Reindeer oh my..

So sometime last week on pinterest I saw an adorable pin that was from a first grade blog First Grader..at Last: http://firstgraderatlast.blogspot.com/2011/11/reindeer-games.html
She had a whole reindeer games unit, and the final part was a fill in the blank book, called, "If You Give a Reindeer some Root beer.." Well a fill in the blank is a little young for my kids so here is what we did instead. First on Monday we did cause and effect with "If You Give a Pig a Pancake.." then on Tuesday we did cause and effect with "If You Take a Mouse to the Movies," (by the way these were both great title because we just finished learning about alliteration; oh the tie in!!!) I'm getting side track. After doing cause and effect for both pieces we compared the two using a Venn Diagram. Well today we brain stormed first and then in pairs the students had to write thier own books entitled "If You Give a Reindeer a ________________." and they got to fill in the blank, but they had to use alliteration because that is one of the things the other books had in common. They also had to do Cause and Effect in their books. We accomplished this by doing one cause and one effect per note card then gluing the note cards onto the pages of our books. (I don't know about your kids, but if I had given them a blank book to fill, all the word would have been on one page). The last thing each of their books had to have was circular logic; the the "If You Give books" they need to come full circle and come back where they started.

Enough rambling about the lesson. Sorry I tend to be long winded and like the sound of my voice (maybe that's why I teach hmmm...). Well here are some picture of their books.

If You Give a Reindeer a Rap Set  - If You Give a Reindeer a Rocket - If You Give a Reindeer a Root beer

The books are so adorable I wish I could read them all to you, but I will do just one. This one is rather clever and so I thought you all would enjoy.

If you give a reindeer a rocket
He'll probably want some fuel
If you give him fuel
He'll probably ask for turbo boost
If you give him turbo boost
He'll want fuel for them too
and if you give him the fuel
He'll probably go into space
If he is in space
He'll want some company
If you give him company
If will be too cramped and he'll want to go back down
and when you come back down
he'll probably miss space
And when he misses space
He'll ask you for another rocket.

Alright, well that is strait from the plan book, I hope you can use it or log it away for another Holiday, "If You Give a Bunny a Blueberry" or maybe "If You Give a Leprechaun a Lemon," lol.

And as always thanks for reading and pinning.
Mrs. B

Chritmas Trees wishes, and gingerbread dreams

Hey everybody so I have some stuff for you all today. Oh yes, I am in the Christmas Spirit as it is our last week of school before break!!

This week and last week we have been working on decimal representation: word, standard, expanded, model, and fractional. I know ugh right! Well my kids don't think so, I have tried to be upbeat about fraction and decimals and it has seemed to rub off on them. Well today we, "Trimmed some trees with Decimals,"
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5AmFXrzxffpZTE4OTExZWItM2FhNC00ZDgzLWEwMWUtZWM4M2UzMDdkMGQz

that is the link to the template. Anyway each pair had three trees, they had to put the stars on top of each tree and then use the ornaments to do the other forms of the decimal.
star-standard
gingerbread man- expanded
round ornament - word
long ornament - fraction
presents- model

Then they had to paste the trees in order from greatest to least. Here are how they turned out.

I won't put a bunch of pictures, but everyone this time did it correctly and it was a fun way to see if they are getting it.

Okay, so also not to long ago I saw on Blog Hoppin' a teacher did a project for younger kids called turkey in disguise (sorry I don't remember the teacher, but she is so smart). So we decided since I saw it too late, to do Gingerbread men in disguise for our Christmas writing prompt. The students are currently working on stories about how they woke up and they found a gingerbread man running for his life and asking for help. In their story they must tell about how they disguised him, what they disguised him as, and how they helped him escape certain peril. They are having such a good time, they begged for extra writing time today. Anyway here are some of the gingerbread men in disguise, these are not all from my class. Our whole fourth grade is doing this project.

 aren't they adorable, these are just a few. There were way too many to choose from. Hopefully when they are done with the writing piece I can post some of those.

I hope you all have an amazing last week before break, and as always thanks for reading!

Mrs. B

New computer = more post, Hooray!!

 I GOT A NEW COMPUTER!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!! okay anyway down to business.

I wanted to post I writing prompt that I did with my students a while back. While readying the book Shiloh, when my students went out of the room for related arts I put a picture of a puppy on each of their desk. (The puppy pictures are from the dailypuppy.com) When the returned I gave them the prompt.

Just like Marty you have found a puppy, now you must convince your parent to let you keep it. Before we started writing we went over the different ways to persuade: guilt, flattery, etc. After writing and proofreading, I had the students glue their final drafts along with their puppy picture to construction paper and decorate. Here are some of the pictures. The students really loved it and it was a great way to get them into persuasive writing.

 Alright this my a cool thing that actually one of my students came up with. So for erasers I buy lots of felt because it cost like nothing and this is what they use to erase their practice mats (my alternative to white board: just a piece of card stock inside of a sheet protector). Back on track Cassie Focus!! Okay so the felt we use for erasers. I am checking their practice mat one day, and I notice one of my sweet angles has attached the felt to the end of her marker with a rubber band, and BAM dry erase marker with an eraser. So now all my kids have one except for those who can not handle the rubber band, their felt is hot glued on.

OoOoOo!!! Right!!!

Thank you all again for stopping by and please tell you teacher friends about my blog!! Thanks for following!

Mrs. B

Tis' the Season for cramming before break.. fa la la la la :)

Snowman DOOR, Snowman DOOR!!! How cute you are in my classroom!

Okay for ideas now, cause that's what you want.

Well have been studying the water cycle, and we did a song and anchor chart and so on. Then I had the students write from the point of view of the raindrop, telling someone about their life in the water cycle. I required them to use their vocabulary words. Then they got to color and decorate their raindrop. Here is a pic.

I love his hat and bow tie.

I also change up my class a little bit. Part of our rubric for TAP evaluations is to an classroom environment evaluations. So, I thought I would Jazz it Up! So to speak.

I added this to the wall behind my Guided Reading table, the different color books represent my different reading groups. The are attached to clothes pins. My kids are really enjoying hanging there small group work on them.

I also added these bird clips in the back, to hang up anchor chart. It makes them easy to switch out and I can hang a bunch of them. I have them on my other back wall too! I am obsessed, and my students like to put them up there, it is their new favorite job.

Okay last on promise, out in the hall I did the same thing so that I could hang up those big poster we let the kids make on butcher paper. I don't know about you all, but I can never get them to stick with anything, so you can imagine my excitement when this worked.

Alright tune in soon for our fourth grade Christmas activities: Reindeer, Gingerbread men, and snowmen oh my!!

Praying for a new computer

So my laptop is soooo old, and it has been very very sick lately. This is not good for blogging. Well there are a lot of things I have wanted to share with you all. So we will start off the week with Geometry.

First, The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns. This is one of my favorite books. I love going cross-curricular. tee hee! Well anyway I must focus. We did an activity with this book. We read the book first, and if you know anything about it on the pages it will say, "and much, much, more!" talking about all the things the different polygons could be. So my students were put into groups, and were asked to add the much, much, more to the book by thinking of all the different things that each polygon could be (real world examples) there were four groups quadrilaterals, triangle, pentagons, and hexagons. The penta- and hexa- groups got five minutes on the computer after 5 minutes without computers since theirs were harder. Here are some of the things they came up with. I was really proud of them.

BeyBlade Screw Hexagon

inside of the Star of David- hexagon

Maids apron- hexagon (this one I thought was clever)

Fire hydrant side bolt- pentagon

Superman symbol- pentagon

these are all the triangles

Sorry for all the pictures I just get really proud, and sometimes it hard to explain what they did if you can't see it.

Okay so also I wanted to teach you all the polygon song that I teach my kids every year to help them remember the prefixes that goes with the number of sides. I am a proud Power Teacher so I do gestures, but you can just do the song if you like here it is if you would like to use it!

So I will hopefully have some more post this week if my computer will allow it, and I hope you can use these!! Thanks again for following, oh and pinning my blog on pinterest you all are the best!!

Long Time No Post, Freebies to make up for it :)

Okay so I'm so sorry I have not been able to blog lately, I don't know if anyone has been reading the papers or watching the National News, but Tennessee's new evaluation system is really different from our old one, so we have a lot of meeting, and we have to write and turn in really long lesson plans. So I am really sorry, but to make it up to you I am going to try and post some freebies.

First I have a recording sheet for a game that I came up with when teaching Predators, Prey, and Competition. Originally I wanted to just use a Hungry, Hungry, Hippos game to illustrate that you would get more the less player (predators) there are. Well Hungry, Hungry, Hippos cost 20 bucks a piece and it was not going to happen on a teachers salary. So I  came up with a game called Hungry, Hungry, Birds. 

Each student will have cup (stomach) in front of them with Two Spoons in it (bird beak) or my teaching partner used straws for her beaks (the kids had to suck up the food). The student dump a cup full of counters (prey) in the middle of their circle. The students must try to get as many counters (prey) as they can into their cups (stomach) as possible only using their spoons/straw (bird beaks) until all the couters (prey) is gone. They students then record who ate the most food, and how much did they eat. The player with the least is out (dies) of starvation. After everyone has played, we discussed wheather the number of prey the winner was getting increased or decreased and why they students thought that was. Synthesis OoooOooo!! lol. Then we discussed what might happen if we added more predators to the mix. If you would to do this and use the recording sheet, please click on the link below.  Sorry I don't know how to make the picture the link.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5AmFXrzxffpOGM1NzM2OTctMDJlZS00YjU5LTliNzItZDkwY2UyNDkwZGQz

Also, we did a fun game in Math called Line and Angle Hunters after finishing learning lines and angle we searched our hallway for real life examples. My little angles loved, loved, loved it. Here is the recorder sheet for that if you would like to do it. It has the instructions on it. Like I said sorry the link isn't the picture.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5AmFXrzxffpYzRiNzgxYmUtMzlmOS00YWEzLWI1MzQtZTA3MjgyY2FhYWIx

Oh we also did greatest common factor turkeys. You all are so good with your designs, you put me to shame. I don't know how to use photoshop so I just draw and copy, but I think that my drawing turned out okay, and the kids didn't seem to mind. Here is that if you would like to do your own with all you guys crazy Photoshop and Vistaprint skills.

Aren't they cute my kids really liked this way of organizing their facts and coming up with common factors.

More, More, More, okay so we also have been reading the book Shiloh, So I decided that my kids could do a dog research project. They had to make a poster and give a speech it was great. One of my main goals was to get my kids to use book and not just the Internet, and I did mini-lesson on reference books, appropriate source, etc. It was great well, if you would like to do a similar project here is a link to the rubric I used to grade my kids, and the concept of the lesson.

Rubric

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5AmFXrzxffpMDQ2Y2RiMmYtMGVjNS00MDA5LWE4ZmQtNWQ5MWNiNzY5Njlj

Outline - We wrote this together to help guide their research

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5AmFXrzxffpNzY1ZTNiMjQtOGQyNi00OWJjLWI0MzEtZGRhYjI2ZmYzOTkx

Here are some of there posters

I love the Border Collie saying the facts about Border Collies. So Cute.

And here is a sample of one of the papers. Take into account this is one of my highest students, who attends gifted classes.

Well  I think that is plenty to mull over. I hope the freebies make up for my lack of blogging the last couple of weeks, and I hope you all continue to read. Have a great time with your kiddos!!

Mrs. Beasley

Sunday night football, and still school tomorrow :)

Hello all it has been a hectic week to say the least, I teach in Tennessee and we are under a new evaluation system that is very intense (look up TAP rubric on the Internet), and my first evaluation was this past Friday so I have been busy doing paperwork, not to mention our grades are due by Thursday of this week at noon. YIKES!!!

Anyways I thought I would post today. Last week we did author's purpose, and I decided to make an anchor chart to chart our stories as we read them so that we do author's purpose with every story throughout the year. Here it is.

to make the PIE pop of the wall I cut a tissue box covered it with construction paper and hot glued it. This way we could use the clothes pins easily. Each week right before planning, the students turn in a picture to be cut for the clothes pin as well as telling me what they think the author's purpose was and why. I read them and pick the best ones to vote on at the end of the day, after we pack up we vote on where the pin should go and whose picture to use. They love this and it has been working out well. We are now three stories in and they are already starting to get better with their explanations.

Also, this past week I went to a Sally Ride Science Training, and just a little thing to plug, but I recommend anyone who gets a chance to go. It was really good, and gives you kind of a different perspective for Science.

Well I will let all of you get back to your very important lives because I have to help my hubby and fur child make a snack. :) Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed week.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Hello Followers!! So here lately we have been working with Metro School Essential Literature Program and our class recently read Tale of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. This is my favorite book to do with fourth graders, I love it they love it and it is so easy to teach the story elements using this book. One of the skills we worked on was making connections text-text, text-world, and of coarse the easiest to do with book text-self. As part of our text to self connections I have the students do a writing prompt called Tales of a Fourth Grade.....Nothing/Something. After reading the book and discussing how the title of the book comes from how Peter feels like a fourth grade nothing because of Fudge, I have the students brain storm a time when they felt like a fourth grade nothing just like peter. Then they write and illustrate it on a half sheet of paper, then they get to brainstorm about a time they felt like a fourth grade SOMETHING (a time someone went out of their way to make them feel loved and appreciated). I love this lesson, you really get to know your kids, and it really helps them think about the fact that someone does care about them. Here are some examples....(please excuse the spelling errors, they were not counted for spelling on this assignment because I wanted them to focus on the tone and feeling of their writing) :) They did a great job!

hope this a lesson you can share with your class. They loved it!! Talk to you all next time!

Mrs. Beasley

nomination and a busy busy day!!

Hello all first I would like to thank Tara @ http://4thgradefrolics.blogspot.com/ for nominating me for this award for The Versatile Blogger there were just a couple of conditions.
1. Thank nominator and provide you with a link to there sight. Thank you Tara your blog is amazing, I can tell you are a great teacher
2. Share 7 things about yourself that your readers may not know
    Alrighty
     1. I played college softball on a scholarship
     2. I was my high schools homecoming queen
     3. I collect DVDs I have over 300 :)
     4. This is my third year teaching
     5. I used to want to be an animal cruelty officer. Like on animal cops on animal planet (my original degree was going to be in criminal justice.
     6. I met my husband the day I moved into my dorm in college
     7. My mom is Filliapina :)
3. Pass along to 15 other blogs. I don't know if I stalk 15 whole other blogs, but here are the one I normally stalk

http://pitnerm.blogspot.com/
http://brittmale.blogspot.com/
http://theteacherwife.blogspot.com/
http://ladybugsteacherfile.blogspot.com/
http://whatteacherswants.blogspot.com/
http://mrsjumpsclass.blogspot.com/
http://ohboy3rdgrade.blogspot.com/
http://theinspiredapple.blogspot.com/
http://mregilchristclass.blogspot.com/
http://eagerlittlemind.blogspot.com/
http://weeklyhive.blogspot.com/

Well that is eleven pretty close I am new to blogging so sorry if the links do not work :(

Anyways in other happening I did to fun lessons today to share with you!!

First fact families I gave each child a picture frame and had them draw the fact family inside like a family portrait. They turned out pretty cute. They had to put the facts on the side in the frames. :) Check it out.

Pretty cute huh!!

Okay now this next lesson was on adjectives. Each student received three chips and had to use their senses to find adjectives to describe it. Then they wrote them on paper chips colored and we put them on these charts. Our charts say,  "I bet you all my chips that I can use adjective to describes nouns." Looking back on it it should say we. One of my students pointed that out, well I guess at least I must have done a good job on our pronouns unit. Tee Hee!

 I choose Doritos...

Cheetos

 and sour cream and onion lays

 here are some of the words on the chips!! My sweet kiddos did such a good job!

Well everybody it is bedtime thanks again to Tara for the nomination, and thank you all for following. Hope everyone has a great day with their classes tomorrow shaping the youth of America!! WE CAN DO IT!!!