Trick or Treat Sale and Halloween fun for the Bigger Kids

Happy Sunday, Friends! I just wanted to stop by the ole blog and little you know I'm having a Trick or Treat sale today and tomorrow!  It's the perfect time to pick up some Halloween fun for the bigger kids. :) 

You can visit my TpT store by clicking {here}!

I have been asked a few times lately to share what Halloween looks like in my fourth grade classroom.  So I dug into the blog archives to share some of the Halloween activities I typically do with my students. :) 

One of things that I always do is make extra copies of my Halloween Graphic Organizers to use throughout the month during their independent reading. 

I keep the extra copies in a binder and tab the first copy of each. 

 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. :)

On the actual day of Halloween, I allow my students to read a Halloween/Fall picture book with a partner and complete an accompanying Halloween graphic organizer.  You'd be surprised by how excited big kids still get when there is a cute piece of clip art on their graphic organizer. 

Of course, I use them throughout the month during small groups too. In fact, I used the summary graphic organizer just last week!

Several teachers who have purchased my seasonal graphic organizers mentioned that they use my graphic organizers in their listening centers, which I think is a GREAT idea! :) 

My teaching partner teaches math, so she gets to use one of my favorite TpT products this week, my BooHaHa Math Centers pack!

My teaching partner uses math workshop to organize her math block and she already has the BooHaHa recording sheets copied and ready to go this week. She uses centers for the hands on portion of her math rotations. :)  

She also has a math facts rotation and she is sweet enough to use my multiplication roll and covers in this center.  This month she has been using my Halloween Multiplication Roll and Cover set. 

The kids love them and they are so easy to implement. I always put them in a page protector and my students used dry erase markers or math counters as markers.  I got my twelve sided dice from Amazon {here}.  

Fluency is something I always work on with my struggling readers.  I've been working with my IEP students on mastering their third, fourth, and fifth one hundred set of sight words.  They LOVE to play my Trick or Treat Sigh Word Game! 

We have been starting our teacher time guided reading rotation with this game and it's been a great way to get their minds warmed up for reading and have some fun too!

I hope this post helps with your Halloween planning! Have a great week!

Testing Review Stations + Shooting for CCSS Success

Since I teach upper elementary kiddos, testing is just something I have to deal with.  There are end of unit tests, SLO assessments, MAP tests, and of course of EOY state assessments.  Additionally, there are alsoDibels Assessments, Daze Assessments,end of the week assessments, etc. Testing is just something I've learned to deal with because quite honestly, it's not going away.  

One thing that I really feel helps my kiddos not be so anxious for all these tests is just reassuring them that they are ready with some type of review day before we take some of our bigger assessments.  We refer to our OAA assessments as our final performance and all our bigger assessments (unit assessments, MAP tests, etc.)  along the way are dress rehearsals that help get us ready.  Of course, before our dress rehearsals we have to have a practice, or rehearsal, to get us ready.  

Last week, my students participated in PARCC field testing in Language Arts.  All I can say is that I gave it, so please don't ask anymore. ;). They were pretty tested out, so we participated in some review "rehearsal" days the last two days before spring break to get ready for our SLO, a growth measure that districts in Ohio use to measure student progress, after spring break. 

I hung up some Hollywood themed decorations for the occasion and my kiddos went crazy! I got these at Party City and I'll have to go back for some more fun stuff for our OAA Red Carpet Week, the week right before testing. I even used a director's board to announce it was time to switch rotations.  I called out "SLO Review Take One, Two, etc." 

We moved through six rotations, three each day, due to other scheduling changes.  Normally, I think we could have done all six.  On these rehearsal days, we do not do Daily Five rotations, this is our reading work for the day. 

I put the stations in these baskets from the Dollar Tree.  In each basket was the activity itself and anything else they may need to complete it, like highlighters, anchor charts, sentence frames, etc. The students worked through the stations with their tables.  I put a station on each table and they just rotated through the tables.  They had about ten to fifteen minutes for each station and if they finished a station early, they read one of their self selected reading books that they took to each station with them.   I put all of their response pages in a packet for them as well.  

For each review/rehearsal day we do, I pull resources on standards I feel my students more work with. I prefer to do stations like this rather than whole class reviews, such as Jeopardy games, because I feel they hold each students a bit more accountable for actually reviewing.  We don't get to review every standard they will be tested on this way, but it works for us.  :)

One station was identifying informational text structures.  Something we need LOTS more work with apparently, since I had quite a few questions from my classes when they worked at this center. :)

Inside the tub were copies of Amanda's Informational Text Structure Posters and some of Rachel's Informational Text Structure Task Cards. I highlighted some key words/phrase to get them started/get their brains moving. 

One station was working with shades of meaning/synonyms.  I left dictionaries out at this table for my kiddos to use, as some cards were tricky! 

I used Rachel's synonyms task cards for grades 4-6 for this station.  Obviously, I love her task cards. :) Who doesn't love repeated exposure to standards? I know I sure do, and it really has made a difference with my kiddos' test scores!

One station was all about theme.  I printed two of Rachel's theme task cards and had students justify the theme they chose on their recording sheet. It was a great way to get some additional extended response practice in.  

With each of these stations, I only used a small fraction of these resources.  This means I still have plenty of resources to use for future review and kept the amount of work my students were expected to do in ten to fifteen minutes extremely manageable. 

One station had my kiddos review primary/secondary sources.  I got the review activity from this website.  To save on copies, I just included the recording sheet in their packets and copied the firsthand and secondhand accounts on card stock to all students to use. 

The next station came from one of my FAVORITE packs, Tracy's Find Us Forever Homes.  Inferring with text based evidence is huge in fourth grade and this pack is PERFECT for inferring with non fiction.

We've done a few doggie adoptions already and they were so excited to do another one.  :)  I loved reading their responses as to why the family they chose was the perfect family for the dog they were helping.  

Finally, we did some work with main idea and detail.  I haven't done as much work with main idea and detail this year, so I provided a lot of support at this station.  This also let me know that I needed to do some more lessons/activities with this standard. :)

For this station, I used Tracy's Animal Main Idea Practice Pack.  I love this pack because of the differentiation it provides and the passages are really engaging for my kiddos. :)

When we return from spring break, we'll be doing a few weeks of book clubs.  Which my kiddos are super excited about. However, as a teacher I'm freaking out a bit.  The OAA is right around the corner, and I want to make sure we touch upon some of the standards we've struggled with a few more times.  

So yesterday, I worked hard a packet I plan to use as a little warm up before book clubs. 

My kiddos love basketball, so I took that theme and ran with it.  I created five printables to review multiple meaning words, point of view, suffixes, text structure, and inferencing.  I plan on using one of them each day next week as a little reading warm up before book clubs. 

Although I am using them for daily spiral review as a warm up before book clubs, they certainly have many more uses. :) You can use them for morning work, for remediation/enrichment, homework, and much more.  

I'm already drawing out plans for the next pack to use the following week.  I'm hoping a new theme each week will keep my kiddos a little more excited and engaged. :)  If you are interested in this product, you can check it out here or click on any of its pictures. :)  

I have also added an environmental themed review packet to my little store as well.  We had such a great week of review with our basketball printables, that I knew I had to make another set!

You can check this pack out by clicking on any of the pictures above or by clicking {here}. 

I'm about to hit publish and get out and enjoy the rest of the weekend! Have a great one! 

Must Read Monday: Favorite Series

Hi friends! Sorry it's been a little while.  Like all of you, things have been a little crazy in my fourth grade classroom lately.  Only three more days until spring break! :)

I frequently get asked what books my kids like to read.  So today, I'm linking up with Amanda at Teaching Maddeness for Must Read Monday! 

I am very blessed because my kids LOVE to read. More so this year than any other, which I fully attribute to them being able to have more independent reading because of the Daily Five. 

Today I'm sharing some of their favorite series. By favorite series, I mean the ones that I can never keep in our classroom library for more than a day or two. :) Next week, I'll share some of their other favorite books. :)

 Amazon Link

Amazon Link

Amazon Link

I Survived

Amazon Link

Amazon Link

Amazon Link

Amazon Link

Amazon Link

Amazon Link

 Amazon Link

Amazon Link 

I am always looking to add to our classroom library. What series do your kiddos love to read? :) I need some suggestions for great series for fourth grade girls! :)