Classroom Library Ribbon Cutting!

I am extremely proud of my classroom library.  It has taken a few years, but I think I finally have a color-coded system of how the books are organized (by genre).  I try my best to stay on top of all the new literature that comes out every year to ensure that I will have a book that will interest everyone...now if only money grew on trees!  This year I decided to do something a little different with my classroom library.  Instead of going over the expectations and then allowing the students to begin checking out, I made them wait!  By the end of the week the anticipation was killing them!  I have never had a class so excited about checking out books!  Each day I gave them a teaser that got them a little more excited!

Monday (the first day):  This was the first day of school so we were very busy getting to know each other and getting our routines set.  I did allow the students to read from my picture book shelf.  This is when the questions started..."When do we get to go on the other side?!?"

Tuesday:  We did a mini lesson over how the books in the classroom library are organized.  I allowed several students to grab one of each color book and then we talked about what genre it belonged to.  I ended up doing a book talk on almost every book they grabbed and the excitement grew!

Wednesday:  I so wish I had took pictures on this day but I was having so much fun watching the students that I totally forgot!  On this day the students went "speed dating"!  After the giggles subsided and I reassured them that no one had to buy anyone dinner, the students began a 3- minute "date" with a book.  The read the blurb, a couple of pages, etc and decided whether or not they would want to try the book.  Basically this was a "book pass" but calling it "speed dating" made it more fun for the students (crazy, I know!).  By the end of reading, the students all had at least one book they were itching to try out!

Thursday:  When the students got to class on this day, they found the classroom library roped off with red ribbon. 

 

 

They had an invitation on the board to come to the classroom library "ribbon cutting" that Friday.  They were super pumped!  During our reading block we went over the procedures for all the different reading spots in our classroom.  Thanks to a PE 4 Life grant our school received last year, I have 3 stationary bikes in the classroom that the students can sit on while they read.  I also have several other spots that students enjoy sitting in.

 

Friday:  Today was the day!  I will let the pictures and videos do the talking...needless to say, I had a happy class of students!

 

(this is not the best video...they were So excited which caused a couple management issues!)

 

 

 

 

Overall, opening up my classroom library this way was a huge success.  I know it might seem silly, but the students LOVED cutting the ribbon and even enjoyed some "bookworms" (gummy worms...thank you Pinterest!).  I will definitely be opening my library the same way again next year.  I do think I will have the red ribbon up from the first day to help build the excitement even more (a student in the class actually had the ribbon idea!)

 

Now that the library is open, we will starting up guided reading/literature studies.  My goal is to have EVERYONE on grade level by the end of the year!!!

 

Thanks for stopping by Room 506!

Mrs. Worthy



First two weeks in review!

We have had a great start to the school year!  The students in Mrs. Worthy's class came ready to learn and have done a fantastic job learning our classroom norms and have worked extremely hard to build a strong community.  Two specific things we are doing to ensure a strong classroom community are morning meetings and "drops in a bucket".  We start every morning with a morning meeting.  During our meeting we make sure that everyone is greeted.  We are focusing on making eye contact, a firm handshake (but not too firm!), and speaking in a clear voice.  This has been a great way for us to get to know each other and learn each other's names! 

"Drops in a bucket" is something that I have done in the past.  We talk about how each person has an imaginary bucket inside and that people can fill up your bucket with nice words and gestures.  On the flip side, people can also dip from your bucket by saying or acting in a negative way.  Each student in class has a bucket on the bulletin board where others can drop nice notes/compliments.  Students get to take their "drops" home each Friday.  A quick story, last Friday morning I noticed a student peeking in all the buckets.  I just watched her and quickly noticed that she was making sure that every person was going to have a drop in their bucket to take home over the weekend.  So sweet!

We sat down as a class on the second day of school and made our classroom expectations.  We then sorted each expectation into the different areas of our school mantra.  The students loved this because it helps them to have ownership over the expectations...they aren't just a meaningless list that Mrs. Worthy created!

I know already that this is going to be a wonderful school year!  I am looking forward to all that is to come!

Thanks for stopping by Room 506!
Mrs. Worthy

Meet Mrs. Worthy

Wow!  I can't believe we are wrapping up summer and about to start a brand-new school year.  I have been busy getting our classroom set up and organized so that we can hit the ground running on the first day.  I am so excited about all the exciting possibilities that this school year holds!  It is going to be a fantastic year! 

This will be my eighth year in the classroom and my fifth year teaching the 4th grade.  I have taught at Sonora Elementary since we opened and before Sonora, I taught at Lee Elementary.  I attended the University of Arkansas and earned my Masters in Teaching.  I am married to Mr. Worthy who is our EAST teacher at Sonora.  Together, we have a sassy two year old named Ellie Faith.  Every day with a two year old is an adventure!!

I love, love, love to read and my goal is always to get kids into books.  I truly believe that even the most reluctant reader can leave 4th grade loving to read.  I am constantly scouring for new books that will interest every reader!  You can check out our class book blog to see what I have been reading.  As the school year goes on, students will be adding their book recommendations to the blog.

We are very blessed to be a 1:1 iPad classroom.  What this means is that EVERY student in our class will have an iPad to use daily.  The goal of the iPads is not to play, but to help transform the students' learning and make learning more engaging. I am excited to share more about this with you in the future!

It is going to be a GREAT year!

Mrs. Worthy

Fraction Websites

Fraction Websites

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm#fractions

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/fractions/

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/math-games/melvins-make-match/

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

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities/math/fractions.html

We love our Kindergarten Reading Buddies!

My class has had the privilege this year to work with Mrs. King's kindergarten class.  Every Thursday afternoon, our classes get together to read with each other.  It has been a great way for the kindergartners to show off their reading skills and has given my class a sense of pride when they know they are helping or teaching their buddy something new. 

When we were finishing up our geometry unit, I challenged my class to create an iPad game using the Tiny Tap app.  Their game had to teach the attributes of polygons.  They knew their target audience would be their kindergarten buddy.  The students worked so hard to find graphics that would be appealing to 5 and 6 year olds.  Talk about knowing your audience!  They were SO excited to finally get to show their buddy their game and help teach them about polygons.

Two weeks ago, Mrs. King asked if my class could teach her class how to use a storytelling app on the iPads.  My students were happy to oblige and enjoyed teaching their buddy all about the Puppet Pal app.  The partners worked together to create their own movies.  I couldn't help but smile as I watched the partners learn together.  It got a little wild and crazy, but there was a lot of learning taking place!  We look forward to seeing the kindergarteners' movies!

Overall, this has been a great experience for my class.  They truly treasure the 30 minutes a week that they spend with their new friends!

Thank you Mrs. King's Class for being our buddies!

Angry Bird Math Part 1

Angry Birds...one of the most popular gaming apps for kids of all ages.  Although I am not much into games on the iPad, I have to admit that I do enjoy some Angry Birds!  I was so excited when I saw this post on Pinterest.  Having an all-boy class, I knew this would be a great way to make geometry and measurement more engaging. 

After discussing attributes of the different 3-D solids and doing some hands-on construction with noodles and clay, I gave each student a "net" of an Angry Bird. I did not tell the students that they were getting a "net", they just thought they would be constructing a character from the popular game.  It was fun watching the boys put the birds and pigs together and discovering that they had actually created a model of a 3-D solid!  Once they figured it out, I introduced the math term, "net". 

All year long the boys have been begging for me to put Angry Birds on their iPads.  Since the nets were such a hit, I decided to take the Angry Birds concept and run with it.  The class has been bringing in boxes for the past week and our goal it to make a larger version of the Angry Bird game.  Of course we needed to do some "research" first, so their homework one night was to play Angry Birds and come back ready to discuss the math that they had to do.  Now that we are in a measurement unit, we will be measuring the "bricks" (boxes) and trying out different angles and birds to figure out how to make the birds travel the farthest and knock down the most bricks.  The boys will also be constructing different sling shots using various angles.  I will have a separate post once our game is constructed to share all their hard work.

It is amazing to see how many math concepts that can be taught through some bad piggies and angry birds! 

Mrs. Worthy

Taking a "close" look at WW1

Hello from Room 506!  Today I thought I would share with you the work my students are doing in Social Studies . We are studying the key events of the 20th century and tying it with our Common Core Unit of life lessons that we can learn from revolutionaries of the past.  One of our big focuses in this unit has been "point of view."

We started our study with a general overview of WW1.  Our state standards just require 4th graders to know the basics so I didn't plan on going too deep, however, my boys had other plans!  I should have known that boys and "war" would be a hot topic.  Their vast background knowledge really amazed me!  We ended up taking a small "detour" from my original plans and did some research on trench warfare and what life was like for the soldiers in the trenches.  I quickly realized that an independent learning project was going to be necessary or we might be study WW1 until May! :)  The boys decided that they would start working on documentaries over an aspect of the war.  They will be using the iMovie app and will submit these documentaries in a nationwide contest.

Since the boys were already very knowledgeable about the war, I decided to go at it from a different angle.  Last week I had the opportunity to hear a great presentation over argumentative writing and its role in the new Common Core State Standards. The presenter really pushed teaching your content through the controversies.  After some research (even teachers still learn!), I found that African Americans fighting in the war was somewhat of a hot topic since they did not yet have equal rights back home in America.

I also found a great song (http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/howyagonna.htm) that illustrated this point.  We did a close read of the lyrics after listening to the song.  The boys did a WONDERFUL job at really digging in to the deeper meaning of the song and even did some foreshadowing of the implications in the later Civil Rights movement!  This fit in perfectly with our reading focus of how different our point of views can be. Yay for connections! 

Thank you for stopping by Room 506!  I hope to update later this week with how we have been bringing "Angry Birds" into math!

Welcome to Room 506!

I am excited to bring my classroom into the blogging world!  There are some exciting things happening in my class this year.  I am currently teaching an all-boy 4th grade class.  This has been a very educational experience for me.  Boys are so unique when it comes to learning and I have been enjoying trying to "crack" the boy code!  They have been keeping me on my toes for sure!

Another exciting adventure I am on this year is that I am piloting a 1:1 iPad classroom.  Every student in my class has an iPad that they use daily and they get to take home Monday through Thursday evenings.  This has been a great experience that I feel is totally transforming my teaching. 

I hope to use this blog to share with parents, as well as fellow teachers, the daily happenings in my classroom.