Moon Phases Can Be Sweet...

We have been studying the phases of the moon in science.  This is a fun unit on its own, but I needed to "sweeten" it just a touch.

On Friday, we recreated the phases using Oreo Cookies.  These are my food weakness, so just the smell in the room made my mouth water.

Don't let their serious faces fool you.  They were having a blast.  Especially when they realized that I packed two extra cookies in their bags!

Monitoring Our Comprehension...By Talking To Ourselves!

Yes, talking to yourself is now socially acceptable.  At least, when you are trying to improve your reading skills.

We have spent the first three weeks of school learning about how to monitor our own comprehension.  As a teacher, I wish I could get inside the heads of my fabulous fourth graders, but alas, I can't!  So, they must be responsible for having an inner conversation while reading.  We learned about jotting our thoughts, questions, and connections in the margins or on sticky notes.  As we read through a text, we leave tracks in our thinking.

The "tracks" were, of course, some notes.  They serve a purpose.  Talking about text is a surefire way to engage and deepen your understanding of what you read.  To prepare for a good conversation, we needed to keep track of our thoughts.  This was the exciting part!  We found a partner that read the same article and took some time to share our thoughts, opinions, and questions with them.

Take a look at these conversations.  Some of the facial expressions are priceless!  We really took this task seriously.  What a group of scholars!

 Next week, we are looking at some text structures.  I can't wait to start some conversations about this!

One More Week...

Summer is officially over!  This is the last week before students will return to school.  I have my class list, class assignment cards have gone out, and I have been working hard on our classroom.  I am very excited to  meet all of my students and families on Thursday evening!  

Here are some pictures of the progress so far...

This is the view from my desk area.

Our Clip Chart for behavior management.

Our class library.  Please excuse my "To Do" list.

Guided Reading Area

Sink and Sign In Area

This is the view from the door.

Progress...

I spent a little over an hour on Thursday unpacking.  The progress is small, but I am starting to get a vision.

Coming Soon!

I am excited to announce that I will be part of the fantastic fourth grade team at Helena Elementary!  Having been a Hornet parent for the past few years, I feel truly blessed to be able to become part of the teaching team as well.  I will be moving into my new room next week, so stay tuned!  Here are a couple "before" shots to give an idea of where I will begin...

Here we are before my furniture....

100 Days Smarter!

The 100th day of school is always one of my favorites.  It is amazing to look back and see all that we accomplished.  As a tradition, we always dress like we are 100 years old and complete a project to share at school.  I was so proud of the creative projects that came in.

School was dismissing at 12:30 in anticipation of the big snow storm.  I regret that I did not get pictures of the projects.  I promise to get some pictures when we get back to school (whenever that may be!).  In the meantime, enjoy my geriatric group of Firsties!

This is the second year I had an oxygen tank come in on the 100th Day!

They seem a little grumpy...

They were sleepy and demanded Bingo all day!  It is exhausting keeping these 100 year old people happy.  Thanks to all the parents who helped with projects and outfits.  We really had a blast!  80 more days to go!

Fraction Action

The Firsties love any activity that involves food.  I think that is why I was meant to be their teacher.  We kicked off our fraction unit by dividing lots of items into 1/2 and 1/4.  We cut and folded paper shapes, divided groups of counters, paper clips, etc.  The best part, though, was dividing the graham crackers.  When we complete this kind of activity, we get to eat our projects!  That is always fun!

I do believe we had some fun this day.  The faces of my Firsties do not seem to show that.  However, I assure you no Firsties were harmed in the completion of this lesson.