Happy April!

Join Farley for her April "CURRENTLY" throwback to the Comic Sans font and simple black & white formatting in this month's layout!  

listening: I'm getting caught up with my DVR and the "Latin Night" episode of Monday's Dancing with the Stars is playing in the background, I'm loving that Manya from Boyz II Men is workin' it this season!

loving: being born in April makes me biased to this month because of all the happy memories it brings along with the happiness of spring!

thinking: Good Riddance, State Testing is OVER!! (and school's not over until May 21st - that means I have time to teach units because they're fun and interesting, not because I have to!  Just this week before our last day of testing, one of the classroom dad's came in and taught us about electric voltages and we tested the power in various-sized batteries using multimeters.. Then, we got the electricity flowing through our bodies with the Van de Graaff generator!  Apparently, long, thin and straight hair works the best, as seen in the image below!

If you're interested in learning more about how the Nacho Party motivated my students to show up and do their best during testing week, check out my previous post!  We had a blast gearing up before Field Day yesterday!

:)
Ciao!

Motivate Students to do their Best with a NACHO party!

Cure TESTING absences and lack of student effort with a NACHO PARTY!

YESS!! It's a WEEK of computerized testing for my students and I when we get back on Monday.

Not quite as thrilled that it's that time of year?
Well, have no fear...
the NACHO party will surely steer ...
your minds into a place filled with CHEER!

Who doesn't love Mexican food?  What's more, who doesn't perform better when there's some tangible object you're trying to achieve?  These are all reasons why the NACHO party after testing is over is such a TREAT!

Let's get it straight, I definitely stress how important it is for everyone to do their best job and take their time during the test to show what they know after learning so much throughout the year.  However, some years (especially while working in Title 1 schools), my students wouldn't show up to school on testing day.  I can tell you, they don't always rise to the occasion when they're pulled out of the room separately on make-up day and then, they without fault MIRACULOUSLY appear an hour later when the rest of your class took double or triple that amount of time!!  

For 100% attendance and best effort during testing week, my students gain entrance to our class NACHO party!  

What if I miss a day, or mess around instead?  

I remind them, "I guess it's NOTCH-YOUR party!" 

(P.S. I make exceptions for the unexcusable THROWING UP/FEVER sick absences)

Typically, I like to host the NACHO party on the same day as FIELD DAY, as that's the school-wide reward for doing well on a year filled with such a focus on academic learning.  A week or so before the event, I send flyers home to remind families of the food item they will be sending in for the day of the party.

The teachers bring in crock pots & serving spoons to warm the canned nacho cheese & refried beans.  We just zap the cooked taco meat in the microwave.  It smells so good warming up during the morning, we can barely wait until lunch time to begin the festivities!  If you want to host a similar event, download the editable flyer here (you'll need PowerPoint to edit).

This year I'm thrilled to have a family whose parents both work at a Mexican restaurant down the street, so our party is going to be EPIC!  We're even having horchata --- YUM!
UPDATE: This year's nacho party was a blast, they worked so hard on testing all this week & they "tore up" the nacho cheese as one of the girls in my class put it! :)

p.s. Head over to Teaching with Team W as they are hosting a giveaway in honor of reaching 100 followers!  Congrats ladies!! :)

Making Test Prep FUN!

I use a class review game called SCOOT where task cards are put at each student desk and then after the allotted time (varies based on the concept from 40  - 90 seconds) I say "SCOOT" or after we've played for a while, I can just ring my bell/set my phone timer and they know what to do!  This is perfect for TEST PREP because I can assign multiple problems on a specific concept and see how well they're doing.  It allows me to focus more of my instructional time on concepts they're struggling with and skim through those that are a breeze.  If you teach 4th grade, and are interested in my fractions set pictured above, it is available here!

So what makes SCOOT fun for kids?  Well, first of all, they're getting to move around the room!  Second, if they finish early and have double-checked their problem they get to SILENT READ (something there's not much time for within our daily schedule)!  And, I entice them with some motivational SCOOT prizes for excellent accuracy and/or behavior throughout the review!  Who isn't motivated by food?  Well, I know I certainly can't resist a free sample at the stores, so I keep a bag of snacks stocked with food to pass out to the lucky winners! If that isn't your style, free rewards also work well (sit in the teacher chair, lunch with teacher, 10 minutes of free tech time, etc.)!

If you're interested in trying this out in your room, try this simple ELA Test Prep set out by clicking the image above!  The skills covered are rather basic but are a great way to introduce this format to your class ...
Or, if you need to review 4th grade fractions concepts and are looking for a fully editable set where you can customize the names to include students in your class or are in need of more than 24 cards, try my math task card set below!  Or, if you're not a techie, it includes a matching blank template to print and create additional cards by writing them in!  Hopefully you'll give this way of reviewing skills a try if you haven't already.  SCOOT is a HOOT!

:)