Back to School in a Flash: Curriculum Fave's

I'm excited to join up with Ramona from Ramona Recommends, Layla from Fancy Free in 4th, and Jamie from a Not so Wimpy Teacher for this month's linky party:  Back to School in a Flash!  This week is Camera Roll #1 and we will focus on my Teacher Faves, yay!

Curriculum Fave #1:  Something I've created
Sadly I haven't gotten into the market of TPT yet, so these products aren't for sale, but my favorite are my Science notes & labs I created last year.  I designed one lab per week, on Thursdays, and always aligned it with my topics!  I had so many parents tell me that most days were torture getting their kids out of bed or to school, but they couldn't wait to come on Thursday for experiment day!

This year I won't be teaching Science due to the way we're departmentalizing :(  However, I am still going to do at least one experiment per month, and tie it more into Reading and Writing.  Each month I will blog about our experiments, but here is a sneak peek at some pictures last year from two of my favorite experiments!

Balloon Challenge:  Students must work together to suspend a helium balloon in mid-air with their given materials.

Marshmallow challenge:  Build the tallest tower that can hold a marshmallow without crumbling.

Curriculum Fave #2:  Product I use every Year
I am in love with "Paragraph of the Week" by Teaching in Room 6.   This will be my third year using this product, and I can't tell you how helpful it is for my students!  They thrive on the routine of the writing each week, it doesn't take too long to complete daily, and the prompts are extremely engaging.  I have always been great (sorry how conceited that sounds) at Math and Science, but Writing has never been as "fun" for me, therefore it's harder to teach.  This product helps take the guesswork out of Writing, and provides both the students and I a high-quality base to then climb even further!

Fave #3:  Product on my Wish List
I don't know about you, but sometimes TPT products can be hit-or-miss on the quality of the product and resources.  Therefore, once I find a teacher-author I like, I try to stay loyal to his/her store.  So, a couple of years ago I found Kristine Nannini's products, and I LOVE her!!!

My newest obsession and wish list item is Color-by-Number for Big Kids, 4th Grade Common Core Math.  I'll admit, I'm still a big kid myself and love to color and doodle during my free time!  I have this item in my cart ready for the TPT's Back to School sale starting tomorrow, woohoo!!!

That's all for today folks, join me next week for the Student Engagement issue of Back to School in a Flash!

TAG-IT Reading Strategy

Today I am sharing a strategy for answering those open-ended Reading response question that are all the rage in the "big tests" now (Common Core, PARCC, Smarter Balanced, or TNReady as we're now calling it).  It has a simple acronym to remember: TAG-IT... this started out as just TAG as in "TAG your answer," but I realized I needed to add just a bit more scaffolding for the 4th graders, so TAG-IT was born!

Each year we create an anchor chart together. Then I take a picture, copy 4-to-a-page, and give one to each student to glue in his/her interactive notebook.

T - Turn the question into a statement (such a pet peeve when they start with It means... or She said... In fact, I forbid starting any answer with a pronoun).


A - Answer the question (simple enough)

G - Give evidence from the text (students were getting pretty skilled at citing quotes and evidence from the text, but...)

I - Include, in your own words, why that information is important (they weren't going above & beyond the text or telling WHY they chose that specific piece of information)

T - Take time to re-read your answer to make sure it makes sense (Finally, they spend so much time making sure that they have all the pieces above, that sometimes their writing doesn't flow properly.  This makes them re-read their response and add in crucial transition words, punctuation, etc...)

What do you use for teaching your students how to respond?  I love hearing new ideas!

Teacher Faves #1

I'm excited to join up with Ramona from Ramona Recommends, Layla from Fancy Free in 4th, and Jamie from a Not so Wimpy Teacher for this month's linky party:  Back to School in a Flash!  This week is Camera Roll #1 and we will focus on my Teacher Faves, yay!

Fave #1:  My Planner
In the past two years, I splurged on an Erin Condren planner, and while I loved it there were a lot of unused pages and the size was just a bit too big for my comfort.  This year I decided to opt for a Plum Paper planner, and so far I'm loving it! Here are several pictures & captions explaining why I like it so much!!  (I take terrible phone pics, sorry in advance!)

My two favorite colors, green & pink!  The green is much more vibrant than this picture shows.

Monthly Spread, very similar to EC.

One of my favorite parts is that I got to select what subjects to have pre-typed in the planner and in what order, this little thing will save so much time!  Also, the dates are pre-populated as well.

I opted to add 1 double-sided checklist page to every month.   I have an online gradebook, so I plan to use these for my standards I teach each month to keep track of student progress:  Reading/ELA on front, Math on back.

Parent contact lists, I think I'll have the parents write info on a label, and stick them in here.

I like that my parent communication form is in my binder as well, makes documentation all in one place!

Professional Development page, this may be simple, but I'm soooo glad they've included it!  In my district, we put in all of our hours at the end of the year, and it's hard to remember what dates & for how long we met 10-12 months ago.  This & the parent contact page will be great for documentation at end of year.

A personal goal is to track my fitness better, so I paid a bit extra to have fitness pages put in my planner.  This is the generic page for the whole year (beg / end)

There are 12 of these pages, one per month.

Also 12 of these.

Notes, you can see I've got a few blog posts to think about!

I <3 stickers!!!

Folder.  The only bad part about these is due to the smaller size of the planner, papers would have to be folded before they can fit in here.  You maybe can tell, I tore out my pencil pouch from my old EC planner, put in extra / unused stickers, and placed it in the folder - yay for upcycling!

Size comparison, to my favorite book series.

Thickness comparison.

Fave #2:  Pens, Pencils, and Markers
My name is Amber, and I've got a serious addiction to writing utensils:  especially Flair pens & Sharpies... it's a disease I tell ya.  Here are just the ones I have here at my house, I have at least this many also at school.  I will say in my defense, I never pay full price, I stock up during BTS and other sales to last me all year + some.

Fave #3:  Cowboy girl Boots
My third favorite thing, are my cowgirl boots that I purchased last Spring, I am in LOVE with these boots!  They're super comfortable, go well with jeans and dresses, and the design is cute without being too gaudy.

Fave #4:  Tennessee VOLS
Last, but not least, are my Tennessee Volunteers!  I go to at least 1 football, basketball, and LadyVol game each year, but football is far & away my favorite.  This picture always puts a smile on my face, it's our mascot Smokey (blue-tick hounddog) on a very, very cold day snuggled up in his coonskin cap and orange blanket!  I dare you not to smile at this pic :)

Thanks for stopping by, let me know if you have any questions or if any of these favorites are yours too!

Five for Friday - Books, Beverages, and Boys!

This is my first Five for Friday post with Doodle Bug Teaching!

 I am addicted to the Harry Potter franchise:  mainly books, but movies, YouTube clips, clothes, some crafts, just everything!  So I've been re-reading the books this Summer and I'm currently on #6 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  This is probably my favorite book, because I love all the backstory we finally get on He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

 I'm also re-reading The Indian in the Cupboard.  I haven't read this book in about 5 years, but am wanting to do it as a novel study or literature circle groups this year with my students.  I love to have students read books in a series, or by a respected author, so they can keep reading more by that author.  I am working on a novel study to go with it, and plan to post it to TPT as my first sellable item when I finish!

 

 Thirdly, I'm reading Teach Like a Pirate, by Dave Burgess.  I'm a bit behind the bandwagon on this book, and he's recently come out with his 2nd book Learn Like a Pirate that I will read next.  So far, I'm loving the strategies in this book, I'll make another blog post soon to share my favorites!  If you're on Twitter be sure to follow him @burgessdave (he'll probably even follow you back!), and join his weekly twitter chat via #tlap on Mondays at 9 p.m. EST.

This actually happened last week, but I'm so excited and can't wait til September.  I bought tickets for my mom, my grandparents, and I to go see the Tennessee Vols vs. Oklahoma Sooners at Neyland Stadium!!!  I am a football FANATIC, and this will be our first home game, night game, and the *most likely* the first time we have been ranked in 7 years!

This picture is a bit blurry, but what it represents is amazing.  Peyton, a Vol4Life, came to TN to pay his respects to the 5 fallen Marines in Chattanooga.  I am proud to associate Peyton with our state & university!

I had dinner & drinks with some friends from school this week, great time getting together!  If you're in SC, TN, or GA I highly recommend Carolina Ale House - great drinks & yummy food!

Happy Friday ya'll!

Worldess Wednesday - Planners

This is a picture (a bad one, sorry) of my teacher planner.  My question to you this week, is do you use one planner, such as an Erin Condren or Plum Paper planner, or do you use several different ones:  planner, gradebook, data binder, etc...?  I am thinking of starting a second planner to keep my students' data, but I'm not sure if that's too much.

Monday Made-It: Math Workstations

As the school year nears closer, I'm getting more crafty to get ready!  This week I "created" several workstation games for students to play when they finish their classwork.  I got all but 1 of the games from this 4th grade PDF file: Building Conceptual Understanding and Fluency Through Games.  I created several copies of 4 games, all related to Place Value.  I plan to create another 3-4 before next week!

 Game 1:  Variable Digits
Students select any spot on the board.  Then they use a pencil and a paper clip to spin a digit, and can move to any touching space that has that digit.  That student records the value of that digit, and the next person gets a turn.  After 5 turns, all players add up their scores and the highest (or lowest if you want a change up to the rules) wins!

Does anyone else remember the Price is Right game where you could move forward, backward, or side-to-side by standing on the squares... that's what this game reminds me of.

Game 2: Digit Ski
Another spinner game, in this one they spin for a place value position and draw a card.  Then, the students says the digit and value that are in that position.  I hope this will reinforce the positions, my students often get the thousands, ten thousands, and hundred thousands places confused!

Game 3:  Becca's Battle
I added a picture of the gameboard to this one, since you can't see it in my picture.  Each student puts 5 game pieces on the letters START, the goal is to move all of his/her pieces to the opposite side.  The student draws a card and rounds it to the value on the board.  This is one of my favorites because it involves place value, rounding, and critical thinking - and allows you to "kick" your opponent's game piece back to START, hehehe *evil laugh.*

I'm thinking I need to make an answer key to this one, since rounding is such a tricky skill for the kids. I don't want them to be practicing wrong.

Game 4:  Appalachian Steps
I think the kids will love this game!  They draw a card and figure out what step they are on.  Depending on their luck they may either stay on the step, move up one level, or move down one level.

Example:  If the 1,000's digit is less than 7, move down one step or Take two cards and tell which is larger - if correct, move down one step, incorrect move up one step.

Thanks for reading, I hope these activities / games will help someone else out that wants to use workstations or centers in their Math class!