Say What?!?

Hello Sweet Blog Buds! Today was the dreaded back to school after spring break....well, it was an AWESOME Day! My kiddos were ON it, ALL day! I couldn't believe it. I kid you not, they were making connections between what we were learning in guided reading and our read aloud. I really almost hit the floor! It was just one of those days... How do you assign jobs in your classroom? Well, in mine I have job application. At the beginning of the year I model the various classroom jobs and explain the importance of having a job. Students are then allowed to apply for their top 3 jobs. For the most part students keep their jobs throughout the year. This seems to really work well with my students. Just like the real world students have a possibility of being "fired" from their job. Harsh, I know but this seems to motivate them in their behavior. I say all that to finally come to my "Say What" moment of the day. We were in Cheetah Academy (after school tutoring) and one of my students requested to head to the cafeteria to grab the trash bag for our snack. I told him to wait until we all went to the cafeteria that way we knocked out getting snack and the trash bag at the same time. He agreed. Well, we went to the cafeteria, traveled back down the hall and outside to have our snack (since it was a BEAUTIFUL day). I did not see the coveted trash bag anywhere outside so I pulled the student aside. To which he told me since he was not getting paid he did not get the bag. Needless to say after picking my mouth off the ground, rolling on the picnic table laughing moment I sent him running back to the cafeteria. I am going to assume his "forgetfulness" was a result of being off for Spring Break. Anyways it made for a funny and unforgettable moment.

Dazzling Decimals

Hello blog buddies! I hope you are having an outstanding week. My week has been amazing, so far! I am on Spring Break this week and am enjoying every minute of it. I have filled my days with coffee, the Today Show, naps, and good times. ANNNND its only Tuesday! Man, this makes me long for summer break.

As much as I have enjoyed my free time, I decided to work on my decimals unit today. My plan was to start on my unit, well I ended up finished it. It includes lots of uses for thinking maps and hands on/real world applications. Let me know your ideas for teaching decimals. I would love any advice you can give.

To view the unit visit Mrs. J's docs

Let me know what you think!

Eggcelent Day!

It's finally spring break!!!! Let me pause to take in the excitement....

Ok, what a busy week we had in 4th grade! I was determined that we WOULD finish fractions this week and test. I did not want to carry over this topic and test after the break. We pushed through the unit and the kids had a lot of fun! Today we worked in centers before our awards ceremony. We needed a little extra work on adding and subtracting fractions so I had 3 math groups and 1 reading. Here is our day in pictures.

My kiddos love when I check out the iPads! They were so careful and quite while working. Unfortunately I was right beside them and kept distracting them by throwing chocolate eggs....

It truly was an EGGcelent day, especially when you use jelly beans for fractions! I quickly made this activity yesterday prior to leaving school. It assessed comparing, adding and subtracting. Email me if you would like a copy :)

We have been working on comparing fiction and nonfiction text this week. In this groups students were comparing a chapter of a fiction Magic Tree House book with a nonfiction one. I included two pictures that way you could see their thinking maps at work.

Finally...this was my guided math group. I use a lot of daily quick checks to monitor students level of mastery. I look at the data and determine my math groups. This group was working on Adding and Subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.

So, who is on Spring Break? What are you going to do with your week? I am looking forward to coffee, the Today show, and Sleeping in. I am sure that I will work on school stuff lots but its nice to know that I can take my time and relax. In honor of Spring Break I am joining Farley's link party (she is AMAZING!!!!). Enjoy :)