Adverb Comparison Cards

I think I finally have my head above water here in the fourth grade...well maybe just a little bit.  It's been a long year in the fourth grade.  We've now completed the reading portion of our state test.  It's online this year--what fun (sarcasm)

We are getting to the half way point in our adverb unit, and I put together this little comparison assessment so that I could see if my students were getting when to use -er, -est, more, or most.  I hope you find it useful as well.  It's just a quick way to evaluate.

Adverb Comparisons

Wanting a late start and a SaLe!

Brr!!! It's been so cold here off and on for the last couple of weeks----  it was -23 yesterday and with the wind a balmy -38ish.   My school has been holding tough on late starts due to cold so far, unlike the neighboring schools (insert sad face here)... there's something about a late start that makes me do the "teacher dance".

Anyway, like many teachers out there I too plan on having a sale in my TpT store tomorrow.  I don't have much yet, but a sale is a sale no matter how many products in the store. :)

I'm off to fill my cart with some things that I would love to have for my classroom.  Hope you find some treasures too.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Simply-Fourth

Back to blogging_ I hope

Well, it's been awhile!  I have a pretty good class this year, but I have since the end of November gained three new students in my classroom. Giving me the grand total of 36 kids!! (Insert a lot more exclamation marks here to show what I really think of this number :(  This number is an insane number and is kicking my you know what.  On top of that large number,  7 of the students are special needs students, 3 of which have full time aides-WoW!! Adjustments have been made to the day to help with this large number of 36--thank goodness.  But  36 is still 36 no matter which way you look at it.  So please forgive me due to the lack of posts as some nights I am simply doing nothing once I've taken care of my own family.

Anyway, this week dictionary work has been the focus.  The students are working in groups of two with a dictionary looking up prewritten statements to determine if the statement can be answered by using a dictionary such as, "What is the plural form of iris?"  "What it the average temperature in Minnesota?"and so on.  My plan is to focus on the dictionary off and on for the next two weeks  for a total of about 4-5 days.  I'm working on a mini unit involving sample dictionary pages.  I'll post a few sample pages for you to try out in the next few days if all goes according to plan. :O)

See you soon.

Irregular Verbs

This week we've been working on verbs during Language Arts time, which for some reason this year has been quite painful.  I'm doing the same thing as always, but this year, it's not clicking.  Today nouns were being identified as verbs, then not one, but multiple students were underlining two, three words per sentence that were to be verbs.  Uggh!  I think I've got them on the right path, but it's Friday.... Monday will probably be a different story.

Next week verbs will continue with the introduction of the dreaded irregular verbs.  I usually take several days to work on these to make sure they get it.  Last year I designed these I have, who has cards for class time that worked really well.  I laminated them for durability, then as a class we played a couple of rounds together.  Then on day two I had multiple sets available for groups of 4-5 students to work on together.  I plan to take out my sets next week.

I Have... Who Has

The day before a break

What's a 4th grade teacher supposed to do on the day before vacation to keep her sanity in the classroom?  Why a variety of things of course.

A favorite activity of mine is to do a reader's theater during the language arts block.  I usually start by giving the students a chance to look over the script for a brief time to see what part they would like to read before they get into their assigned groups.  This year I used Thanksgiving at the Toppletons.  I liked the length of this script as it allowed for a dividing  of the class into a variety of possible group sizes.  I usually like to do groups that are sized to allow for each student to have a couple of parts--more oral reading practice.

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday Top Five Pinterest Finds

\

                            I love this idea-I'm going to use it just for the bathroom. 

Morning Meeting Ideas

Not for school, but for Thanksgiving treats by each plate

Reading Graphic Organizer

Matter Vocabulary

Character Traits

I think everyone can relate to how crazy this year has been, I can't believe that I can be this busy.

With that said, my class recently finished our first class novel,  The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling.  I really love all of the chapter books that my teaching partner and I chose to use as a part of our reading curriculum a few years ago, and this one is such a great choice to start with as as kids LOVE this book.

As one of the final activities to be completed I followed an idea shared by Fourth Grade Frolics.  It's the perfect book to use to show how a character has changed as the story moved along.  Talking about how the character has changed has always been something that I've done, but when I saw this activity I knew it was the perfect wrap up for the book.

After the book was finished we together brainstormed different words to describe John Midas and what he was like at the beginning/middle/end of the story. Then I let them loose to follow the plan I wanted them to follow.  

Here are their results:

Non-fiction reading is up next for my students using their hardcover reading book.