Back to School

The count down has begun...I have three weeks, but that time will fly! I always like having a couple of activities on hand that give my new fourth graders time to interact...and me a few minutes to prepare for what's next or handle those little hiccups typical of the first few days of school. We always begin with a geography review so I use United States map puzzles from Dollar Tree. Students can work on the puzzles in pairs or on their own. The conversations always flow as they are busy putting together their puzzles. I review geography as part of our first Social Studies unit...always great when you can incorporate the curriculum into beginning of the year fun!

I love glyphs! This is a great way for students to get to know each other. They decorate their names, and it is an instant decoration for my cabinets. I always point out how different our name glyphs are...and that's what will make us a good team. Directions for this Name Glyph Back to School Activity can be projected to help students with the steps. I use this as a way to go over routines and following directions. 

We play games throughout the week so we can work on routines for math stations. One game that I go back to again and again is "war". We can use the same cards to compare, order, and round. I have a set of money cards that my fourth graders will have an easy time comparing. We can also practice using task card recording sheets by using the cards for addition and subtraction. Since my focus is on routines, I want something that the whole class can do together. In a few weeks I will pull the cards out to introduce rounding. There is an answer sheet included for rounding to the nearest dollar.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog.

Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday

Five for Friday...

Place value will be our first unit. It's perfect for introducing math stations. Most of the unit is review...we are just using bigger numbers. I love the products that people have been sharing on Pinterest and Instagram...place value disks and jumbo playing cards. I just keep adding to that Amazon order!

I created a Place Value Review Activity that can also be used as an assessment. There are 3 options...students create a number to the ten thousands, hundred thousands, or millions place. I post the half sheet task cards around the room, and students respond to questions based on their personal number.

I let students complete the activity at their own pace. So if I need more stations, I add computer stops where students complete a short activity or a teacher stop where students read numbers.

Today it's their birthday...

Tomorrow one leaves for college!

And the other in two weeks! Where did the time go?

Have a great weekend! Be sure to check out Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Monday Made It

It's Monday so that means I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It.

I made new schedule cards...

 
And then a set for a friend...

And then I told myself no more schedule cards. They are so much fun to make with clip art making the possibilities endless. The chevron pattern is from Mr First Grade and the dots are from Old Market.

I thought about making a poster to display the daily schedule since it doesn't really change from week to week. But every year I have at least one student who just loves to take charge of the schedule...so I'm keeping the cards...just with a fresh new look!

I'm making my Amazon shopping list. I'll share just a couple things on my list. My classroom needs to be painted, and the area above the windows looks terrible. This will eventually be covered up with anchor charts, but I can't leave it like this. I won't have time to paint so the wall decals will add some color and it's an easy solution. 

We study a group of historical documents in social studies. To get a start on the vocabulary we will write our class rules on scroll poster board and then all sign our names. It's so cute how serious they are when they sign their names.

And I just learned about this product...can't wait to use it with our Fraction Unit.

I made my Welcome sign for outside my door. Miss Giraffe's Class has a great tutorial for making the letters. I'll post the letters along with a tree (of course) that has the names of all my students. I've always made a "rustic" tree out of brown paper and twisting branches, but this year I'm trying something new. I'll share that next week. 

And finally I made a new Post-It Board...

You can read how I use it here.

I hope you have a great week! Be sure to visit 4th Grade Frolics.

Five for Friday

It's so much fun linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday...

I finally made a new Post-it board. This was my first post-it board...

And the updated version...

I love the poster board with the invisible grid! You can read about how I use the Post-It Board here.

I try to keep the class active as we are learning all of those new routines. In preparation for math stations, we will play a game of war using money cards. We play this game throughout the year with decimals and fractions. We can practice the routine with the money cards since most of my students should have an easy time with this. At the same time...we are beginning our work on decimals. The cards will be used again in a few weeks to introduce rounding to the nearest dollar. 

Ordering this today...

I'm afraid that's all I have for today....have a great week! Be sure to check out all of the great ideas at Doodle Bugs Teaching.

Five for Friday

Is it really time for Five for Friday? I completely forgot until just this minute. It's been a crazy day that began with dropping off my son for an early morning cross country practice, and ended with a dental appointment to get a temporary crown. Can't wait to go back in a couple of weeks to get the permanent crown! You would think that for someone who has had 5 kids going to the dentist would not be a big deal...but that's just not the case for me.

This has been my first week home...summer school ended last Friday. I've been trying to accomplish a few things...

Well, first I shopped! I couldn't miss the TPT sale.

Then I posted August Pinterest Finds. There are so many great ideas out there, and once I start reading it's hard to stop!

I made new schedule cards...really needed these!

 

Then I made a set for a friend...

Now back to the piles and piles of laundry that need to be folded. I hope you have a great week and thanks so much for visiting my blog. Be sure to visit Doodle Bugs Teaching.

August Pinterest Picks

I am linking up with Pawsitively Teaching for Pick 3 Top Pinterest Picks...so difficult to just list 3!

We work on a Math About Me poster during the first week of school. Fun for the kiddos and a nice display for Back to School Night. I thought these ideas were great...

It's fun to watch a Pixar Short Film the first week of school...and then incorporate more throughout the year. Here are two great resources...

This post has great ideas for using wordless picture books with older kids. I usually grab all of these books the first week of school. I use them as we practice routines and working with partners. Works great since I always have a wide range of reading levels. I'm excited to have some more activities to incorporate...

Be sure to check back with Pawsitively Teaching.