Peek at my Week: 4-14-14

After two weeks of unusual class time - test prep and actual testing- I am very much looking forward to getting back to a normal week!

I'm linking up with Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her Peek at my Week linky party!

We are wrapping up our unit on fractions this week before we start delving into decimals.  My kids will be working on this bakery project and these fraction task cards from Teaching with a Mountain View to make sure they are ready for their unit test on Friday!

I've mentioned before that I alternate teaching science and social studies each quarter.  For the last quarter of the year, I will be teaching social studies.  I bought this Weekly Science pack from Science Penguin in one of the last big TpT sales and I haven't had a chance to use it yet!

We are starting at the beginning with matter.  I'm planning on doing the stations whole group this week, so my students get the idea of how each station will work and what is expected from them at each station.  Everything you need is laid out for you in this resource with a teacher resource page for each week.  I worked on getting everything put together in the afternoons after testing was over last week.  I'm super excited to use this resource!  My kids love science and hopefully using this resource will ensure without a doubt that I will get to science every day. 

Last but definitely not least, I have parent/teacher conferences this week!  Report cards went home last Tuesday and this week I will be meeting with all my parents.  I've got all of my conferences scheduled and I should get done in 4 days!  It's going to be another long week!  

Peek At My Week {3-30-14}

Ok, I'm really going to get better about this blogging thing!  I was doing so well for a while and then things got crazy and I have been a terrible blogger!  I'm spending some time today working on some posts that will be scheduled for later in the week as well.

Well, my spring break is officially over today.  I actually worked Monday and Tuesday as a sub because the traditional calendar schools in my district made up two snow days during Spring Break.  That was quite a trip!  We spent the second half of the week at a friends lake house where it was cold and windy, but SOOOOOOOOO relaxing!

Family pic at the lake!

It is Sunday, so I'm linking up with my blogging buddy Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her weekly Peek at My Week Linky Party!

I don't have much exciting to share, but it is test prep week!  We give our state standardized next Monday through Thursday.  My 4th graders take a reading, writing, and math test.  Our problem issue challenge this year is to prepare our students for an Arkansas test when we have been teaching Common Core Standards.  I have to cover a few this week that are not in the 4th grade CCSS including probability, 3D shapes, slides, flips, and rotations, etc.  We will also be doing a lot of open response practice with these types of questions.  I'm truly hoping that I haven't just taught my 50 students content, but that I have taught them how to think and that no matter what problem they come up against, that they will be able to persevere and solve it to the best of their ability.

I also have several "projects" for the house that I will hopefully be blogging about soon that I will be working on in the evening!

What do you have planned for the week?  Are you test prepping or have you already tested???

Peek at My Week: {1-27-14}

This has been such a wonderful weekend!  I actually feel somewhat on top of things for once.  I only brought home one assignment to grade and it's online in Google Docs!  Don't get me wrong, I still came home with a full page to-do list, but it's not that bad!

It's Sunday, so I'm linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her Peek at My Week linky party!

Math:

We will be learning how to measure and sketch angles this week.  We are still using Jennifer's foldables in math to add to our interactive notebooks!  I'm also hoping to start this mini golf project from Beyond Traditional Math.

Social Studies:

We started the 3rd quarter last week, which means we are back to social studies.  I started working on this government lapbook from Amber Polk last week and I'm hoping to finish it this week.  

I've made some Google Doc quizzes to go along with their lapbooks to check their understanding as we go along.

We also have a Scholastic News subscription that just started, so we'll be practicing some non-fiction reading skills with these this week!

4th Grade Planning Day:

We get 2 planning days a year with our team and our second day is this Wednesday!  We have a very full agenda, but I'm super hopeful that it will be a very productive day!

Marathon Training:

I totally slacked off last week!  I did run at all except for yesterday.  I did do a super intense work out with the hubby and some teachers from his school on Thursday that has left my abs super sore! I will do my long 5 mile run today.  Then 3, 4, 3 miles during the week and then another long run of 6 miles next Saturday.  I really need to get into a rhythm with running if I'm going to finish this half marathon in April!  

What does your week look like?  Don't forget to head over to Mrs. Laffins Laughings to see what everyone else has planned for the week!

Peek at my Week {1-13-14}

Even though I only worked two days this week, I was really looking forward to this weekend!  I just can't get enough time with my sweet little girl!!!!  It's Sunday, and so it's time to link up with Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for Peek at my Week!

As far as teaching goes, I will pretty much be doing everything I had planned for last week.  Again one of my favorite features about Planbook.com is that you can "bump lessons" to the day you need to.  Made for really easy lesson planning!

 Along with these awesome lessons I have planned, I have a formal observation on Tuesday afternoon! Our state has instituted a new teach evaluation system based on Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching called TESS.

I have my pre-observation meeting with my principal on Monday morning.  I will be spending the rest of my day getting all my paperwork ready.  Lucky for me, I have an assistant principal in my house to make sure I don't miss any details!
One thing that is different about this teacher evaluation system is that it focuses a lot more on teacher as facilitator.  In order to get a 4 the students have to being most of the work, asking the questions, and moving the discussion.  I am hoping that my self-guided geometry unit through Learn Zillion will meet all of these standards.  I'll let you know how it goes!

I have started training for my half marathon!  I ran 3 miles at the old high school track yesterday with my wonderful coach AKA: the hubby!  Ainsleigh came along, too in the jogging stroller. This will be my second half marathon.  Last time I used Hal Higdon's Novice 1 Training Schedule. I am using the Novice 2 training schedule for this one! This what the next 12 weeks of my life looks like!

 I am on week 1 so I will run a total of 11 miles this week.  I've got Jillian Michael's workout videos on my Youtube playlist for my cross training Sundays including today.  I love her stuff and there are several free videos on Youtube!

What are you up to this week?

Peek at My Week - ***1-5-14***

Well, tomorrow is back to work day.  I've been working myself up for it all weekend!  I hate to lose my morning snuggles and reading with my sweet little girl, but I do miss my 4th graders!  

I'm very proud of myself for how much I have ready to go back to school.  It's strange when I think about this time last year, not returning after break, but staying home with my precious baby girl! 

Wow how life changes in a year!

I'm linking up with Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her weekly "Peek at My Week" Linky!

This is what I've got planned for our first week back!

We will be starting our geometry unit this week.  We will be covering lines, angles, and shapes attributes.  I'm going to go about the next couple of weeks of math a little differently than I have in the past.  I'm going to give my students several foldables for the math journals at the beginning of the week and then they will be learning and completing them at their own pace based on their online learning!  I hope to update everyone on my hopeful success next week!  I am using Jennifer Findley's foldables to help guide my students through their learning.

I'm actually planning on breaking out the textbook this week... well the online version of course!  We will be learning about water and weather systems this week.  I'm hoping to throw in a couple hands on activities here and there, too!   

My technology goes with my math for the week.  

I'm going to have my students sign up for Learn Zillion this week. 

If you don't know about this website, I highly suggest you go check it out! The site has tons of "lessons" that go with all the common core standards for ELA and Math.  The lessons are short videos with graphics and vocabulary and simple precise language.  I'm anxious to see what the kids think of learning this way! 

 They are going to watch all of the 4th grade geometry lessons to help them fill out their foldables in their interactive notebooks on their own.  We'll see how this goes!

Don't forget to go check out all the rest of the posts over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings to see what everyone has planned for this first full week back!

Peek at My Week

I feel like I have had 4 Saturdays in a row because of these snow days!  I'm anxious to see if we will have school tomorrow!  We went out yesterday and a 15 minute trip normally took us 45 minutes!  The roads are still really icy, so I'm not sure if the busses will be able to get to all of the neighborhoods.  It's Sunday so I'm linking up Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for Peek At My Week to share my plans for the week, if we ever make it back to school!

I'll be playing a little bit of catch up this week in math.  Our division lessons got cut a little short because of the snow.  We'll be working through these division task cards by Teaching with a Mountain View for extra practice.  

My kids will also be finishing their crochet problems and make new Educreations videos to post on their blogs!

One of the items I bought last week during the huge TpT sale was this science bundle pack from Ari at The Science Penguin!

I'm really excited to start using it this week in my class!

I'm super excited for the Hour of Code this week!  If you haven't already registered, GO NOW!!!!  I can't wait to see how my kids do with coding!

What are you up to this week? I 'm off to see what everyone else has planned for the week!

Peek at my Week 11-11-13

Well, I thought I could do it all, but obviously I can't!  It's been over a week since I last blogged!  I stayed home with a sick little girl this week and took her the dr. for a second time in one week's time! She is doing so much better so hopefully this week will be a little smoother. Needless it's been a little crazy around here!  Anyway... It's Sunday and that means it's time to link up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for Peek at my Week.

Because we only teach science the second and 4th quarters, I had to start at the beginning last week.  I bought this

from Melissa at More Time 2 Teach.  Its a great resource and well worth the money!  I got basically 3 weeks of lesson plans from it! We read through the non-fiction articles and created a lapbook with the foldables.  This week we are going to complete the Skittles and M&Ms experiments in class.  These will be the first experiments we have done in class, so I'm anxious to see how they go!

We are working on 4.NBT.5 which means lots of multiplication!  I'm trying really hard to teach through problem solving.  I give a problem and my kids solve the problem however works for them.  I'm staying away from the standard algorithm as much as possible, but I do have some GT students who already know it.  We will be consolidating our strategies in a foldable in our math ISN.  

My math and science plans also include technology as always!  We are going to blog about our science experiments.  The kids love to blog and comment on each other's blogs!  I can't blame them, I feel the same way!!!  We will be using Educreations again to share our problem solving strategies and we will be posting them to our blog as well.  I also plan on trying something new this week if all goes as planned and I'm going to have my kids make a comic strip explaining their problem solving strategy.  We'll see how that goes!

What are you plans for the week?

Peek at My Week

It's been a couple of weeks since I linked up with Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for Peek at my week, but I've actually been on top of this blogging thing, so here's what's going on in my week!

In math this week, we are starting division.  My kids should have their basics facts down from third grade, but we will be working on the facts in the background during this unit. We will be focusing on remainders and how to interpret what do with a remainder when dividing.  This was a concept that my students struggled with last year, so we will see how my current kiddos do.

At my school, in 4th grade, we teach science and social studies in alternating quarters.  First and third quarters are social studies, second and fourth are science.  We are starting our quarter of science with a science inventory and some science basics like the scientific method.  I know the kids are really looking forward to working on science.

We are going to start blogging this week. I've got my kids all set up on Kidblog.  The first thing I'm going to have them blog about is how they used math over October break.  I'm really excited about my kids getting their work, ideas, and creativity with the broader world.

It's Red Ribbon week this week, so we will be celebrating be drug free this week!  These are our spirit days for the week.

HALLOWEEN!!!!  Which actually means MY BIRTHDAY!!!!  Yes, I was born on Halloween!  My school is right off of our downtown square so we get to go trick or treating on the square instead of having a Halloween class party.  I'll be posting pictures of my costume on Thursday.  Any guesses???

What are you up to this Halloween week?