.  I think if I ever went down to the lower elementary grades, first would be it.  I worked with an amazing mentor teacher, and still use a lot of the tips and tricks she taught me in my room today.  :)  

One of many things I picked up from my days in Room 604 was was a Halloween themed sight word game we played with our first graders with their Kindergarten inventory words, Trick or Treat. 


All of their kindergarten sight words, or as our district calls them inventory words, were put in a pumpkin with a handful of trick or treat cards.  As students play, they grab a card from the pumpkin, if they can read it, they get to keep it.  BUT if they get a trick or treat card, they either get a chance for more cards (treat) or loose cards to the pumpkin or another classmate (trick).  The student with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner. :) 


My fourth graders this year have some pretty low fluency scores, so I've been purchasing/creating resources to use during our ELA intervention block (about ten-fifteen minutes) to use with my class.  So I created a bigger kids version of the game my firsties loved so much when I was a student teacher. 

We played a few rounds as a whole class the past few days and my fourth graders LOVED it.  They are so pumped to play in small groups during our ELA intervention time over the next few weeks.  Especially the treat cards, they loved collecting as many cards as they could. :) 

We've been working with the 4th One Hundred Fry Words, but this resource includes games pieces for the 3rd and 5th One Hundred Fry Words as well.  If you're interested, I have added Trick or Trick {Fry Word Game for Bigger Kids} to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  It's on sale until midnight tomorrow, 10/18. :) Just click on the cheerleader to check it out! :)


I've also had a couple people email about how I store my Halloween Themed Graphic Organizers that I blogged about a few weeks ago.  I just put them in a binder like so. 
 Then I put the binder in the tub I keep my seasonal books in for easy access.  My kiddos having been loving the extra practice with various comprehension strategies and story elements, and I have too. :)
 We also started our Boo Ha Ha center rotation today! So grateful for the sweet grandma of one of my kiddos who assembles all my centers for me! :)

I hope you are having a great night friends! :) The weekend is in sight! :)

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

What Works for Me Wednesday: Pumpkin Present Freebies



Last year, I discovered probably one of my favorite behavior managements tricks on one of my favorite blogs, What the Teacher Wants, The Pumpkin Present.  It really helped my second graders behavior throughout the month of October when all they wanted to do was think about and talk about pumpkins, costumes, and candy. :)


Such a simple but powerful concept, moving a pumpkin/other object around the room to the desks of kiddos making good choices.  Whoever has the pumpkin on their desk at the end of the day gets a special reward/treat.  It's so motivating, even with my fourth graders.  They love it and it's been a positive addition to our classroom. 

The Pumpkin Present is not something I like to use every day, because well then the novelty wears off, but I use it if I need to get them under control quickly and our typically quiet signals/routines just aren't working. I just pull our pumpkin present and start passing it around. :) 


 
I somehow lost my pumpkin when I moved classrooms last year.  So I picked up this adorable little Peanuts cup at Target.  I put one of the following coupons in the bottom each morning.  My kids are so pumped to find what is inside at the end of the day! 

I checked with Rachelle and she gave the go ahead to share these freebies with you.  Click here {here} to access them from Google Drive. :)  I hope that you can find them useful. :) 

Happy Wednesday! 



Monday, October 8, 2012

Government Freebies

We've moved on from matter to government in our social studies/science block of our day. Social Studies was always one of my favorite subjects in school, so it's something I really enjoy teaching.  With our new Ohio standards, we are really focusing on the purpose of the Constitution and the branches of government with our new model curriculum.  I used a few pieces of my sweet friend Amanda's We the People Constitution Unit on Constitution Day and I'm so excited to use the rest this upcoming week. :)

I created some supplemental materials to use with my kiddos this week and thought I'd share them with you. :) 

A flip book for your students to record their notes for the three branches of government.  I've included a sheet of lined paper in the download for your students to record their notes on.  To use, just simply run the flip book cover and the lined paper 1-1 sided on you copier and use the two staple on the side feature if your stapler offers it.  If not, just staple twice on the side. :) I love flip books, they're perfect for introducing note taking to my fourth graders. 
 Our new standards also has students determine ways they can be responsible citizens, so I created this reflection sheet to use with my kiddos.  

I hope that one or either of these freebies can be useful to you.  If you would like to download them, I have uploaded them both to Google Drive.   Just click on either of freebie images or {here} to download. 

I have already shared these documents with you, so there is no need to request that I do once you are in Google Drive.  My bloggy pal Courtney has a great tutorial {here} for downloading documents from Google Drive.

I hope each of you had a great Monday! If you are able to use one of these freebies, I'd love if you followed my blog or left me a comment below! :) Have a great evening!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Boo Ha Ha {Halloween Math Centers for Older Kids}

We started math centers this week in my classroom.  We are currently working through my Back to School Math Centers


We have a daily math intervention class that I refer to with my kiddos as bonus math time.  I struggled last year with how to set up this time, but I think now we have a plan that works.  On Monday and Friday, I intervene with my whole class on current topics of study.  Right now, it's subtraction with regrouping. Our math program, Investigations, doesn't formally introduce the formal algorithm and so my kiddos really need a lot of extra practice with it.  We are finally getting it with three digits...and we are working on four digits next week. *Fingers crossed and prayers please* :)

On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, some of my kiddos receive intensive number sense interventions in another room, and I work with the rest of my class.  I use this time for reteaching on skills from previous lessons/units that some of my kiddos didn't master.  Last week, it was rounding larger numbers.  We used a lot of materials from my friend Layla's Halloween Number Sense Review Packet.  My kiddos loved all the Halloween themed number sense practice! :)



 Even though I had a good chunk of students who really needed extra practice and review on rounding, I had a cluster of kiddos who clearly mastered the skill, so they worked on centers during our bonus math time.  They loved it and so did I. :)  They're independent enough to read the directions and set up with little help from me, allowing me to really work with my friends who needed extra instruction on some more difficult place value concepts. 

My kiddos loved doing centers last week and more are eager to join in on the center fun next week.  We'll still be doing my Back to School Math Centers for another few weeks.  Then we'll be moving on to some Halloween math center fun! 
I know my kiddos will love these centers.  They adore anything having to do with Halloween. :)

These centers review rounding larger numbers, comparing numbers to the millions place, subtraction with regrouping practice, finding multiples of a given factor, and figuring out the missing factor in a multiplication equation.  

I have uploaded Boo! Ha Ha{Halloween Math Centers for Bigger Kids} to my TpT store.  They will be on sale until tomorrow night. :) Click on the cheerleader below to check them out! I'll be uploading them to Teachers Notebook tomorrow night.
 My Buckeyes beat the Huskers last night, so I'm a happy, happy girl! :) Here's hoping the Steelers win today too for the hubs. :) 

Since my Buckeye won, I'll be giving away a set of my Boo Ha Ha centers to the first person who correctly guesses my favorite fall baked good. :)

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Currently October


Say what? It's time for Currently October already? I'm excited though, because I love getting to know more about my favorite teacher blogging pals. :) Plus it's the perfect excuse to postpone my huge pile of to dos in my teacher bag.  Our lesson plan binders are being reviewed tomorrow and I've got some tidying up to do. :)



I love how Farley added a book section to this month's currently.  Obviously, I LOVE seasonal literature.  You can read how I use seasonal books to motivate my kiddos here.  I have lots of seasonal books, but I'm pretty certain this is my favorite. 


I have a love/hate relationship with Dav Pilkey.  Love that he motivates my boys to read.  Hate that he's the only author they want to read.  Anyways, I just love this book and it's sweet story. :)

Head over to Farley's blog to link up/read all about what your favorite teacher bloggers are up to! :) Thanks so much, Farley!
Oh' boy fourth grade
 
TGI almost Friday! :) I am so excited for a weekend of football.  My district's homecoming is tomorrow, and well these boys play on Saturday. 
Source: via Lisa on Pinterest

I'm not ashamed to admit this, I have a total girl crush on Urban Meyer. :) Go Bucks! :)

Have a great night, friends! 

Monday, October 1, 2012

Matter Vocabulary Booklet Freebie

Hi Friends! 

For the past few weeks we've been studying matter.  We  have had lots of fun learning all about the properties of matter and have been keeping track of all our important definitions in our little matter vocabulary books. 

 I love using mini books and they are so easy to make! All you need to do is just run through your copier 1-2 sided.  Our machine has an option to staple in two locations, top and bottom, then I cut them in half with a paper cutter.  The nice thing about these mini books are you can easily adapt this to your class, just pick and choose from the vocabulary words to create a book that fits your needs! :)

We use organizational binders in fourth grade, so all their folders go home with them each day.  So I've been asking them to review their vocabulary each night for homework.  Hopefully their studying pays off, we test on Wednesday! 

Do you want a copy of your own?  Just click on the picture below to download a copy of your own! :)

Or just click {here} to download the mini book from Google Drive! There is also no need to ask me to share this with you in Google Drive, it is yours to download, just click on File and then Download to save.  

We've been using lots of activities from my dear friend Nicole's matter unit and we have loved all of them!
If you need a matter unit for older kids, I highly recommend it! Click on the image or {here} to purchase it!

Also, congrats to Karyn, you were the first person to correctly guess my favorite Halloween candy, candy corn! Actually my favorite is candy pumpkins, but nobody guessed that! Your copy is on your way as soon as I hit publish. :) I'm also giving away a copy as part of Jen's Ghostly Good Giveaway! Click {here} to check out this awesome giveaway she has organized! :)

If you downloaded the matter vocabulary book, I'd love to hear about it! :)
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