Thursday

FREE Printable SpringtIme Game Board

Spring Game Board

 
Looking for a spring themed game board?  How 'bout trying this one.  It's FREE, and you can use it in your classroom with your own creative game ideas. Although it has Easter eggs, it is not too Eastery for school (since Easter is a religious holiday).   Just print, laminate in a file folder, and you are good to go.  Click the link below to download.



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Wednesday

FREE Types of Triangles Game

3 Types of Triangles

Equilateral
Scalene
Isosceles

I swear...
I never spell isosceles correctly the first time.

I put together a fun and easy dice game for the three types of triangles. It is a B*a*S*i*C  game, but it serves the purpose of reinforcing these three triangles. Yes, I know you can have an acute, right, and obtuse triangle, too, but this game doesn't cover those. Oh well.

This will work perfectly as a math center activity.

If you would like to try it with your students, print it for FREE.  Just click below.






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Saturday

St. Patrick's Day Homework Pass

FREE St. Patrick's Day Homework Pass

Spread a bit of luck to your students on St. Patrick's Day by gifting them with a homework pass.
OH!... and the little leprechaun was done by me as I played around with my Bamboo Tablet.

Click below for the free download.


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Sunday

Figurative Language Activities

Figurative Language Activities

We have spent the last couple of weeks studying figurative language, and my students have had so much fun.  It really is a fun topic to teach!  One of our class activities has been the making of a figurative language mini book.  As a new type of figurative language was introduced, the students added the definition, example, and an illustration to their booklet.  I don't know about your kids, but mine always like to make little books. 

We have covered many types of figurative language, but one activity in particular I wanted to share with  you is on Idioms.  Are you familiar with the books My Mama Likes to Say, My Teacher Likes to Say, and My Daddy Likes to Say by Denise Brennan-Nelson?  If not, you have got to use them when you cover Idioms.  Plus, I found a great packet to go along with idioms that was put out by the publisher of the books.  It's free, so click HERE to get that. 

In my store, I also have resources to go along with your figurative language unit.

Here is a set of figurative language posters.  I use these to project on the SmartBoard when introducing a new type of figurative language.  You could easily just print them out and use them for display on a bulletin board.


I also made a figurative language game.  Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store for all the details.  Your students are sure to have fun playing this as a literacy center.



Here are a few pictures from some of our figurative language lessons.





The picture below is an alliteration number line.  Each students was given a number, and they had to write an alliteration that went along with the beginning sound of the number they were given.  They looked really cute hanging in order out in the hallway.  I also hung some other examples of alliteration around the posters.




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Thursday

Lewis and Clark Activity

Lewis and Clark Activity

If you are like me, you are always looking for ways to integrate the subjects of social studies and science into your reading and writing activities.  We have been studying Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their expedition to the Pacific Ocean.  Of course, Sacagawea was along for a good portion of the trip, too.  Because we know so much about their journey due to the journals they kept, I thought it would be neat for the kids to write from the perspective of one of the three people and recount some of the adventures, discoveries, and hardships they faced.  Plus, I found the coolest extra-large journal-looking paper at the Dollar Store, so it made for a fun activity.  Even fourth graders love it when you pull out cool writing paper! Most wrote more than would fit on the journal  paper, so they had to write some on notebook paper and staple it to the journal sheet.They look great hanging out in the hall.  Here is a peek




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Wednesday

Finished with Work - Now What

"I'm Finished" FREEBIE

Can I read?
Can I draw?
What to do.....

Do you tell your kids to read when they are finished with their work?   You know what I am talking about..... that 5-10 minute block of time when other kids are trying to get finished with their work.  Well, I just heard a new coined phrase for reading during that time period.
 It's called "Babysat by the Book!"...........

Okay, before you think I am crazy, I did not come up with the term, nor did I say I agree with it. Actually, I often times tell my kids to read when they are finished. But, I guess it did make me start to think.  Maybe I should come up with a few other things for them to do. The hard part about having kids do something other than read is that:

1) It needs to be a pretty quiet activity.
2) It doesn't need to be worksheet after worksheet.
3) It has to be something they don't need a lot of help with.

Anyway, I decided to put something together. It may look simple, but it actually took me a lot of time to come up with the activities and get it typed up.  The activities had to meet all three of the requirements above. My plan is to have my kids keep a composition notebook available for the activities they do when they are finished with their daily work.  We will call it  something like, "What should I cook up now that I'm done?"  They will glue the below sheet into their notebook.  Just fold it in half and glue down one side, and it will fit perfectly.  They unfold it to read it, but it stays glued in.  They can pick the activity they want to do.  You can create your own rules, such as they have to do them all before they repeat one, or whatever you want.  Also, they have to finish one before they start another, etc.

Also, notice that I tried to word everything around activites that could be reused throughout the year.  Such as the topics of study in the classroom change, but the activities on the sheet don't change.

Here goes if you would like to use it.  Please come back and let me know how it goes.

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Also, I am going to rack my brain to come up with some more activities for grades 3-5, so if you comment with activities, I can put together a second version.  Also, remember that this doesn't have to be ALL the time.  They can still read at times.  This is just another option.

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Friday

FREE St. Patrick's Day Bookmarks

FREE St. Patrick's Day Bookmarks

Oh my!!
I am not sure why I  started drawing pictures with my computer mouse, but I did. The end result is this cute (well, sort of cute...) little pot of gold with a rainbow and clover. And of course, I had to make something with it, so it became a St. Patrick's Day bookmark.  I hope you can use it in your classroom. It's a freebie, so just click the link below.


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Thursday

Money File Folder Game

Money File Folder Game

Show me the money!
(that saying is so overused)

We don't really talk too much about money in fourth grade other than when we connect it to our lessons on decimals or when adding and subtracting larger number using a dollar sign and decimal point.  With that said, I have sort of been on a decimal point kick, so when I saw these cute litle money graphics I decided to buy them and put together a counting money game.  Get all of the details at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Remember, just copy, cut, laminate, and put the game in a file folder. I have done the hours of work. So easy for you!





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Sunday

FREE St. Patrick's Day Bag Toppers

FREE Printable St. Patrick's Day Bag Toppers

Greet your students at the door on St. Patrick's Day with a special  treat. Or, have a treat waiting for them at their desk along with a themed St. Patrick's Day word search. Visit my page link above with FREE themed word searches. Fill a snack sized plastic zip-lock baggie with Lucky Charm's cereal, and then use this cute baggie topper I put together as a FREEBIE.  Just fill the baggie like normal and staple the topper on the baggie.

Click here to download the FREE St. Patrick's Day Bag Topper

If you choose to download this FREE activity, please share the sweetness by doing one of these:
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Saturday

Decimals Games

Decimals Games

Over the last couple of weeks, I have added many decimal games to my TpT store. Check them out using the links below.

 I will be the first to say that I have a few students that are struggling to learn decimals. This tends to happen every year.  Actually it happens with just about every math skill, right?

I used several of these games in my class this past week for guided math while I worked with small groups.  The kids that had mastered decimals got to play games, which allowed me to reteach decimals to those that were just not getting it. Games are perfect for that, as well as for review before a test.

  Next week my students will rotate around in math centers to review decimals before they test.  In order to do this, I have made several games, which I sell in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  All of the games deal with different decimal skills.  For example, one is a game of adding decimals, there is a game of comparing decimals, identifying decimals when looking at a picture, and then converting a decimal to a fraction.  Try some of these out in your classroom.  Your students are sure to love them.  Remember, once you make a game and laminate it, it will last for years!

 Click here for the Decimals Game





Click here for the Comparing Decimals Game




I also have these games available:




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Thursday

Teaching the Constitution

Teaching the Constitution

Yikes!  The preamble to the Constitution uses some rather formal words.  How about posterity! Hmmm...a fourth grader might have trouble figuring that one out on their own. 

 In our lessons on the Constitution, I broke down the preamble and used synonyms to help the kids better understand the meaning of this very important iintroduction to the Constitution.  One activity I did with the students was that I wrote parts of the preamble onto large pieces of white paper.  I broke it down in enough parts to give each group of two students a separate part.  On each piece of paper, we worked together to come up with words to replace the more formal words of the preamble, which I then wrote in red ink.  For example, as you can see in the picture below, we  used fairness for justice and freedom for liberty.  When they were all completed, I hung them in the hall outside my classroom.  This created our illustrated version of the preamble.   The kids had a lot of fun!


Here are a few other resources for you that can be found for FREE on the internet.





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Decimals File Folder Game

Learning Decimals

Learning decimals can be alot of fun, especially if you associate it with money.  All kids like money, right?  I always try to make the connection with what they already know, which would be the dollar sign and  decimal point.  Many kids can tell you that it takes 100 pennies to equal a dollar and ten dimes to equal a dollar, so play off of that when teaching the tenth's and hundredth's places. 

I have put together some money themed decimal activites to use when I introduce decimals to the class.  The first is a decimal slide show. It is really just an adobe file, but I use it like slide show.  If you have a projector in your room, this is great to use to show the relationship between money and deimals.  Feel free to use it to suit your purposes in the classroom. 

The second activity is a decimal game.  This works perfectly as a file folder game.  These cash register themed cards can be used for a variety of different activities related to decimals, but one fun game is to use them in a game similar to War (the popular card game).  Each cash register has a different decimal.

Get all the details on these activities from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. To go to these specific decimal activities, click on the links above each picture below.





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Saturday

FREE Valentine Bag Toppers

FREE Printable Valentine Bag Toppers

Greet your students at the door on Valentine's Day with this special Valentine treat. 

I used the snack size baggies.

Or, maybe you want to have this waiting for them on their desk along with one of my free Valentine bookmarks. It would bring a smile to their face, and it would be better than starting the day with chocolate candy or those sweet conversation hearts.
Have you seen this new cereal by Quaker?
They are the cutest little heart shapes. Right when I saw them, Valentine's Day came to mind.


So, this is what I decided to make.... a baggie of love from the teacher. 
It is a FREE file, so use it if you would like.

Valentine Bag Toppers


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Friday

Addition and Subtraction File Folder Game

Addition and Subtraction File Folder Game

Not sure why, but this is one of my favorite themes I  have used for a game.  I just love these monsters.  They are so colorful and fun!  I decided to use them for an addition and subtraction game.  As always, my games work great in file folders. In this game, students will draw a card and give the missing number for addition and subtraction problems.  Students then get to move around the adorable monster game board. To learn more about this addition and subtraction game, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

Addition and Subtraction File Folder Game


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Monday

Fraction File Folder Game

Another Fraction Activity

You can usually get an idea of what's going on in my classroom by taking a look at what I'm making. I bought the cutest pizza graphics the other day, and since we are still on fractions (will be for a tad longer... I'm sure you can relate to that), I made another fraction game.  This is a game where students name the improper fraction for the pizza, as well as name the mixed number.  If they get the answer correct, they will move around the themed pizza board.  Your students are sure to have fun playing this fraction game.  It works great for a math center or a Friday game day.  Get all the details by visiting my Teachers Pay Teachers store.



Click HERE to read about some other fraction activities.

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Friday

Adjective and Setting Activities

Adjective Activities and Setting, too

This past week, I sort of combined my reading skill of setting with my grammar skill of adjectives. In doing so, we discussed that in order for the reader to be able to visualize (with chapter books in particular) the setting of the story, the author has to use very descriptive language.... aka, adjectives I thought I would share just a few of the activities we did.

For starters, I read this book to the class:


Before I read the book to the class, I explained to them that I was able to make a connection to the setting of this book because my twenty month old's toys are taking over my house.  This is a really cute book, and my fourth graders loved hearing it as a teacher read aloud.  It uses many descriptive phrases to show how the toys are taking over Spencer's house.  It is common practice in my classroom for me to use picture books to introduce and teach skills, and this one worked well for setting and adjectives

As one of our writing activities, I had them do a snow globe setting write-up.  Basically, they had to create a description of what their own 'winter wonderland' would be like. If I stepped into their snow globe setting, what would I see? After they did their creative descriptive writing, they were able to make a snow globe.  I simply traced the circles onto white construction paper and then cut black construction paper for the base.  Here they are displayed outside my classroom.


A third activity we did this past week is one I sell in my Teachers Pay Teacher's store. It's called Ooey Gooey Chocolatey Adjectives Activity. With this activity, the students will write adjectives to describe a chocolate bar, marshmallows, and a graham cracker.  On the skill sheet, they write down descriptive words related to all five sense.  Believe it or not, they see these foods all the time, but coming up with descriptive language is quite challenging. 






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FREE Times Table Chart

Free Printable Times Table Chart

There are always several of my fourth grade kiddos that need to practice multiplication every chance they get.  Yes, they learned it in third grade, but for some, it just doesn't quite click.  It takes practice, practice, and more practice. So, I put together this handy-dandy take along times table chart.  To be more exact, it is a touchdown (football themed) times table chart.  Encourage your students to score a touchdown when it comes to multiplication. Take this FREEBIE and pass it out for use as a book mark if you would like, share it at the beginning of a multiplication unit, or simply sneak it to those kids that need to practice everywhere they go....
car, lunch, grocery store, ..... while sleeping! ... (well, maybe not the last one..)



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