Summer Vacation

We are 4 days into summer vacation and I am already working on things for next school year! I can't help it. I like being able to work on classroom things and having the free time to be creative! I am looking to revamp how I display my standards in my classroom so I have begun making new themed cards with the CCSS I can statements listed on them. This way I can laminate them and pop 'em into a pocket chart instead of writing them out each day. I'm hoping this saves time! Also, since I haven't yet chosen a theme for next year, I have created NINE different themes. All the backgrounds came from My Cute Graphics (you seriously need to check out her site because her stuff is so good!). I only have 4th grade completed now but I may look into doing other grade levels****3rd AND 4th grade sets are now available! Grades K-2 and 5 will be posted in the coming weeks.**** Here are some previews of the ones I've created along with a link to purchase that set in my TpT store:

Pretty, bold, diagonal stripes!

Colorful, diamond pattern!


Cute litte pink and brown flowers!


Fun pink & brown polka dots!


Fun pink and blue owls!


Pretty pink, white & gray polka dots!


Funky black, white and pink zebra stripes!


Colorful and fun retro circles!


Pretty red swirls!

Looking forward to sharing more about the end of the school year soon. Hard to believe it's over. Happy summer!

Catching up...

I'm playing Saturday morning catch up--lots to share about what we've been up to the past month. Life has gotten in the way and I haven't been able to post recently. So expect several posts from me today!

First up? Valentine's Day! We did a few things that week to celebrate the holiday. To start, I found a cute idea from Laura Candler on TpT for a cinquain writing activity. The students interviewed each other following her format and created very sweet Valentine's for that person. They turned out pretty cute!

I also remembered finding a cool idea for making Valentine mailboxes on Pinterest and I thought I pinned it but cannot find it. The only idea I actually used from it was having students use empty cereal boxes for them. We then tore pieces of construction paper to create a mosaic look to the boxes. The students took them home, decorated and returned them on party day.

Lastly, I was excited to share my Valentine's for the students with them. I borrowed an adorable idea from The Teacher Wife as part of it. I found the cute V-Day pencils and gift bags at the dollar store and filled a couple little other goodies from Oriental Trading (bought during a free shipping weekend!). They turned out really cute!

It was a week of love in C107!

100 Days Smarter!

We celebrated the 100th day of school on January 31st. This is always one of my favorite days of the school year. We make a whole day of it completing 100s day activities intertwined with our regular schedule. This year, I included a couple new things that I found on TpT. Every student made a crown to wear proclaiming, "I am 100 days smarter!" Here is a photo of everyone in their crowns:

See how happy it made them?? I snagged this from It's Always Sunny in SPED on TpT. I even made one myself:

Another cool thing I found was this activity called, "What can I do in 100 seconds?" created by Lauren Lunceford on TpT. The kids ABSOLUTELY loved this! I have the funniest video of them hopping up and down. Here is a photo of some of them fervently counting how many times they can write their names in 100 seconds:

Be prepared for a little whining from the kids with 8+ letters in their names!

One more thing I always do is the "100 of something"--kids bring in 100 of something and we share our collections. Everyone gets a little certificate for participating. Then the students vote on their favorite 100 collections. The winner brought in 100 crayons but I think his creative display of them won everyone over:

All in all, it was another successful celebration of the 100th day of school. It certainly feels like an achievement and makes us feel that much closer to summer vacation!

Book Clubs, Part 2

Our first round of book clubs lasted a little over 2 weeks. We continued our station schedule as usual. The only difference was that we took a break from traditional guided reading and Read to Partner. During guided reading time, I met with the small groups to hear about the book club meetings, listen to some of their reading (trying to snag a few informal RRRs) and answer any questions they had and make sure everyone was keeping up with the "packet" (more on this in a minute). They also had a chance to share some opinions and thoughts about the book. I really made an effort to let the group members lead the discussions and decide what they felt they needed during that time. This was the part that made everyone nervous at first. Our GR lessons are pretty routine driven so this was a new experience. They got the hang of it eventually.

During Read to Partner time, they would meet with their groups to read a chapter or two of the book together and then they could work on the packets. What is the packet? The packet was a series of reponse sheets that the students used to keep track of how much and what they were reading. I have a subscription to edhelper.com (which I LOVE!) and they have so many reading reponse packets for many different chapter books. They had them for two of the books we were using which was very helpful! It helped guide everyone and keep them on a schedule to finish the book in the allotted 2 week time. I also used these packets for reading grades along the way. Here is the packet for Matilda:

There were not pre-made packets for Drita and Goosebumps so I turned to TpT, of course! I found a fantasic response packet for literature circles from Jessica Osika for {FREE}!! And they worked like a charm for these two groups:

And here are my kiddos working in their book clubs. They did great!

I'm proud to say our first trek with book clubs was a success! We've since completed a second round of books clubs that began after Christmas break. New books, new groups, new packets, but BETTER discussions! It's safe to say that this will become a permanent part of my literacy block.

Geome-TREE!!

We finally squeezed in a fun Christmas activity with math. To practice identifying 2D and 3D shapes and evaluating data, we completed Laura Davis' Mathtivity called Geome-TREE found on TpT. The students constructed a Christmas tree decorated with different ornaments with shapes and figures in them. We cut, colored, glittered and hung. They are too cute. The activity is geared towards primary students so I created our own data sheet more adaptable to 4th grade. Now they are hanging in our pod and I look forward to doing this activity with my students each year!

Oh, and if you're wondering why our trees are black....read my previous blog post! = )

P.S. 5 more school days until Christmas Break!!!

Class Writing Journals

These are our class writing journals.

We do writer's workshop each day that is separate from our Daily 5 stations. Work on Writing is still an occasional weekly station. These class journals are great for that station. You can download the sheets for FREE from my TpT store. The students add entries and we read some aloud. They are a simple and fun addition to any writing classroom!

How can you grow a potato plant without a seed?

This is the exact question we are attempting to answer right now in C107! We have set up our potatoes (cut about 1/4 off and soaking in plain water for a couple weeks) and have begun to observe, infer and predict about the growth we expect.

Each student is keeping track of their information on one of these recording sheets. We will check back in a few days and again at the 2 week mark. We are anxiously awaiting the results!

In the mean time, it makes a pretty cool display in the classroom! If you're a teacher who'd like to try this experiment with your kiddos, you can download the lab sheet for FREE in my TpT store!

Literacy Night Goodies!

Literacy Night is being held here at Harding tonight, Thursday 9/20, from 4-5:30 in the cafeteria (following a short PTA meeting)! A note went home earlier this week! I can't wait to see our families there. Every grade level will host some kind of literacy activity for students and their families. Our grade level will have a bookmark making station. Students can decorate a bookmark that includes a sticker reminder about the "Five Finger Rule". Here is an example:

And here is a close up of the sticker--I always encourage the students to use this in my classroom (in addition to keeping track of their Lexile and F&P reading level).

Finally, each family will receive one of these handy dandy little bookmarks as a parting gift:

These are great for parents or older siblings to have when working with a child who is reading. If they come to an unknown word, use one of the prompts to help them!

**If you are a teacher, you can get the templates for the stickers and parent bookmarks in my TpT store for FREE!**