Gobble Gobble

Wow! Its hard to believe that Thanksgiving is THURSDAY! Where has this year gone? My husband and I just celebrated our 11 month anniversary...its crazy to think its almost been a year!  This year we are headed North for Turkey day.  I love my inlaws...but I do not like the 10 hour trip there.  On the bright side it will give me a great chance to catch up on my reading (and no teachers editions allowed on this trip;) ).  I plan on eating, spending time with family, eating, shopping, eating, stopping by Starbucks and oh did I mention, eating?  I am looking forward to a much needed break and time of relaxation.

We have been super busy the last month in 4th grade. So busy that I have not had time to post anything.  Here are some of the things we have been working on.

We have been working on multiplication and division fact families...we ended our study by making a turkey! Each "feather" has a students own fact family creation.  Super cute and fun! Definitely kept them nice and quiet for a while.  

 My practicum student started this project.  Students had to write down 3 things they were thankful for.  I took it a step further and had them create an essay based on Laura Candlers I am Thankful Template.  You can find her awesome activities at lauracandler.com

Gobble Gobble!

Multiplication Unit

Hey blogger buddies,

My babies and I are finally coming to an end of our multiplication unit.  We have sung, drawn arrays, made thinking maps and create foldables to MASTER multiplication.  Also, we have test our facts and retested and for some of my friends tested a third time.  I have posted all of my multiplication Smart Board lessons on the Smart Exchange Website.  If you would like to check them out see the link below.  ENJOY!

Links to My Smart Boards

There is a first for everything

Happy, FRREEEEEZZZZING, Sunday

Where did my nice 70 degree temps go?  They need to come back, I miss them.  If it is this cold NOW what is it going to be by Thanksgiving?!?!?!  Ok, enough of my complaining. Last night was truly a first time experience for me.  I attended my FIRST Haunted Woods Ride (yes, you may insert laughing now...) This was no ordinary Haunted Woods Ride.  This particular event took place at the home of Ron Clark's parents.  Yes, the Ron Clark ! To top it off, he was in town with several of his kids for ECU's homecoming festivities.

My wonderful friend Marina and I decided to be good sports and brave the ride.  We were in the first group.  Oh my word, I screamed like a little girl, jumped into the floor a few times and shed a tear or two.  To say the least I was scared!  When we ended the ride, Marina and I were pure shaking! Well not long after we got off our ride we were asked to be part of the Haunted Woods cast.  Like, put a costume on, act all scary and jump out a people.  Of course, being the good sports/crazy teachers we are we said YES.  It was so much fun.  I cannot wait to share with my babies on Monday.  Here is a picture of our lovely outfits.  I am considering it as a choice for Monday, lol.

 My sweet friend, Marina! So glad we did this together. P.S.-Hope I didn't squeeze your hand too hard, lol

Thank you to the Clark Family for this opportunity.  Mr. Clark, you are truly an inspiration to us all.  I enjoyed speaking with you and your wonderful students.

Top 5 Pinterest Pins

Wonderful way to incorporate notebooking techniques into Social Studies--trying this Monday!

I cannot wait to teach area and perimeter--plus EAT!

Using this next week for multiplication

This prevents the dice from FLYING across the room....

Summer Project

Multiplication Intro :)

We are getting ready to start multiplication next week in 4th grade.  I wrote this song and think it would be a great way to (hopefully) activiate their prior knowledge.  Enjoy!

I Can Multiply (Katy Perry’s California Dreams)

Verse 1 :  I can multiply

Its repeat addition

3 times 11

There must be 3 groups of 11

Draw in an array

It must have 3 columns of 11

Factor times factor

Tryna’ find the product (answer)

You could add it the long way

But it’s not as easy

As multiplication

Once you learn your facts

You’ll be falling in love

Ooohh oh Ooooohh

Chorus: Multiplication

We Master You

Practice Facts

We won’t stop

It is so easy

Will knock our socks off

Oooooh oh ooooh

Multiplication

We’re determine

Factor, times, factor

We got our product

SGE represent

Now put your hands up

Oooooh oh Oooohh

Verse 2: 11 x 3

All I did was switch my factors

We freak

It’s the same

As 3 groups of 11

You can search your brain

But I have the same product

Commutative

Once you learn this

You’ll be falling in love

Repeat Chorus

Going to the Birds

This nine weeks we have been studying Animal Adaptations.  We have been working on NC Animal project mostly.  However, a couple of weeks ago we took time from our project to complete a science notebooking activity comparing bird beaks.  We used various materials such as clothespins, tweezers, spoons, straws and chopsticks to simulate different bird beaks.  The first day of this activity we recorded the procedures our hypothesis and materials into our science journals.  On day two we got down to work.  Here are some pictures I snapped during our notebooking adventure.

Students had to use their "tools" to pick up various things, such as gummy worms, water, fish (their fav) 

Great shot of their awesome results!

What we tested!

Man, being in fourth grade is tough!

They learned quick how to gather their data.

We had a blast learning and discussing why birds eat certain foods.  One of my kids prior to the activity asked why humming birds sip nectar.  This was an awesome way to discuss hypothesis and how we go about figuring/testing to see its results.  

Fall into Word Problems

I love this time of the year.  This season filled with football, pumpkin spice lattes, colorful leaves and yummy pumpkin Scentsy candles.  Alright, as you can tell I LOVE fall.  Now back to the educational reason for this blog.  My students and I recently starting studying word problems.  Let me tell you, they LOVED the new song. Definitely a hit!

At my school every classroom is equipped with a Smart Board.  I use to utilize pre-made lessons that Smart Board provides.  This year I began creating my own.  Here is my one for Word Problems.  If you would like an actually copy to download yourself.  Please email me at justick.sge@pitt.k12.nc.us

Fall Into Word Problems