GOTR, Ditties, Decimals, & V-day prep

Happy Sunday all!  I am so excited!  I am officially a GOTR (Girls on the Run) coach for our school:)  I went to my training yesterday and can't wait to start!  (I'm a little nervous too..lol)  Little back ground...I had never run in my life until last summer.  I remember the first time I tried like is was yesterday....why, you ask?  Because I was pretty sure after ONE block I was dying!!!  That's serious talk...that's how out of shape I was:(

Everyday I pushed a little farther...walk/run.....walk/run......run some more......a little more....until finally 33 pounds and I have no clue how many miles later, I can run just under 2 3/4 miles without stopping or dying:)  I love how running has helped me lose weight (still have a ways to go) but more than that, I love the time thinking, praying, just enjoying the outdoors:) 

So I am so excited to be able to be a part of GOTR and share that:) (p.s. you don't have to run to be a part of it....I know that but love that I can)  So, to celebrate, the hubs got me a new pair of running shoes last night!  Too excited to try them out:)  I have done some major damage to my old ones.

Okay, on to ditties:)  Do you use ditties to teach things?  I use songs, poems, chants....whatever it takes for my kiddos to remember something:)  For example, we use this ditty for rounding:

 

Find you place,

look next door

5 or higher

add one more.

All digits to the left,

stay the same.

All digits behind,

zero's your name.

 

Not sure who is the original author to this....a teacher friend shared it with me last year and I think she got it from a teacher magazine.  This really helps my kiddos because for some reason, rounding throws them:/

I have also taught them wonderful ditties written by an awesome teacher that used to teach at our school! 

 Ditties work! 

It's funny, sometimes when they are testing I will see them mouthing the words to one of the songs to help them remember:)

Well, I need a ditty for decimal place value!  My littles keep confusing tenths, hundredths, and thousandths!  Don't know why........it frustrates me.....they know they go in order......but they make careless mistakes:(  If anyone has any ditties to share, I would LOVE to hear them:)

Finally, I made something that turned out so cute, I had to share!  These are crayons people!!!

I got the motivation, directions, idea, the works from a super cute blog called Funky Fresh Firsties! 

Stacy's blog is adorable and packed full of fun!  Pop over there to check out her cute crayons!  She has an awesome step by step tutorial:)

I'm going to add these to a little goodie bag I'm making for the kiddos.  Don't have a lot of time for Valentine's day "partying" because the state writing test is breathing down our backs://

I can at least squeeze in a little treat time:)

I love how, just like my kiddos, each crayon heart is unique and beautiful!!

Thanks for popping by!  Have a blessed Sunday:) 

I

 

 



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Cause/Effect Part 2 - LOTS of Pics and Book Winner

Hi, hi!  Hope you are all having a great week so far!  I want to say thank you so much to Maria Dismondy for guest posting on my blog and announce my lucky winner!

Congrats to Nikki Lutzke!  Please email me with an address you would like your book shipped to:)

 

Ok, still working on cause/effect. 

I wanted to share some of the activities we have done.

Hopefully there's something in here you can use:)

 Buckle up cuz there's gonna be lots of pics:)

 

The first activity we did was make cause/effect "mini-quilts".  We folded a white piece of paper several times until it was divided into 16 little boxes (quilt squares).

The story we are reading has tons of cause/effect relationships in nature!  Of course my kiddos love this! So each little box/quilt square has a small pic with a little blurb (such professional teacher lingo..lol) about the cause/effect relationship in that pic.

These 2 pics are close ups of one of the squares.

 

These 2 pics are of the whole thing.  They really enjoyed doing these.  Yes, it did take a while....I stuck this into their Daily 5 rotation.

 

The next thing we made were cause/effect cards.

Again, the students used nature examples that they found in their expository nonfiction text. 

 

These are just blank note cards folded in half.  Cause on one side, illustrated.  Effect on the other.

Then folded up like a greeting card:)

 

This next idea was my wonderful teamie, Linda's creation and it's so super cute.

She had the kids come up with their own cause/effect.

Their effect was on a card and the card was cut in half and taped at the sides.

Then the cause was on the inside (when you open up the flaps).

This is the cutest!  She put them all on a house called "The Tower of Cause & Effect"

So there are little flaps to open all over to see the different cause/effects:) 

So cute, I had to share!!!

 

Finally, this week we also played Cause & Effect Cones!

I used these in small groups and the kids loved them:)

The ice cream scoops have causes and the cones have effects.  They match up BUT I handed out causes one day and had the students come up with their own effects and the other way around.

Then they could read them and match them up.

I hope you have made it through this longggg picture post.  I have to share a precious story that happened when we were using these cards in small groups. 

One of my sweet little guys got an effect card that said...

 

The wind took the balloon up into the sky.

He read it out loud and then they students in the group took turns coming up with their own causes...

 

I heard:

- maybe a little girl let go of the string

- I think a bully cut the string and the little kid's balloon floated up

 

Then my little cutie said:

" I think someone wrote a note to Jesus and taped it to the string and let it go."

 

Love moments like this!!!!

I would also LOVE to giveaway 3 sets of my Cause & Effect Cones to

the first 3 people who leave a comment and tell me how you could use these:)

Ready, set, go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Thrilled to Welcome Author Maria Dismondy!

Hello all!  I am beyond excited to welcome back Maria Dismondy as she wraps up her virtual blog tour introducing her wonderful new book

 The Potato Chip Champ

Can I tell you my students LOVED this book!!

Be sure to enter the giveaway to win a copy for your classroom:)

Welcome Maria!

 

 

Hello Readers, I am thrilled to be a guest blogger on 4th Grade Frolics! This is the last day of the Virtual Blog Tour. Thank you for joining us as we hopped from blog to blog over the past two weeks!

 

My name is Maria Dismondy and I am a children's book author. I was an teacher for lower el for over a decade before I took a leave to raise my girls and grow my book business. 

When I get an idea for a new book, those ideas come from the needs I saw either in the classroom or at home in my own children. The idea for Spaghetti In A Hot Dog Bun, my first book, came from my experiences being bullied as a child. I researched books to use in the classroom to help my students and was disappointed with what I found. That's when I felt inspired to write a book to empower children to have the courage to be themselves. Since then, my four books have sold close to 100,000 copies, have been reviewed on teaching and parenting blogs across the country and are being used in classrooms and households nationwide. I built a platform that includes my books as well as speaking engagements to elementary students on the topics of bullying, reading, writing and character. My dream of making a difference has come true! However, I am not stopping now! I am continuing to write (check out my blog, Be The Difference) and am currently looking for a literary agent and/or large publishing house to help me take my business to the next level.  

The Potato Chip Champ has been out since December 1st and has proven to be a much needed book! The idea came from a few different situations either I had experienced or I heard about involving children who lacked empathy. After researching bullying for over four years, I found that in order to really lower the bullying statistics, we need to teach children about empathy. We can do so either by modeling or through direct instruction. The Potato Chip Champ has a FREE Reader's Guide that has lesson plans and ideas to go along with the book. I hope you enjoy this new children's book and you agree with me that it's lesson is both timeless and heartwarming!

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Literacy Week Book Sleeves and Tree!!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week....if I'm telling the truth, I have had a couple of badddddd days!  Today was better:) 

 

Before I talk about our book sleeves I have to share a few pics....this is totally not school or teaching related but just had to share.......look at this tree:

Isn't it prettiful?!?!?!?!?!  (yep, it's a word:) )

This tree is in our front yard....it is covered with purple blossoms!  It's called a Hong Kong Orchid (I think).  As I'm typing and looking at these pics I'm realizing they don't even capture how pretty it is....oh well, I tried...on to our book sleeves:)

 

This week is "Celebrate Literacy Week Florida" and we have had some fun activities going all week:) 

One of the fun things we did and I wanted to share was the kids could create "Take the Lead and Read" posters OR make favorite book covers/posters. 

Well, I took it one step further.....I wanted my kids to think of an idea that they could write a book about.  It had to be original, not like any book they have read or copied.

They had to illustrate the cover, title it, and then write a little teaser/blub on the back............

just like a real book sleeve.

 

Well they had a blast with this.  They really put some thought into it and some of their teasers are just great! 

These are 2 different covers.

This is the cover and back that goes with it:)

Another.....

 

This one is one of my faves so far....her teaser/blurb is great:)



Fun activity!

I even had 2 of my kids ask if they could really write a book to go into the sleeve:)

Yep!  Yep you can:)

 

I'll be back in a few days with Cause/Effect Part 2:)

Have a great Friday everyone!

 

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Cause - Effect Part 1

 

This week I went back to school after a wonderful 2 weeks of relaxing, reading, family time, shopping, sleeping in, no worries.........

I FEEL LIKE A TRUCK RAN ME THROUGH!!!! 

Not just ran me through but backed up, ran over me again, and then dumped some rocks on me!!!!

AM I ALONE???

 

AND.......are you ready for this??!?!?!?!?!

My kids were awesome!!! 

It wasn't my kids! 

I have the BEST class ever!!!

 It was ME!!!!!

(and maybe the hard floors, and the not relaxing, .........)

 

Wowzers!!!  The sad reality of all this is that I ran every day after Christmas....that didn't help!  I thought I was ready....Did I run this past week?  Are you kidding.....it was all I could do to get home to the couch!!!  Hoping I have transitioned and next week will be better!!  Eeek!

 

Okay, on to the lesson.  We started going over cause and effect this week.  That was a place my kiddos had a little trouble with on our mid year S.A.M. reading test. 

I introduced it with a small group mini lesson:)

Then we followed it up with some cause/effect  charades (thanks Linda for the idea:) )

What a HOOT!  They had a blast doing this and begged to do it some more!

We definitely will be adding this again next week:)

 

Also, during Work on Writing of our Daily 5 (4) rotations, I had them make cause/effect comic strips on paint strips.  (Side note....ADD walk, go with me here....hubby has been in construction, pools, for years.  Over break he was cleaning out the garage and had 2 huge paint sample books that someone had given him for old jobs.  Jackpot!!!  So I am going to use those babies up:) )

Ok, back to the lesson....on the front they had to draw a comic strip with a cause/effect relationship.  On the back they had to write sentences about it and underline the cause and box in the effect.  They loved this and they turned out super cute.

Here are a few of my faves:)

So cute!

Sorry about the shadows:/

I took all of their comics and made a bulletin board with them:)

Happy weekend everyone:)  I'll be back with cause/effect part 2 in a few days....right now I have a TO DO list a mile long because of that truck that ran me through earlier this week...he he...

 

Be blessed!

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Monday Made It - January Edition!!

Happy New Year!  

Happy craftin' and planning as 

Christmas break has ended and the new year has started!

Leave it to me to put my craftin' off until the last dog gone minute!!!  

Thank the Lord for my amazing daughter!!!

Here we go with this month's Made Its:

Home Made It:

I actually got to do (or should I say Tay got to do) a home made it this month.

It is not done yet.......

I have had something like this pinned and on my to do list forever....LOVE the gray stripes 

BUT....it still needs something....some kind of embellishment....

any thoughts anyone????

Tried this.....

and this....liking this the best...

This is one possibility...still working on it, but LOVE the letter:)

Classroom Made Its:

Ok, didn't make these.....printed, laminated, and cut them out!

These adorable fractions centers are by the super sweet Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper!

Holly blessed me with these as a random act of Christmas kindness!

How lucky am I?

They are adorable beyond words and are going to be so great to use with my Math workshop!!  

Go check out the entire set (the pics are only half of them) at Holly's TPT store:)

 

Next classroom Made It:

I found the cutest little matte and shiny plastic hearts at Hobby Lobby and knew they

would be good for something.

Tay (my little helper) used a white paint pen and put numbers on some

for a fun, quick math center....pick hearts and multiply, add, subtract...whatevs...

She also made 2 sets of letters for a word work spelling activity.

Kinda fun, right?  Gotta squeeze in the fun whenever I can with the lovely state assessments heading at us:/

Next Made It:

I'm super excited about this math center activity I made....it took forever....not because it was all that difficult BUT because I was on my new computer and it is VERY different.......VERY!  

T

The adorable pencil clip art is by 

Creative Clips Digital Clipart - Krista Wallden

She has super cute stuff!  I bought more...just haven't had the time to make more...lol...

next month's Made It:)

This set is for practicing and solving algebraic expressions.  Can't wait for my kiddos to

get to use this:)  There's lots of expressions and ways to use this.  

If you want to read more about it, you can check it out here TPT.

Thanks bunches for popping by!  Don't forget this linky is open all month

 so please link up when you get a sec:)

Don't forget to grab my button when you link up;)

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