Giveaway!!

I suggest everyone head on over to Tonya's Treats for Teachers....she is having a huuuuuge giveaway! Who doesn't love free stuff!!

Kidblog

Somewhere on someone's blog I read a post on Kidblog.org and decided it sounded too cool not to check out! So I checked it out and immediately opened up an account for my class. It was soooo easy and my students are super excited about it. You as a teacher open up a class blog, but then each student is able to post to the class blog and their own blog. The nice thing about it is that it is super safe. The only people that can look at it are our classmates, and the teacher has to approve each comment before it is posted for other students to see. I had everything all set up and ready for us to try it out for the first time when we went to the computer lab today, and when we got to the lab, only 1 of the 30 computers had Internet...ugh!!!! Anyways, I decided to just give the kids the details and told them they could try it out at home. I just got home and checked the blog and I already have students that have posted comments!!!!

Worm Freebie

Monday we are starting our unit on animals and the students will be working in groups to observe earthworms. Here is a worksheet I made to record observations.

Worm Observation

Place Value Activities

We are already back into the swing of things! We started with place value in math today and I'm excited to try some fun activities I found over the summer!

-I found the idea for "Place Value People" over at 4th Grade Frolics. It was a great review and the kids LOVED it!
-On Monday, I plan on playing "Place Value Musical Chairs", which I found at E is for Explore.
-Also next week I want to try two activities from Cindy Calenti that I found on teacherspayteachers.com. They are both Scoot type activities.

What activities do you use to practice place value?

Back to School Activities!

Have I mentioned that I LOVE teacherspayteachers.com??? Cause I do!! I have found so many great activities including some for the first couple days of school.

Cooking Up a Great School Year is an activity I am working on now. It is a great way to start the year off on a good note and set expectations for the year. 

My students are also working on an interview a friend project, which they are having a lot of fun with. This activity is part of a bunch of beginning of the school year activities found in Fabulous Back to School Fun.

We also had a blast playing Drama Circle-Back to School. Do you have any other activities that you suggest for the first couple days of school??

Backpack Night!

Tonight all of the students and parents came to unpack backpacks! Fourth grade is the first grade at our school so many of the students are nervous about coming to a new school. Allowing them to come in the night before school starts to unpack and tour the school really seems to help with nerves on the first day! It is always fun to meet the parents and see the kids for the first time! They were sooooo excited to be there! One students brought me a medal that she had taped on a picture she made of me and another student brought me an Olympic torch she made....gotta love gifts on the first day :)

First Day Back!

Today was our first of two institute days and then the kids come Wednesday! I think my room is finally ready! Here are a few pictures of some new things I added this year!

P.S. Hope you were all able to snag some great stuff from teacherspayteachers at their back to school sale! I think I ended up buying EVERYTHING from my wishlist...yikes!!

It's Official!

I have spent my whole summer reading teacher blogs and gathering awesome ideas to use this school year so I have decided to officially start my own blog! Hopefully I will have some ideas to share that others can use!