Updates!

I have done it again! Ignored my blog! Between school, National Boards, a sick grandmother, an engaged sister, a pregnant sister, and trying to have some me time- needless to say life has been busy!  Here are some updates:

1.  I got two new students the week before our state testing.

2.  Our state testing is now finally over!!!!

3.  We started my Edward Tulane novel study which is my favorite thing to do with my 4th graders!  The kids beg to read another chapter every time we close the book.  It is pure heaven for me.

4. I am possibly changing grade levels next year.  After four years in 4th grade and two major classroom makeovers, I might be moving to another grade and a new classroom.  Hello anxiety!

5.   We are adopting Math Common Core next year and our state's math initiative.  Lots of new challenges.

6.  In celebration of testing being over, I got pied at our school assembly yesterday.  No one can ever accuse me of not loving my kids- I took a pie to the face and got cool whip up my nose for those little stinkers! 

After being pied

Me and my "pier"

Reading Edward Tulane and laughing because Edward (who is a china rabbit) was naked in one part!

Easter Egg Fun

If you are like me (and most other teachers on the planet), you can't resist all the holiday goodies at Wal-Mart and Target.  I stock up on plastic Easter Eggs every year and half  the time don't end up using them.  Here are some ideas for using those neon plastic eggs!

1.  Egg Fractions: Put a handful of colorful candy like skittles, jellybeans, or M&Ms in each egg.  You can hide them or simply hand them out to your kids.  The kids will write fractions for each color of candy in their egg!

2. Follow the same plan as above but have students graph their colors!

3. For primary grades, they can simply count all their candy and write a sentence using a number word.

4.  Put different exciting verbs and adjectives in the eggs.  Students have to write sentences using the words in their eggs.

5.  The last one is not so educational and also the one I am currently using in my class.  I wrote a bunch of fun activities and prizes on slips of paper and put one inside each egg.  Each day, a student opens the egg and we do whatever is inside.  Some of the things I put in my eggs were: No homework,  chocolate for everyone, skittles of everyone, 10 minutes of drawing time, let's play hangman, mad libs (great for practicing parts of speech!), story time, favorite math games, etc.  My kids have loved it so far! You should have heard the cheering when they opened the egg with no homework yesterday!

Can't We All Just Get Along???

Name calling, tattling, smack talking, pinching! You name it, my kids were doing it today.  I do not know what has gotten in to my kids but it has to stop!  I felt like I spent all afternoon listening to one boy telling me about how so and so was talking about his mom, and then another wanted to tell me about someone calling him a cry baby, and it went on and on.  I have done the whole squirting glue/toothpaste thing with a class before when talking about name calling and hurt feelings.  Does any one know of any good books or lessons for helping my kids get along and solve problems? I would really appreciate all suggestions!

Slowing Down for Some Factoring Fun

A huge chunk of the 3rd Nine Weeks for my fourth graders is dedicated to fractions.  We eased into this unit by using manipulatives and drawing to explain what a fraction is and then we practiced naming fractions.  Then we added and subtracted fractions with like denominators (which my kids said was so easy!).  Today it was time to dive into the more complex concepts- key scary music- simplest form!!! I know you are all hiding under your covers now much like I wanted to do this morning. 
    Every year my students have struggled with simplest form and I finally realized I was putting it all on them in one huge heap of math nonsense! Factoring, greatest common factor, dividing oh my! So today I tried a new approach- breaking it down into small pieces.  Today we talked about what a factor is and how we factor.  I showed them some examples and then we factored some numbers as a class.  Once my kids got the hang of it, we had a factor competition.  The kids loved it and it did not take a lot of time.  My kids already sit in groups so we had our teams.  I put a number on the board and they had to work together to find all the factors of said number.  When they thought they had them all, they would raise their hands.  I would come to them and tell them if they had them all or if they needed to find more.  The team that got all factors first was the winner of that round.  My kids were so into it they even forgot who won and to ask me about prizes.
 After factoring for a bit, I started putting two numbers on the board and we would factor both.  Then we would circle the factors they had in common.  Next step we added was finding the greatest common factor or gcf as we call it.  The last thing we did was talk about how we would use this with fractions.  They saw the pieces come together in the end! I am hopeful that by slowing down and taking the time to focus on the factoring my kids will be more successful with this skill this year.  Keep your fingers crossed!!

Farley is having a GIVEAWAY!

Mrs. Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade is having an awesome giveaway.  She contacted the wonderful people at My Rubber Stamp to create this one.  You have to see it to appreciate its awesomeness!
 

Na Na Na Na FACT MAN!!

 I have been telling my students since August how important it is to know your basic math facts by heart! Apparently every teacher at my school has too and we haven't gotten through to our kids.  Fact Man to the rescue! Our amazing Title One teacher, Mrs. Edwards, dressed up as Fact Man on Friday.  You never knew when Fact Man would rush into the room and ask a student a math fact! When a kid got one right they got a piece of candy.  My kids were delighted by this fun way to encourage fact fluency.  Fact Man will be making more visits to our school soon.  Perhaps he can stop by your school as well! Check it out!

Fact Man's cape was decorated with math symbols and words

My kids watching Fact Man

Funny

  Today my kids were working on their PowerPoint presentations on famous African Americans.  Justin is doing his on Ray Charles and he had a question about his research.  I went to help him and he said, "Ms. Coleman, how can you go blind from guacamole?"  It took me a minute to figure out what he meant until I read a sentence on his page: "Ray Charles lost his sight due to glaucoma."