Testing Frenzy!!

It's that time again....Spring Semester...time for the testing frenzy to begin. It's been such a crazy month. I cannot believe our state standardized test is NEXT MONTH! As a fourth grade teacher, I will be administering the Writing at the end of March. How crazy! I cannot believe how quickly this year has flown by. I'm looking for the perfect combination of writer's workshop, Social Studies integration, grammar lessons, and so much more. Can I please have more time in my day? ;)

I finally implemented the Writer's Workshop Pencil in my classroom. Students move their clip down the pencil depending on which stage they are currently on in the writing process.

I've also been working on my schedule and changing my Daily 5 routines around. I use to have stations where students had to go to certain centers at certain times because they were not pacing themselves enough. Now, with my new schedule, I'm thinking I may try and go back to the "true" Daily 5 style. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

One example....

Here is one example of how I am using the iPads. I've posted this on the iPad blog....

We have been focusing a lot on vocabulary since we Writing is the big focus in fourth grade. With our new words, one of the final projects is to create a showme video where students had to take a picture of something that represented or showed the word. Then, they had to find synonyms for them. I am going to change something though....Next time, when they record, I'm going to have them use the word in a sentence. Here is an example of one. :)

iPad blog link

In all the excitement, I forgot to give u the link!

Www.theipadclass.blogspot.com

Check it out!

-Mrs. Cardiel. :)

An iPad blog!!!!!

I'm happy to report that after much decision....lol...I've decided to start an iPad blog. It's hard for me to find blogs where teachers are integrating iPads into their classroom. I've started to really implement them into my classroom for project purposes these last few weeks. I created a few projects last semester, but we've created more in the last two weeks than we did all last semester.

I had a hard time finding teacher blogs. It was easy enough to find tech blogs and people's recommendations, but it wasn't so easy finding blogs straight from the teacher's classroom.

I hope at least one person is able to walk away with some information and leave me something to learn from as well!

Happy iPadding!

iPads to record weathering erosion and deposition

We used our iPads this week to record weathering, erosion, and deposition. The kids had a blast putting together their projects an printing the end results to post in their Science Journals.






What was very interesting was having the kiddos go back and discover some of their data was incorrect. They were able to use online resources to research some more and then return to the battle field for some better data.

Here is one sample....

-Mrs. Cardiel. :)

ELA Ticket

I'm sorry I took forever to get this posted. I've been trying to figure out how to upload this document.
This is how I handle part of my daily 3. My students have been given a ticket on Monday. Throughout the week, they are pacing themselves to get certain tasks completed. I've told them they must complete one assignment at least in each section. As they finish the #ed selections, they turn them into the finished work box in number order and they must check their names off on the list. Then, I know who has incomplete assigments and who owes me study hall. :)
For students who cannot pace themselves, I x out the days I want the tasks completed. I hope you can use this. :)


ELA Ticket

Guided Reading and Math

I thought that this week I would devote my posts to guided reading and guided math groups. Because so much of what I do is individualized to student need, I could share a few ideas.

The first is how I organize myself for the week. I use these tubs which I purchased at Target last year. One side is for math and the other ela. I have the small books in here as well as re folder with their weekly ela packets. They are all different and come with. Weekly menu. I will share those this week.

The other side holds my small group work and independent group work. This is also a great place to hold anecdotal records, supplies, and games (many which I get from fcrr.org for ela games).




I was in the middle of planning and left out my math stuff forgive me.

In order for students and I to keep track of groups, I place their student number (which they are alphabetically assigned on day 1) on a chart.





If I have test corrections or work that I want to review with my kids, I put it in the file so they do not get misplaced. Then I can pull it out in small group.



Tomorrow I will show you my daily 5/ ela ticket and idea for turning in daily work.

Happy Sunday!

-Mrs. Cardiel. :)

Differentiating and grouping

We are very big on differentiating in the classroom. One way to group my kids either homogeneously or heterogeneously is by using stickers and numbers. The happy face stickers are homogeneously grouped. I have four different stickers around the room. They are placed on their name tags.



Another way to group is by colors and numbers. We also use Power Teaching, so when students are asked to teach each other what they just learned, I may say 1s turn to a 2 or odds find an even. I can also ask for all my ones to group together or all my greens to group together. This is just a way of getting them out of their desks and learning to work with other students they may not generally flock to.



-Mrs. Cardiel. :)

Sentence lifting

I've taken an idea from pinterest and brought it to life. We are working on sentence lifting - aka: adding details to a boring sentence to make it spicy! Here is a sample:




Students started with a bland sentence and added detail to the who what when where why and maybe how (if it applied).

I love this activity. As an extension, they made a sentence doe their friends to expand. ;)

-Mrs. Cardiel. :)

What a long break!

Okay, my apologies!!
I haven't posted in nearly a month! Needless to say, things have been busy at work. I feel like the first part of the year was filled with beginning of the year assessments and getting kiddos in tune with routines.

I'm working on putting together some posts from my classroom routines in regards to Daily Five and Writing.

I hope you are all having a wonderful year thus far!