Students as the Teacher

   
          Students in Studio 214 got to be the teachers today and score each other's open responses.  We used the stars and stairs method to give feedback to each other and they used a scoring rubric to score each other's responses.

Myths, Legends, and Fables- Oh My!

http://www.planetozkids.com/oban/what-is-difference-between-myths-legends-fables-folk-tales.htm

          Use the link above to complete your graphic organizer.  What is the difference between myths, legends, fables, and folktales?  Be specific...

Hot Seat- Vocabulary Game

              "Hot Seat" is a fun vocbulary game where one student has to sit on the "hot seat" and try to guess a vocabulary word that we've been studying in class by listening to the definitions and descriptions of the words from other classmates.  I let them get three clues and if they get the word, they get Panther sticks.  The students can provide examples or definitions, but they cannot say the word.  This is a great game for everyone to review vocabulary!   Tayde is sitting on the hot seat during this round.

Science- Weather Webquest

Visit this link to complete your weather webquest with a partner in the computer lab! 

http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-forecasting.htm

Accelerated Reading Team Contest

          We decided to have an Accelerated Reader team contest in Studio 214 to makes things a little more interesting! We chose the theme of "Duck Dynasty" since that is what we are exicted about these days and the teams got to decide their character team name.  I check the status of the points the teams earn by reading books and taking tests and we rank the teams by points.  By the end of the seven weeks, whoever has the most points, will win the competition and get a cool prize. 

(Side note: This is also a great way to tie in ordering decimals which will be in our next math unit... everything has a purpose!)

Games for Reviewing the U.S. Map

Here are some fun games for reviewing the location of the United States of America!

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm

http://www.primarygames.com/states/start.htm

http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-games/united-states-america-map-game.php

http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/statesFind/default.htm#

Coming Soon- Duck Dynasty Hands-On Day

Here is a movie trailor preview we created using iMovie for our upcoming hands-on day in February!  We can't wait- enjoy the preview!

Duck Dynasty Day from Andrea Parson on Vimeo.

Greek Mythology

Here is the link to research the important terms for your flip chart- have fun researching!

http://www.greekmythology.com/index.html

Christmas Service Learning Project

         
          This year our fourth graders have been working hard to help others at Christmas- we have learned a great lesson that it is better to give than to receive! Instead of exchanging gifts with each other, we bring in canned goods and a monetary donation to give to those in need. 

They brought a total of 423 nonperishable items to help those in need and brought $182.86 to donate to the Salvation Army today! We will present the Salvation Army spokesperson the money this afternoon!  I'm so proud of them! Thank you all for your help with our project!

Reading Strategy- "Junk It or Keep It"

           I have found a new resource that is so so awesome for me as a teacher and it's called The Teaching Channel and is an online resource.  While I was looking around on it, I found this awesome reading strategy that is used and is completely student led!  Go to this link to check it out...  Students started the day before with a focus question when reading a non-fiction passage and came up with key vocabulary related to the focus question.  The next day, students led the discussion to decide whether to keep, junk, or cloud the words.  Students had to justify their answers and they all showed their opinions by putting up their fingers- 1 for keep, 2 for junk, and 3 for cloud.  I just think this is brilliant and love that people share their great ideas!

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/student-run-lesson