Monday Made It! #3

Another Monday, another Monday Made It! with Tara at 4th Grade Frolic. The past week was busy and jam packed. I was able to make and send out birthday invitations for my little girl's birthday. Her birthday is on July 9th and she is turning two. The theme I borrowed from Pinterest is Red, White and Two! I am in love with the theme and love how the invites turned out.

My second project I found on 3rd Grade Thoughts. Stephine has a great way to pick Brain Breaks in the classroom. My students have a very tight schedule and we do not have recess, I have been looking for a way to break up the day. I have not used Brain Breaks before but hope they help the students from getting ants in their pants. So, I made a Brain Break Bucket.

I used a bucket my daughter had from Halloween.

There are 30 activities that I made for this bucket.

This is a close up of two activities.

Below are the links to the documents I made, one is the Brain Break cards and the other is directions. Please feel free to use them. If you have Brain Breaks that have worked in your class please let me know.

                                Brain Break Directions            Brain Break Cards

Below is a list of Brain Break sites that I found. I pulled together Brain Breaks that I thought would work best for my class. I teach Language Arts for 4th and 5th grade, so my activities are geared towards that area. There are many Brain Breaks for math and other areas. There are lots of books and sites out there. 

• Brain Breaks 1
• Brain Breaks 2
• Austin Independent School District 
• Mr. Kennedy's Classroom 
• National Association for Sports and Physical Education 

Again, if you have Brain Breaks that have worked well in your class please let me know! :)

13 Colonies Project

This past year my 5th grade class studied the 13 Colonies and then completed a power point for one of the colonies they chose. Research was done in class over a three week period. The majority of the power point was put together in technology class. Below are the directions that were given for the project.

The students were also required to complete the online game called Mission US - For Crown or Colony? This is an online video game where you play as a kid living in one of the colonies during the Revolutionary War. My students loved this game! I had a few reset it to play it again when the completed it.

13 Colonies Project 

Parent Letter 

Mission US

Check out the presentations that my students put together. 

Pennsylvania 

New York 

Delaware 

New York 

Virginia

Pennsylvania

New York

Monday Made It! #2

It is Monday so that means Monday Made It! I was on vacation last week so this is week 2 for me, but week 3 for everyone else. So, I had almost two weeks and was able to get three, yes three, projects done. They were easy and took about 45 minutes total :)

Project #1 - Teacher Binder

 

Looking through all the great ideas on Tara's 4th Grade Frolics blog inspires me to get back in touch with the first year teacher that is still in me. This week I made a teacher binder to hold all my important information. I borrowed the idea from Beyond the Grade..... I like to be organized but as the year goes on I end up with things in different places. Now it will all be in one place. This is such a great and simple idea, not sure why it took me 6 years to do it. 

I used scrap-booking paper I had for the cover. It is a bit blurry, but says Mrs. Bryan's Teaching Binder.

This tab is for lesson plans.

This tab is for Meeting Notes.

         This tab is for Student Data - 4th Grade. Because I have two classes of students, I made separate tabs for each set of data.

This tab is for Student Data - 5th Grade

This tab is for Calendars/Schedules

This is a misc. tab, for all the things that we get at the last minute :)




Project #2 - Clothesline Art Work Display

I have decided that each week I am going to do something with or for my silly, busy toddler. This week I was able to get two things done.  

I found this idea on Pinterest awhile ago and just got around to putting it up. This took about 10 minutes to put up. I used pink and green ribbon for the lines to match the other colors in the room. Originally, I used clothespins but they were to heavy so I switched to paper clips. Now I have a perfect place to show off all my little girls great art. 

 Before

 After

Project #3 - Toddler Fun Box

My second project was this fun magician's wipe box. This was another Pinterest idea. It was easy and my little girl loved it.

  

 First, I cut old fabric that I had into strips. I was not neat about this, it will be pulled and played with :)

 Next, I tied the strips together.

 Picture of all the pieces put together.

Finally, I put the pieces into the box with one end hanging out.

 

Currently...

I am joining the Currently crowd thanks to Oh' Boy 4th Grade.

 

What are you up to currently??

This Says it all!

I found this on another blog and thought it was perfect! See if you agree.

 

I found this on Falling Into First.

Made it Monday!

I am a fan of the blog 4th Grade Frolics. Today started Made It Monday, I have started a project and was almost done but my printer is out of ink :( After a trip to Wal-Mart tomorrow I will be done. I am making Vocabulators, these will be used for writing next year. Students can shake the tube to find a stronger vocabulary word. Below are pictures of what I have started with. I will print words on card stock and place them in the Vocabulator. If a student is looking for a word to use other than red, blue, green, or yellow they can shake the container to see what other words they have. Last year, I had handouts with all the words on them and still will use handouts this year, I just think kids will enjoy using Vocabulators as well.

*I found this idea on 4th Grade Frolics, told you I was a fan :)

I bought all of this from the Dollar Store. I will be heading back for more containers.

This will be a Color Word Vocabulator. The gumballs are for color.

The pom-poms and confetti will be for the Happy Word Vocabulator.

From right to left: gumballs for color words, sand and googly eyes for sight words, and different ways to start a sentence container is filled with scrap ribbon. 

Finished Product!!

This is the Happy Word Vocabulator.

This is a Sentence Starter Vocabulator.

This is a Color Vocabulator. 

I did not like the sand one I originally made, the sand made it to heavy. I also used colorful Duck Tape to keep the containers closed. There are a few other Vocabulators what I would like to make. I have decided to introduce the containers and how to use them with a Vocabulator worksheet. The students can look at their worksheet for a quick word find or take out the Vocabulators for a different word.

15 Chapter Books Set in Florida for 4th Graders

 My fourth grade team uses many different chapter books to integrate social studies with reading. It took us some time to find books that were about different areas of the state and from different time periods. The books are used as a read aloud and in literature circles. Below is a list of the books we use in class that are set in Florida. 

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm

Blown Away! by Joan Hiatt Harlow

The Talking Earth by Jean Craighead George

  

Trouble on the St. Johns River by Jane R Wood

Adventures on Amelia Island: A Pirate, A Princess, and Buried Treasure by Jane R Wood

Voices in St Augustine by Jane R Wood

Vet Volunteers - Manatee Blues by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Missing Gator of Gumbo Limbo by Jean Craighead George

Panther Girl by Maity Schrecengost

A Land Remembered - Volume 1 and 2 by Patrick D Smith 

Flush  by Carl Hiaasen 

Chomp by Carl Hiaasen

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

Pirates of Pensacola by Keith Thomas

The Treasure of Amelia Island by  M. C. Finotti



The following books are short stories. 

Tellable Cracker Tales by Annette J. Bruce

ZoraHurston and the Chinaberry Tree by William Miller 

     

 I posted previously book advertisements that my students did for a 3 of the books listed.  

FL Book Ads