Idea for Pulling Sticks

Hey guys! Today I want to share with you something new I am going to try this year. In years past, I have used popsicle sticks to randomly call on students to answer questions. I use them a lot when I am doing review, specifically in Science and Social Studies. I love pulling sticks because the students never know who I'm going to call on, which causes them to pay closer attention. The only downfall I have is that I don't want to continually pull the same stick and have the same student answer multiple answer, or miss a stick and a student not have a turn. So I started laying the stick to the side once a student got an answer correct. This lead to another problem... Once the student answered a question correctly they quit paying attention because they knew I wouldn't be pulling their stick again. Sigh... This ruins the whole purpose of the review in the first place! However, I believe I have found the solution!

I have added colored dots on both ends of the popsicle stick using a sharpie: one blue, one red. (I choose these colors because it's the color scheme of my room. I'm a bit OCD about matchy matchy!) I'll begin by having all sticks having the same color sticking out. Once a student answers a question correctly I will turn their stick over so that the second color is showing. This way I know who has answered a question and who has not. It also causes students to continue paying attention after they have answered a question, since their stick is still in the cup and could still be pulled.

Here is my "sticks cup." I have two cups because I have two classes since we departmentalize. My homeroom has McDonald on the cup and the other class has their homeroom teacher's name on the cup. 

This is one of the sticks. I just used a blue and red sharpie for the dots. Easy and cheaper than buying actual dots to stick on it. 

I have seen an idea where a toilet paper role has been used hidden inside the cup. Once a student answers a question the stick goes into the toilet paper role, which keeps the pulled sticks and unpulled sticks separate.

If you use a different strategy for pulling sticks, I would love to hear about them in the comments!

I hope you enjoyed!

Teaching Moon Phases: Moon in My Room

Hey guys. Today I wanted to tell you about a new toy that I bought to help teach moon phases. It's called Moon in My Room. This has been one of the neatest things to help teach moon phases. I hung it over the classroom door and after teaching moon phases we turned out the light, turned on the moon, and each student had to identify the moon phase being shown. The moon comes with a remote and I would sit in the back of the room, cycle through the phases, and stop on one at random. My students loved it, and I really feel that it helped improve their moon phase identifying skills.

Need more Moon Phases Ideas?
Moon Phases Worksheets -TPT
FREE Moon Phases Matching Game




I hope you enjoyed!

 

 

 

 

Teaching Complete Metamorphosis

Hey guys! Today I want to talk about one of the activities I did when I was teaching complete metamorphosis this year! In fourth grade, students need to know the difference between complete and incomplete metamorphosis. They also need to be able to visually identify which metamorphosis an insect goes through. For this activity I had students compare and contrast the life cycle of a butterfly and a ladybug. I have a real specimen of a butterfly life cycle and a plastic specimen of the ladybug.

First, I had the students draw the different stages of both insects.

Second, they had to answer question comparing and contrasting the butterfly life cycle with the lady bug life cycle. 

Here is a picture of my students examining the ladybug and butterfly life cycle specimen. 

Free IPad Apps for the 4th Grade Classroom

Hey guys! This week I was lucky enough to get an ipad to be able to use in my classroom. I knew I was getting one 2 weeks ago, and I could barely wait to get my hands on it! My kids are also super excited! One way that I plan on using the ipad is for sponge activities. You may be interested in reading this blogpost about sponges here. I wanted to share with you a few free apps that I will be using! I hope you enjoy!

Math- 
Meteor Math - Game that includes addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Oh No Fractions - Simple game to compare fractions. It also asks students to prove their answer by  using fraction models
Splash Math- There is a free version and a paid version of this app. I currently have the free version. Students can do practice problems in math that is aligned to 4th grade standards. Includes decimals, geometry, fractions, measurement, etc.
Pearl Diver- Practices number lines. Starts easy (0-10), but increases in difficulty.
Motion Math: Wings- Multiplication and estimation

Science- 
Planets - Students can explore our solar system with this app. Gives 3-D images of all the planets and information. Students can also look at constellations.
Science 360 - Science videos students can watch. You may want to view these videos, because some may be inappropriate for some age groups.

Social Studies- 
Stack the States - There is a paid and free version on this app. Trivia game for students to learn information about the states.

Science Club: Homemade Lava Lamps

This week in Science Club we made lava lamps. It turned out really cool and the kids loved it.

Materials Needed: Water bottle, vegetable oil, food coloring, funnel, and alka seltzer tablets. 

             I used 12 oz water bottles and bought 1 gallon of vegetable oil. (This was enough vegetable oil

             to do 15 bottles. ) 

Instructions: 

    1) Drink or pour out 2/3 of the water. Leaving 1/3 still in the bottle. 

    2) Using the funnel, fill the bottle back to the top with vegetable oil.
        (I didn't fill all the way to the top)

    3) Put 8-12 drops of your choice of food coloring. Don't shake. Let the drops drop on their own.
        (It's cool to watch.)  

    4) After the food coloring has colored the water, place 1/6 of a tablet into the bottle. 

    5) Watch the bubbles! 

    6) When the bubbles stop you can add another piece of tablet and it will bubble again. 

Here are some pictures of the finished product! 

Green turned out great! 

Blue 

Red, but it kinda looks like orange 

Yellow: It works, but not as pretty as the darker colors! 

Science Club: Screaming Cup and Dancing Ghost

This year myself and another teacher are hosting the Science Club for the school! It consists of 15 4th and 5th graders who love science and science experiments! This week in honor of Halloween we made a screaming cup and dancing ghost. The students loved it!

Click here to look at instructions for the screaming cup. The instructions for the screaming cup are labeled "The Chicken Cup", but to change from a chicken sound to ghost sound pull in one constant motion instead of small bursts. This project went well with the kids. One problem we did run into was the yarn becoming unattached to the paperclip. However, this was an easy fix. I also punched the hole in the top of the cup before science club started. I used scissors because that's what I had and it took a little work to punch the hole. I don't know if the nail would have done better, but I'd be curious to find out. Here is a video of my kids demonstrating the sound.

Click here for instructions for the ghost. The ghost project went well also. My kids were struggling with cutting the ghost out of the tissue paper. Mostly because they were super perfectionists. Then some ghosts didn't dance, but clung to the ballon instead. AND it gave my kids serious static hair! (which was funny to look at!) The kids loved it though and they learned about static electricity so I'd say it was a success! Here are some pictures from our dancing ghost!

Can you see the ghost under the ballon? 

Mrs. McDonald meets Jack Hanna!

On Saturday, I had the awesome privilege of getting to met Jack Hanna! The Chattanooga Zoo was having their 75th anniversary and the guest speaker was Jack Hanna. I happened to luck out and get tickets to go see it. When I was telling Mr. Hanna that I was a 4th grade teacher he gave me an autographed picture signed to Mrs. McDonald Class. I thought that was very sweet and when I showed my students they were so excited to know that someone famous said hi to them! I also happened to check out the Jack Hanna website which I found to be pretty cool.  The website has a few videos and interesting information about animals that he has encountered!

Make a Cell Model Project

Hey guys! Recently we learned about cells, cell parts, and the cell part's job. For extra credit I challenged my students to make cell models of either plant cells or animal cells. I cannot express how proud I am of my kiddos! They went above and beyond my expectations and I wanted to share their awesome creations with you!

                                                               These are my proud kiddos!

                                                 The following 3 pictures are made out of CAKE!                                        
                          

These are the other cell projects made our of everything from candle wax to clay to styrofoam.  

 

ABCya.com

Hey guys! Here is a really neat website I just discovered! It's abcya.com. I'm still browsing through the site to see what all it offers, but so far I have been really impressed. When you go to the website it looks like this...

You can choose the grade that you want to look at and it gives you language, numeral, extra, holiday, and fun games to play appropriate to that grade. I already have a website that my students use to play Math, Science, and S.S. games on if they finish an assignment early (learninginfourth.blogspot.com), but I am definitely adding this to the list! Another thing I use this site for is low students. I have some students who are still trying to master second grade skills and so I can have them practice a skill like place value on their level. I hope you enjoy! 

The Water Cycle

Recently we worked on learning the water cycle in science. One thing I like to do is find at least one kind of fun activity and one video on each lesson or topic I'm teaching. With the water cycle we had lots of choices! First, we did an outline with our science book together and discussed the vocabulary words. Then we started singing. I found the cutest song on pinterest. This is NOT my song, but my kids LOVED it and still actually remember the words 3 weeks later. This is where I found the song. We sang this everyday at the end of our lesson for the 4 days we spent on the water cycle. It really seemed to help them remember the different parts. The next thing we did was draw the water cycle and label it. Here is one of my students drawings.

The last thing we did was watch a few fun videos. My favorites are The Water Cycle with Bill Nye and Wet All Over from The Magic School Bus. One of these we watched during inside recess because it was a little too cold to go outside. (You gotta squeeze it in when you can!) 

I also found some great websites with Water Cycle Games or Videos for the students to play or watch for a sponge activity or for my early finishers! 

Water Cycle Game

Water Cycle Video & Quiz

Water Cycle Video

All of these links are located under the Science tab along with many other science games/ video links. My students know how to get on the blog and find the given topics we are working on.

What other things do you do to help your students learn about the Water Cycle? 

New Products & Free Stuff!

If you're anything like me you LOVE free stuff... here are some great free items you can download.

Here is a FREE polygon matching game. I use it as a sponge activity for students who finish early!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Polygon-Matching-Game

Here is a FREE Moon Phases matching game. Used again as a sponge activity, but I also use it to help reinforce recognition of the picture of the phase with the correct name. These are a bit tricky for the students to memorize and practice makes perfect!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Moon-Phases-Matching-Game

Here is my newest item for sale on my TeachersPayTeachers Store. It's Adding & Subtracting Decimals using models. The kids loved coloring in the grid to represent adding and subtracting the decimals.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Adding-Subtracting-Decimals-using-Models

And last but not least here is a FREE item from a fellow TeachersPayTeachers seller who has a great way of helping students remember 7x8.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-to-Teach-7-X-8-56-So-All-Students-Can-Succeed

I hope you enjoy all these free items!