Day One of Official Vacation!

I consider today the first OFFICIAL day of Spring Break. I mean, we ALWAYS get weekends off, so today was the first day of sleeping in and relaxing! Naturally, I "slept in" until 6:00am. Darn you automatic alarm living inside my head! Anyway, I was productive! I got a new front door installed AND I painted it myself! It has one of those super awesome cool keypad thingamajigs where I can just punch in a code without using a key to unlock it! So when I'm juggling my adorbzies Verra Bradley lunch bunch, two teacher bags (one for the laptop and one for the loads of paperwork), cell phone, and various other whatchamacallits, I won't have to then dump everything on the porch in order to sift through the collection of bags until I unearth my hidden keys! I am SUPER DUPER excited! I moved into my house almost a year ago and the home improvements have been slow going. Sometimes my projects turn into Pinterest fails! I also wrote up a new novel study to use after vacation on James and the Giant Peach. (Banned booklists? Maybe. But fourth grade kiddos kinda love this book when doing an independent novel study. I know they'll actually read it!) This weekend, I've been slowly making my way through the stack of books I brought home to create novel studies for. I did a whole bunch of Roald Dahl...which are short and helped ease me into getting some work done this vacation! Now, onto the three Andrew Clements books and The Westing Game. Ever read that one? It was a total page turner!!! Murder mystery. My high level students zipped right through it last year! I have a few hard to please high readers that might get a kick out of it this year! We shall see! And when my handyman came over to help me with a few odd jobs today he said, "You're a teacher, right? Teachers are always fitting a lot into their vacations." He hit the nail on the head! Happy Spring break, everyone!!!

Math Modules: Incorporating Written Expression

I know what you're thinking...like we need any additional work to do during the math block, right? Well, I use a center system and teach math in two small groups, so I actually DO need to create activities for my kiddos to complete independently while I'm teaching a small group math. I have the usual goodies - Everyday Math games that I still love, websites that make math fun, worksheets that focus on skills requiring practice, file folder games, frog games, etc. Anyway, each kiddo has a center folder with activities to work on while I teach a group. SUPER easy differentiation.

So, I was thinking, these modules are totally sweet in lots of ways. I'm not being sarcastic. I actually really like elements of the modules. My school is pretty cool in that we are adapting the modules, not adopting, so I have some freedom to do what I need to do, supplement as necessary, etc. I decided that the modules were lacking the extended explanation. I mean, that will get to the core; do these kids really UNDERSTAND? Next came my mini-books!

I created a mini book for each module in fourth grade. They have 13-17 questions, all fairly lengthy, and each question has a written response to go along with it. Sometimes it is simple, like, "Explain how you solved this problem." Other times it asks the kids to apply the strategies used in that problem to other areas of life. (Ah, generalizing. Transferring knowledge can be a trickster for kiddos under the age of 10.) Anyway, the mini books have a rubric for grading, hints for solving word problems, and a cutesy little cover page. I started creating them for third grade, too. For my lowest fourth grade lovelies, it turns out that fourth grade skills are not always independent, and that's what I'm after - getting these kids independently thinking.

Here's the link for the Math Module Mini-Books at my TPT store:

Teachers Pay Teachers

Here are some other SUPER math link:

Mr. Nussbuam
XtraMath
Sumdog
Scootpad

IT'S FINALLY VACATION!!!

Phew! I thought vacation might never come! After the fourth grade ELA, we buckled down and spent the week before break focusing a lot of time on math and read alouds. I kinda wanted the kiddos to enjoy reading for a moment, without worrying about what their short response might be and how they would restate the question!

Anyway, I have certainly earned this vacation! I had parent-teacher conferences before vacation, taught two workshops at our Teacher Resource Center, and still managed to keep my kiddos learning the week before break! We did it!

This vacation is jam-packed, but I'm excited! I already added six different novel studies to my TeachersPayTeachers store, and I am sooooo excited because I'm getting a new door and a new dishwasher this week! Plus, winter is finally coming to an end! I opened my windows today!!!

Enjoy the weather and the break! We deserve to relax a bit!

Show What You Know!

I found this neat-o idea on another teacher blog. (The link for the free printable is located below.) It's sweet because I number my kiddos. When we finish a lesson, I might have them pull out their post it notes and respond to the lesson in some way. Maybe a 3-2-1, maybe a question, or maybe I have them make a connection to the text...anything! After they respond on the post it, they stick it to their number. I can easily check the responses, and see who did not turn one in. I usually wind up throwing these away after I check them, unless there is a major issue. Anyway, this is a cool formative assessment tool to integrate into any classroom!

Mrs. Heeren's Blog

A little hot glue goes a long way!

I use my handy dandy hot glue gun for everything!!! My classroom has this sad cinderblock walls, which tape hates sticking to. So, I yanked out my hot glue gun and glued my calendar right up there. It worked! Next, I started gluing fabric to cover up the ugly cubbies on our back wall (hence, covering up my secret stash of messiness and stacks of photocopies). Finally, I went to the dollar store, bought some cheap frames, printed cute signs, rules, pictures, etc. and filled those frames. Guess what I did next? Hot glued them right to the wall!

They look awesome and give the place a bit of a homey feeling. Also, hot glue is sweet because it isn't permanent! It will peel right off when you're ready to go back to boring lame-o walls.

Birthday Pencils!

This year, I decided to make my life easier. Instead of giving out candy or writing cards for birthdays, I made my bouquet of birthday balloons! I put a styrofoam ball in a flower pot. Next, I sharpened a ton of pencils. After that, I taped a Happy Birthday balloon to each, and pushed them into the styrofoam. Easy! I saw it on Pinterest with flower cut outs, so it would be a bouquet of flowers, but my classroom decor is black and white polka dots, so this worked with the theme better!

And now, when kiddos come knocking on my door to share their birthday treats, instead of stopping instruction to get them a treat or pencil, I just direct them to select their birthday pencil! Easy Peasey Lemon Squeezey!

T Minus 11 days

My school had a conference day on Friday, and someone came up with the brilliant idea of counting how many days we have until the fourth grade NYS ELA. 11. ELEVEN! I guess it's really sneaking up on us this year, because my jaw dropped!

So, I've been incorporating some test prep into my routine, but I am SO nervous! I also heard that NYS is switching things up, making a 2 a passing score. But I can only assume that the cut scores will also be changed, so it will be that much harder to get a 2. Yikes!