These math games really up the fun factor!
These math games really up the fun factor!
This is an end-of-year packet for fourth graders. It has a cover "Fourth Grade was Fantastic" and Melonheadz Superhero clip art on each page. There are 39 pages in total. You can look through and decide which pages you want to have your students use. There is an "About Me" page. There are 3 pages to...
These math games really up the fun factor!
These math games really up the fun factor!
Did you know you can make plastic from milk?
These math games really up the fun factor!
These math games really up the fun factor!
Did you know you can make plastic from milk?
A blog for elementary school writing teachers!
Math Facts Minute Races: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication & Division! (Facts 0-12) Master your math facts with a variety of "minute" races! Adjust the time accordingly for your students! THIS INCLUDES: Addition: Minute races for facts 0-12 *3 mixed facts races also included! Subtraction: Minute races for facts 0-12 (all differences will be 0-12) *3 mixed facts races also included! Multiplication: Minute races for facts 0-12 *3 mixed facts races also included! Division: Minute races for facts 1-12 (all quotients will be 1-12) *3 mixed facts races also included! INSTRUCTIONS: Warm Up: start your math class off with a quick review of math facts OR 1-minute fact races to help students memorize their basic math facts! *NO PREP PRINTABLE: Print and chop! (3 races per page to save paper!) © 2017 Kraus Math LLC. All rights reserved.
Learn more about what narrative writing is, tips to teach it, and some great resources to make it easier for you!
Literature Circles in the elementary classroom. How to do literature circles with 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students.
Teaching area and perimeter can be challenging, but these fun and meaningful lessons ideas can help you teach area and perimeter in a fun, engaging way!
These tips for teaching plot to 3rd graders help you get your students thinking and discussing how all the story elements work together to ...
Our favorite 2nd grade anchor charts for math, language arts, and beyond. You'll definitely want to use some of these in your classroom.
These math games really up the fun factor!
Five simple ways to tweak morning meetings for upper elementary to help build a strong class community and student-student relationships.
Teaching themes in literature made easy and effective! Read how I teach theme and the theme activities I use on this post, free resource included!
It's time for another edition of Tried It Tuesday! I love all the ideas of things "tried" that teachers share each week! Posts can be about things tried in the classroom or at home! My Tried It: Interactive Notebooks This year I have completely changed how my students organize their writing journals. After spending a lot of time reading posts this summer about interactive journals, I purchased some amazing products (during the TPT back to school sale of course!) for transforming my students' journals in ELA this year. Here are some of the most helpful resources for interactive notebooks that I purchased. Just look at the amazing Table of Contents for this Interactive Reading Notebook by I'm Lovin Lit! It aligns to the Common Core for grades 4-8. I love that this resource has above and beyond what I will need for teaching 4th grade. On Saturday, I wrote a post about using her figurative language student pages for similes here. I love how this product also has editable templates for the interactive lessons! I edited this template in Powerpoint to include the six types of figurative language that I want my 4th graders to learn. It was so easy to customize it for my class. Under each strip, we are recording the definition. Then, each example of figurative language has its own separate page in the notebook with a further example and song lyrics that incorporate the figurative language. Students color coded each strip to match the figurative language posters that I purchased from I'm Lovin Lit to display in my room. This poster set actually included 57 posters on various topics! I also invested in the Interactive Writing Notebooks but am still exploring this huge resource! Another set of interactive resources I purchased was the 4th grade Interactive Reading Notebook and 4th Grade Interactive Language Notebook by Nicole Shelby. This is the table of contents for the reading notebook: I forgot to take pictures of the activities we have used from the reading notebook, but will add some later. I haven't used the language notebook resources yet. One more resource that I have tried is the Interactive Language Arts Notebook companion to mentor sentences. See a detailed post here about how I have incorporated mentor sentences in my classroom. I also show how I have divided my students' journals into two sections. The front of the journal is for reading/writing notes and written responses to reading and on demand writing prompts. The back of the journal is for grammar notes and mentor sentences. The students use the beginning of the journals for two separate Table of Contents, one for the front and one for the back. Here are some pictures of the foldable for singular and plural possessives from my students' notebooks. What is my favorite part of using interactive journals this year? Students are really taking ownership of their journals and using them as a resource! They take them out to look up information at random times. I love that! The interactive piece really seems to stick with them. What is something that I wish I could change? Time! The time it takes to cut and glue is getting BETTER but it takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r. those first couple weeks! It has only been seven weeks and there has been such an improvement. Following directions is also getting better but I still often have that one student in each class who will not listen to directions and cut the paper wrong, therefore, having to start over. The time is definitely worth it when I see students using their notebooks though! If you are trying it for the first time, persevere.
Supercharge your morning work with I Heart Literacy! Each page features a fun theme so your students will not only be practicing reading and ELA skills, but will also be learning about a curriculum-based topic. A wide variety of Common Core skills are addressed. Try these five free pages for free! Happy Teaching! Rachel Lynette ... Read More about Morning Work ELA and Reading Freebie!
I have to share this rockin' activity inspired by an awesome math teacher and blogger, To The Square Inch. In fourth grade, we learn about tenths and hundredths. It's a hard one for kids to get! Once we understand these place values, we turn them into fractions and put tenths on numberlines.... It's a lot. For students AND teacher.... Anyway, I saw this activity a few years ago on Pinterest and tweeked it for my kiddos since it originally had the students working with percents and fractions. It's now our "Hundredths Design Square". First, the students color a square hundredths model using four different colors. Then they count the colored squares and record each color as a decimal. After that, they turn it into a fraction. The kids LOVE IT! And it sure is fun! Check out these awesome designs!
Hello everyone! Today is my day to post over at All Things Upper Elementary! Today I have posted about a SUPER fun lesson we did Monday using area, perimeter, problem solving and art! Stop by and check it out! Here is a “teaser” photo! Here is the link directly to the post . . . […]
Printable FIRST DAY OF FOURTH GRADE 2024-2025 Sign. What a fun way to remember your child's first day of School! This is a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD! Check out other grades/designs here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ColleenDeeStudios?section_id=38659651 Find matching LAST DAY of SCHOOL signs here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ColleenDeeStudios?section_id=38132386 Let's celebrate this important milestone together! Wishing all the students a fantastic first day filled with new friendships, exciting adventures, and lots of learning! #FirstDayOfSchool #BackToSchool #SchoolDays #ProudParents #GrowingUp #EducationMatters #FourthGrade __________________________________________________ FAQS: - Digital download (PDF & PNG files). - Please note this listing is for an instant download. No physical items will be shipped. - This is NOT an editable file. - Etsy will email you a link to download your file, once payment is confirmed. - Due to monitor variation, the colors may vary from the photo shown depending on the printer and type of paper you use. All monitors display color differently. -------------------------------------------------- HOW IT WORKS: - Purchase file on Etsy - You will receive a link to download - Print at home or send to local print shop - Enjoy - Print as many as you want - Cardstock is best - Unlimited Download - DO NOT Share or resell file -------------------------------------------------- TERMS OF USE: - This file is for PERSONAL USE ONLY. - This is not to be used for commercial purposes. - You may not copy, share, sell or distribute the file in any form.
Some students really struggle with the concept of fractions! Help them develop true understanding with these three slam-dunk strategies, plus videos and even a link to a FREE teaching unit!
Finally! Math centers that are aligned to the standards, easy to manage, and perfect for 15-20 minute rotations! Exactly what I needed for when I’m working with my small groups. I can focus on my [group] knowing that my students are fully engaged. I don’t have time to prep math activities so this is the […]
Celebrate Black History Month by learning about the birth of jazz music, and the history of African-Americans in pop music.
I wanted to share a fun project my kiddos did. We had been working on fractions and I wanted to come up with a little fun that would reinforce some of what they learned as well as let them have some fun being creative. WARNING.....LOTS of pictures ahead....they all were so unique and creative, I had to share them all:) Directions Google Doc HERE We were fortunate enough to have a local pizza place donate enough boxes so each of my kids could have one. This is the first time I have done this project.....I'm sure next time I will add to it but for a first time, I am pleased with it and THRILLED with how they turned out. I typed up an instruction sheet for the kids to follow. Basically, they were supposed to represent 5 different fractions using different toppings. They had to include a "key" explaining their fractions. For each of the 5 fractions they had to write 2 equivalent fractions. They also had to write 2 word problems to go with their pizza:) Some of them put their word problems on a different sheet or on the bottom:) I absolutely LOVE how different each project is....some drew theirs, some used construction paper, some used playdoh, buttons, all kinds of creative ideas flowing:) I'm so proud of my kids and I know they are proud of their projects! It was fun to see them bring them in every morning and everyone would gather around to take a peek:) We were also excited because we got to display them in our Science Fair. I know they aren't Science BUT I felt like they all had put too much work into them for just me to see them. We got to set up a table to display them so others could enjoy their hard work. Hope this is something you can use in your classroom as you explore and learn about fractions! Have a blessed day all!
Graphing lessons and activities can be hard to find, especially if you are looking to improve critical thinking skills! Check out this post!
Being able to guess the likelihood of an event is a useful skill. Discuss probability with your kid as you play this fun math card game!
Teaching point of view in upper elementary with rigorous activities, anchor charts, assessments, and more! Keep your kids engaged in rigorous content.
Get ready to honor the incredible fourth-grade students at your school with this fantastic freebie! This special package includes a delightful coloring sheet, a captivating history of National 4th Graders Day, a catchy song to add to the festive spirit, and a comprehensive list of creative ideas for...
Get to know John Coltrane, a jazz legend, with this music history worksheet! Read his mini-biography and answer some trivia.
These math games really up the fun factor!
Students will enjoy these puzzles. They teach not only prefixes and suffixes but context clues as well. This activity can be a stand-alone.
In this language arts worksheet, your child gets practice creating and spelling words by adding -s, -ing, and -ful.
Find fantastic resources for teaching inferences (with free mini lesson). The resources are ideal for 4th graders but also features ideas for grades 1-3.
If you know me, you know I am in loooove with Daily 5! Ever since incorporating it into my classroom last year, I have loved seeing the variety of skills and strategies my students are working on each and every day. I also love that the segments are short, so we all stay motivated and the energy for learning stays high. I have been wanting to redo how I teach math for a while. As a student, I truly adore mathematics, but as a teacher, I was getting bored. Our district was looking into several programs to adopt and I was piloting Everyday Mathematics. It was definitely a change from our old textbook, but I liked how it mixed things up and spiraled around to keep kids fresh on many math concepts. The district ended up choosing Math Expressions (Please share your experience if you use this!) and this decision allowed me to stop teaching Everyday Mathematics "with fidelity" and monkey around with starting Guided Math/Math Rotations/Small Group Math/Math Centers/etc. for the remainder of this year. I.am.in.love! I know there are many ways of doing this, so I am just sharing what I have been trying and what works so far with my schedule. Some of my greatest inspirations are Elizabeth from Fun in 4B and Dana from 3rd Grade Gridiron. I also have TONS of wonderful links with pictures on my Math Pinterest board-- there are so many inspirational teachers out there :) :) First up, the 3-4 rotations that I use: Teacher Time- spent with me on the rug in a small group, ability-based for the unit, learning a new concept. Lesson Work- practicing the new skill from Teacher Time (usually book work or a worksheet) independently at their table spot. Math Centers- this has been using some of my Word Work Centers as well as my Winter Math Centers. Fact Practice- this is the "I'm Done" center for those students who finish Lesson Work early. I also have Fact Practice as a choice for Math Centers. Some days students don't get to this at all, but I'm ok with that since Xtra Math is a part of our Star Homework each night. Because of time constraints, I could only divide up my class into three groups, so that really limited my use of the cute M-A-T-H or B-U-I-L-D centers that are out there. I just couldn't imagine trying to have super-short Teacher Times or trying to spread one lesson across two days :( With three groups, I am able to meet with kids for 15-20ish minutes and that seems to be just right :) I also tried to keep things aligned with how I do Daily 5 in my class. Because that is so successful, I knew it would be easy for my kids (and, to be honest, on me!) if we started it off the same and ran our math time the same, using some of the same activities as well as the same lingo (like Teacher Time). I began by making an anchor chart of the four rotations as a class: To make the smaller signs, I adjusted my print settings to print 2 signs on one sheet. We then practiced the bottom two rotations over the course of a few days. Because I started this mid-year, it was very easy to build stamina. I started by dividing the kids into two groups and they practiced either Fact Practice or Math Centers. We then reflected on what worked/what needed improving and tried again. I slowly added Teacher Time and then Lesson Work, so that by the end of the second week, we were in full swing. To help things along, since the content does change much more often than in D5, I made small signs to hang on my side white board that listed either the learning target or question as well as the assignments and center choices for kids' reference: This has been a lifesaver because now students have a quick reference point to not only know what we'll be studying in Teacher Time, but they can manage their own Center and Fact Practice time, therefore not interrupting me during Teacher Time (win!). You KNOW I have bookmarks with these rotations, right?! :) I need to go to Bookmarks Anonymous ;) Each student has one and it makes it easy for me to say "Picture 2" and they all know where to go. To learn how to make your own bookmarks from PDF pages, click HERE. To be honest, now that we have been doing this for a while, we don't need these anymore, but I love them just the same and, when our geometry unit is over soon I am going to me remixing the groups, so these will come in handy again soon :) As with everything, the devil is in the details, so prepping is the key. I spent a looooooong time making sure the kids had activities and trying to account for "dead time"-- thus, the Fact Practice option. I also wanted to make materials accessible and easy to get to, so there wouldn't be any excuse for not getting started right away. I am currently storing all of the centers and flash cards in my lovely, colorful cart I purchased from Joann's (50% off and free shipping coupon-- woo hoo!) I will be back soon for more details on how I have been doing Math Centers-- we are using a Bingo Board similar to Word Work and it has worked out well so far. Do you use Math Rotations or something like it? How's it going? PS- I don't have these chevron signs on TpT yet, but is it something you all would be interested in? Let me know and I can get all of the colors together for use in your own classroom-- it's the same chevron as all of my other products HERE. *UPDATE 2/18/13: These are now available for purchase in my TpT Store HERE. All 7 chevron colors are included for every slide as well as a plain background option. Be sure to download the Preview to see an example :) Thanks for such great feedback- I hope you enjoy using these in your class :) :)
Break out of the mold with this graffiti art project. Here is a how to draw graffiti lesson plan that is perfect for open house night, connecting with literature or for learning concepts of art.
Unlike most students, this fourth grade dude opted for a moody evening sky. I love how well it works with this haunted looking castle. I recently discovered that if I need something, all I have to do is ask. For instance, I totally underestimated how much glue we would consume, er, use in the art room this year and only ordered one gallon. When that well ran dry, I simply sent out a school-wide email and within hours I had enough glue to put back together all of the dishes I've managed to break over the years. Thank goodness! My dishwasher is simply devouring those styrofoam plates! This is also how I managed to acquire the four million toilet paper tubes we used for this castle building project. The only slight draw back to asking for stuff: you just might receive far more than imagined (shoot me an email if you'd like to become the proud new owner of six garbage bags of toilet paper tubes! They make great gifts -- the expression on the recipent's face is always one of pure confusion which I like to interpret as joy). Because our castle was apart of our study of Germany, I also incorporated some of Grimm's Fairy Tales into the mix. This young artist dude obviously was inspired by Rapunzel. Okay, I'm dying to ask the artist about the story behind this drawing. Just why is the knight in shining armor high tailin' it out of town? Did he find out just how high maintenance those Rapunzels can be? "Climb up my hair, now braid my hair, make that a french braid, ouch, stop pulling, that hurts! Climb down my hair and get outta here you big ape!" This artist had his work on display at our local art museum, The Frist Center for Visual Arts. Pretty sweet. My mom once taped my drawing to the fridge. Okay, I taped it to her fridge. Just exactly how where these amazing castle pieces created by fourth graders, aside from a gallon of glue and a ton of tubes? Well, lemme tell you: Like I said, this project was a study of castles in Germany. We focused on Schloss Neuschwanstein (where you can see a super brief history here) and the landscape of Bavaria. During our first couple of art classes, we talked color theory and sky painting. 2. Next up: Cloud painting. We use a bristle brush to create the cloud texture with an emphasis that clouds have a flat bottom (hey, just like the art teacher!) and a fluffy top (ha! art teacher wishes). I also chat about showing space by painting the clouds near the horizon smaller and have them increase in size as they climb up the page. 3. After a big fat hairy chat about the landscape of southwestern Germany, we tackle the land. The students were given three pieces of 18" X 6" paper in the following colors: white, light green and green. They were instructed to crumble each piece, smooth it out, and rub water based oil pastels over each. Then each piece of paper was given a stroke of water with a paint brush to help blend the oil pastels. I have found the Crayola Portfolio Oil Pastels work best for this. 4. Once those were dry, each of the three papers were torn lengthwise. Some students opted to create three-dimensional mountains. This was done by taking a small torn piece of paper, coloring it heavily in oil pastels, laying it on the mountain and smearing the oil pastel from the paper to the mountain. From there, the land was glued to the sky painting. 5. After all of that landscaping, we were finally ready for our castle building. I kept the directions very basic because I was curious to see what the students would come up with. What I did tell them was to cut a slit up the back of the tube and fold each cut line about 1/4". This would be where the glue would go to attach to the landscape. This is also how the gnomes were glued down in my project posted last week. 6. For the top of the castle, short cuts were made and every other one was folded down. Easy. 7. The kids came up with the idea of the draw bridge. When one got the idea to glue a "chain" to hold the bridge, the rest just had to do the same. In case you mustache, this is Mustache Kingdom. 8. Here's how they were shaping up after a couple of days. Once glued down, they were ready to be painted. 9. Students were to paint a base coat onto their castles. I offered them black paint but a handful wanted something a little more colorful. And sparkly. What's a castle without glitter, after all? 10. After the base coat was applied, students sponge painted gray paint onto their castle for a rock like texture. When one student used the back of his paint brush to create bricks, the rest of us all had a "why didn't I think of that?!" moment. Yes, that's a flying PopTart/Taco/cat-with-a-rainbow-shooting-out-it's-butt thing. Not sure if that's from some cartoon or imagined. Most likely the effects of glue consumption. 11. Once castles were complete, the real fun began. Our castle either had to have a flag and/or a shield. After a chat about Grimm's Fairy Tales, I encouraged the addition of characters to the scene. Those that decided to not include characters and finished early wrote stories about their kingdom. I'm kinda on this kick where I add that super fine glitter to all of the paint. You can see that shine in this pair of castles. These kids have the funniest imaginations. I love their silliness. Last photo, I swear! This little amazing artist had the genius idea to add puffy paint vines to her castle. I'm rather smitten with her dragons. And there you have it! Many moons, tubes and a gallon o' glue later, you've got some of the coolest castles in all of Tennessee. Now, that I've got all the glue a girl could ever want, I'm thinking of sending out an email asking for coins. Tell me what you think of this: "Dear Teachers, The students will be using loose change. Would you mind sending any and all pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters to the art room? Thank you!" With all these generous teachers of mine, this outta easily cover my Spring Break vacay to Daytona Beach. Art Teachers Gone Wild, here I come!
