Mathematical Practices Poster Set

I did it!  I created my first item to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers!  I created a Common Core State Standards Mathematical Practices Poster Set.  They are beautiful, bright and colorful.  I'm not going to go into a long entry about it, I just wanted to share because I am very proud of them and am excited to start a new journey by selling some of my creations!  I hope you like them!

Tornado, Toolbox, Titanic!

Wow! It's amazing how time just gets away from us.  I can not believe that it is already March 9th!  As we were working on our latest hallway bulletin board project, one of my students actually said, "What's the point of changing it?  School is almost over!"  That's not true of course, but to a 4th grader in Florida, anytime after the FCAT Writing test is probably considered the end of the year.

I have had a great, and very busy couple of months.  I have a bunch of pictures to share with you today!  I have recently, (as of yesterday) decided to start making really cute and useful things to share on Teachers Pay Teachers and Teacher's Notebook, so be on the lookout for those coming up!  I just started trying some new things last night, so it's a work in progress for sure!  I have 2 items on TPT already but nothing really fancy.

Tomorrow is my Grandma's 90th Birthday!  Unfortunately, since I live 1,100 miles away, I will not be able to celebrate with her, but we talk on the phone and I will visit with her over Summer.  She is a truly amazing woman, she does not act or look anywhere near 90 years old!  Actually, a month before I moved to Florida, the house she and my Grandpa built and raised my dad and uncles in was destroyed by a tornado and she escaped with only superficial scratches!  She was 87 at the time.  She won't read this, but... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDMA!!

Ready for the pictures??  Here we go!

Before the FCAT Writing test, my 4th grade team had a couple of Writing Days.  These were days that the teachers rotated through the rooms, each focusing on a different area of writing.  For the last one, we had a Bag Ladies inspired activity.  All of the projects we did with the students went into their own Writing Portfolio that we made.  Hours and hours of folding bags and putting materials together went into this project, but we do what it takes to make learning memorable and fun for our kids!  This was my model bag.

To promote descriptive writing, I had my classes complete a "Show Not Tell" activity.  I saw one very similar to this on Pinterest and loved it!  First, I had the kids work in groups to brainstorm descriptions of 12 different emotions or feelings.  I typed up their ideas and then assigned kids to illustrate and describe those emotions.  They were not allowed to write about the one they brainstormed.  I was so impressed with their work.  

While discussing how to solve division problems, I was suddenly struck with an analogy using the 3 little pigs.  I had my class imagine 3 piggies hiding in a house.  If 1 big bad wolf tries to get them, how many piggies will he get to eat?  Well, 3 divided by 1 equals 3.  This simple explanation helped them so we went into remainders.  For the pictures sake, if there are 55 piggies stuffed into this house, and 9 big bad wolves come to eat them, the wolves will each take an equal group of pigs to the basement to eat.  Each wolf will have a group of 6 piggies and there will be 1 piggy left, because that pig rid in the chimney!  LoL  Silly, I know, but I'll do anything to make math more interesting for them!

This is just a poster I made for the kids to visualize factors.

With a departmentalized 4th grade, I find that the most hectic time of the day is the last 5-10 minutes.  My homeroom class comes back to get all of their belongings gathered up and to be dismissed.  I made up this checklist of things they need to do before they leave the room for the day.

This is my version of the ever popular "Teacher Toolbox"!  I bought the toolbox from Lowes for $20, and used glitter cardstock that I already had to fancy it up!  I attached the cardstock to the inside of the drawers by using strips of clear contact paper.  The labels were made on my Cricut (the first project I ever used it for since I bought it 2 years ago!)  It was beyond simple... I stuck white contact paper ($2 at Big Lots) directly to the sticky cutting board.  I cut out the words I wanted and peeled them off, letter by letter, and stuck them to the outside of the drawers.  It took me 2 evenings to complete the entire project.  It is now at school filled with all of my favorite supplies.  LOVE IT!  

Now for the fun!  For my friend's birthday in January, we went to the Titanic Experience in Orlando.  It was so much fun!  We did the entire dinner experience and of course had to buy the Titanic snow globe and picture with Captain Smith on the Grand Staircase as a souvenir!!  It was something completely touristy but amazing at the same time.  They had so many artifacts and information about the famous disaster.  There is even a 2-ton chunk of Titanic hanging by the iceberg exhibit.  It is something I recommend that everybody attend.  Your ticket has information on your identity for the evening.  It is information about a real passenger and their family and reasons for traveling.  At the end, you learn your fate.  I survived!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!  I hope you had a wonderful time off with your family and friends over Christmas break, I know I sure did!  I look forward to school breaks because I get to see my family who live out of state.  Normally, I fly home to see them, but for Christmas, they get to come to warm, sunny Florida and stay with me!

We started back at work on Thursday, which was a normal teacher work day.  Nothing too exciting, just getting back in the swing of things.  Friday was the exciting day!  My school had a "Just Pin It" professional development day!  A few teachers complied best practice ideas in a variety of areas and displayed them in fun and creative ways.  The whole staff then rotated through the 7 different stations and were able to see these ideas in practice in our classrooms.  It was so fun and informative.

The different areas covered were:  Behavior Management, Math, Foldables, Writing, Reading/Vocabulary, Classroom Organization, and Common Core.  I snapped a ton of pictures and collected a bunch of handouts.  I worked with another 4th grade Writing teacher and setup the Writing station.  We had a PowerPoint slide of ideas that were submitted from other teachers in the school and I put together a Pinterest board full of ideas and printed the URL for the staff on business cards.  If you follow me on Pinterest, it's the board titled "Just Pin It - Writing".  Check it out, it's pretty fantastic!  I included ideas for all age groups, my regular "Writing" board is focused mainly on 4th grade.

Before we were released to explore all the best practices being used in the school, we had a presentation from "The Bag Ladies"!  They are truly amazing!  I can not say enough about their creativity and innovation!  I had never heard of them before and am now so excited to fill my classroom with their ideas.  If you don't know who they are, you need to check them out.  We all ordered units from them and I can't wait to get mine and start using it.  Here are a couple of pictures of the project they made with us.  There are so many more ideas that I can't wait to try out!

This is a large flat paper bag with 1 large pocket, 1 medium pocket and 2 small pockets.

Accordion fold book with cardboard covers. 

Cardboard roll book.

And yes, my Christmas tree is still up!  I will likely put my decorations away tomorrow.

If I Lived in a Snow Globe...

Here it is!  My favorite writing activity of the year!  I love all things winter, add in some glitter and you have a project that is sure to be a hit!  I did this project with my students last year, and the haunted houses I did this year was a play on this snow globe writing activity.  They write about what they would see, feel and do if they lived in a snow globe.

I began by building some background knowledge.  Living in Central Florida, a vast majority of my students have never seen real snow.  We talked about what they knew about snow and winter.  They said that it was cold and wet.  I then had them describe what they had seen or heard that lead them to believe that snow was cold.  They made connections to movies or TV shows they had seen that had people wearing coats, gloves, etc.  They talked about it getting so cold that you can see your breath.  They also talked about Christmas lights shining on the sparkly snow.  (Some of them even captured that in their snow globes!)

To enrich this introduction lesson, I read them a couple of short books that were set in snowy settings.  (I admit, these were pretty easy books, but the point wasn't to challenge them, it was to get them fully immersed in all things frosty and frigid!)

This is a wonderful classic!  I was even able to find a claymation
version of this on YouTube to show my class!

This book is beautifully illustrated.  It was a wonderful read.

The best part about this book... The four super elated gators on the
cover are all school PRINCIPALS!!
 LoL  Funny twist for the kids!
I told them that EVERYBODY loves a snow day!

 After reading these books and brainstorming some great descriptive phrases and words, we spent day 2 writing rough drafts.  We then wrote our final copies on the layered booklets, cut out the globes and bases and let the fun begin!  After drawing and coloring, they outlined their pictures with extra fine point black Sharpie markers.  Then... GLITTER!!!  I managed to control the chaos and keep the glitter on the tiles.  Glitter just seems to make everything better.  Normal snow scenes are transformed into magical fantasy lands!

Glitter station.  3-4 kiddos at a time = minimal mess!

A snow globe base.  Nothing fancy, just need to
be sure that the flip book the kids write on will fit.

Final copy of the flip book placed on the base.  

To get just the right size "globe" I used an Easter bucket I bought
from Target a couple of years ago.  I actually used it for a game at the
Spring Carnival during my first year teaching.  I love reusing things!

Here are a couple of close-ups of my students' amazing work.  They were so into this project and couldn't wait to show me what they wrote and how they illustrated it.  They have added some much needed sparkle and shine to the 4th grade hallway!  Hope you love them as much as I do!

Fa-La-La-La-La

Geez!  Where did November go?  I didn't get a chance to do a single post the whole month.  I am fortunate to work in a county that gives us a full week off for Thanksgiving so I was able to spend the whole time with my family back home.  At the beginning of November, one of my student's dad, who is a fire fighter, came to speak to both of my classes about fire safety.  The kids loved getting to hold all the gear and learned a lot of helpful tips to get out and get safe!  The Friday before Thanksgiving, my writing classes made "I am thankful for..." pumpkin pies out of paper plates, construction paper and brads.  I had each student share what they are thankful for this year.  They had a lot of fun and were very insightful.  We had a Veteran's Day parade at school shortly before and some of the students said that they are thankful for our rights as Americans.

Our visit with some fire fighters.  The kids LOVED it!

The beautiful Veteran's Day parade!  One of the county High School's band and color guard came to perform and many  relatives of our students who are veterans came out to be honored.  I work at a great school!

One of our "I am thankful for..." pumpkin pies.  I enjoyed hearing about all of the important people and things in my students' lives.  

My classroom is now all decorated for Christmas.  This is, without a doubt, my favorite time of the year!  (Confession- I decorated my apartment for Christmas on November 1st!)  I bought all of the supplies for my class Christmas ornament project in mid-November and have already gotten the ornament balls prepped!  We are going to be making snowman heads with earmuffs.  I saw the idea on Pinterest and thought it was just too cute to pass up.  Last year we made melted snowmen with glue and those turned out so cute, but I want to do something that sparkles this year!  This past week we completed what is probably my favorite Writing project of the entire year.  I did it last year and had to do it again this year.  It's my "If I Lived in a Snow Globe" project.  The students write what they would see, feel and do if they lived in a Snow Globe.  I had to let the finished projects dry so I don't have my bulletin board completed yet, but I will get the details on the whole project posted this week!  It is the absolute best!  (Bonus: It involves lots of GLITTER!)  You can find pictures of it from last year on my Pinterest board titled "My Classroom".

Melted snowman ornament I made with my students last year.

My Christmas tree at home!  It makes me SO happy!

Look at all of the fun sparkles and shine I added to my Christmas stash this year!  I love that jewel tones are so big, these perfectly match my tree that I've had for 3 years now!  These won't be on my tree though...

My new sparkle and shine ended up on a new deco mesh wreath I made!  (Another Pin-spired project!)  This is my first ever mesh wreath and I think it turned out pretty well.  It took me 3 attempts to get the ribbon the way I wanted it.

I showed my students 2 options for their snowman ornaments.  Half of them wanted glitter, and half wanted garland so I got those ready because the 2 1/2 days that I plan on doing Christmas gifts and activities do not leave much time to work on things because the staff always puts on a Christmas show and lunch and specials cut into my time with them.

Itty Bitty Christmas tree above the computers.

The Christmas tree I had in my bedroom as a kid.  I don't have room for it in my apartment,
so it has a new life as a school tree!  

Giant plastic snowflakes from Dollar Tree.  Making it snow in sunny Florida!

I hope you found something you like in this post.  Stay logged on this coming week to see my fantastic Christmas and winter writing project.  Don't forget to follow me on Pinterest!

My Night in a Haunted House

Halloween is coming up, and in an attempt to add some fun to our Writing lessons, I decided to have the kids practice elaboration and word choice to describe what they would see, hear, feel and do if they had to spend the night in a haunted house.  I let them make paper houses and each of the sections is where they wrote about the different parts of the story.  I had them complete a rough draft first and then they made changes to spelling, grammar or parts that just didn't make sense.  Then they folded the paper houses and re-wrote and designed their house.  I hope you like it!

Here are a couple of close-ups of the houses that the kids completed.  You can see that after they wrote, they were able to go back and decorate the houses. The front left of the house is what they see, right across from that is what they hear.  On the inside, the left is what they would feel (physical or emotional) and across from that is what they would do.

Here are step-by-step, photo instructions on how to fold the paper houses.  You can also skew the "towers" by having them off-center when folding.  I also traced the outline of the towers on the front so the kids knew where to write on the inside.  

 

Begin with legal size paper and fold in half (hamburger fold). Then with the crease on the top, fold over the sides until they meet but do not overlap in the center.  Meeting in the center will make both towers equal in size.  If you want one short and one tall, have  them meet off-center.  

 

After both sides are folded inward, open one of the side flaps and push your finger up to the point and pop it out.  Then pull down the "roof" so it meets the crease line of the now formed "tower".

Repeat this action to the other side of the house.  At this point, I trace the top of the "roof" line and draw a line down the middle so the students know where to write.  I also have them draw a line across the roof line so they can decorate the "attic".

I hope this gave you some ideas for a fun, student created Halloween Bulletin Board!

Happy Fall

Do you decorate your classroom for the different seasons and holidays?  I sure do!  Living in Florida, the trees don't change and I really miss the different seasons.  I try to incorporate the change in season into my classroom decor.  I added some fake fall leaves over my essential question board.  I use to go along the whole length of my white board, but I just don't seem to have time to go staple crazy these days!  

I have put cobwebs around my apartment, draped around my art and spiders over my doors for years, this time I decided to put them up in my room.  The kids got a kick out of it, and asked me when was the last time the classroom was cleaned!  Haha!  (I did not cover the fire escape window!)

Dollar Tree has these cheap foam pumpkins right now.  I was going to do an elaborate project with them, but I came up with a more focused writing activity to do than the vocabulary activity I was going to do with these!  I decided to cover them in glitter instead and use them to decorate the classroom.

 I have seen variations of these "Where Are We?" displays all over Pinterest.  I decided to create one that goes along with my classroom color scheme and added a little monster holding a sign that identifies our current location.  I put magnets on the black strip.  SPA is what we call Recess.  I joke with my students the first few days that I think that's when they are suppose to let me relax while they do my hair and nails.  Surprisingly, a couple of them always agree that it would be fun!

This are "Common Core Talking Stems" that I found on Pinterest.  There are tons of conversation starters and questions that get the kids thinking about why they answered a question the way they did.  I put them on a ring and placed a set at each table group in their supply tubs.  A big focus at my school this year is Collaborative Pairing.  I incorporate it into as many lessons as I can.  It is very easy to have them answer a question independently and then turn to a neighbor and talk about it, or have them complete work together.

Last year, I made small versions of this math problem solving pencil that I pass out to my students when they take a math test.  I recently decided to make a bigger, poster sized version to hang up in the classroom.  This way, they can reference it during class and also when we take clicker tests on the computer.

Well, these are some of my more recent projects.  This week we will finish our Haunted House writing project.  I am so excited to share that one!! It is a version of a Snow Globe writing project I came up with last year.  It's on my Pinterest because this was long before I created this blog, but I will share it on here at the beginning of December!  Happy Fall, Y'all!! :o)