My Week

Hello Readers!

It's been a little over a week since I've even looked at my blog - as you can probably tell by that first statement, school is back in session (well, professional development anyway)! This first week back has been a tough adjustment, energy-wise. Up until today, after a nice nap, I have been SO exhausted, along with every teacher all over the world. Kudos to my husband for being so understanding, there's no love like teacher-spouse love! 

This week, while exhausting, has been extremely enlightening and my excitement is building to get started with my students.

Here's some highlights from my week:

-Learning about my schools new ELA and Math curriculum. Let me just say, I love it! You always hear the complaints about school-wide changes, but I have no complaints. The curriculum is so structured and that structure helps me feel confident about getting my students from Point A to Point B.

Some major focuses of our new ELA program are Reading Workshop using novels with Text Study related to ideas from the novel. Reading Workshop is the shared reading portion and Text Study is the close reading portion. So many resources are provided to help teachers be successful. I'm super excited!

-Getting my classroom organized! I'm going with a Bright and Bunting Banner Theme and I love how it's coming together. Here's a sneak peek - I will do a full classroom reveal post hopefully next weekend!

 - Formatting my lesson plan templates to stay organized!

Now, I'd love to hear from you!

I'm beginning to think about my plans for the first week of school. I would LOVE to hear how you start out those first moments of students entering the room. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Five for Friday

I've linked up with Doodle Bug Teaching for my FIRST ever Five for Friday Linky!

Here it goes!

I started decorating my room! I'm going with Pink, Light Blue and Purple (I teach all girls!)

I put together my 10-drawer bin from Big Lots and organized my centers in it!

I created a Lunch Count document for students to expedite lunch count!

I started reading one of the first novels I will be teaching this year! I'm hooked!

I created a year-long behavior communicator to go along with my clip chart! 

 Overall, I tried to take it easy this week - It's my last week before returning, physically, back to work!

I did lots of reading, sitting on the couch, watching tv and snacking :)

Leave me some love, and maybe a follow!

Why do you read?

My school encouraged teachers to come up with a mission statement this year centered around Reading, Writing and Leading. 

Here's what I came up with. 

Why do you read? 

Wordless Wednesday

I've linked up with Miss Decarbo for my FIRST wordless Wednesday!

I got a head start on decorating my classroom yesterday!

Credits to Jena Hudson and KG fonts

What classroom decor are YOU most excited about this year?!

Leave me some love :)

Be Centered During Centers

Centers - I've heard both sides - some teachers despise them while others love them. I am on the 'love them' side! To be clear, my experience with centers is limited, but what I've experienced has been awesome.

So let me tell you how I came about doing my centers the way I'm about to explain. I was a student teacher a year ago, it feels like SO long ago! During my students teaching I had the opportunity to work with an amazing cooperating teacher and other just-as-amazing teachers. I learned so much from my cooperating teacher, including how to set up awesome centers. So full disclosure, this center set-up is not my idea, but it's so great it needs to be shared!

Moving on, I began teaching 4th grade at the same school I student taught at in January, right after the Holidays. I was unsure whether I wanted to do Choice Boards or Centers for 4th Grade, previous teachers before me had done both. So, me, being ambitious decided to do choice boards (after having no experience with them) and it was kind of a disaster. Definitely one of those "live and learn" moments. I kept the choice boards going to until PSSA time, then switched over to a smaller version of centers, which was better, but also a disaster.

So needless to say, I'm ecstatic about starting out fresh with a NEW center rotation!

Here it goes,

What you'll need for a successful center set up is a good storage system. Using my cooperating teacher's center organization idea, this works best for me.

This center set-up has 10 centers, with two rotation per day. Each bin in labeled with a number and the title of the center. And each bin has a labeled folder like below. 

Once you have a good organization system, you need to move on to the rotation.

What you need:

-wall space for the center rotation display

-groups & group names

-labels 1-10 or Centers 1-10 (I like clothespins)

I am using a pocket chart this year. I ran into a hiccup when I realized my cards were too big for the chart, but I figured out a solution. I am grouping my students by animal names, so I printed and laminated clip art - this is what will stay in the pocket chart. I'm kicking myself in the behind for not remembering to take a picture before I left my classroom today!

So picture this, 

A pocket chart. animal clip art pictures going vertically down the side of the pocket chart. You need to put clothes pins that are numbered 1-10, - one beside each animal . This is the center that students start at. I plan on instructing students to take out their center notebooks and folders, then I will announce what center each group is at. Ex. "Elephants, Center 1" "Penguins, Center 2" Once I announce all ten groups, I will put 2 minutes on the timer, this is the amount of time students have to get to their center and get started working quietly. During this time, one captain from each group will retrieve there bin and take to their group. After the two minutes are up, the timer is set for the first rotation (20 minutes), but this can be any time you choose. Then pull your guided reading group! 

BEEP! 20 minutes are up! This is where I adapted the original idea slightly. 

At this time, I will get students attention and instruct them to rotate to the next center. While my students are still learning the rotation, I will  get students attention, and say something along the lines of "It is now time to move to the next center. Elephants, move to center 2, Penguins, Center 3, ect.". The numbered clothespins should be rotated - I might have a student do these eventually, but I will do it at first. Students should not move until I am done speaking and the timer is back on the board. Students have 2 minutes to clean up there center, leave the bin at the center location, then walk to the next center with there folder and notebook. Then 20 more minutes goes on the board. Then meet with guided reading groups again!

BEEP 20 minutes are up! At this time, I will tell students that it is time to clean up there center and return to their seats. Students will have 3 minutes to clean up there center, walk back to there seat, and put away their notebook and folder. The group captains will put their bins back in the correction spot. 

And that's it! 

Stop back again in a few weeks to see how the center rotation is working for me!

Meet the Teacher

I've linked up with Falling Into First for this awesome "Meet the Teacher" Linky! 

Welcome to The Fourth Grade Fizz! My name is Stephanie and  I'm a 22 year old "sort of" first year teacher in 4th grade. I began teaching at my school January 2014, so this will be my first year starting out fresh with a class! I'm so excited to make it cute this year - there just wasn't time last year during my mid-year transition!

I'm a newlywed as of July 5, 2014. 

This summer has been SO exciting! My husband's unconditional support of my teaching career is amazing - being raised as a teacher's son had some good influence!

We've known each other since 4th grade!

My husband and I have two furry babies, Audrey and Fifi. They are such sweethearts!

Yes, they sleep a lot!

This summer, when I wasn't getting married, honeymooning, or moving, I started a TPT store, a facebook page and this blog! I've had a lot of fun with this - I get to plug in my creative outlet and still be productive!

 THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...

Reading * Stylish Mugs * Blogging * Exercising * Target * Sewing * Baking * Patterns * Bunting

 IF YOU WEREN'T A TEACHER, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO BE?

If I wasn't a teacher, I think I'd want to be in the medical field, maybe nursing? I'd want to do something where I'd be effecting peoples' lives in some way.

THREE LITTLE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU.

Determined * Creative * Responsible

 

FINISH THE SENTENCE, "________,  SAID NO TEACHER EVER!!"

"I love spending my own money on school supplies!"

 

Q: IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY AND YOU CAN INVITE ANYONE {DEAD OR ALIVE} TO THE PARTY. WHO ARE YOU INVITING?

Jesse Williams - with my husband's permission :)

Q: IF SOMEONE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD BE THE TITLE?

 Perfect Perfectionism

 Q:YOU GET TO PICK ONE SUPERPOWER. WHAT IS IT?

Predicting the future!

Q: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE OR SAYING?

"Be the change you want to see in the world"
 

Q: IF YOU HAD TO SING ONE SONG ON AMERICAN IDOL, WHAT WOULD IT BE? 

 All of Me by John Legend

 

 Q: ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT OWL?

Depends - this summer I've been quite the night owl, but during the school year I prefer to get up and into school early!

 

Q: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE RESOURCE THAT YOU'VE CREATED IN YOUR TPT SHOP?

I love my Grades 3-5 Question Stems. I can't want to use them during our novel readings and informational text readings for quick reading response questions!

Join in!

Makeover!

I've made an upgrade and I LOVE IT! Do you?

In honor of this new makeover, I'm making my Classroom Rules set FREE until Monday! 

Please share and continue following me! 

Huge shoutout to Dream Like Magic for an adorable and affordable blog design!

Clothespin Makeover

Clothespins, oh clothespins,big, small, extra small, a teachers prized possession.

In my classroom clothespins are used for many things - but never clothing! I use them on behavior charts, writing process charts, hanging student work and organizing materials.

I've bought a lot of clothespins.

In my quick transition during the middle of the year last year, I simply wrote my student's names on the clothespin, good idea at the time. However, as I was preparing for this  school year, I realized I CAN'T USE THESE! Before running out and buying more, I let my creative mind do some work - and here's what I came up with:

So simple to do, all you need is:

- ribbion, skinny ribbon

-double sided tape

-student names or numbers

Put a strip of double sided tape on the clothespin, lay your ribbon down. Put a small piece of double sided tape on the laminated number and there you go!

I decided to avoid running into the same "I CAN'T USE THESE" problem next year, I am using numbers for my behavior chart - which also helps to keep it more anonymous. I'm also using these same numbers for the writing process chart  this year!

Happy crafting!

Until next time,

Starting Out

It has been quite awhile since I have posted. Over the past few weeks I have to admit, my frustration has been growing thinking about how to get more traffic on my blog, Facebook page and Teacher's Pay Teacher's store. Is it worth investing in a super creative blog design that will be adorable none the less, but will it improve my traffic?!

Anyone listening?? I need your advice!

Is it worth investing in a blog design?

How did you begin your blogging experience? Did it start slow and then grow?

What influenced the growth and success of your blog, page, or store?



In other news, I've been working hard creating resources and organizational items for my classroom that fit my new theme: bright and bunting. I absolutely love what I have created and cannot wait to see it function in my classroom.

One product I am extremely proud of and anxious to use is my Question Stems for Grades 3-5. These question stems literally provide standard based questions for literature and informational text right at your finger tips, making lesson planning and in the moment questioning more manageable!

Check them out here:

While you're there, check out some other new products:

Check in later this week for a post on exactly how I plan to use my behavior clip chart in my classroom daily and how it facilitates students being accountable for their behavior.

Until next time,

Mrs. R