Christmas Vacation...

Wednesday, December 19, 2012
I have been enjoying my Christmas break, but I also miss my 4th graders.  On our last day before break, we ate the Grinch Cookies I made from the recipe I found on Pinterest at Delicious Meliscious.  She has wonderful recipes!!!  We also watched the movie, and colored a Grinch handout.  

I gave each of my students a glitter snowball, and they LOVED them!!!   




It was a fun day filled with memories.  I hope all of you have a wonderful vacation with your family and friends.  

I know we will all still be praying and thinking of the families and community in Connecticut.  




signature

Praying...

Saturday, December 15, 2012



signature

Day 3 with Ruby the 4th grade Elf...

Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Today's letter from Ruby suggested we read the "Skippyjon Jones" book she was reading to some of the stuffed animal friends she found around our classroom.  

Here are some pictures of Ruby and also some pictures of the Journal entries I thought were so funny:

Our Day 3 Letter from Ruby...

She is a very good reader!  =)

Everyone is so engaged!

Cute Journal Cover...

They all wrote such cute entries.

This one is my favorite!  =)
 


signature

Day 2 with Ruby...

Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Today my 4th graders found Ruby, our 4th grade elf, asleep on a pile of Tiger Tickets.  There was a trail of tickets leading from my teacher desk to where she made her little nest to sleep on last night.  She suggested that I give the tickets to the students; she is such a thoughtful little elf!  =)

Here are some pictures, Enjoy!

Ruby's letter to us...


A trail of tickets... 

Fast asleep on a pile of Tiger Tickets!


She suggested that I give all of the students 2 tickets.  They LOVED that idea!!!  =)
 


signature

Ruby, the 4th grade Elf...

Monday, December 10, 2012
I was inspired to start the Elf idea that I have been seeing around blogland and Pinterest.  I love the free Elf Journal that I found from a great blog called Teaching, Dreaming, Learning.   So here are some pictures of Day 1, and how I am making it fit for my 4th graders, which they LOVED!!!  =)

Day 1:  Today we found this letter, our journals, cute pencils, and our new little friend, Ruby.

Sweet little letter...


Ruby, our Elf!

Looking forward to what she will do for tomorrow!



signature

Pom Pom Spiders and Webs...

Sunday, November 4, 2012
Spider Mini Unit~

After seeing Tara's lesson on her blog, 4th grade frolics, and printing up her cute Spider Factoids handout I knew I had to teach a mini spider unit during the week of Halloween.  

I printed up her Spider Factoids handout, bought some supplies, and talked with a mom whose husband had Tarantulas.  

I read from a couple Nonfiction Spider books, and made up a worksheet, where my students could take some notes on the six different spiders we were learning about.  


After we finished learning about the six spiders, I let them choose one for their Spider Factoids handout.  



I hot glued on the wiggly eyes...


I also made 34 Pom Pom spiders, to glue onto their paper plate web art.  

...then glued on the 8 legs!












Paper plate Spider Web...


My 4th graders loved weaving the paper plates with the glittery white yarn.  I attached their spider Pom Poms, and also their Spider Factoids handout to the back.  They look so great hanging up in our windows.  










To wrap up the unit, we had our Tarantula visitor in our room.  Enjoy the pictures, or cover your eyes partly to see our spidery friend.  



She wasn't as freaky as I thought.
So hairy and cute!  =)







signature

California Cookies!!!

Friday, October 19, 2012
My CA Cookie!
"Frosting the four regions of California..."

Today was the best day with my 4th graders!  We have been studying all about the regions of California, and the natural resources in those regions in Social Studies.  Today my 4th graders got to frost a CA shaped sugar cookie showing the four regions as their edible quiz!  =)  

You can find cookie cutters, like I used, at Copper gifts.  I made the cookies the night before, and bought some candies to add to represent landforms or natural resources found in those four regions.  

Supplies for the different landforms/natural resources.
I used chocolate chips as little mountains, for the Mountain region.  Swedish Fish to represent the Coast region.  Nerds to represent minerals, mining, or stones/gravel for the Desert region.  And fruit shaped gummy snacks to represent the Valley region for farming/crops.  

I also made up a legend that they had to fill out about the four regions, which also helped them know what colors represented each region.  
We drew a square after the picture of the candy, to represent each color of frosting, but I forgot to take a picture of that final step.

It was so much fun today!  I had so many kids want to help me set it all up and hand out the yummy goodies.  Having 34 kids in a classroom can be a handful, but my 4th graders are Awesome!  They gobbled the cookies up, and some even took their cookie home to show their parents.  
Fish in the Pacific Ocean... =)

Very organized candies...

Messy, but delicious!!!

I also liked all of the "Thank you Mrs. Finch" and "this was so much fun," comments from my students.  It made me feel appreciated for cooking so many cookies last night.  =) 


signature

Math "Vocabulators"

Wednesday, October 3, 2012
I love my Math Vocabulators!

I am linking up to Tara's monthly "Monday Made it," even though it took me until Wednesday to finish.  I saw these "Vocabulators" on Tara's blog, 4th Grade Frolics, and I knew I had to make some.  I learned how to dye rice from reading Tara's link to Melissa Forney's blog, and also from watching some videos on YouTube.  

Cute pets for "Pet theme"
First, I bought some small containers from Target, and rice from the Dollar Tree.  I splurged and bought cute buttons, stickers, plastic figurines, etc... from Michaels to go with the themes I made for each of my Math Vocabulators.  

Then, I dyed the rice and waited for it to dry completely.  I could hardly wait for it to dry, because I wanted to add the cutesy things to each of my themed containers.  =)



Containers for my Math Vocabulators
I wrote out some Math Vocabulary words to go inside each Math Vocabulator.  

The words that are inside each of my containers go along with the Math chapters we have been working through.  So there are words about Place Value, Rounding, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, and so on.  When kids find a word, they can write the definition, illustrate it or use it in an example they come up with.  I am looking forward to Geometry when we have a ton of new vocabulary words!!! 

Here are some pictures of each of my themed Math Vocabulators.  

1.  Ocean Theme:



Even a cute little bow!
2.  Pet Theme:

Adding the Rice...

















3.  Arctic Theme:

Cute penguin, polar bear, and snowflakes...




4.  Monster Theme:

So much fun!




















5.  School Theme:




Even has our School Mascot!  Tigers!!!











I loved making these!  I can't wait for my 4th graders to use them during Math.  =)









signature
If you find something you like, please give credit to "fabulousfinchfacts." Thank you!. Powered by Blogger.
Back to Top