Five For Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching this week for Five For Friday!

A few weeks ago, a fellow teacher filled me in on the sweet new idea, PLICKERS! (Check out THIS recent post to read all about how they work.)

Anyway, I tried this interesting idea out this week. The kids had their own barcode type answer cards (printed on cardstock). I programmed questions into my phone, asked the questions, and gave multiple choice answers. Kids held up their answer cards and I scanned them with my phone. (On my phone you could see their names POP up when I had scanned them.) Next, their responses popped up on my Smart Board through the Plicker website. I could see graphs of the responses or individuals. The kids loved it!

Problem: You can't store answer responses, only questions, so I had to write them down. Solution? I adjusted for the next Plicker experience and did true or false questions. Way easier. Still cool.

Cards!

Immediate results!

My class has been having a blast with Sheppard Software, a great educational website. We've been putting math games on the Smart Board at the end of the day, like Fruit Blasters, to continue our fluency work. It's a sweet website for lots of subjects!

Fruit Blasters

Multiplication or Division questions pop up and you shoot the answer on the fruit! Different difficulty levels and speeds are options.

I've been using a bunch of math games on this site for fun fluency practice. We've also been trying out some of the Social Studies games because it turns out that my fourth graders need review of geography! Does anyone else have major challenges helping kiddos realize that there is a huge difference between states, towns, continents, countries, etc? The kids who get it, get it. And the kids who don't...well, it's just tough.

I'm reading The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate to my class currently. I love it, and I'm eager to get into some awesome culminating activities (lap books, Tagxedo character traits word clouds, researching the real Ivan, etc.), but I'm also excited for our next read aloud, The Hope Chest.  I plan on reading this EngageNY ELA grade four module text with my summer school kiddos before they head off to fifth grade. Has anyone else used this text with their fourth graders?

I just received an email that my first Stitch Fix will arrive on Tuesday! I am super psyched and will update when it arrives!!! I just can't wait to see what the stylist chooses for me!

Emily, over at Style Closet to Classroom, introduced me to Stitch Fix through a blog post. Check it out here! Emily also blogged about SlantBox in the same post. Has anyone ever tried this? It seems neat-o!

Stitch Fix (referral link)

My new refrigerator is being delivered...TODAY!

...which means that I should go food shopping this weekend.

...since my freezer is literally empty right now. As always.

I'm not kidding...it will take 3 minutes, MAYBE, to clean out the old fridge.

Anyway, I'm psyched because the fridge has a touch screen! So I can listen to some Pandora jams while heating up my leftovers!