My Fourth Grade Homework Routine

One of the most frequent comments/questions I get from my readers is about my homework routine.  

My thoughts and feelings on homework have evolved over the years. During the course of my career, I have done weekly homework, packets, and nightly homework.  There are many sides to the homework debate.  Many agree it isn't effective or beneficial, and some argue that does have merit. 

I fall somewhere in the middle. I believe that homework can promote responsibility and study habits.  I also believe that what if I'm asking my students to work hard at home, what I send home should have merit and should be beneficial. The text that you read below is an update (8/7/19) with my current homework routine. 

My students main responsibility for their homework is studying and preparing for our weekly spelling test.  To promote my students learning study skills/habits, I have my students take a pretest to know which words they will need to spend extra time with.  Our list is a district mandated list from our reading curriculum. 

For the first few weeks of school, I give the pretest in class.  The students then choose spelling activities from our monthly spelling contract to help them study.  You can find the monthly spelling contracts file {here}. 

Below is our classroom guideline for our spelling contract.

• 1-2 words missed- Earn five points 
• 3-5 words missed- Earn fifteen points 
• 6+ words missed- Complete a five point activity nightly/daily.

We also teach the students to use cover, copy, compare to give their own pretest, in case they aren't able to have someone at home to give him/her a pretest. I also utilize high school helpers for pretests as well. 

You can even implement this pretest idea in your classroom for word work! The number of words missed determines how many points your students will need to earn throughout the week.  The directions are editable, so can come up with a routine that best meets your classroom needs. 

Some weeks, but not all weeks, I may include a reading sheet. Typically these reading sheets practice our weekly skill.  Below is an example of a week that studied theme.  Most students received the "Amusement Park" passage, and my enrichment/gifted students received the "Getting Away With It" passage. 

I mainly include a passage here and there for for students to independently practice written responses, going back into the text for the answer, and to give parents a peek at what we are learning in class. 

Typically, homework goes home on Friday and is due the following Friday.  I also encourage my students to read at home, but do not require a reading log. The title of any books that they have read go on their 40 Book Challenge Log. 

This sums up my CURRENT homework routine, however, I have left the original post from 1/24/14 below, as many pins direct to this post... 

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My kiddos are expected to read 60 minutes a week.  Packets originally went home on Monday and were due Friday, so this was twenty minutes a night.  A lot of families wanted the spelling homework/words available so they could start studying over the weekend.  Packets now go home on Friday and are due the following Friday.  Some of my kids also work towards their reading minutes on the weekend too. Most of my kids LOVE reading so it's not uncommon to see reading log minutes in excess of one hundred or two hundred minutes. :) 

The next two pages have to do with their spelling homework.  I'm not in love with our spelling program but it comes with our basal and we are required to use it.  The kiddos earn ten points from my monthly spelling contracts each week and also complete a word sort page with their spelling words. 

The last two pages are response questions for their at home reading that week. 

My students choose four questions each week, they can't repeat questions, to answer on the recording page each week.   It's a great way to get even more practice responding to the texts they read! Currently, I use this file as a reading response activity in class.

I look over the homework on Friday afternoons before I head home.  It's worked out great because we don't loose any additional class checking homework together each day and the additional practice at home with our spelling words and reading have really benefited my students.  

If you are interested in the reading response sheet that I use with my students, I have added it to my Reading Response Questions for Practically any book freebie. 

I just gave the entire file a facelift! I originally blogged about how I use this resource {here}.  To download, just click on the image above or {here}. 


Happy weekend, friends! I'm off to cuddle with my puppies. It's so cold here in Ohio! 

Monthly Spelling Contracts

Last spring I shared how I organize spelling homework in my fourth grade classroom and was blown by just how much you loved the contracts I shared.  

These spelling contracts are one of the few things that has stuck around since my first year of teaching. Of course, their appearance has changed a lot, but the content has remained the same. 

The thing that my kiddos and their parents love about these contracts is the power of choice involved.  You can read about how I use these contracts in my classroom {here}. 

 I would give my kiddos a week to earn 15 points off this contract.  Many of my gifted kiddos chose the ten point activities, which take longer, allow a little bit more creativity, and more word application.  While many other students chose to earn their 15 points by completing three 5 point activities, which focus mainly on learning to spell their words in fun and engaging ways.  I would change the activities for both monthly and my students and their families really appreciated having different choices each month, it keeps spelling homework "fresh".

Many of you left comments or sent emails about how you used their for Word Work during your school day whether it be in centers, workstations, etc. and I thought that application was brilliant! Especially as I've been reading up on the Daily Five more and more this summer to prepare for implementing it in my classroom.  

I held myself and laptop hostage the past few days and finally cranked out the year long spelling contract bundle I've been promising you. 

The activities on each contract are different from the month before, and while some activities do repeat, I made sure to really space them out. 

The wonderful thing about these contracts is that they work with any list.  Obviously, I recommend these activities for third and up, but I've left spaces for you to determine how many points for your students to earn and left the phrasing on the contracts generic enough to work with any spelling list. I have also included options for each both that do/do not include Spelling City.  I understand that some of you use it or some of you work with populations of students that do not have internet access at home.  Here's a peak at the non Spelling City contract. 

 I have uploaded this file to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and you can access it via any of the images in this post or by clicking here.  

March Spelling Homework Freebie

Homework can be a tricky thing sometimes.  I try to make homework fun, engaging, and purposeful, especially since my school doesn't dismiss until 4:00 pm. I want my kiddos to be able to enjoy some family time as well! 

One of the ways I've tried to incoporate the fun element to homework is changing the activities my students complete monthly for spelling.  

  
I've used these contracts for five years and my kiddos have always enjoyed getting new activities to complete each month.  Each week my students have to earn fifteen points off the contract.  As you can see some activities are worth five and some are worth ten.  The ten point activities usually take a little longer and require a bit more critical thinking skills, for example writing acrostic poems or jingles for each word.  The five point activities are a bit shorter and focus more on just practicing the word's spelling.

I have found that switching out spelling activities monthly keeps my students more engaged in their spelling homework and they appreciate the element of choice they are given with their contracts.  

I have uploaded the contract above and this one below to my Google Drive to share with you.  

This spelling contract does not have the option for Spelling City.  I know not all teachers use it/nor does every child have computer access at home. 


I teach fourth grade, so the activities on these contracts, especially the ten point activities, are geared more for intermediate kiddos.  I hope you enjoy, if you download, I'd love to know what you think!

Click on any of the images above or {here} to access both contracts via Google Drive. 
  
I also have an entire bundle of spelling contracts for the entire year available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  The March contract is different in the bundled pack, in case you were wondering. :) My kiddos LOVE getting new spelling activities each month.  You can check out the year round bundle {here} or by clicking on the image below!

Thanks to Tales Outside the Classroom, Hello Literacy, Kimberly Geswein Fonts, and Krista Wallden for the fonts and clip art. 

Homework Linky Party

Homework is kinda a touchy subject for me.  You can read all about our history here.  However, I finally have found something that works for me! PTL. :)  So I was really excited to see that The Lesson Plan Diva was hosting a linky party about homework. 

Previously, our homework was due daily and it was an organizational nightmare.  I would forget to clean out the homework clothespin bin and would frantically be taking their homework out of their clothespins moments before the bell rang or have a kiddo do it.  It often got lost in the shuffle and I felt horrible because I was asking my kiddos and their families to give up a part of their family time to do homework and I wasn't reviewing like I should.   It was just too much paperwork coming to school for me. 

Now I do a packet and I love it.  I pass it out on Mondays and it's due on Friday.  No more frantic paper trail, at least not with homework at least. 


It all starts with the cover page.  Throughout this process change, I found the kids were cutting off to bottom to use the spelling list to complete the spelling activities sprinkled throughout the packet, so I've started to include an extra list for them to use when completing them.

My students must complete a math fact practice activity nightly, which was lacking in our previous homework routine, and it's working! Our scores are going up and up! This is my addition contract, they do addition on Mondays and Wednesdays and subtraction on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

On Tuesdays, they do some type of comprehension activity with our weekly story, usually with our focus skill, but this week they are doing some comprehension questions since the skill for this week is really hard to practice again at home, making predictions.  

I also use two pages from Courtney's awesome packs of morning work as well.  Here's the link to the one I used for this weeks story.  Thanks for making these, Courtney! You're amazing. :)


For math, I usually copy pages from Today's Math, which is the home link connection for our math program.  I like it a lot better than the math that was on the homework I used to use, which was created by the teachers on my grade level team.  Sometimes I'll make up an activity to include in my packet if I can't find something I like from Today's Math, such as this:

Overall, the packet has been a great addition to my classroom!  I've noticed a difference in our math scores and it's been much easier to manage than the nightly homework.  To make it a bit more user friendly, I type/write the day they are to complete the pages on the top of the papers, to help them stay organized and they are all in order in the packet as well, which has been a big help for the kids and parents.  


What does homework look like in your room?  Link up and share!

Let's Talk Homework

Can we talk about homework for a minute?  When I taught third grade, I had a routine that I loved.  Reading logs went home on Monday, were due the next Monday.  Spelling Contracts were sent home on Monday and were turned in a Fridays.  Math Fact Contracts went home on Tuesday and were due the next Tuesday.  I sprinkled math concept homework when needed and it worked. 

When I changed grade levels/schools, I had to say goodbye to my homework routine.  It was a sad, sad day.  My grade level had been doing nightly homework for years and wanted me to do the same.  It had a little bit of reading and a little bit of math and it was just and I was never a big, big fan. I liked  the fact we split up the homework load, and that I was only responsible for making our weekly homework every few weeks.  However, I got a lot of feedback from the kids and their families that it was a bit boring.  After reviewing the data from our fact fluency assessments, and seeing so many of my students below benchmark.  I knew we needed a change.  So change it up I did. 

My kids were in need of math fact practice and spelling practice, as previously spelling homework wasn't required.  So I tried to spring that in our new homework packet.  I got the template from the Abby's  TpT store, it's a free download, so check it out! :) 

 

I'm still playing around with my the routine, but I've cut back on having my kids read our weekly story three times a week.  They literally groaned on our second day of studying the story in class because they had read it so many times.  

I've also assigned nightly fact practice via the old math contract my third graders used.  Why mess with what works?  My third graders loved it and it made a big difference in their fluency scores.  So far, my second graders have really enjoyed it.  Win. :)

I'm planning to cutesy it up for you all and offer it as a download for ya'll.  It's a word document and it's a bear to change if I want to swap out some activities.  I made this before my obsession with Powerpoint.  Powerpoint, I love you. :)  My kids do two addition activities a week and two subtraction activities.   I'm still working on the math activities they do in addition to this, because I do feel that concept practice is important but I think doing something every night in addition to their fact contract is a bit excessive.  Most of the time, I'll have the kids complete a workbook page from our math program but I do know they will be doing this at one point this week to practice missing addends. 

Since my kids haven't been studying their spelling words like they should, I'm sprinkling these two activities throughout the week as well.  

 

On the night they do read our weekly story,  I plan on having the kids do more of a graphic organizer activity.  This is what we'll be doing this week.  

What are your thoughts on homework?  How does homework look like in your room?  I love for ya'll to share/link up your homework routines.    

So far the change has been positive and the only negative feedback I received was from a parent that I think honestly I'll never be able to please, so I'm just going to call it a positive change.  :)