Today was the last Friday, and another busy day! We began the day ripping up old tests before recycling. The students made huge piles of shredded paper and the room was quite a mess for about 15 minutes. Good thing I'm not the neatest person in the first place or I would have been freaking out!! While some were carrying giant armfuls to the recycling bin, I was redirecting the two students making "snow angels" in the shredded tests. Inside my head, I just had to laugh!
Then we sorted math manipulatives to get the materials ready for next year's 3rd graders. Somehow the fraction bars always get messed up. For 10 minutes there was a lot of "I'm missing a tenth!!!" and "I have an extra sixth!" In the end we found all pieces but one missing eighth. Have you seen it? ;)
After a game of sharks and minnows on the playground and then lunch (we eat at 10:30 am! Hello brunch!) I had students write letters to their future teachers. I love this assignment. I explain that students need to introduce themselves by telling their new teacher about their strengths, weaknesses, and concerns. Until now my students didn't know that I'd be moving up to 4th grade with them. Somehow the news had leaked and one student said, "...but aren't you going to be one of the 4th grade teachers?" Meaning, why do I need to introduce myself to you?! I told them yes, but I won't be teaching all of you, and I reassured them that I don't get to pick! This news was very exciting to them and then they got to work writing about themselves. I always hold on to these letters and give them to the next teachers during preplanning. I've already been handed the "welcome letters" from the current 4th graders to give to my students during the first week of school in the fall. Such sweet letters with words of encouragement and advice.
To squeeze a few more productive minutes into today we made our summer journals. One of the most important parts of 4th grade is writing, so I wanted to get my students excited about next year. I passed out their reader's response journals from this year, we ripped out the pages we used and then they decorated a cover for the journal and glued it to the front. On the inside of the cover they glued a list of journal ideas- just in case they can't think of anything to write about it. I also gave them a list of funny writing ideas. I had them cut that list apart and glue the prompts onto random pages. The students thought this was a fun activity. Here's hoping they actually use the journals this summer!
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