Tried It Tuesday

Let's link up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday!

So, I have a strict no talking in the hallway policy. We call this "Level Zero" in my school. I line my kiddos up in a boy line and a girl line, and we walk silently to specials. They can only talk when they raise their hand and I call on them. We do a lot of math fluency practice in the hallway in the beginning of the year, and just fun review questions as the year progresses. Anyway, this system works for us!

Now, sometimes there are kiddos who are not quite hallway-ready. They forget about waiting to be called on, you know. It happens. For a long time now, I would use my numbered popsicle sticks, pull one out before leaving the room, and when we reached our destination I would reveal the stick number and if that child earned the class a hallway compliment, lunch bunch, extra five minutes of recess, whatever it may be. This works nicely. (Oh, also, when the kiddo does not behave, I don't tell the class who it was...I just say that we didn't earn our surprise.)

Anyway, I found a sweet resource to supplement this "mystery walker" motivator I've been oh so fond of over the years. Clutter-Free Classroom has a FREE resource on Tpt that goes along wonderfully with this the mystery walker idea! (She calls them "secret walker." Same premise!)

So, I tried this secret walker certificates this week and they were a big hit! Of course, I printed them in color because they are super duper adorable!

Monday Made It: Lava Lamps

It's Monday! Not too many more Mondays until summer vacation! (Which totally includes workshops, summer school, and curriculum writing for yours truly.) Anyway, today I'll be linking up with Tara at Fourth Grade Frolics. It's MONDAY MADE IT! And what did my class make? Lava lamps!

Sometimes I try things I find on Pinterest. Usually I feel like I belong on that website about Pinterest fails. Like the time I saw a teacher on Pinterest who took a smushy pumpkin after Halloween, placed it in a pot with soil, watered it, brought it into her classroom, and VOILA! A plant grew. Welp, when I tried this cool experiment, MOLD GREW. 

So, here's a Pinterest-y science-y experiment we did during free time recently. And this WORKED! And the kiddos thought I was totally cool for letting them try this. We brought in clear water bottles. We drank about half of the water, and filled the rest with vegetable oil. Next, we added some fun food coloring. When we were finally worked up and ready...we added the alka-seltzer tablets! And closed the tops. Now, the lava lamp didn't last forever, but it was fun for a few minutes. After that, we turned the water bottles on their sides, horizontally, and called them wave bottles!

So, try this! If I can do it, anyone can!

A Peek at My (FOUR DAY) Week

Today I'm linking up with Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for "A Peek at my Week."

This week is going to FLY BY! 

Monday and Tuesday will be fairly normal. I plan on experimenting in my classroom with a sweet formative assessment tool that a colleague of mine discovered, Plicker.

PLICKERS!

So, here's how this free site works. Sign up FOR FREE using an email address. Create a class and add your students. Print the cards. (Each kids receives their own card, and the cards look kooky...but by turning the cards, they create A, B, C, or D answers) The teacher downloads the plicker app to a phone or iPad. When asking questions, the teacher scans the room as kids hold up their individual cards. Immediately, the responses are graphed on the iPad! You can display the data and discuss or use it to drive instruction!

Kiddos hold up their individual cards. Directionality determines their answer choice.

Cards!

Immediate results!

This seems like an awesome way to motivate students and act as a GREAT formative assessment tools for teachers! I'm trying it this week! Yay!

So, on Wednesday, my entire fourth grade is preparing the students for their NYS Science assessment. We have a performance piece of the test, so each teacher is teaching an experiment and the students are rotating from room to room. This will be an entire day of science! When I told my kiddos about it they were bummed that we wouldn't have math, but they were really okay about skipping writing. Hmmm....

Thursday is our big Memorial Day parade! Thank goodness all of the rain occurred last week! The entire school will march together on Thursday! Afterwards, the fourth graders hop on the bus and travel to local cemeteries to place American flags on the tombstones of veterans. I will have to come up with a relaxing activity for the afternoon, though! What to do the afternoon before a four day weekend?

NO SCHOOL FRIDAY! 

And my sister is coming to visit!! 

And I'm getting my new pretty kitchen appliances!!!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to ALL!

Spark Student Motivation Saturday: Plickers

I'm linking up on this relaxing Saturday with Joanne over at Head Over Heels For Teaching. You know what that means...Spark Student Motivation Saturday!

This is a sweet idea that one of my colleagues found online that I've been fiddling with all morning! A neat way to quickly assess students through the use of multiple choice questions...

PLICKERS!

So, here's how this free site works. Sign up FOR FREE using an email address. Create a class and add your students. Print the cards. (Each kids receives their own card, and the cards look kooky...but by turning the cards, they create A, B, C, or D answers) The teacher downloads the plicker app to a phone or iPad. When asking questions, the teacher scans the room as kids hold up their individual cards. Immediately, the responses are graphed on the iPad! You can display the data and discuss or use it to drive instruction!

Kiddos hold up their individual cards. Directionality determines their answer choice.

Cards!

Immediate results!

This seems like an awesome way to motivate students and act as a GREAT formative assessment tools for teachers! I'm trying it this week!

Five For Friday

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

I finally finished grading the NYS Math test! Being stuck in a stuffy room grading for two days was NO FUN! Especially when those two days were GORGEOUS! But I'm finally out! And the rest of the week was lovely. We had a field trip to a museum to learn about local history. And decided to have a class picnic outside because of the warm weather! Although my students are getting antsier with every day that brings us closer to summer...they're still pretty lovable! Maybe I missed them with all of these days I was out of the classroom grading and interviewing new fourth grade teachers....

...maybe it's like they say...

Distance makes the heart grow fonder!

I brought out my handy dandy Choice Board this week. We're independent workers, and since school is winding down I added a lot of games and much more word work to our Daily Five time. 

I decided to give my students another week of poetry writing. Blackout Poetry, Perspective Poetry, and Lucy-inspired poetry. (Lucy is my dog. My adorable dog. Who goes on adventures in the imaginations of my fourth grade students!) 

Featured below are MY examples.

Now, my students love sharing their perspective poetry and guessing what their peers have written about. But I love the black out poetry the most because I copied pages from recent read alouds (You might recognize the page from Wonder shown above!) and we're reminiscing about books of fourth grade past! it's fun!

My class continued to review Science vocabulary words during the word work component of Daily Five. I am hanging the posters outside of our classroom and we admire them all the time! We are SO ready for this NYS Science test!

So, I bit the bullet and finally got a new phone this week! It's an iphone and it's pretty sweet. Immediately, I hopped online and ordered this case:

I. Am. So. Excited.

Positive Thinking Thursday

I am linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for Positive Thinking Thursday, as usual! 

I shared this picture earlier in the week for the science vocabulary posters below the quote...but then I remembered how much I love this quote! So, here we go!

"Promise me you'll always remember: you're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

And yes, this is from Winnie the Pooh!

Sometimes I feel like such a tough teacher, the mean lady who gives out homework and pushes to get through a unit, but it's good to remember that we're here for the kids. This quote helps me to remember that I'm not just building their minds...I'm building these kiddos UP! And I enjoy doing it each day.

Wordless Wednesday

I'm linking up with Christine from "Sugar and Spice," for a Wordless Wednesday linky party!

These are my model Black Out Poems.

How do YOU engage your students in writing 

and publish in creative ways?