I'M BACK with an ANNOUNCEMENT and a FREEBIE!!

It has been WAY too  long since I have posted on here.  This year has been a busy year as I have taken on some new leadership roles at my school, but I'M BACK!  Anyone else taken on any new roles/ responsibilities at your school and just now feeling like you're adjusted?  I am so grateful for my new role as team lead and a mentor!  

ANNOUNCEMENT!!

Drum Roll please... I have started an Instagram.  I wanted another way to share ideas from my classroom and honestly, I now don't know why I didn't start an Instagram earlier.  My goal is to add at least 2 instagrams a week, but I am hoping to do many more than that!  My instagram name is Fantastically_Fourth_Grade.  Take a peek at it and let me know what you think! 

Since I am a newbie to this, I could use some more followers.  Any takers?? 😃

 Now for the FREEBIE!!

 I have created a product that shares some easy, but motivational tips and tricks to use with your students during the last half of the year.  At this time of year, I students are getting stir crazy from the cold weather, anticipating Spring Break or just are a little too comfortable at times with one another.  I have used all of these tips and trick at some point in my classroom and have found them helpful for this last part of the school year.  I hope some of them help you too!  Click here to download this product for free for the rest of this month!

Here is an example of one tip that I include in my freebie and a more detailed explanation of how I have used it in my classroom.!

Tip #1 Use Candy (Small or Big) as a Motivator

 I LOVE using math task cards in my classroom, but at this time in the year, my students are bored of them and don't love them quite as much as I do anymore.  So, I needed a way to make task cards exciting for my students again.  We all know that our students will do almost anything for candy and it doesn't matter the size.  

   I decided that I would give my students an M&M for every answer that they got correct.  Instead of my students checking their answers using the QR code, I had them solve each task card and then show me the answer.  I required my students to use a strategy and show their work to be able to get the M&M.  This way my students could still work at their own pace and I could get immediate feedback of how they were doing. 

This was a HUGE hit!!  I even had students tell me that this was fun!  We have been doing task cards all year and I have never seen my students enjoy it so much.  The great part about it is that it was not anymore work for me and it will make grading their papers so much easier as I was able to mark if they got the answer correct immediately.  

Need some math task cards? I have many different 4th grade math task cards in my store including different task cards for all the different fractions standards!  Don't see the standard that you're looking for or looking for task cards for another grade?  Send me an e-mail at sam.ripley89@gmail.com and I would be more than happy to discuss with you how I could help create the task cards that you are looking for!

Thanks for reading my most recent post!  This time I am not going to wait 6 months for another update!  Feel free to leave me a comment or ask me any questions that you may have below.  Oh, and don't forget to check out my new instagram account Fantastically_Fourth_Grade!