Peek at My Week {Feb. 17}....

Happy Monday all!  Thought since I had some extra time today I'd post a quick Peek at My Week and link up with Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her weekly linky:
(It has been a bit since I've been able to link up here...not that my week's haven't been ultra exciting between snow days and state testing.)  Anyway... here's

This week will be a short week for me for a couple reasons: 

 

Today was a snow day.  Yep our seventh for the school year.  As of today we are now getting out in June :'o(  This is the fifth grade door where staff usually comes in.  That drift was to my knees this afternoon when I went in.  When I came back out an hour later my footprints were already filling in.  Guess we'll see what happens tomorrow morning.

Two words....STATE WRESTLING!

My son Jason is the 220 weight wrestler.  The team made it for State Duals which begin on Wednesday in Des Moines, so we are heading down to watch.  He was a district qualifier this year as well. He placed third since they only take the top 2 places at each weight, he doesn't get to wrestle for the individual state tournament.  All the boys have done an outstanding job this season.  I am looking forward to seeing them in the big arena.  Best wishes to all of them!!!

So what will be going on in my classroom while I'm am missing this week you ask?  Here is a quick look:

Students will be taking part in the first lesson of the Junior Achievement: Regions unit taught by one of our community members.  This is an awesome program that brings business people into the classroom to teach for five lessons.  In fourth grade the unit is on Regions which ties in great with our social studies.  Students learn about products, supply and demand, using the resources and running a business.

We are also going to be digging into our historical fiction novel units this week.  Since we are also studying the Civil War in social studies at this time, I try to use books that fit this time period as well.  My high and on level students will begin reading Freedom Crossing by Margaret Goff Clark.  It is a great story about the Underground Railroad.  I love how students can really see that Laura is a dynamic character as her views change throughout the course of the story.  My two lower groups will be reading a couple shorter books- A. Lincoln and Me and Follow the Drinking Gourd.  We will be working on summarizing as well as identifying why these books fit the historical fiction genre.

In math we are backing up a bit to "restart" division.  I don't like the way our series Every Day Math jumps into long division.  Most of students were confused last week when we tried it, so we are going to back up and try again (Kind of like getting around in the snow today LOL).  We are going to use Elizabeth from Fun in 4B's awesome Common Core Division Lapbook. Check it out at her TPT store.  I think it is going to make a HUGE difference to my kids!  Plus it will provide a great resource for the rest of the unit and later.

Well, that's a peek at my week.  What's going on in yours?

Project Groundhog {Tried it Tuesday}

Good morning all!  We are starting late today due to some extra chilly temperatures, so I thought I'd get my post done for Holly's weekly Tried It Tuesday link up over at Fourth Grade Flipper before I head out to school.  Have you tried something new lately that you want to share?  If so, be sure to head on over and link up.  I come away each week with at least one new idea I want to try out in my room.
Last week my students and I joined Project Groundhog 2014, an online project run by first grade teacher Bill Jameson.  This annual project has students predicting, researching, gathering and graphing data based on the weather folklore of whether or not the groundhog can predict the comping of Spring. (I for one hope old Phil is wrong and Winter will soon give up its hold...not sure I can take 6 more weeks of this.)  For the project, Bill teams up different classrooms around the USA and Canada.  There are 7 schools on our team this year. We are participating with schools from New Mexico, Canada, Texas, Vermont, and Alaska.  My students will track the temperature and sky conditions each day from February 3 to March 21.  We are graphing the daily temperature, then finding the average at the end of the week along with the range for the week.  On Monday each classroom inputs their average temperature for the week so we are able to graph the averages of our team to see how the locations compare.  This week our team had temperatures ranging from -18°C to 4°C (We had the second lowest temp for the week with -13°C/ 9°F!) One of the hardest parts for us is the conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius.  There's a handy dandy web tool that does it, but the mindset isn't there.
In addition to monitoring the temperature and sky conditions each week, classes have a challenge to complete as well.  Last week we had to put together a short community description to share with the rest of the team.  It is really interesting find out more about some far off places.  We were certainly jealous of the warm temperatures reported in New Mexico and Texas but thankful we weren't in Canada!
While it is too late for you to join up with Project Groundhog this year, you may want to put it on your calendar so you can join in next year.  It is a fun easy to do project that I know your students will enjoy.  Be sure to head over to Fourth Grade Flipper to see what others have tried.  Have a great week!

Currently...It's February!

WOW! I can't believe how fast the month of January flew by!  It felt like we spent very little time at school between the bitter cold/snow days.
It's that time again...time to link up with Farley over at Oh By Fourth Grade for her FABULOUS monthly linky.  Here's mine:

  

 Listening- the boys' video game- lots of shooting going on :(  Thank goodness they are getting along-it has been a rough week or so...too much time spent indoors and in each other's company.  

Loving- a full week of school.  While that may seem odd to some....we haven't had a full week of school since the week before Christmas.  Between the snow falling and bitter temperatures from not 1 but 2 polar vortex, we have missed 6 days of school.  Hopefully they are correct on the track of the latest snow storm and we'll only be getting 1-3 inches which we can handle. (Not that I want to, but it beats the 6-8 inches south of us.)

Thinking- we start IA Assessments on Wednesday, so I need to move things around to accommodate the testing block.  6 days of testing- SOOO not looking forward to it.  Crossing my fingers and toes that Mother Nature plays nice for while as we are already off schedule.

Wanting-  One of my teammates gave me season 1 of the TV series Downton Abby last week on one of our snow days.  Totally hooked me!  I've been frantically trying to cram seasons 1-4 in as season 5 is airing on TV right now.  Only 3 more episodes of season 4 to go then the 3 I've missed of the new season. LOVE IT!

Needing to get those animal reports corrected.  I hate checking writing! Enough said!!

Truths: Can't live without my Dr. Pepper. Most days its 2-3 cans.  Trying to cut back but so far am not finding the right motivation.  I am planning a trip to Ireland in 2015.  I have always wanted to go so am making it my 45th birthday present to myself.  FIB- Love winter-haha haha who does that?  This winter has provided me with plenty of valid reasons for why it is not my favorite!

Now it's your turn.  Head over to Farley's to check out what everyone is up to and link up yourself!