Fraction and Decimal Task Cards FINISHED!!

I finally finished!!!! I've been working on creating task cards, coloring sheets and worksheets for all of the 4.NF Common Core strands! It has taken me almost a year to finish the whole thing! I usually get a lot done during the summer time, but I hardly worked on my TpT store this past summer since I was getting married, went on a honeymoon and then was in a wedding...very busy summer! So when Christmas break started this week I work up the first 3 days at 6:30AM, when my husband got up, and started working on the task cards! I am proud to say after about a year of slowly working on it and 400 questions later...it is complete! I am thrilled and very proud of it!!

Could be another reason it took so long to finish! My cat requires a lot of my attention!

Here is just one example of what some of the task cards look like. This is for 4.NF.6

I also make a worksheet version of ALL the task cards! This one is for 4.NF.3 c&d

I have the bundle of task cards (400 questions) for a discounted price right now in my TpT store for only $3!!! That is the regular price for just one set of task cards, worksheets and coloring sheet. I want to sell it for this low price as a thank you to all my followers who have been waiting for this bundle. I will eventually raise the price up, but I hope that people take advantage of the low price and review it and then WRITE a review for my TpT store!

Here is an example of another worksheet I make for EACH strand. These can be used as extra practice or an assessment for the strand. It is 20 questions! This one is for 4.NF.4a, b & c

Here is an example of the Coloring pages I make for EACH strand! This one is for 4.NF.5

Here is the worksheet that goes along with the coloring page. These are 10 questions each! I even put a small picture of the coloring page at the top of the question page so that if you ever print them out and mix them up by accident you know what question page goes with which coloring page!  This one is for 4.NF.7

Check it out here and preview it!

I use these task cards ALL the time in centers when teaching and reviewing these skills. I think they are great and hope you do too!

Hour of Code

Hour of Code is something our students have done for the past two years and the students love it! Our entire school participates and students of all ages can do it. Whether we like it or not, times are changing and technology is becoming more and more apart of our daily lives. Our students will have jobs using technology that is not even invented yet...that is an amazing thing to think about. How can we prepare them for the future and their future education and jobs when we do not even know what type of education and jobs will be needed in the next 10-15 years!? One thing we know we can do is introduce them to coding!

We have a group of teachers get together and make the schedule to get all the teachers and students in to the computer lab in a 2 week time period. We have responsible 5th graders go to the kindergarten and 1st grade sessions with the teacher so that they can walk around and help the students and teachers. We also allow 5th grade teachers go to other classrooms too to help if a teacher requests it! (It's usually the not so "techy" teachers and that is ok!!!) 

Everything we use on a daily basis, technology wise, requiers codes to create it and make it work. As of right now those jobs are booming and there are not a lot of people to fill those much needed jobs! Hour of Code is a way that students can learn about coding and even code their own video games! It is a way to inspire children to consider learning coding and hopefully join a job that needs them to code! Students love learning that some of their favorite games are created because of coding!

I am always amazed how some children pick this up like it is nothing! To me it is like a foreign language! I have a hard time even helping...so I use this hour to help as much as I can, but to also allow the students to help one another complete each round of coding! 

Go to www.hourofcode.com

I encourage you to watch the 2 minute video on the home page of hour of code and discuss the importance of learning this new technology and take one hour out of your day just one time this school year and expose your child to this type of growing skill. 

Students do not need to log in, they just go to the site and press start and pick a game to practice with. There are videos they can watch to explain more why coding is important. I would recommend students bring head phones! You do not have to teach or explain anything, just let them click and explore! After the hour is up they can print a certificate! Students can also get on this site at home or anytime they have computer time to practice, play and learn!

The goal is to get 2 million students to code for one hour by December!!

Take a leap for your children, you will not regret it!!! 

Area and Perimeter Christmas!

I got this really great activity from a blog (Teaching in Room 6) I found on Pinterest. I was trying to come up with a fun "Christmasy" themed activity to practice area and perimeter and couldn't think of anything! So when I can't come up with my own thing...I turn to Pinterest! I know that I can always find great ideas from fellow teachers on there!

The students measure the length and width of the branches on the tree in centimeters and they then find the area and perimeter. I also had my students find the area and perimeter of any rectangle or square on their paper so that included the trunk of the tree and the gifts under the tree. Here is the link to the blog I got this idea from, from her blog you can get the recording sheet I used...and its FREE!

So to make my life easier I got four baskets and put all the paper supplies the kids might need in them. I went ahead and pre cut long green rectangles and small square pieces of paper of brown, yellow, pink, red and blue. I just put a bunch in each basket so the students could just get paper from there instead of getting up to get whole big pieces and risk waisting a lot of construction paper. The students then cut the strips of paper to the sizes they wanted for their trees!

I have a captain at each group and the capitals were in charge of the baskets and giving out the materials to the students at their group. This helped so I did't have 6 sets of kids hands in the basket at one time fighting over paper. If they needed more materials they just asked their captain and they handed them what they needed.

On the recording sheet I made the students write out the formula every single time they worked out their problem for area and perimeter. I think this was helpful so they could try to commit them to memory. Most already know it because they learned it in 3rd grade. In 4th grade we teach them to find the missing side when given the area or perimeter. This activity did not cover that skill...but I thought it was still ok since we just started this lesson on Monday and it is a week before Christmas break!

Hope this gives some ideas to fellow teachers! I played Christmas music and the students worked hard creating some adorable trees and the students did great on their math work!

Merry Christmas!!

Rapid and Slow Process that Change the Earth's Surface

I created this activity to help my kids understand how the surface of the earth can change. Last we discussed how the surface of the earth is rather young considering how old the earth is, and that is because the surface of the earth is always changing. We watched this ADORABLE youtube video on rapid processes. I highly recommend it for your class. I showed them picture of how rapid processes such as volcanos, earthquakes and landslides can cause the surface to change. We also had discussions on slow processes such as weathering and erosion. I showed them pictures and tried to explain the difference between the to. The main thing to remember is that weathering breaks the rocks and erosion carries the broken (weathered) rock away.

The activity I created has 12 different pictures, 6 showing rapid process and 6 showing slow process. I had my students cut out the pictures and sort them in the correct category. Then I had them cut the page in half and glue it in their science journal. I also created a worksheet where they had to tell me what caused the change in the picture.

I hope that you find this useful and that your students enjoy it! Mine really did and it really helped them grasp the lesson I'd been teaching all week! Check it out here on my TpT Store!!!!

Adding and Subtracting Multi-Digits

Here is a 4.NBT.4 adding and subtracting multi-digits numbers!

I always have a hard time coming up with some fun and different activities for adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers. The students need the practice but it can be so monotones.

The first activity I did was adding with ice cream cones. They had to make up at least two numbers and create a ice cream themed addition word problem to go with their ice cream cones. I let the students choose if they wanted to add more than just two numbers, if so their ice cream cones were taller since they had more than just two scoops. They turned out pretty cute, I didn't get a picture of a finished one but you can get the idea! They are out in the hallway now and look very cute!

For the word problem, I had them write it first on scrap paper and then I edited it. I made sure everything was spelled right and that it was an actual addition problem. They wrote their answers at the bottom of the long piece of construction paper that I had them glue their ice cream cone on!

The subtraction activity I came up with was a HIT! My students LOVED it! I got the auto magazines from Food Lion that list all the cars for sale. They are free...so I took a stack! Each kid was able to have one. I created a worksheet with six word problems on it. The questions gave the students an amount of money and they were to "buy" a car that was in that budget and subtract to find out how much money they had left over. They then cut out the car and glued it on the paper. On the back of the paper there were questions that had them order the price of the cars from least to greatest and writing the prices of the cars in expanded and word form etc. I will post this activity on my TpT store! 

Here is the link to my TpT site for the worksheet I used to go along with this activity! Its FREE!

Back to School--Rounding Activity!

We've been in school almost a month and I am already back in the swing of things! It is always hard to get the classroom running in the speed and smoothness that I want. I get frustrated at first because the new kids are not as up to speed as my kids where by the end of the school year. I have to remind my self that these students are new and I have to teach and reteach many times my procedures and expectations. Thankfully my new students are catching on quickly and are such a SWEET group of  students!  
                                     


                                    

So we've been in school a month and I already have a bunch of activities I'd like to share! First I'll start off with the rounding activity I did. I just drew a flower on paper and created this rounding flower! I put dashes down for the students to write numbers on. The students rolled dice and created numbers using the numbers they got. The numbers in the boxes represented the place value they were to round to. After they created their numbers, they colored their flower and cut it out. They cut the petals so that they can be folded. Under the petals they write the place value they rounded to ( the place value of the number in the box) and on their paper the write the number rounded. I had my students glue this flower in their math journal. But it could always be glued on a piece of construction paper.

You may have noticed that I had three of the petals be an adding or subtraction problem. I had them solve the actual answer on the front of the petals and then round and get the rounded answer on the paper under the petal.

This was a quick lesson but was a lot of fun and different! They were still able to practice with out using the same old questions from the text book! And even better...this was FREE! Just draw a flower and make copies!



Wanted to post a picture from my wedding day over the summer! It was the most perfect day! Beautiful weather and all of our close family and friends! James looked so handsome and it was a dream come true marrying him! xoxo

Closing of my Classroom!

Wow has time flown! I can't believe my last entry was in April!....well actually I can because EOG's were right around the corner and boy do those last two months of school go by quick. The end of the school year goes quick but it comes with a TON of work and stress! I think I came home every day for the last three weeks of school and went straight to bed. ( I don't have any kids so I can do that! :) ).

Although I gladly welcomed my summer break, it was sad to leave my students. They were probably one of my sweetest groups of students I've had in my 4 years of teaching. They were hard workers too and eager to learn, I will truly miss them. I thought I'd put a couple pictures up on here that I took towards the end of the school year but never made it to the blog! I've also been wanting to add some new teacher pay teacher stuff on here and in my store but I've been so busy so far this summer. I am getting married in 8 days!!! So I've done little work on TpT compared to last summer! I'm trying to get back on track since I know some followers have asked for more bundles of my task cards! I'm working on them I promise!!! :)

Ok so this picture is when my students and I were going over comparing and ordering decimals. This is after a week of working on this skill. I had the students write a number with a decimal in it...any number they wanted. They were not allowed to show their neighbors. (Kids love hiding things from their peers!). Then I had them stand up and order themselves from least to greatest. First I had them order themselves as a table group...then as a whole class. The trick though is to let them put themselves in order as a class without helping them, which is hard for me! You can really tell which kids have a total understanding decimals and which need more help. After the students completed this task, I checked their work. THEN I had them trade papers with people. The next task they did was to get in order again...but WITHOUT TALKING to one another! Wow is this hard for some students but super fun and such a great team building exercise! 

 On the last day of school! My classroom is all packed up, desks are moved and carpet is ready to be cleaned! I'm already in the "nesting" mood to get back in there and start cleaning and putting things together for my next batch of kids! I actually went back to school couple weeks later and moved my desks back down! Once the wedding is over it is full blown nesting and coming up with new ideas and procedures for the 2015-2016 school year!!

I had an arm FULL of stuff to take home but managed to get this last picture before I closed my door and locked it! I made sure to get my "Ms. Talbert" sign since it will no longer be used when I get back to school in August! 

 I even put up the calendar already for August! I do it every year on the last day of school! A little tradition of mine!

Oh boy...my desk. I hardly ever sit there except to do attendance and check e-mail, other than that I'm on my feet all day running around the room! So my desk drawers get neglected a bit towards the end of the year. I have my desk super clean and organized when school first starts and I promise myself it will stay that way. But that promise is usually broken mid way through the year! HA! So I went ahead and cleaned out my desk and have it organized and ready to go in August...maybe this year I'll hold up my "New Years" resolution. :)

 A sweet student of mine last year gave me this sign with "Ms. Talbert" written on it. My team teacher across the hall has the same style so I didn't want to get a new one! So since I won't be Ms. Talbert anymore...I flipped it over and created it again with my new last name! The writing is not as pretty...but it will do! :) I love it! Right now my new last name sounds funny to me...but I'm sure I'll get used to it once a classroom full of children start calling me by it!

So as you know (if you've read my past entries) I was proposed to in my classroom in October. After James proposed we hung out for a while in my classroom, (My kids were in specials). I was so busy talking to co-workers and texting my family I did not notice that James wrote this sweet note to me and left it in my desk. I found it a couple days later and stuck it to my filing cabinet...and it will stay there as long as I'm in that classroom. It reminds me how fun and exciting that day was! I am a lucky lady to be marring my best friend!

Well this will probably be my last post until after my wedding and honeymoon! I'll work on some TpT stuff and hopefully get it on here for y'all to look at and get some ideas from! Hope everyone has a wonderful summer! Enjoy every day of it and get some rest! We are going to need it!!

Student Fluency Check

At my school we are trying to help our students increase their fluency. I taught my students how to do fluency checks using fluency cards that list how many words are on each line. The students choose their own partners and are given a timer and every morning read two fluency pages each. They then pick their best words per minute and record it on on their fluency chart that I taped on their desk!

It has been great to see the kids get so involved in improving their fluency and seeing them get excited about improving on their fluency! It is part of our daily morning routine and I feel is really helping the kids improve! Thought I'd share with others so they could start teaching their kids how to do fluency checks too!

Math Journal

I created something that I LOVE!!!

At the beginning of the year I buy composition notebooks and have my dad saw them in half so they are mini notebooks. My students LOVE them because they are cute and little! So every year I always want to have a math journal my students write in, I'm just never consistent with it! Well...I created 5 journal prompts for every 4th grade Common Core math standard!  It took a while to make and is 164 pages but man is it worth it!

 

I have 10 of the same prompts on each page, this save me on copies. I copied them on colored paper so they stood out more and I thought is more fun than just white paper. I usually have 15-20 minutes at the end of the day for the kids to work on independent work. So I take this time for the students to respond to the prompt I give them! They glue the prompt in their journal, date the page and then respond. All of the prompts require either the students to explain their thinking, show their work, explain steps they used to solve the problem and how they knew they needed those steps or to  draw out models to represent their answers.

My students LOVED them and did a great job too!! The journal writing does not take long, which is great for those reviewing times, independent times or checking for understanding times!

I REALLY hope other teachers check these out and let me know how they like them!!!

Snowed In!!!

So we do not usually get much winter weather in Raleigh, NC...but these past two weeks we have had ice, sleet and snow! It is always so exciting know that snow is in the forecast, it is the talk of the week before the sky drops one snow flake! Needless to say that when we get snow or worse, ice, North Carolina does in fact shut down a bit! I think it is a great honestly, we do not get much winter weather and when we do it is usually ice and there is just no sense driving out on the roads. And we all get to enjoy it! It is so beautiful! Of course school is always canceled so I get peace and quiet working on school stuff in my pajamas watching TV and hanging out with my cats! It is just wonderful! :)

The past two weeks I have work three days! Presidents day was a required work day and Tuesday we had ice and missed the rest of the week except for Friday which was an optional workday...and I went in. Monday we had school and I stressed to my kids that we were a week behind so get ready to work! Little did I know we were going to get snow again Tuesday morning. Weather forecast called for a dusting but at 6:30am, while getting ready for school, I got a call from the county saying we had a 2 hour delay and then we closed! Wednesday was an optional workday (of course I went in)...and Thursday we got about 4.5 inches of snow!! So now...I am really behind in my lessons...but fully rested! Hope my kids are too!!!! We are going to be working hard to get caught up!

While I've been home I've been planning my wedding and working on a LOT of school stuff! I've taken a couple pictures and thought I'd share with you! I took two of the task cards I've made for 4.MD.2, not the best pictures but I spent a couple hours during my work day cutting and laminating my task cards! Check out my TpT store to see them! They really are great!! Can't wait to use them! There are 20 task cards, worksheets and coloring pages for this skill. 50 different questions total!! I've made them for all the OA strands, NBT strands 4.NF.1, 4.NF.2 and 4.NF.3a&b and 4.MD.1, 4.MD.2 and 4.MD.3. I am working on 4.NF.c&d right now and hope to finish soon! I will eventually get task cards, worksheets and coloring sheets made for all the strands. It takes a lot longer to make them when school is in...but I'm working on them! Follow me on TpT so you can keep up with the new things I've added!

I have been meaning to take a picture of this new system that I put in place! I saw it on pinterest and tried it...and fell in love with it!! I got the plastic dividers and hot glued them to the wall. Each folder has a number on it that matches my kids number. In the folders I have the students put unfinished work or work that I want them to do! It is a great way to use for differentiation too! I love that at the end of centers I can say, "Any unfinished work needs to go in your pocket and finished for morning work!" It is great! My kids have gotten in to a great routine to put any work in their pocket that isn't done and to finish it for morning work or if they have spare time (which is rare! haha) In all I spent about $15 on all the pockets...I know some teachers do not want to spend that much, but I assure you that it is worth it! It is so much better than having finished and unfinished work on my desk! It is also MUCH better than the kids shoving unfinished work in their desk!