Winter Fun in Fourth Grade!

Whew!  What a crazy week it has already been, and it's only Monday!  We had our Valentine's Party today, Parent-Teacher conferences tomorrow and Wednesday, then teacher meetings Thursday and lucky for this exhausted teacher, no school Friday!  Despite the busy week, I wanted to get a quick post written to share a few classroom happenings with you all to provide some inspiration for your (hopefully a little less crazy) week!

1) In honor of Valentine's Day, my class has set the goal to perform 100 acts of kindness, as a way to show love to others. We began by brainstorming ideas of ways to help others through our words and actions (set the dinner table, invite a friend to play, take the dog on a walk, give someone a heartfelt compliment, etc.)  Each student was given five hearts to write their 'Acts of Kindness' on, and will then glue each heart onto the class poster.  This photo was just taken on Friday, but the poster was nearly full today!  Find the printables I used here on Teachers Pay Teachers, courtesy of Jennifer Dougherty.

2)  Here are my cute owl valentines I passed out to the kiddos during our party today.  So cute and FREE!  Find them here from Artsy Fartsy Mama.  I attached a fruit snack pack on the back of each one, and everyone was thrilled!

Look at this cute Valentines box a student made!  I think it's a HOOT! :)

 

3) We've been getting into the Olympic spirit this week, too!  Fourth grade was in charge of the front hallway display case for the month of February, and we knew it would be a perfect chance to talk to the kids about the Winter Olympics and do a fun writing activity.  My teaching partner came up with the fun idea of spray painting paper plates, cutting out the middle (so they looked like gold medals) and having the students write about which sport they would compete in if they had the opportunity, to display in the center of the medal.  We tied red, white and blue ribbon to the top of each one, lined the board with student-made flags, and ta-da!  A super cute Olympic-themed display case for all to see!

4) A few more quick photos to share from our state writing test two weeks ago...

The students were greeted with a note and treat to wish them luck on each of the two days of testing.  Find the printables here.

 

My students worked SO hard this year to get ready for the test, and did their very best during the two testing days, so we just had to celebrate on Friday!  The kids voted on a 'Beach Day', which ended up being the perfect treat for a cold week in January in Nebraska.  They got to bring beach towels, wear 'summer attire' and watch "Turtle Tale" in the afternoon, while enjoying pretzels, M&Ms and Hawaiian punch. 

 

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Wish me luck with conferences this week!  Happy Valentines Day to all my followers whom I LOVE so much!  Thanks for reading! :)