Magical Product Swap (Math Review Game)!!!

I am so fortunate to be linking up with Jessica from Mrs. Stanford's Class 

for her Magical Product Swap!!  

I was matched with a fellow NY blogger, Rachael from the Classroom Game Nook!

You can imagine my absolute GLEE when I saw her TPT store...WOWZERS!!
She has 145 products in her store...
and is #5 for the all-time top sellers in NY!!! (YES, I said #5!!!)

So, looking through her amazing store, I thought, "How am I going to choose one product?"
In the end, state test review won since our state math test is next week.  I had Rachael send me the Math Operations Review Game Word Problems and Algorithms.

I printed, cut-out, and laminated the game board, directions, answer key, and three sets of cards for the game ("write and solve", "read and solve", and ?).

I love the fun game board that comes with this game!
When my students saw it, they said, "Ohh!! This looks like FUN!"
It comes in two pieces and I taped it into a file folder to connect the board.

Here are some pictures of my students playing the game.  

One player works out the problem as they land on a space to draw a "Write and Solve, Read and Solve, or ?" card while their partner uses the answer key to check their work.  If they get the correct answer, the students gets another turn.  They love that!

This is Rachael's description on her TPT site:

This math board game allows students to practice determining the correct math operation to use when solving word problems and traditional algorithm. There are three different stacks of cards that go with the game. Depending on where the student lands on the board, they will pick up a "Read and Solve" card to read a word problem and decide which operation to use a "Write and Solve" where students solve the problem given, or a "?" card where anything goes! There are a total of 72 game cards. This game is perfect to help students prepare for state tests or to have them use after teaching all four math operations (+, -. x, /).

I loved how there was a combination of word problems and traditional algorithm questions.  This worked particularly well with my math intervention students.  Some questions were definitely easy for them and made them feel so confident.  It was a great review of many different concepts and was just what I was looking for!!

Stop by Rachael's amazing blog, Classroom Game Nook for a peek into so many resources and ideas for use in your classroom (I love the Game Theme!).

Fourth Grade Common Core Resources

I have noticed this workbook of Fourth Grade Common Core Resources floating around the blogging world for months now!

Now, they are hosting a giveaway for a free book from now until April 21st!
Check it out!!

Here is the description of this wonderful resource:

This Fourth Grade Common Core Workbook is the largest collection of resources for teaching the Common Core State Standards. This workbook includes over 850 pages of Worksheets, Activity Centers, and Posters that teach all the Fourth Grade English Language Arts Common Core Standards and all the Fourth Grade Mathematics Common Core Standards! 

Revolutionary War Recruitment Poster Project (Joy in the Journey!)

The wonderful Jessica from Joy in the Journey has a great voluntary product swap! Her TPT store has so many amazing products (95!!) and I jumped at the chance to do a swap with her!!

See her cute button below?  Contact Jessica if you are interested in a product swap:)

I chose something for the American Revolution (since we are STILL working on it:) and I knew her Recruitment Poster project would be perfect for coming off of spring break and going into testing weeks.  Boy, was I right!  Getting into pairs and working on these posters was just what my class needed after three days and 210 minutes of ELA state tests aligned to the Common Core!

This pack comes with recruitment poster project directions for:

American Revolution

Civil War

WWI

WWII

I used the American Revolution handout:

There is also a planning page organizer for each poster project: 

I love this handout on persuasive techniques that comes with the pack.  

It is so easy to follow and age appropriate for 4th graders! 

Here are the students in the planning stage with the organizer that comes with the pack:

Here are some of the finished products!  They wrote a small two sentence explanation about how their poster is persuasive and what technique they used.  I love that my class was split just about 50/50 on whether their poster was pro Loyalist or pro Patriot! (I like to think that is because we learned the point of view of both sides so well:)

The Recruitment poster project pack is only $2.00!!  Wow!  The students absolutely loved it and I have added this to my "must do" list for lessons on the American Revolution!  

Thank you, Jessica!

Workshop Wednesday (Restate the Question!)

I am linking up with my amazing bloggy buddy, Jivey, for her Workshop Wednesday:)  

She has a new topic each week!

This week's topic is favorite writing mini lesson.

One of the first lessons I teach at the beginning of the year is how to restate the question when answering a question.  The students have not had practice with this skill prior to 4th grade and we start with simple questions like this:

It takes some practice for students to master this concept and they really hate dislike it at first.  Once they get used to it, they don't even remember the days when they would answer a question like this:

Question:  What did Princess Charlotte do to show that she wanted to be part of the British royal family?  Why was this difficult for her?  Use text details.

Answer Without Restating: She played "God Save the King".  Because she didn't speak English.

Answer With Restating:  Princess Charlotte showed that she wanted to be part of the British royal family by learning to play "God Save the King" on her harpsichord and sing along with the words.  This was difficult for her because she didn't speak English and she learned to sing the words in English.

Why is restating the question a skill I require of my students?  

1.  An accurate statement lets the reader or listener know what we are writing or talking about.

2.  An accurate statement helps us remain clear on what we are writing or talking about.

In other words, students must slow down and answer the question that is being asked.  It is more difficult (although, not impossible!) to NOT answer the question when it is restated.

I found this worksheet available to print for practice.

Click here for an interactive game for students to practice restating the question in a simple format.

This is a screenshot of a page in the game.
Students drag words to the box to restate the question.

Do you have your students restate the question?

I always stress, "Don't start your response with a pronoun!"

Check back with Jivey for more great writing lessons:)

Tried It Tuesday (Save my Sanity Organizer)!!

 I am so saddened about the events in Boston.  

It is like a huge cloud hanging over our heads and my thoughts and prayers go out to all the families and friends who have loved ones affected by this tragedy.

We are on our fourth week of "Tried It Tuesday" and I love all the amazing ideas that bloggers are linking up!!  There are super talented educators linking up creative ideas that you will want to check out!

Thank you so much for linking up and for showing support by reading along or commenting:)  

<center> <a href="http://fourthgradeflipper.blogspot.com/"><img src=" http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/04fallingstar/3AM%20Blog%20Design/3am_triedittuesday_3_zpsd7a240d4.png" width=225 height=225 border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a></center> Awesome linky button above designed by the talented Michelle at The 3am Teacher! What is 'Tried It Tuesday'? 1.  Write a post about any"thing" you have...TRIED (new or old)! 2.  Describe what worked and maybe what didn't work. 3.  Keep it simple and focus on one general topic.  You can link another idea next week:) 4.  Link your post back to this post.

My Tried It Tuesday:

File Organizer Pocket Chart

You would not believe how much the addition of this pocket chart has improved my organization sanity!!   I snagged it for under $15 at Amazon! It takes up no floor space and I have it hanging with thumbtacks pushed into a strip of cork at the top of my board.  There are three holes at the top of the pocket chart.  At first, I thought it wouldn't stay put, but it does! It holds an amazing amount of papers!!  Seriously, I wouldn't have believed it myself. As you can see, I have some pockets with multiple file folders.  There are 10 pockets total.  
Why has this little pocket chart made such a difference? It has saved my sanity because before I had a pathetic poor method for organizing the extra handouts for absent students or lost papers (sometimes "conveniently" lost:).   Background:  I keep extra copies of assignments on hand because when students lose an assignment, they receive a new one and have to start the assignment over.  The same goes with papers that needed to be corrected and are lost.  It really cuts back on how many papers are "lost" after the first month or so of school.   Every so often, I have students who chronically lose papers and they no longer have the privilege of getting a new one to write on.  They borrow an extra copy and write out the questions and answers on a separate paper:)   I consider myself a fairly organized person so I don't know why I didn't fix my system sooner!  I used to keep extra papers in a metal organizer on a shelf behind the door but it always ended up crowded and was difficult to find the copies there.   When I was looking, I was usually annoyed because I was spending MY time looking for another copy of a paper that one student "conveniently" lost  Although, I was determined that they would not get out of doing the assignment!   Now, I have all the extra copies arranged by subject in their own little file in this hanging pocket chart.  I just tell the student to look for an extra copy in the folder when they have lost a paper (much to their chagrin)!  Love it!!   There is plenty of room for some extra work on writing activities that are handouts.  I also have some extra math center activities here that won't fit in my drawer organizer. Isn't it amazing how one little change can make such a difference in your day? I hope you will link up one of your "Tried Its"!   You never know who may be inspired by it:)

Mentor Text Linky (math-division with remainders)

It's Sunday and time to link up with Collaboration Cuties for their awesome mentor text linky.  You have to check out the new page on their blog where they are organizing all the mentor texts linked up each week by subject!  What a wonderful tool for teachers to refer to.

The topic this week is math mentor texts.

I am linking up one of my favorite math mentor texts for 4th grade, 

A Remainder of One by Elinor J. Pinczes.  

In this book, there is a regiment of 25 beetles on a parade.  Their queen likes to keep things "tidy" and when the bugs march two by two, she notices that one bug doesn't have a partner.  The bug left out, "Joe", has to stand aside rather than be a remainder.  On the days that follow, Joe tries dividing the beetles into groups of 3 and 4, but it still doesn't work out.  He finally makes it work with groups of five!  The same beetles appear throughout the book and students love to "spot" certain beetles as they move through the text.  

The illustrations by Bonnie MacKain are colorful and full of energy.

Remainders are a difficult concept for my fourth graders and this helps them to realize what a "remainder" actually means.  This lends itself well to word problems when students must interpret the remainder for their answer.  

For example, when presented the problem, "There are 25 beetles lined up in 4 rows with the same number of beetles in each row.  How many beetles are in each row?", students are more likely to respond, "Six beetles are in each row with one left out!" rather than, "6 R1 beetles".  

Here is a video read aloud of the story on Teacher Tube!

Check back at Collaboration Cuties for all the other math mentor text link ups today!

Student Motivation Saturday!!

I am linking up again with Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching for her Spark Student Motivation Saturdays!  I love this linky! Everyone shared so many great ideas last weekend:)

Last Saturday I blogged about my 20 stars whole class incentive for good behavior here.

I left this teaser:)

What do you do for the few kids that are still reluctant to follow the rules?

I do have a strategy for those students that goes along with the 20 stars plan.  It has something to do with what happens when the free time day (well, 20 minutes of free time) comes!  

Check back next Saturday for more on that topic:)

Now it is "next Saturday" and I wanted to share with you the quick strategy I have for those students that still tend to break the rules and might ruin the whole class getting a star.

Instead of those students holding the whole class back from getting a star for the day, I have them make a check on our owl individual charts.  I laminated these little mini incentive charts from Carson Dellosa.  They have all kinds of styles available and have used them for many different reasons over the years.

They also take and complete an "owl slip" to indicate what their behavior was. 

It immediately stops the behavior when they have to walk over to the owl chart and make that check.  It is interesting to see what they write because sometimes they try to downplay what the actual infraction was.  

I keep these in a file and pull them out for future reference.  I also have them on hand in case I need them at a parent conference.

Click here to download a PDF of this owl slip.

When it comes time for the 20 stars incentive, anyone with checks on the "owl chart" loses some (or all) of the class free time.  They sit in the pod and, using their owl slips, write about the poor behaviors they had exhibited and how they can improve.  

If they will not do this, they don't have a chance of coming back to the room so the students really work hard getting it done.  

Each time we have made a 20 stars incentive, the number of checks on the owl chart have decreased.  It has really been effective!  

That being said, I have started a new incentive for the last 10 weeks of school using Class Dojo.  I just finished my first week using the system and it has sparked a lot of new excitement.  This might be just what I need to get through the remainder of the year:)  I will blog more about that after I have used it longer.  

Check back at Joanne's blog and see what other ideas bloggers have linked up!