This year I wanted to move to a three ring binder. Why? My goal is that my students will take their math journal with them the following year and they can add notes to each section.

 The first thing I did was purchase J. Runde's Interactive Math Journal. If you have not purchased it, you should! This document is a wonderful resource. It was the catalyst for this project!


The first thing I am going to have my students do is to decorate the cover of their math notebook however they like. This creates ownership for the student. Inside the first page, will be the pacing guide. I have went back and fourth on whether to include it or not, and I finally decided to include it. I think it is a great skeleton for students and parents to look at and see where we are headed. I of course will explain that we may not follow it exactly.

Then, the math assignment log will be use to record homework assignments for the week. This helps parents to see what was learned at school each day and to see what is for homework each night.

A few months back I was contacted by Mommypage and asked to do an interview. Of course I was very excited. I enjoy doing interviews like these because it gives me a chance to talk about all the wonderful things that happen in the blog world and to mention some of my favorite companies.

Last week I was talking with my principal and we were talking about the importance of having an academic words word wall. I have always had a word wall, but normally I come up with these words based on the lessons I teach. This year, I decided to do this differently. Instead of teaching and then coming up with vocabulary, I referred to the common core suggested vocabulary and created my word wall. Of course, I will not introduce these words until I teach the lesson. The reason I like doing it this way is because it helps ensure that I use the common core terminology when teaching and do not leave out any terms. If you would like your own copy of the 4th grade math vocabulary word wall words follow the link to my TPT store. The unit is 20 pages and only cost $3.

The first five people to leave a comment saying that they follow my TPT account will get a copy for free.

Well I finally did it! I mailed that box! I am so excited. Now I am just studying for the assessment center test. I feel so relieved and now I have so much more free time. I even had time to spring clean my classroom last week. I reorganized my classroom library because I received a book grant I had wrote from Donors Choose. The long pink shelf houses multiple copies of chapter books.







This year I waited until January to start a student portfolio book and I am in love with how they have turned out. I am going to start this from day one next year. I am going to add a binder to my students supply list. I love this portfolio because it serves as a writers workshop notebook as well. I have different sections for narratives, poetry and all about pieces. The students are really motivated to do their best work since they know it will be featured in their book.

In Math Workshop, we have been practicing multiplication. I found out about a game for multiplication practice called Speed. This game is a two person game where students practice skip counting to teach multiplication. My students love this game and I have even created a big end of year Speed competition. My students are so excited they practice the game at recess and some have even asked about buying it to play at home.

This is my second year using Daily Five and although I love it - I need to revamp it for next year. I have been trying to figure this out in my brain. One thing that is hard about Daily Five is technology problems during listening center. It never fails that the CD won't start  and students loose precious time trying to guess what is wrong. Of course I can see from my guided reading group what the problem is, but then I have to stop the flow of the lesson and go and fix it.This is why I have created a new job for my students called "tech Expert". I have trained two students with what to do if the technology is not working. This allows me to focus on my guided reading groups without distractions.

This week in math class we are learning about missing addends, and the students are super excited! I started my lesson today by reviewing the addition properties. Then, I gave students a word problem that had the start and the result but the change was unknown. I had students discuss how they would solve the problem given since their was a missing addend. They gave examples like: addition, open number line and doing the inverse operation.

After that, I taught students how to play the game Salute. In this game, students work in groups of three. Each group has a deck of playing cards (remove all cards that are not numbers). Then the dealer places the stack of cards on the floor and gives the other players one card each. The players must not look at their own card because their card will be the missing addend. When the dealer says "salute", the two players pick up their cards and place them on their forehead with the number facing out. Then the dealer says the total of the two cards. Each player must look at the others person's number to figure out what card they have.
My students LOVED this game and it really helped make missing addends concrete. I differentiated this game by having four people in a group (one dealer and three players). Tomorrow we are going to do the same game, but with number cards up to 100. I stopped by Lowes last night and grabbed a bunch of those paint sample cards to make this game. I asked the cashier at the register if he minded and he said, "They are free take as many as you need". Score!

I am so excited to start math workshop next week. So far I have introduced my students to the extra centers and to their math journal but they have not got to actually do workshop yet. This year I am teaching the gifted math class and so our school AIG teacher is working with me to implement workshop in my room. I have not read Math Work Stations yet but I am hoping to over the weekend. I am so blessed to work with teachers who are willing to step outside of their room to help another teacher. Team work is what it's all about.



Because I have 26 students in this class, I separated my centers into six groups. This week the stations are: SMART board, Digit Detective, math journal, math with teacher, Reading about math and Study Ladder.