Five for Friday and Freebie!!

This week just flew by!!  It was really refreshing to get a whole week in the classroom.  I had to take two sick days (one on 12/21 and one on 1/2) and it was so exhausting being out.  We got a lot accomplished this week and I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her "Five for Friday" linky where you share 5 random things about your day or the past week!

 1.  State testing seems like it is just around the corner!!  We are so lucky (insert sarcasm) to have THREE state tests in 4th grade:)  One thing I started this week is a measurement station for students during our morning math meeting.  This helps prepare them for the hands-on portion of the state science test.  I post a math meeting every morning and, as students arrive, they work on the questions and record the answers in their notebooks.  For the "measurement" portion, I post a question like "find the mass of the object at the measurement station."  Students take turns going to the back of the room and using any of the measuring tools to answer the question.  Then, we go over the math meeting later with a math meeting "helper" at the SMART board.

2.  We also started really getting into our science motion and design unit.  These are our vehicles that we will use to explore concepts such as force, friction, load, inertia, speed, work, energy, and simple machines.

I am loving the Force and Motion Lapbook and Foldables from Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher!  It has added some new excitement to this unit:)

 3.  In ELA this week we were working on the them "The Earth and Sky".  We read nonfiction material about the stars and solar system as well as Native American myths of the sky. I love "Glow in the Dark Constellations" because it has a picture of various constellations (and they glow in the dark!) with a thorough but not overwhelming description.  "They Dance in the Night Sky" is a great resource for Native American myths dealing with the stars and solar system.

Students researched a constellation using this website.  They answered some questions on the front of this paper and then wrote a summary of information about their constellation on the reverse side.  It was difficult for many of the students to not use words like "my constellation" or "I" in their summaries.  I wanted them to focus on writing an informational summary.  The highlighted colors below are topic sentence and conclusion (green), details (yellow), and explanations (pink).  We use the Step-Up to writing model.

4.  I put to use the fraction centers I made.  Here the students are working on them in a small group math intervention class with my guidance.  They can also work on them during morning work time when they finish their math meeting.  

5.  Random....My hubby texted me today and said there would be a surprise waiting for me at home on the porch.  You can imagine my excitement when I found TWO boxes of cupcakes...not just any cupcakes...GEORGETOWN CUPCAKES waiting for me at home!!  Yummy!!  They were having a 40% off sale and he said he just had to order:)  This is coming from the guy who complained the entire time I made him wait in line with me in DC for over an hour to get them for the first time.  The same guy who then ate EIGHT of these cupcakes that night in the hotel room!  I think he loves them more than me:)  We have some quite serious sweet teeth in our house!!

This one already has one missing...guess who ate it before dinner?  YEP, my hubbie!  Maybe this wasn't a surprise for me...haha!

My personal favorite (if I had to choose one) would be the peanut butter fudge.  They are pictured below as the two middle in the top row.

Now, I have a freebie for you and am linking up with Teaching Blog Addict!  

My students really enjoyed the fall story starters that I got free from the generous Tara at 4th Grade Frolics.  I decided to make some new winter story starters.   You can find them FREE here.

You also have to check out this HUGE giveaway by Rockin' Teacher Materials!  One lucky winner per grade level will get a flash drive full of teaching resources for their grade!!!  How awesome is that?

Don't forget to enter my giveaway that ends January 17th.  There are many prizes being offered by 19 amazing bloggers and two winners will receive an additional $20 of educational resources.