Singapore Math addition and subtraction strategies are the best!

We always review addition and subtraction at the beginning of the year (who doesn't, right?). I LOVE using Singapore Math strategies. They really help the students know WHY you take the 1 to the 10s column when you regroup! The book covers addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division strategies!

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This year, I developed an addition and subtraction packet to help the students work their way through the Why Before How book addition strategies. This can be used alone or in conjunction with the How Before Why book. Using these math sheets have really helped my students master addition and subtraction (even across zeros!)!!

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If you'd like a copy of my unit plan, click on the link below!

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Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Rocks!

I love starting the year with reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing!  This year I integrated EVERYTHING around this book! We did ELA, math, science, social studies, and community building using this novel as our centerpiece!

Tales of a Fourth Grade Something

We studied character traits and wrote an acrostic poem as a class about Peter and then each student wrote one about themselves. This helped the students get to know each other better. We also wrote a class book, Tales of a Fourth Grade Something, about times at school when we've felt like "something" instead of "nothing"!

Students experimented with magnets to see what in our room was magnetic, not magnetic, and had parts that were/weren't magnetic. They had a blast sticking magnets all over the room! We used our knowledge of attracting/repelling and character traits to decide which character traits or behaviors attract and/or repel others.

For social studies, we found where Peter lived (NYC) on a map and located the latitude and longitude. We then did this for where we live. You could also review map scale, hemispheres, etc. while doing this activity. Students also did a presentation for how to improve community in our classroom. As a class, we made a chart of what makes a good presentation. From that, I typed up a simple rubric to score each student during the presentation.

This is just a brief overview/sample of what we did. For a copy of my PBL and lesson plans to see ALL of the activities that we did, click on the links below!

Week 1 Lesson Plans

Week 2 Lesson Plans

Week 3 Lesson Plans

Tales of a Fourth Grade Something PBL

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PBL? Why not!

Tales of a Fourth Grade Something!!

This summer, I went to PBL training. I have to say that I'm so glad I gave up three precious summer vacation days to attend this training. My district is implementing RTII this year and we have NO science or S.S. time built into our schedule. We have to integrate science and S.S. into our reading block (90 minutes!). So, a friend and I wrote a PBL centered around community building using the book Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

The students had fun using the questionnaire they completed on the first day of school to make graphs while learning about their friends. We even began the process of solving word problems using R.I.C.E. (restate, illustrate, compute, explain). They had lots of fun making pie graphs using Skittles. We even measured a few angles using a protractor - hello, CCSS math standards!  :)

We also used the info on their questionnaires to review adding, standard form, word form, expanded form, rounding, comparing and ordering numbers. Whew!  That's a lot!!

Click here for a copy of my lesson plans from the first two days of school!

First day of school already?

We always have students for a half day and then they're off a day and then they come back for a full day.  Crazy, huh?  The first day is always a bit hard to plan for because you don't know the students, how long parents are going to stay when they drop off the kids, how early they're calling kids for dismissal, etc. This year, I had students do activities that related to our Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing book study: Tales of a Fourth Grade Something.  Students drew themselves with pencil,  traced with an ultra fine point Sharpie, and colored with crayons. This is the first year I've had students follow this procedure for drawings and I love how they turned out. Students had to color everything unless it is white in real life! I got this idea from Seeing the Whole through Social Studies.  After mounting the pictures on construction paper, students hung their portraits in the hall for others to see.

I use Seal 'N Peel to affix clothes pins on name plates (love the new black and white name plates!) and hang the name plates in the hall using Seal 'N Peel also. You have to let the Seal 'N Peel dry for a couple of days before hanging anything from the clips. I love having the clips in the hall because students can switch out their own work!

After laminating the name tags, I put a rectangular strip of clear contact paper to write the student names on. If a student moves, I just take off the rectangular strip of contact paper and put a new one on when another student moves in. By doing this, I can reuse the name tags and I don't have to take down the name tags that I mounted at the beginning of the year!

I also had students complete a questionnaire. On our first full day, we shared answers to see how we're alike and different. Later in our study, we filled out a questionnaire for Peter to compare him as a fourth grader to us!

And, of course, I read First Day Jitters. It always amazes me that some students have reached 4th grade without ever hearing that story! Even if they have read it before, they still love it!

It's black and white and yellow all over!

Anybody else had a crazy start to the year? Part of it might be my fault! I didn't do anything in my classroom until the day before inservice and then I decided to change my whole room decor - yikes!  I love it now though! Everything is black and white and yellow all over!!

I borrowed the Christmas lights idea from our kindergarten and special ed classes. The first few times I plugged them in and turned the overhead lights off, you could hear a collective, "Ahhh...." throughout the room.  :)  I just used large binder clips to attach the lights to the ceiling - super easy!

I love the pennant banners that I added! This is the first year I've had banners. I also love the Chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling. I think I might have gone a little overboard with things hanging from the ceiling but the fire code inspector didn't say anything when she visited our school last week.  ;)

I love the new border I got. It's a great match with my color scheme. Since the border is scalloped on both sides, I put a solid black border underneath so the edges are straight. You can see the polka dot border behind the Chinese lanterns and the scalloped border next to my Opening Sentences. I used an XL dorm sheet set to cover all of my bulletin boards - cheap!

We start off each day saying these Opening Sentences (Quantum Learning) so we are focused and ready to learn!

The classroom expectations were posted on a cabinet above the sink and close to the door, so we were ready to go!

**If you have trouble keeping things up on the wall, get Seal 'N Peel Removable Caulk. You need a caulk gun to use it but it will keep everything on your walls for the entire year! It works on all surfaces and doesn't damage the wall or the poster you've put up!**

Everyone Loves a Back to School Sale!

Looking for Back to School items for your classroom?  Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store during the Blast off Back to School sale!  Get 20% off ALL products in my store!

~Mrs. Sheriff