Hello all. I hope you are all cooler than I am- it has been 100°+F here in Southern California! Imagine having no air conditioning and chasing after a 14 month old… it feels like 110°F! I can’t wait for fall, for boots, scarves, sweaters, hot coffee, blankets… oh man!
Today I am linking up with Clutter-Free Classroom for her new weekly linky- Sunday Snapshots. I only have a few shots of what I did in my class this week… but next Sunday I will be more prepared. Here is what I have to share!
I am so proud of my class wanting to use synonyms for overused adjectives! This week we worked on Compare and Contrast. They wrote an essay comparing their 3rd grade teacher to their 4th grade teacher. I had several students ask to get synonyms from the wall while they were writing their rough drafts. Talk about ego-boost. There is a “beautiful” category on the word wall, and when the students were talking about they way that their 3rd grade teacher and I looked, instead of calling us “pretty” we were bumped up to “gorgeous”…. totally worth it! Thank you Tonya’s Treats for Teachers for this amazing bulletin board idea!
With my grade level team, we committed to Friday being our competition day. First, we line up nearly 100 4th graders in two rows, separating them by teacher, gender, birthdays, or any other random grouping we decide on. Before the elimination rounds starts, we have a practice round where every student has a chance to see a multiplication or division flashcard to prepare themselves for the competition. After the practice round, we move to the elimination rounds. Whomever correctly answers the flashcard first, stays in the competition and goes to the back of the line, and the other student is eliminated and sits down and cheers on their class. This continues on and we celebrate the “Sweet Sixteen,” the “Great Eight,” the “Final Four,” and the “Last Two.”
Layla, I used your Math Ruler idea with my 2's and 3's over the last couple of weeks, except I called it the Multiplication Tournament. They loved it!! The best one was when one of my lowies "just" beat the top math fact person in the class. He had been working on his 11's tables and the look on his face when he won was priceless, he never wins anything and he is a real struggler. We all love it in our classroom and my kiddos now have a weekly goal to work towards. Thanks for sharing this very motivating idea.
Tania
Mrs Poultney's Ponderings
Tania! This comment made my day start off on the right foot! I am so happy to hear this. I had one of my low-RSP kids win in our class competition last week. He wore that crown SOOOO proudly! I loved seeing him on the playground at lunch playing handball while wearing it. Anything to get them to want to learn!
I passed this idea off to the math teachers and I'm checking out your idiom activity!
Diane
Fifth in the Middle