Moving for Math

At the beginning of every school year, I always ask my students to share their concerns for the upcoming year.  Without a doubt, many students share that they are worried about fourth grade math.

Perhaps this is because they have struggled with a math concept in the past, they don't have automatic recall of their math facts, or they have an older brother or sister who has scared them about how difficult it is to do long division and add fractions. (That never happens, I'm sure....)

To help change this feeling,  I am trying to put a fun twist on math time that can serve as a good transition activity and brain break as well.

Now, we begin each math class with by Moving for Math!

What is Moving for Math?

It is a short (3ish minutes) of stretching, breathing, and cardio.

We always begin by stretching out:

We stretch our arms, our wrists, our legs...

Then after a good stretch, we hit the cardio to help get some fresh oxygen to our brains and activate more thinking. Usually, this consists of jumping jacks or running in place.  If we do jumping jacks, we count off by multiples of a certain number (to work in a little extra math :).

After a few minutes (once everyone is thoroughly woken up and ready to think), we take a few deep breaths to re-center ourselves.  

Then...we are ready for math.

Moving for Math is fun brain break and a good way to incorporate more movement into our day.  If we are in a rush or I forget about it, the students are quick to complain or remind me.  They have made this short time for exercise a part of our math routine that they rely on.

What I really love is that it starts us out with a positive mindset toward math (especially if we are working on a concept that is new or difficult...long division!)

I find this activity to be a great way to motivate my students for math. I'm linking up with my friend Joanne's Spark Student Motivation linky.  I hope you'll head over to Joanne's blog to find other great ways to motivate your students!

Currently December...FaLaLaLaWhat???

Holy moley, the calendar says it's December!  How did that happen???

A new month means it's time to link up with the wonderful Farley for Currently...The best part of turning the calendar page!

Listening:  Rosie is sleeping. (She's always sleeping)  And she snores....loudly.  (But it's cute!)

Loving:  I really don't like winter, but I sure love a cozy sweater!

Thinking:  Just coming off a short two day vacation last week, the two week vacation that is looming on the horizon is oh-so-tempting.  Fourteen more days, fourteen more days...we can do this!

Wanting: I love decorating Christmas cookies.  I love them so much that very few of them actually survive until Christmas...yum!

Needing:  I have a package that I need to mail to our former exchange student in France.  My goal is to get that baby to the post office THIS week so she has it in time for Christmas.

Giving:  Practicing those Random Acts of Kindness every day!

What are you CURRENTLY up to?  Head on over to Farley's blog and share!

Hope to see you back here on Thursday for my Positive Thinking Thursday linky party.  Have a great week!

Sunday Scoop {11-16-14}

Did you wake up to snow this morning like I did?  Ughhh...It's a good thing it's Sunday which means I don't have to drive anywhere in it.

Sunday also means getting ready for the upcoming week so I'm linking up with the ladies over at Teaching Trio for Sunday Scoop.

Have to Do:

* The short week before Thanksgiving, I have been called for jury duty.  I have to think about sub plans for what could potentially be three days out.

* This Thursday is the second night of parent teacher conferences.  I enjoy talking with the families of my students, but I do not enjoy spending almost 12 hours at school.  It makes for a very long day.

* We are putting a hardwood floor in our dining room and in case my husband hasn't noticed, Thanksgiving is a week and a half away.  Better get a move on it...

Hope to Do:

* I've been working on some short content-area themed fluency passages and hope to get them finished and into my TPT store soon.

*  With all of the recent updates to iTunes/iPhone software, my photos have stopped automatically uploading to my iPhoto file or the cloud.  I have NO IDEA why this is suddenly happening (AGAIN!) and it makes me feel really cranky about blogging because adding pictures is such a problem.  Does anyone know why this is happening???

Happy to Do:

* My dad and stepmom are coming up for lunch today.  We haven't seen them since June so it will be nice.

I hope you have a great week!  Don't forget to stop back on Thursday for Positive Thinking Thursday.  In the mean time, I'm going to see if I can figure out the picture downloading problem I'm having so I can get some new posts going.

Currently November {Really???}

Here it is a new month which means it's time to link up with Farley for Currently.

Listening:  It's early so the only thing I hear is the ticking of a clock (that I forgot to turn back one hour last night.)

Loving:  I have a slight clip art addiction...OK, maybe not so slight.  This weekend, there is a huge sale at Sweet Shoppe Designs.  Most of these products cannot be used on TPT products, but I love to use them to design cards, posters, etc.  Basically anything I use for myself that I want to be extra pretty.

Thinking:  I heard Christmas was 8 weeks away.  Ughhh...

Wanting:  Nothing says cozy like a fire in the fireplace.  Tonight will be our first!

Needing:  This one is a biggie.  We are in the process of changing over from standard grading (A-F) to standards based grading (0-4).  I am all in favor of this and believe it will be a much more effective way of assessing students, but I need to find a good grade book that won't make this an enormous task.  Any ideas?  I need to figure this out now.

Reading:  I Kill the Mockingbird by Paul Acampora.  It's funny and fast moving and my son keeps bugging me to finish it so he can read it.  Winner!

What are you currently up to?  Head on over to Farley's blog and share!

Vocabulary Victims -- A Vocabulary Review Game

I'm excited to link up with my friend, Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching, for her Saturday linky party, Spark Student Motivation.

Are you looking for a fun, easy way to help your students practice their vocabulary words?  Vocabulary Victims is the answer! (I know the name 'Vocabulary Victims' sounds like a bad thing....I was going for alliteration here! :)  It is not as painful as it sounds.)

Here's how it works...

1.  Choose a student to become the 'victim.'  In my class, I draw a number stick so it is completely random.  This way, everyone has an equal chance of participating, not just the kids who raise their hands.

2.  The student comes to the front of the room and sits in a chair with their back to the board.

3.  Write a vocabulary word on the board.  

 4.  Students in the audience (the rest of the class) raise their hands to offer definitions or clues to the meaning of the word.  They cannot say the word (obviously, but they do need this reminder), but they can give a definition, an example, a synonym, an antonym, etc.

5.  The 'victim' calls on two students to offer clues. (I like for two students to offer clues, but you could do more or less depending on your students or the quality of clues being offered.)

6.  After the two clues, the 'victim' tries to guess the word that was written on the board.  A quick turn around by the 'victim' confirms their guess as right or wrong.

7.  Repeat as needed.

I use this game to review for science and social studies tests, math vocabulary, Flocabulary words. etc.  It is also a fun way to review synonyms and antonyms because you can require the students who are giving the clues to only offer these as hints.

My students LOVE this game and it is so simple to play!  No prep, no stress!

For a little teacher motivation today, I am headed to the Midwest Blogger Meet Up in Palatine, IL.  I'm looking forward to meeting many of the awesome teacher bloggers from the midwest area!

Have a great day!

No More Weekly Reading Logs

Judging from conversations going on in blogland and the Twitterverse, it seems like the topic of weekly reading logs is hot, hot, hot.  Some people love them, many people hate them, others want to get rid of them but either can't or don't know what else to use in order to hold students accountable for their reading.

I felt this way...for a long time.

So I kept sending home a weekly reading log and my students kept filling them out and returned them every Monday.  When I checked them over, these are a few of the things I noticed:

A student who read 50 pages in 20 minutes
A student who read the same (picture) book all week
A student who read a different (chapter) book every night

Oh my!

Can you relate?

There HAD to be a better way to monitor independent reading that kept students accountable and provided me important timely data.

There is!

It's called Status of the Class and it has saved my sanity this year.

Here's how it works...

Every morning after attendance, I call off students' names and they tell me the title of the book they read last night and what page they are on.  I keep a record on a chart like this:

I simply jot the title (or part of the title) and list the page number. I even developed a code to make things easier:

•  If it is the same book, I draw an arrow.  
• The "Q" means a student has finished a book and is ready to take an AR quiz.
• A box around a box (like at the very bottom of the picture) means that a student did not read enough pages the night before and we had a short conversation. 
• "No book" means the student forgot to bring a book home and didn't read
• "A" stands for book abandoned
• "Abs" means the student was absent that day

At first, Status of the Class took us about 10 minutes to get through.  Now, we're down to about four minutes because students yell out "Same book, page ___" when I call their name.  Super fast!!

How has Status of the Class helped ME as a teacher?

• I  realize the students who abandon books on a regular basis.
• I can recognize my students' book genre preferences and can guide them toward other genres.
• I can see who is really reading at night.  The students came up with the expectation that between 20 minutes of nightly reading and 30 minutes of daily DEAR time in class, they should be able to read 20-30 pages.  They now hold each other accountable for that too!
• I can make sure that students who have a habit of "forgetting" to bring home a book, don't.
• I can recognize my wild readers and give them immediate feedback.

Giving up the weekly reading log is one of the best teaching moves I've made this year!  If you are a member of the "I Really Dislike Reading Logs But Don't Know What Else to Try Club," I encourage you to give Status of the Class a try!

Thanks to Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for hosting this weekly Tried It Tuesday linky party!

Sunday Scoop {10-5-14}

Happy beautiful Sunday from southeastern Wisconsin!  After a rainy, overcast day yesterday, the sun has broken through and I think I might actually hear a bird chirping.

If you are looking for A Peek at My Week, last week was the last week for that linky party.  :(  Times change and so must my blog.  I appreciate everyone who participated over the past year.  I met some amazing teachers and bloggers!  If you are looking for another weekly Peek linky party, check out Mrs. Wills Kindergarten.

With that being said, I am excited to try some new things.  Today, I am going to link up with Teaching Trio for Sunday Scoop.  Such a great linky!

Have To's:

1.  Every educator in the state of Wisconsin has to write a SLO goal (Student Learning Objective goal) and submit it to the state.  We will work on these at early release on Thursday.

2.  Tuesday is our first Peer Helpers meeting.  This is a new group at school for student leaders.  It is exciting to watch this group take shape and develop a purpose.

3.  Meal planning...My family may starve this week if I don't do this soon.  Just sayin'.....

Hope To's:

1.  AWESOME books!

2.  What is better than baking in October?  Can we say apples and cinnamon?  YUM!

Happy To:

1.  My step dad is turning 89 on Friday!  My step sister is flying in from Florida for a family dinner.  It will be great to see her and to celebrate with the family.

Have a great week!

Making Our Goals Public

I love Fridays, and not just for the obvious reasons.

In our classroom, we spend some time every Friday afternoon thinking about our week and setting a goal for the next week.  This year, I'm trying something new with those goals which is bringing about awesome results.  I'm linking up today with Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching for her Spark Student Motivation linky party.

We all know that when we set a goal for ourselves, our chances for success become greater if we share our goal with others.  It holds us accountable.

I used to have my students write their goal for the week on a Post-it and stick it on their desk.  However, some students "forget" to do this, the Post-its fall off the desk and get recycled by the janitor, or a student's goal Post-it magically disappears throughout the week.

So this year, we are making our weekly goals a bit more public.  On the closet door at the front of our room, my students post their goals for all to see.

Throughout the week, we will read over the goals and get an update from each student on how things are going.  This is a great way to see who is working on their goal and who is not.  (We are trying to learn that goals just don't happen because we say we want them to happen.)  This also helps me see who is setting realistic, SMART goals and who is not.

Ever since we've made this change, I have noticed a lot more students are reaching their goals each week.  This is very motivating for the students, and for me!

How do you help your students reach their goals in your classroom?  I'd love to hear your ideas!

Thank you, Joanne, for hosting this weekly linky party!

Currently -- Bring on June!

I nearly forgot that today was June 1st.  How could that be???  If you are looking for my Sunday linky party, A Peek at My Week, please scroll down to the next post.  Otherwise, it's time to check in with Farley of Oh' Boy 4th Grade for Currently.

Listening:  80's music rocks!  That was when music was music.  (Never mind that my kids call it the "oldies"...such disrespect.)

Loving:  My son got his license and now he gets to do all of the running around that I used to do.  He doesn't complain though. This is how he pays for his gas.

Thinking:  Two weeks of school left.  Who thought it was a good idea to have three weeks of school after Memorial Day?  Seriously....

Wanting:  A late spring means prolonged allergies.  Achoo....

Needing:  My get up and go has got up and left.  There's so much to do, I just need the energy to do it.

This Summer:  Read the pile of books I've been collecting all year; Write because I love it; Play because life is too short not to.

How about you?  What are you Currently up to?  Head over to Farley's blog and share?

Currently May

Oh, May!  How I love thee!!!  A few months ago, I never dreamed May would ever arrive, but here she is which means it's time to link up with Farley's Currently.  (Thanks, Farley!!)

Listening:  It has rained EVERY day this week so this is a pretty common sound.  I don't mind this though...I love the sound of the rain.

Loving:  All of a sudden, it seems like my students have blossomed!  We have come a long way this year and I am so proud of all of their hard work.

Thinking:  There is something on the calendar almost every day in May.  Ughhh...I'll need the summer to recover.

Wanting:  I'm itching to get those pots planted.  Garden Center, here I come!

Needing:  Weekends are for napping.  Period.

Surprise:  Have you met Mary at Fit to be Fourth?  She is a fellow dog-rescuer and shares the most amazing mentor texts ever!  (My friends at Amazon thank her every time she posts because I usually end up ordering whatever she wrote about because her posts are awesome!)  Stop by and get to know her!

I hope to see you back on Sunday for my A Peek at My Week linky party.  Have a great weekend!

Tried It Tuesday: Podcasts for PD

I'm excited to link up with my friend Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper today to share something new that I just love!

Like many of you, I do A LOT of self-directed professional development.  I am always reading blogs, reading books, reading journals, reading just-about-anything-I-can-get-my-hands-on to learn more about improving myself as a teacher and lifelong learner.  

Then last week while I perusing blog land, I came across a link to the BAM Radio Network.

If you've never visited this website, I strongly encourage you to check it out.  It is here that I discovered hundreds (if not more) of podcasts that I could download to my iPhone to listen to in the car.  Ahhh..taking my PD and making it mobile!

From this website, I found a link to the K-12 Greatest Hits podcast list.  

These podcasts are cutting-edge conversations about anything and everything that is important in education today.  Some of the speakers are well-known, and some are classroom educators.  Either way, the conversations are always engaging and teach me something.  I kind of think of it as talk radio -- but I get to choose the subject!

Speaking of choosing the subject, start looking for your positive thought of the week for this Thursday's linky party, Positive Thinking Thursday. (Click here for more info about this linky party and how to get involved.) I hope to see you back then!!

A Peek at My Week {4-20-14}

Happy Easter!!  I am posting this week's A Peek at My Week linky party a day early because I will be spending Sunday enjoying the day with my family.  Feel free to link up any time!

I'm also going to link up with the very talented Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching for her Spark Saturday Student Motivation linky because we are having fun, fun, fun with poetry.

Right now, we are in the middle of Poetry Month and my students are loving it! I have discovered a fun way to teach fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and critical thinking skills in just 10 minutes a day using poetry and have put my ideas together into a a new product, Pausing for Poetry.

Each week, I choose a new poem for the class, which students add to their fluency folders so they can practice it throughout the week. I also put a copy on our "Poetry Posts" bulletin board.

Each day of the week, we spend about 10 minutes reading and discussing the week's poem.  Each day has a different focus -- meaning, vocabulary, structure, figurative language, etc. -- so students really get to understand the poem by Friday.  Students then complete the day's response which is photocopied to the back of the week's poem.   As you can see, the responses are short yet very targeted to a specific element.

Our Poetry Posts bulletin board is very interactive.  One day a week, usually toward the end of the week, I have students complete a Poetry Think-Shot to add to our Poetry Posts board.  This is where they get to publicly respond to the poem and rate the poem--thumbs up or thumbs down.  (It is interesting to have students discuss why they like or dislike a poem too!)  They love reading each other's responses and it's very interesting to see which poems are most popular based on their rating.  I was very surprised by last week's poem -- I thought the kids would love it, but most gave it a "thumbs down."  Hmmm....

To get extra fluency practice throughout the week, students read their poems to others and ask for their autograph on a Poetry Pals page.  The student with the most signatures wins a small prize like a pencil or a piece of chocolate from my secret stash.

I have found that teaching poetry this way has helped my students realize a few things:

1. Not all poetry has to rhyme or be silly.  We can learn from poetry too!
2. We can use elements of poetry (imagery, personification, similes, metaphors, etc.) in our own writing to make it stronger.
3. Close reading of a poem reveals more and more meaning each time we read it.  We love to put on certain reading lenses to look for particular elements in a poem as we read it.
4. Reading all kinds of poetry helps us improve our fluency.
5. Poetry can be fun!

If you are interested in seeing more of my new  Pausing for Poetry unit, you can find it ON SALE through Monday in my TPT store.

So, what does your week look like?

An InLinkz Link-up

Don't forget to stop back on Thursday for my other linky party, Positive Thinking Thursday.  Lots of fun inspiration and positive thoughts to carry you through the week are shared by some wonderful bloggers. Start getting your positive thoughts ready!

See you then if not sooner!