STAAR Pressure

The honeymoon period is over. Teachers are stressed and students are restless. The pressure of STAAR is sinking in. Tension is high in the school hallways and you can feel it in the school climate. Is STAAR an excuse to lose your focus and passion for teaching? Absolutely not! Here is my piece of advice: don't lose the connections you have developed with your students. Your passion for teaching and the connections you've made with your students are more important now than ever! 

Now - I am not saying that you should disregard the STAAR test completely. I am merely saying that you should focus on teaching the kids to love to learn. Everything will fall into place! Don't let the passion fade away. 

Here are a couple of ways you can make STAAR review FUN! Yes, FUN!

STAAR Review Scoot

Take the STAAR released questions from last year (or any rigorous word problems you have on hand) and type them on one sheet of paper each. Laminate the paper and post them around the room. The students will travel with paper and a clip board around the room to answer the questions. They may work alone, with a partner, or with a small group. You can ability group them or mix up the ability levels. Students will rotate or "scoot" around the room on your time! How much time do they need? That is up to you and your class makeup. I would suggest about 3 to 5 minutes per problem.

Review Stations

Look at test data from throughout the year to find those tough spots for your kiddos. Create review stations for these tough skills. Each station should be about 10 to 15 minutes long. The key to review stations is classroom management and setting expectations. Don't assume they know the directions for each station. Explain each station before hand and have instructions at each station in case they forget. 

Task Cards

Task cards are always a deceivingly fun and engaging way to practice math. Task cards can be used in guided math stations, review with shoulder partners or small groups, small group intervention, or an early finisher activity. Do you have iPads in your room? Buy or create task cards with QR Codes to make them even more engaging and exciting!

 4th Grade Math: STAAR Review Task Card Scoot 

bundles all these ideas into one FUN activity! 

Click here to download this product from my TPT store.

Visit my TPT for more engaging fourth grade math activities. Just click here.

Valentine's Day Party

Looking for easy, fun, and FREE Valentine's Party ideas?!?! Below you will find cheap and easy ways to keep the kids entertained during your classroom Valentine's Day party.

Tower of Hearts

All you need is a box of conversation hearts (per student) and a timer. Students are given three minutes to build the tallest tower they can. Students cannot hold their tower or support their tower using other conversation hearts. Whoever has the tallest tower when the timer goes off is the winner!

You can mix it up by having them build their tower using patterns: 

Pink, white, pink, white...

Pink, yellow, white, pink, yellow, white...

Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, yellow, yellow, purple, purple.... 

Let the kids get creative!

You can also have them build a tower where not two same colors are touching. Have fun with it!

Valentine's Day BINGO

Each student will receive one Bingo board and one box of conversation hearts. The teacher will call a word from the cards provided. Students will cover the word (if they have it) on their Bingo board. You can determine the winner in a variety of ways: four in a row, four corners, black out, etc. Have fun!

You can download Valentine's Day Bingo for FREE from my Teacher Pay Teacher's page. Just click the picture below or click here.

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President's Day - Converting Customary Length

Happy President's Day!

I use this lesson every year and thought it was too fun not to share! President's Day always falls during our Converting Customary Measurements unit. Thanks to Teacher Pay Teachers I was able to find this long term keeper!

Here is what you'll need:
Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman
"Measure the Presidents" activity from Teacher Pay Teachers (FREEBIE courtesy of That Teacher Spark)

You can buy Looking at Lincoln on Amazon.com. Just click here.

 

You can download "Measure the Presidents" from The Teacher Spark's TPT site for FREE. Just click here.