DoubleDutyTeachers

                      A few years ago, I saw Miss 5th's idea for a March Madness book tournament and LOVED it! I decided to adapt her idea and use it in my 4th grade classroom as well! It has become a hit every year and one of our favorite things to look back on! In this post, I'll detail how I incorporate it in my classroom and I'll also link Miss 5th's pack about the tournament on Teachers Pay Teachers.           On the first day of March when students walk into my classroom, they'll hear "Are You Ready For This?!" playing with the lights off (Double Teamed vibes anyone?!). I'll have some fancy lights on and sometimes I'll bring in a basketball to dribble. We have to set the mood! This is what gets them bought in from the very beginning! Once their curiosity is peaked, and they're wondering what is going on, I introduce them to the March Madness Book Tournament!  The Sweet 16   ...

          This year of teaching in the time of Covid is SO different and unlike anything we've experienced. However, we still knew we wanted to bring in some of that room transformation magic! This year, our gifted enrichment unit was all about the solar system. One of our ELA units this year is called "The Making of a Scientist" (5th grade Guidebooks unit) where the students research the start of the solar system and if Pluto should be considered a planet. So for the first time, we introduced our Solar System Room Transformation! It was out of this world!      To start, we gathered our materials (linked below) and the help of our husbands (they always deserve a shoutout). We cut table cloth rolls displaying constellations to size and hung them up on the ceiling as our night sky. We also draped some star backdrops (also table cloth rolls) on the walls for more of a dramatic look. We inflated our inflatable solar system and hung them from...

          Classroom community is so important to make students feel loved, safe, and happy. We want our students to have a voice in their learning environment and feel respected by their teachers. Here are some ways we build classroom community and ideas for how to adapt them for online learning!    Class Meetings     When we attended the Teach Your Heart Out Conference in 2017, we fell in love with Brittany Root's (@Miss5th) class meetings. We took her base and made it work for our classrooms! On Friday afternoons, we have a class meeting. We choose a class leader to run the meeting. This person is someone who really exemplified great qualities that week. Whether it was picking up trash in the cafeteria when no one asked, or helping a friend with an assignment- we make whatever they did a big deal! Everyone cheers for their classmate when we announce the leader! This person gets the microphone and leads the meeting. This year we added ...