B2S with Freebie

School starts tomorrow for the teachers. My room is all set up, the boards are covered and name tags are on the desks.  I still have a million things to get ready but I am not worried.  It will get done.  I get to meet my new fifth graders during our Open Door Day in the afternoon.  I am very excited!

Our guest speaker tomorrow morning will be Dave Burgess.  Normally, we just listen to administration giving us the same old pep talk.  Not this year...I am thrilled to see him in the morning!  I have been dying to read his book "Teach Like a Pirate" and now I have to get it done before I see him. I borrowed a copy last week and I am in the middle of reading it right now.  

I can't wait to teach like a pirate and get the inspiration I need to make this year the best that it can be.

I spent my summer working on projects for TPT.  I have put endless hours into my computer.  I just finished My 4th Grade Math Interactive Notebook.  It is aligned to the Common Core and covers all math domains.  It is available as a bundle on TPT for $15.00.  Please visit my store and check out my products.

4th Grade Math Interactive Notebook

The bundle includes all four products listed below:  

Number Sense and Patterns $4.50

Multiplication and Division $4.50

Fractions and Decimals $4.50

 Measurement and Geometry $4.50

The domains have been broken down into smaller topics to fit into your curriculum.  We use Go Math in my district and this supplements the lessons.  I have many ELL and Inclusion students in my classes and find note booking a necessity.  I have been using notebooks for four years and find them a great resource for all my learners.  I made one resource that will make my own lesson planning easier!  

If you don't use notebooks, the pages can be used with your lessons.  Many of the pages can be printed in color on card stock, laminated and used as posters to display in classroom.  I hang them up as another reference for my students.

Here is a sample page:

Link for freebie

I will blog and post more details about my math notebooks during the school year.  

Friday's Five Fabulous Finds

This is my last Friday before school starts.  Where did the summer go???  The infamous question that is said every year.  I worked for most of it but did have time for some fun.  

I have many big changes happening.  Both of my daughters will be moving out, one is going back to college and one is buying her own place.  I will have an empty nest as I start the new school year.  I am looking forward to meeting 2 brand new group of fifth graders.  This is when I miss my old classes.  I will also have a new principal and that means changes.  

As the summer comes to an end, I am ready to to get started!

Get the KidsUp and Moving

Cute Class Sign

35 Clever Ideas

Love This Board

Time for Yankee Candles and Fall Decor!

Pencils Problems (free printables)

Why does every lesson begin with the following...

Mrs. Hall I need a pencil!!!

I need to sharpen my pencil!

Can I go to my locker to get a pencil???

Working at the Middle School and having my fifth graders switch classes for the first time can be quite challenging. Every time I start a lesson, it is interrupted several times.  Some days it can take 10 minutes to get started.  To help alleviate this problem this year I am trying two new strategies. 

#1 Pawsitive Points

Click here for link

The purpose of this sheet is to keep all your paw points for the quarter.  I want my students prepared for class, that means they have all their personal materials for each class, including sharpened pencils. I will give them 25 paws and they can earn leveled rewards for their paws remaining.  Rewards could be homework coupons, extra quiz points, lunch with teacher, electronic time, etc.   I will work with my teaching partner to decide on the incentive for the first term.  Our school mascot is the panther and our colors are orange and black.  I am printing these on orange cardstock and they will be punched and put into their binders.

#2 Borrow a Pencil

I will keep several pencils on the board ready to borrow.  It will cost one "Pawsitive Point" to use one of mine.  The hope is that the children will be prepared and this will also allow a quicker start.  (I teach them to get things ready during homeroom for the day and sharpen when they enter the room. ) 

Click here for link

Scientific Saturdays: It's All Greek(and Latin) To Me!

One of the standards I taught as an ELA fourth grade teacher was the roots of words.  Now that I am a fifth grade math and science teacher I use roots to introduce many vocabulary words.  Let's be honest...I still rely on roots to break apart academic words that I don't know or have to differentiate like geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere.

I purchased a unit several years ago on TPT and recently stumbled across it again on  Pinterest.  I was thrilled to find out that the product had been updated, and now includes more science and math roots. I love that you can download purchased products for free on TPT.  This was exactly what I needed for a new bulletin board in my room.  The best part was that I already owned it!!!  I linked the product below.

Link to TPT

Here are samples of math and science roots.

I just finished printing out a bunch of roots(three cards on a page) and made a title.  I plan to laminate them all next.

 I want to introduce one math and science root each week to get started.  ( I might do it by units once I get going)  I will also add a root page in my science and math notebooks for the kids to write down the words we learn.

I uploaded my bulletin board title.  You can download it for free with the link below.

Link



Check out an old post Getting to the Root
for ideas that I have used in the past!

Friday's Five Fabulous Finds

Found a few interesting pins this week on Pinterest.  Looking forward to Getting Back to School!

Homemade Pumpkin Creamer

Creative Bulletin Borders

Adding with Fractions Model

Molecule Model

S'More Cake

Notebooking Caddy

I am tired of my whole class getting up to get supplies when we work on our notebooks.  To help with this pet peeve of mine, I have made notebook caddies for each group.  I will put them in my cabinet when we are not using them, so supplies don't magically disappear. 

Each caddy has one bottle of Elmer's white glue, 3 glue sticks, 2 pairs of scissors, small ruler and an eraser.  I numbered each item with permanent marker (nothing fancy). I bought orange to match the glue!!!

My students are trained to bring me the empty gluesticks for a new one.  This helps make them more responsible for their items.  My glue supply lasted the whole year.  I use this technique with pencils.

Matter Really Matters with a Freebie

I have finished another science product just in time for the one day only sale at TPT, August 19th.  It is a fifth grade NGSS science unit on "Matter" but can be used for any intermediate grade level (3-5).

Matter Really Matters

It is a collection of posters, foldables, labs, recording sheets, 

projects and much more!  Can be used for notebooking.

Check out my blog post with samples of the flipbook below.  

There is a link for the flipbook template.  Click here for link.

Click for Free Link

TPT link to my store
Use the code MORE15