A Peek Into My Week - Mar 17 - Mar 21

Next week is going to be short but crazy!  We ended our third quarter on Friday, so we will be having Parent Teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday - that means half day craziness.  Friday I will have a sub because my hubby is having a procedure to reduce his migraines.  He has tried everything from physical therapy to meds to botox - with no relief!  We are really hoping this works!  With 6 boys to keep after - migraines are just not a part of the plan!

I am linking up with Mrs Laffin's Laughings to share a few things we have planned for next week:

Reading/Science

Animal Presentations

The students have been hard at work putting together their animal research reports and boards.  We will present them this week.

We used this Animal Research Project from forkin4th.

Conferences

When I hold conferences, I try to have the student run the conference if possible.  I have them complete the sheets below which I found from Lesson Plan SOS.  This really helps them guide what they tell their parents and I have found the students to be VERY honest.  Their reflections usually match their grades closely, and light bulbs seem to go off in many of their heads about their work habits.

They are often tougher on themselves then I would be, but that is often a great teaching point in itself!



 I also ask them to write a short note to their parents telling them one thing that they are proud of this quarter and one thing that they are still working on.  It works great for the conference and is also as a mini-assessment.

I also found these forms from Ms. York's class that I think I might use this year.

Do you have your students write self-reflections for conferences?  Do you have any other tips for having successful conferences?

Math

Due to the short week, we will be reviewing fractions - St. Patrick's Day style!

Wacky St. Patrick's Day Fraction Fun

and

This one is a FREEBIE!

Organizing Research Writing

When I worked on the Common Core Units and District Assessments, I had the opportunity to work with some AMAZING teachers from all around our district.  One of the teachers there shared this organizational system for research that she uses with her students during the research unit for 4th grade. In our district several grades have to write research papers, so it could work for many grades.  I remember using a similar system with note cards when I learned how to write a research paper in 7th grade.  I love the way that her system stores the note cards though!  I am sharing some quick pics I snapped with my iphone, but I will share more when I use this with my students this upcoming school year.

The blue strip at the bottom is construction paper stapled to the folder (which is legal size).

The fabulous teacher who shared this with us told us that she just has the secretary at her school order library card envelopes (240 = 8 per student X  30).  The other teachers and I mentioned that you could make the envelopes yourself with construction paper or cut envelopes.  I have seen these at the Dollar Tree as well.

Here is a close-up of a few of the cards out of the pockets.  I LOVE this idea and can't wait to use it with my kiddos! 

How do you teach research writing?