Welcome to 4th Grade!

Those of you who've been following me or those of you who may have stumbled upon my blog, may know me as a 1st grade teacher. Well . . . change was in the air for me! About 2 weeks prior to the start of school, I was moved to 4th grade. It was not something that I had predicted but I am so happy to be a 4th grade teacher!

Although my love for early elementary remains, I have to say that I love my fourthies. They are funny and fun and bring sunshine to some of the dullest moments of the school day. I couldn't be happier! So needless to say, I am excited to be able to do upper level projects with my students. 

THE DAILY 5 and FOURTH GRADE

So far the biggest challenge has been implementing the Daily 5. All summer I was prepping my D5 implementation with first grade so to change to 4th grade required some additional brain power. I am happy to announce that the D5 is working with my fabulous fourthies! So far we have learned Read-to-Self and Read-to-Someone. (The latter is a work in progress.) 

ACCELERATED READER

Because my school is BIG into Accelerated Reader (AR), I have found that D5 is a perfect fit with AR! The students absolutely LOVE reading and are always asking if they can read after a test, quiz, etc. This school year we are giving out awards for students who meet 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of their individual goal. Goals are set for each marking period and are based upon the individual student. Because I want the students to be proud of their accomplishments and also keep their individual goals private, I created a banner that I put in the hallway. When students meet that percentage of their goal, I will hang a clothespin with their name on that percent. In the past we celebrated students meeting a certain number of points. However, this could lead to bullying or teasing of classmates. This way, regardless of the number of points accumulated, students of all reading levels can earn 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of their goal!

I've included a few images of the banner that I created below. It is also a free downloadable resource at my TPT store if you are interested!

     

Thanks for stopping by!