Math CEPAs - Time to Try It Out!

Like many of you, our school district has been working to realign our curriculum to the Common Core.  Last year, a team of us spent time learning about CEPAs - Common Educational Proficiency Assessments.  In you are familiar, then you know that these assessments have students combining various math skills to complete a real-world task.  The assessments are done over a few days or class periods, and push student's stamina and perserverance to complete the task.   Today is the first time I'm going to do a CEPA in my 4th grade classroom.  Our first math unit is on addition and subtraction, so this CEPA has students estimating, rounding, adding, and subtracting to help a local school district.  I'm both nervous and excited to see how the student's react. We're starting slowly, working in groups with lots of modeling and with 3 other adults in the room to assist.  The CEPA I created is available at my store if you're interested!  Stay tuned to see how it goes...and cross your fingers that we don't get any meltdowns (from teachers or students!)  This is tough stuff!

~Kara

Where Did We Go? Where Does the Time Go??

How has it been so long since we've blogged?!  Between teaching, planning, parent conferences, and then getting ready for the new school year, we somehow lost track of our blog.  But with a new year, come new school resolutions, and mine is to be more consistent with posting!  So keep an eye out for more to come in the next weeks - I'm really going to try and make this resolution last!  Hope you're all off to a great start with your classes!

~Kara

Canada and Mexico

Massachusetts standards require students to learn about Canada and Mexico in 4th grade.  There is some information out there about the countries(I like Enchanted Learning), but our text books and curriculum don't have much in terms of projects or note-taking guides.  I've created a few things, and they are available at my store.  I use them so that students can see the similarities and differences between the countries!

~Kara

'Treasures' Materials

Our district uses the 'Treasures' Reading Program.  Throughout the years, I have made multiple sets of vocabulary cards, supplemental materials, and assessments to match the curriculum.  If you're interested, many are available at my store for grades 4 and 5.  

~Kara

Snowed In

Day two of being stuck in the house and I'm ready to get out!  Therefore, there are lots of updates and new products available at my store...and if this weather keeps up, more will be coming.  There is only so much cleaning and watching the DVR I can do.  Hope you're all warm and safe :) 

~Kara

Holidays and Writing

We've been doing creative and persuasive writing in 4th grade.  Using their persuasive writing skills, students came up with their own holiday and tried to persuade the rest of us to celebrate it.  In addition, they created an informational poster trying to "sell" their new holiday (Ex. Free Ice Cream Day).  It was fun to do, and a great way to get kids writing!  It's available at my store if you're interested.

~Kara

Work Reflection

I've noticed that my class hasn't been working 'up to their potential,' recently.  Therefore, I started passing back all their corrected work on Fridays, and having them choose 1 piece they felt was their best quality -WOW work, and one piece they wanted a second chance with - Work Redo.  By doing this, I've seen an improvement, and the kids are excited to go through their corrected work (something they rarely did before).  Both the templates for the WOW work and Work Redo are available at my store, but you could easily do this without them.  Enjoy!

~Kara

Make Your Own Name Tags

I posted about this activity in August, but I finally took some pictures of the name tags the students in my class made.  Below are how they turned out, and the kids use them all the time as resources.  I used black construction paper as the background. had them laminated, and used Velcro to attach them to their desks.  If you'd like any of the materials for this activity (the quotes, resources, etc.), they are available at Kara's Store!

~Kara

Book Recommendation

Below are a couple photos of the reading recommendation board I have in my classroom library.  I bought the pockets and used card catalog tags to fill them.  Each student has a pocket, and as children read books, they fill each other's pockets with book recommendations.  For example, if Tommy read Swindle by Gordon Korman and thought Nick would like it, he would write the book's title and author on a card and put it into Nick's pocket.  It's an easy way for students share ideas about books!
~Kara

Work of the Week - WOW

At the end of each week, I have students go through their corrected work and find a piece that they are especially proud of.  It might be a page, packet, or just one problem they worked hard on.  They take that work and reflect on why it is their 'WOW' piece and hang it up.  Before starting this, we brainstormed as a class what WOW work and not WOW work looked like.  The kids seem to really enjoy doing this and I've noticed an improvement in the quality of their work overall.  The template I use for the reflection is available (for free) at my store!

~Kara

Cyber Monday and New Products

Joining in the Cyber Monday fun, enjoy 20% off at Kara's Store!  New products have been uploaded, especially for grade 4.  Hope you all enjoyed the holiday and find something useful!

~Kara

New Products

Now that I'm out of the fog of September, I finally uploaded some new products to my store.  Map Skills, American Revolution, and Math Vocabulary are among some of the new items.  If you're interested, check out the store!

~Kara

Homework Board

I made these signs and mounted them against my whiteboard.  They make it very easy to switch out the homework assignments each day.  Like most everything else, they're available at Kara's Store!

Enrichment Projects

So, I have a range of students in my class (probably like most of us).  And I always have a few that finish and are at me with the "What do I do now?"  I have a couple of projects that are wonderful enrichment opportunities for the students, and keep them busy for days!  One is a math project called Build that House.  Here students use math skills to design, measure, and calculate the cost of building a house from scratch.  The other is a Scholastic Catalog project where students use the catalogs to fill a classroom library with various types of texts...all on a budget!  Both are available at Kara's Store!

Reading and Math Rotations

This year I've decided to try to streamline my reading and math rotations.  This has worked well so far. I saw an idea from Pinterest where you hot glue thumb tacks to clothes pins, then put them into your bulletin board.  I did this, then made cards for the different rotation stations for both reading and math (both available at Kara's store).  I love this, and it's made switching groups quick and easy!