Promote Accountability During Your Writing Time!

Part of writing is having accountability for your own work. After I've written anything, I always feel so accomplished! I want to pass that on to my students. I have created these fifteen writing stations {Writing Editing Stations} to hold my students accountable for completing their very best writing. Not only does this touch up on some important skills that get over looked, but it also gets your students developing good writing habits. We are building better writers! Each station has a task or tasks for their friend to complete. I have put the writing utensils needed on each poster to make stations easier to setup for the teacher, yet simple to follow for the students. For example, in the picture below, your students will need a green marker as shown on the poster. You can laminate and hang these posters up for the entire year, or you can set them out in each station as they are being used like I've done in the photo. These stations are an excellent tool in preparing your students for standardized testing all year long. They provide routine and promote good writing habits that need to be practiced on a regular basis. Teaching your students to edit their writing will help their first drafts tremendously as they will try to eliminate or avoid having to correct these areas after editing. If you like this product and are looking to improve your students' paragraphs, check out my Editing Boring Paragraphs Task Cards here! This activity was a hit in my classroom! The best part was, I was able to reference this activity for the entire school year. It was the perfect reminder or model of how they should be writing detailed paragraphs! For more information, read my blog post here!

A Resource at Your Fingertips!

If you're looking for a quick, accessible, all-encompassing resource that can be used throughout the entire school year... you've found it! This is the first of many to come, the Grammar Resource Ring {Fourth Grade Edition}! Did I mention, it contains a card for EVERY grammar standard?! :) I am switching grades after spending my first two years of teaching in fifth grade! A few weeks ago, I moved to Las Vegas to be closer to the love of my life. With that being said, I got a job teaching fourth grade! I am a HUGE grammar junkie when it comes to TpT products, so I started my journey in that department. I wanted a resource that I could use all year long to provide as a reference to my students. I wanted to provide examples on each card. I also wanted to incorporate sample questions to give my students extra practice or even a look at more examples. On the front of every card (teal side), you'll find the teaching or modeling samples. This side gives a brief (to the point) reminder and definition for how this standard is used. The back side (black and white) contains five questions (similar to a set of task cards) to give your students extra practice for each skill. Included, you're students will have an answering page to record their responses. A key can be found on the last page of this product as well as a duplicate of each card with the correct answers marked in red. This set can be used in many different ways in your classroom. You can store it in your room and pull it out every week to introduce each skill. You can leave it as an extra resource for struggling students to look back at. You can use the set of task cards included for standardized testing review. You can even use this for small group instruction or reteaching on of the standards. Some of my students tend to struggle with the parts of speech that accompany these skills as well. To help in this area, the last few resource cards provide reteaching for those parts of speech. Practice questions are also included for these parts of speech. As I create more, I plan to expand this product into different subject areas. Be on the look out! For more of my grammar products, check out my store here!

Tricky Homophones: Their, There, & They're

Homophones can be so tricky! Why not make them fun? If you have ever read or shared the picture book, They're There on Their Vacation by Brian P. Cleary, this activity pairs hand in hand with it!

First, introduce the story and we talk about WHY we are reading it. It is also important that they share their understanding of what each homophone means and how it is to be used in a sentence. The back of the book even comes with definitions! Our main goal is to establish the purpose of sharing this book while explaining their future task, mastering this set of homophones! Next, I read aloud the story to my students, stopping at important parts to clarify or discuss the meanings of the different homophones when they become tricky. Finally, we move on to the main event, multiple choice homophone task cards! 

These color coordinate with the picture book and have the same vacation theme! With these task cards, you can spread them around the room and use them traditionally or you can play scoot with them. They each take about the same amount of time to complete, making it convenient to use in different ways.

This set is made of 24 multiple choice task cards. It includes an answering page and answer key to use as a grading tool or for a checking station. To find this product in my TpT store, click here! For more activities like this, check out my Pinterest page!

Beginning & End of Year Activity in One!

The end of the year is coming so fast! Here's an activity that you can use with your students to reminisce, laugh a little, and wrap up the school year. Meet the Teacher fulfills all of these.

I love getting my students' input and comments on how the year has gone. Let's be honest, it's always entertaining to go back and read! You can never guess some of the things they will say. You can also never guess some of the sweet things they will share with you... one of my favorites being, "You will always be so sweet and important to me. Seriously!!!" If that doesn't make your day, I don't know what will! It's one of those reminders or reassurances that we need as teachers.

Another perk of this activity is that you can use it twice! I will be using the filled out forms and sharing them with my students next year on the first day of school. It's a wonderful ice breaker that gives your newbies a little advice, but also gets them excited about the new year. 

Purchase Meet the Teacher: A Beginning & End of Year Activity here.

Four in a Row: Providing Differentiation

Are you looking for an easy differentiating tool for your students? I use this Four in a Row reading menu in my classroom to promote reading comprehension while giving my students a choice to promote their strengths.

I have used this activity in many ways, here are a few ideas...

*Completing the menu as an assignment encouraging accountability for understanding what they have read

*Using in a weekly reading center in addition to your other curriculum

*Using in a weekly center with a nonfiction subscription (We love using Cricket Magazines!)

*As a partner activity to strengthen peer relationships

*Individually in class to see what your students have understood about the text

Not only are there many different uses, but the Melonheadz version is completely editable if you are looking for an easy to use template. You can change it to your students' needs as you see fitting. Mine is constantly changing throughout the year to supplement the skills that my students need the most at the given time.  

*Each template contains the same content, the templates vary according to clipart being used.

Comparing and Contrasting for Connecting Features

Are you looking for new ways to compare and contrast in your classroom? My Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer Set includes five different ways to promote a deeper level of thinking.

This set is perfect for literacy centers, novel studies, basil stories, picture books, chapter books, etc. The organizers included are comparing/contrasting characters, character to self, book vs. movie, settings, and text features. Dig deeper with your students by finding similarities and differences with different facets within a text.

I had originally made this to use with my Matilda Novel Study (coming soon!), but then expanded it to fit the needs of my future lessons. For example, I created centers for my students to work on while reading Matilda. I had them compare Matilda to a character of their choice. After we finished the book, we watched the movie and used the Book vs. Movie graphic organizer.

I gave my students different topics to compare in the middle, such as characters or theme, or you could let them choose.

To see the full preview or to purchase this graphic organizer set click the link here.

Fiction Reading Companion

If you loved my Nonfiction Reading Companion, you are going to love my fictional version of this product! Lately, we have been working on a lot of nonfiction text to prepare for standardized testing. Now that testing is over, *shouts of excitement* we can take a step back and enjoy a different range of literature.

Today, I paired some of our classroom Cricket magazines with our Fiction Booklet. I am always looking for a way to incorporate these magazines in my classroom and this activity is perfect! Not only can you use these magazines, but you can also pair them with your basil reader, picture books, fictional short stories, etc. 

This fifteen page student booklet includes individual graphic organizers and partner pages. You can use one book for multiple pages or a different book for each page. These booklets also work perfectly for weekly reading centers as well. You can assign students to complete so many pages per week with their reading story or with a different text.

To purchase this product follow the link here.

For more information on my Nonfiction Reading Companion click here.

To purchase my Nonfiction Reading Companion click here.