Donors Choose Treasure!

I recently received several Donors Choose grants and just wanted to share my excitement.  I have earned 4 grants this school year and have needed every one of the supplies given.  My first project was for CD players and books on CD.  My students loved being able to listen to books on CD that might have been above their reading level.  It has really encouraged many of them to choose books that they otherwise wouldn't have.    Several weeks later I was informed that another grant had been funded.  This time I received a class set of white boards.  Something a class can always use.  I recently read a blog post about using old whiteboards as a clip board by adding binder clips.  So we recycled the ones for this purpose.

In late March I received notification that I had gotten two more grants.  One was for expo markers to use with our white boards and the other was for five Kindles.  The students have not used the Kindles yet as I am hoping for cases for each of them.  Of course we will use the expo markers right away as we are always in need of them.  

If you haven't tried Donors Choose yet check it out.  Anyone who is a teacher is eligible to apply for a grant.  

Accerleated Reader

I have had a love/hate relationship with Accelerated Reader throughout my teaching career.  When I first began teaching it was required at my school but I had no idea how to motivate students to actually read each night.  This is when I really didn't like AR as I could not figure out how to make it successful for my students. 

Fast forward to my 14th year of teaching and I am blessed to be teaching in a school where Accelerated Reader is valued by my principal and all adults within the building.  When students go to the media center, the media specialist pulls up the students reading range information and students are not permitted to choose books that are not within their reading range.  Students are also required to check out two fiction and two non fiction books each week.  This ensures that students are reading a variety of genres throughout their elementary career. 

But of course how to motivate students seems to be the biggest hurdle for most teachers.   I am really excited to share with you the variety of ways in which I have encouraged my students to continue to read for the entire nine weeks and to reach their AR goal.  Many of them have gone beyond their goal and they will be rewarded for that as well.  Eighteen of my twenty-three students have met their goal this nine weeks with 85% accuracy or higher. 

First and foremost I make reading an AR book non-negotiable.  Students are reminded of this each morning when they enter the room.  I have a power point that is visible each morning and one of the items is about reading.  Here is an example:

Students see some version of this each morning which sends a clear message that reading is a priority within our classroom. 

Status of the Class

Status of the Class happens each afternoon after lunch.  Students are called to the back table one at a time and must show me their AR book and report what page number they are on.  I record it in my binder.  It is a great way to keep track of how long it is taking a student to read a book and provides me an opportunity to informally track who might need guidance on choosing books or who needs their reading levels adjusted.  Click here to download a free version of Status of the Class.  You will be amazed at how much this can improve your classes reading goals and how little time it will take once the routine has been established. 

Special Table

My grade level is fortunate enough to be the last lunch to eat each day.  This provides us the opportunity to be the only grade level in the cafeteria during our lunch time.  My grade level has established the special table as a reward for students who are at their weekly goal and have 85% accuracy on their AR reading.  I pull the report every Friday and determine who gets to sit at the special table.  Students at the special table do not have to spend the first ten minutes eating silently and can sit with classmates that they normally wouldn't get to sit with.  As an added bonus I provide a small treat to each student who has earned the right to sit at the special table that week. 

Raffle Tickets

Each time a student takes a test they have the opportunity to earn raffle tickets for our treasure box.   They love earning raffle tickets.  My system for keeping track of who earned tickets is simple students just write their name on the white board at the front of the room if I am unable to get their tickets immediately.  Students who earn a 100% on their test earn four raffle tickets, a 90% earns three raffle tickets and an 80% earns one raffle ticket.  Students who earn a 100% or 90% also earn a piece of candy.  Tickets placed in the treasure box are pulled each Friday and the students earn a small treat, usually a mini-tootsie roll or some other small piece of candy. The student who has the most points for the nine weeks and the student with the most points for that week also earn a special prize.  Here is my treasure box and the container that I keep my raffle tickets in. 

The Ten Surprise or more

The newest incentive is what it is called the ten surprise.  Students who earn 10 points over their goal are given a special treat bag.  Students can also earn a 20 surprise, a 30 surprise, etc.  My students will receive this for the first time tomorrow and they are so excited.  They don't even know what it is but they have worked so hard to earn one!  I just went to the Dollar Tree and filled a lunch bag with puzzles, pencils, and other little trinkets.  I cannot wait to see their faces when they get their reward tomorrow. 

I hope this will provide you with some ideas for making AR more enjoyable for your students.  After all as teachers we know that the way to become better readers is to read more.  For some students this seems to come naturally, for others not so much.  We have to find ways to encourage all students to read regardless of their reading ability.  Even the best reader can improve their reading by reading a wide range of books. 

If you have any great ideas for encouraging more reading please leave a comment with your ideas!

Marvelous Monday!

Our Monday was marvelous and we accomplished so much in one day!  

In math we began our unit on division.  We started with a fact family activity so that students could see the commutative property and the inverse operations of multiplication and division.  This was a great activity and lasted only about 15 minutes.  The kids loved it and begged to do another scoot activity soon!  You can find the free fact family activity here.  I used this recording sheet so that students knew exactly how they should record their fact families.  We practiced with several before I allowed them to complete the scoot activity on their own.   I love scoot activities as they allow students the opportunity to get out of their seat and walk around.  If needed, I may assign a student a partner if I feel that they need one in order to be successful.

Our math lesson continued with Skittles and of course the students loved the idea of candy!  We used our Skittles and little cups to divide.  The students were shown a word problem on the Smart Board and then counted out the total number of candies needed.  They used the little cups as their groups and then had to divide them evenly.  A great way to have a hands on math lesson.

We topped off our day by creating a door decoration for Red Ribbon Week.  Although the fire marshal won't let us actually hang it on the door.  I found this on Pinterest and loved it.  The template for the monster can be found here.  My students were so excited to do a "craft".  They enjoyed creating their monsters and we may spend an afternoon writing about our monster.

Hope you had a great Monday!

Beginning of the year and a blog makeover!

I can't believe that we have been in school for about 7 weeks already!  The time has really gone by so quickly.
I have fallen head over heals for my class this year.  They are all so sweet and willing to learn.  I have 16 girls and 4 boys, a combination I have never had before.  We have done some amazing things this year.  At the beginning of the year we Saved Fred.  The students loved this team building activity. There are plenty of Save Fred activities available at Teachers Pay Teachers   Check them out!

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Our district has a county wide fundraiser to bring awareness to reading.  Students, parents, teachers and members of the community take a "fun" walk -a-thon.  Money raised stays at the school it was earned at and is used to purchase additional materials for the media center.  My school has a penny war competition.  The classroom that raises the most money, in the form of pennies, wins a popcorn/bingo party.  My class was so excited to win!  Here is a picture of some of my students at the party.

I hope that everyone is enjoying their weekend!  I am off to make hubby an amazing dessert.

I am so happy with my recent blog makeover.  Megan at A Bird In Hand Designs did an amazing job and she handled everything including installing the designs!  

Currently January!

Well I am clearly late with this even though it is only January 2nd!  I have so enjoyed my winter break this year.  My husband and I usually travel home to see our son and his family, including my two granddaughters but this year we chose to stay home.  The trip is long and we often get bad weather on the way there and back.

Listening-I took the KLove 30 day challenge on the first day of June and haven't gone back to mainstream music since then.  It is very soothing music and now my husband and I can listen to the same music in the car.

Loving-I have so enjoyed my time off this year.  Hubby and I drove to Charleston, South Carolina and it was an amazing place.  We took a carriage ride, a dinner cruise and walked for miles.  We saw dolphins in the harbor-which I had never seen in the "wild" before.  I sure did miss seeing my granddaughters, though.

Thinking-Why is it that I always think I am going to get so much work done during break and that just never seems to happen?  I did get lots of rest and relaxation accomplishment which was great.  I wrote lesson plans for the next couple of stories in our basal, and did math plans for the week we return to school.  I guess that will have to be good enough.

Wanting-More time to finish our master bathroom remodel.  We bought a new house two years ago but it has taken us forever to agree on wall colors.  So far, we only have the master bedroom painted and are working on the bathroom now.  Hubby is having surgery at the end of this week so...it will be completed in about two months or so.  (Hopefully!)  Here is a picture of the chandelier that hubby graciously agreed to put up in bathroom for me.  There was a terribly ugly light there prior so I think he agreed just to get rid of the ugly one!

Needing-to finish the laundry that I started this morning.  Took a break and had a lunch date with my darling daughter.  I promised hubby that I would get the laundry done before he got home and as I write this he is pulling into the driveway.  All my stuff is neatly piled up for Monday, I just need to get into a bag.  

Yes maybe-Although I am going to miss the time at home with hubby I am so much better with a schedule and need to get back to it.  I have gained more than one pound while on break despite my best effort to walk daily.  No excuses going forward.  I need to make time for the treadmill each and every day no matter how much work I have or think I have.  

Hope everyone has enjoyed their break.  I hit the ground running Monday morning!

Math Strategies for multiplication and division

My class has been working on multiplication and division for several weeks now.  At times this has been a very painful standard.  Multiplication and division are major works of the fourth grade Common Core Standards.  Although students were exposed to basic multiplication facts in the third grade most of them do not come to 4th grade with mastery of basic facts.  My grade level is working on an incentive program to help the students master the basic facts before we begin our fraction unit.  

Each week students will be provided an opportunity to pass a test on their basic facts.  We are working on facts in a specific order starting with those that are doubles.  Last week we tested them on 2's and 4's.  Those who passed with at least 90% accuracy will get their name placed below the bowl at the far left of the bulletin board.  Those who didn't pass will attempt the 2's and 4's again on Friday as we work on 3' and 6's in class.  The goal is that all students will master their facts by the end of the nine weeks.  Here is a picture of our bulletin board.  

As you can see from the picture we are working on a sundae party.  Students have the opportunity to earn various parts of an ice cream sundae each week as they master the facts. The goal is that everyone will get two scoops of ice cream and sprinkles by the end of the nine weeks.  

We have also been working on division.  Unlike when I was a 4th grade student, students are required to master multiple strategies for what once was called long division.  My favorite strategy is to teach students the partial quotient method.  This strategy actually requires more higher level thinking as students really must understand place value in order to be successful.  

I had such a great lesson with one of my students last week involving this strategy.  This student is not on grade level in math and basic operations are often difficult for the student.  I pulled this student to a small group and we worked on two digit by one digit division using the partial quotient method.  I brought out a hundreds chart to assist the student in writing down the multiples needed for the division problem. This student also is allowed to use a multiplication chart to assist with the basic facts.   Students are required to write the needed multiplies along the side of the paper before beginning the actual division. I was so happy and proud that we were able to complete several division problems with the additional supports I put in place.   Here is a copy of our completed sheet.  

Have you tried the partial quotient method in your classroom?  Leave a comment and let me know if you had success with this strategy.

Save Fred!

Today was the second day of school and I decided that a little team building was in order.  I found this activity on the Internet several years ago but this was my first attempt at.  I found this blog post over at Growing a STEM classroom and it triggered my memory about this great activity. 

Fred is a gummy worm and his boat (the clear plastic cup) has capsized.  His life preserver (a gummy lifesaver) is still on his boat and he can't swim.  The students must use paper clips only to save Fred by getting his life preserver and putting it on him.  

I allowed my students to work with a partner for about 15 minutes to see if anyone could save Fred.  Several people dropped him-oh no he drowned!  Students were allowed to try again if they let Fred drown.  

Our wonderful Math/Science coach was also a partner for one of my students.  Here they are trying to get the life preserver from in the boat.  

After about 15 minutes I allowed the students to work in groups of four to see if that would be more successful.  This did help several groups.  

Fred has been rescued!

The students really enjoyed this activity and everyone was engaged.  They recorded their steps on a sheet of paper and wrote a description of how they saved Fred or what happened when he drowned.  

Here is a link to a free power point presentation that will allow you to explain this activity to your students.  Thanks to Karre Nevarez at Teacher Pay Teachers for this great product.  

We had a great time with this activity and not only does it teach problem solving it is also a great team building activity.