Author: smartchickteacher

We end the 4th grade year with a science unit on Animal Adaptations and a focus on crayfish! This kids always look forward to this unit in May each year of 4th grade. I start by buying some live crayfish to keep in the classroom. I buy enough so each table group can have one crayfish to observe. These animal cannot be released into the environment, so I ask students to take them home as pets at the end of the unit. They are actually interesting to keep as pets! I keep the crayfish in a large plastic tub with a bubbler and places for the crayfish to hide. I use large cut PVC pipes that I hot glue into the tub before I had water. You need to also add water conditioner to get the chlorine out of the water. Crayfish eat lots of different things, including fish flakes, crayfish pellets, bloodworms, and even carrots. You can get live crayfish from a few different places like, bait stores, Carolina Biological, or Amazon.

We start with a live crayfish lab so kids can get more familiar with these amazing animals. For this lab I give each group a crayfish in a plastic container. I use the plastic shoebox containers from my local Dollar Tree. Buy this lab from my TPT store if you are interested!

We have a few crayfish related bulletin boards in our classroom during the unit. One of those includes vocabulary words. I place these vocabulary words into a narrow pocket chart.

These are a great way to get kids to better understand the vocabulary related to crayfish. Buy these vocabulary words here.

We also make a diagram of the crayfish and place the cards onto the diagram. Just trace the picture of the crayfish onto a sheet of bulletin board paper.

This diagram is a great way for kids to see the names of the different external parts of the crayfish! This diagram helps students as we do out crayfish dissection as well! Buy this pack here.

We also do a dissection of a crayfish with crayfish purchased at the BioCorp or Carolina Biological. The BioCorp crayfish take longer to get, but they are a lot cheaper! I get one crayfish per pair of students. Doing a dissection of the crayfish is not a requirement of the unit.

This dissection lab pack focuses in on the adaptations of crayfish. Buy this dissection lab pack here.

Think about learning about animal adaptations with crayfish! They are a great animal to use in the classroom and they get the kids really excited about science!

Our classroom is just beginning to start a unit on Matter in science! I usually try to start with a lab that really grabs their attention and making butter is a fun one! In this lab kids can see a liquid turn into a solid. They get so excited to see the changes that happen as they shake the jar.

For this lab you just need 2 of the large bottles of heavy cream, some salt, a marble for each jar, and small glass jars. I also grab some plastic knives and 4 loaves of bread! We do this lab as table groups, so you just need one jar per group.

Fill each jar half full will the heavy cream, then add a pinch of salt, and a marble or two. Then the kids SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE the jar for about 15 minutes. My kids take turns shaking. They are stunned as they start to feel the liquid turn into a solid.

They check on their butter a few times and taste a little. If they need to add a little more salt, they can!

When the butter is finished, they can spread it on the bread and get a little treat! They are always amazed by this lab! You can purchase my lab pack here. This lab pack also asks them to compare their homemade butter with store bought butter. So grab some store bought butter if you want to do that part!

I always try to do a lab that HOOKS my students and makes them want to learn more about a topic we are studying! This is one they always seem to remember!

Probability seems like a pretty easy thing to teach, but it can be a tough topic for students to really understand. You can do a lot of fun hands-on activities with probability with cheap and easy to find materials. We often use dice, spinners, playing cards, and coins.

I found a set of assorted dice with different numbers of sides for my classroom on Amazon. Over time we tend to collect a lot of dice as teachers! I like the ones with different numbers of sides so kids can figure out the different probabilities of each one.

This assorted set of 100 dice can be found on Amazon for between $18-$20. Click here for my affiliate link.

There are a lot of great picture books for teaching probability! Read alouds for these books can be found on youtube OR you can purchase or borrow the books. Here are a few of my favorite picture books related to probability and the order I use them:

It’s Probably Penny by Loreen Leedy – This one is the first one we read together in my classroom. It introduces and explains a lot of the vocabulary we use with probability and it gives clear examples of each one for the students. Click here to purchase a pack for this book in my tpt store.

Pigs at Odds by Amy Axelrod – The pigs are heading to a carnival and of course they get to play all sorts of games involving probability. Each game gives students a chance to think about and talk about the chances the pigs have of winning.

Probably Pistachio by Stuart Murphy – Use this picture book to practice the topic of probability throughout the course of the story.  Students have to use some of their prior understanding of probability to answer questions related to this story. Click here to purchase a pack for this book in my tpt store.

Bad Luck Brad by Gail Herman – Brad has a bunch of bad luck until the end of the story when he finally gets what he wants – the movie he wants to see. He remembers what is was like not to get his way throughout the day and is sure to make his friend feel better about not getting the movie choice he wanted. Click here to purchase a pack for this book in my tpt store.

That’s a Possibility by Bruce Goldstone – This book contains real life pictures that show examples of probability. It gives very clear examples of probability over the course of the book. It also gives the teacher a lot of chances to discuss the possibilities with students as they read aloud the book! This is a book you could easily read more than once and have different things to talk about. Kids could also use real pictures from magazines or Internet search to make their own probability posters!

A Very Improbable Story: A Math Adventure by Edward Einhorn –

This fall I am using a rubber duck theme in my classroom! I am looping with my classroom this year and I think I am going to use the phrase, ” Quack, Quack Look Who’s Back!” on my welcome bulletin board.

I also created a set of STEM Challenges with rubber ducks to do the first couple of weeks of school. Click here to buy these challenges if you are interested!
I changed up my table signs to some with rubber ducks that go with my color theme as well. I plan on using assorted rubber ducks as rewards throughout the year!

I also created a staff morale booster with rubber ducks! This one is a freebie in my tpt store! There are 8 of these to choose from and they are all FREE!

We are also going to do a Rubber Duck Weekly Reading Passage to start the year! There are quite a few of these available individually and in bundles in my store. These are a great way to get students to look back through a text passage. Click here for the link to this one!

I also ordered these adorable tiny little ducks on Amazon! My kids love to collect little things and I know they will love these ducks! Click here to grab these on Amazon! (This is an affiliate link.)

Stay tuned for my Welcome bulletin board and pictures of my classroom. We can’t go in for another week, but I am working on getting things printed and laminated at home!

What is your theme this year?

We begin each morning with Soft Starts in my 4th grade classroom. They are a nice way for students to come into my classroom each morning. We rotate different types of soft starts throughout the year. We begin the year with games students can play in order to get to know one another.

This week we will be changing to dinosaur/fossil themed soft starts. We are studying fossils in science, so these soft starts give students a chance to learn some things about dinosaurs, play dinosaur card games, explore fossils, and do some fun artwork using tracing plates, stickers, and stamps.

The Soft Starts packs in my tpt store have labels for containers, items to get, and rules for kids to follow. You can also just put a different soft start item at each table. I have soft starts with STEM, dinosaurs/fossils, words, and squishy things. I am working on adding more! Click here to see my Dinosaur Soft Start Pack.

My students spend the first 15-20 minutes each day on the soft starts. I put up a timer when they have 5 minutes left and they know it is time to begin cleaning up. I store everything in shoebox tubs and bring them out each morning.

What things do you do in the morning as your students come into your classroom?

Looking for an easy to put up your PERFECT Back to School bulletin board? Just use clip art! Pick out the clip art you want, place the clip art onto a powerpoint slide and adjust it to the size you want. Then add a text box and type in a student name. Do this for all the kiddos you are expecting and print!

I did a Rock and Roll theme last year. Each student got an inflatable guitar to take home the first day! I grabbed the inflatable guitars on Amazon!

Best part about using clip art? I can choose the SIZE I need for my bulletin board! I can also make new ones quickly when I get new students the first few days!

What is your Back to School theme this year?

I am doing colorful light bulbs this year!

At this time of distance learning across the country, I have been looking for ways to connect with my students, and one of my favorites is through writing and mailing them notes each week.  They really look forward to getting a weekly note, and I have discovered that you can send unusual things through the mail!

This week I sent them cards with a small growing creature tucked inside.  You can grab the growing creatures cheaply on Amazon or on the Oriental Trading Company site.  I also got a set of 200 cards and envelopes in bright colors on Amazon.  They just have to place the creature into a cup of cold water for 5 days.  I encouraged them to change the water each day.  At the end of 5 days, they can send me the results through a text message picture or even a flipgrid video!  Filpgrid is amazing!  Check it out if you have not already!

I found a read aloud of the picture book, It Came in the Mail, by B. Clanton.  It is an adorable book.

The character  in the book gets unusual things in the mail.  I am sending my own students something unusual next week!  I found some foam door signs from the Dollar Tree in one of my teacher tubs of rewards in my basement.  I’m going to mail one to each student!

I have a writing pack to go along with this book in my TPT store, too!  Click here to buy it!

What are you doing to connect with your own students during this time of distance learning?  Share ideas in the comments!  The first five commenters will get this pack for FREE!