[sara57]

I am moving to fourth-grade next year, and already have an idea for a theme. The theme for my classroom is going to be "A roadtrip to remember". I'll probably have a "Welcome to Fourth Grade-A Roadtrip To Remember!" sign posted for the year. Has anyone ever done a travel theme in their classroom? Any ideas?

[hescollin]

These are not my ideas. I have saved ideas for several years and these are some that I thought you might be able to put to good use.

READING AROUND THE WORLDS… --- To move from country to country you had to read so many pages.

http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=9522 stamps for each country.
http://www.sacredheartschoolsuffern....n/Reading.html this web site has reading logs for each month

teach the fifty states by singing a song. The children love it and sing it every day. It took us about 2 weeks of singing everyday to learn it by heart. It's the fifty states song. There is a web site that has the lyrics and the tune.
http://www.mrsjones.org/songs/50states2.html

Post a picture of "Person of the week" someone from history, current events, politics, etc.. and give some clues about that person. Students name the person and write a couple sentences about the person, or what their significance is. Use a state or country for your room.
****And Scholastic's books of history plays are pretty good, too. I did a Columbus play and one about the White House when the British burned it.

Your theme sounds wonderful.

[Jodi4/5]

I have a road in my classroom to track students Accelerated Reader points, an idea I borrowed from my favorite 4th grade teacher. I made 5 mile sections of the road out of tagboard and laminated them. Then I put velcro on each section. Each kid has a car that also has velcro on it and each week I move their car according to how many points they have. There are road signs all along the road at various points with prizes (candy, bookmark, trip to treasure box, etc). The kids love it and it has been a good motivator. I loop so at the end of this year I am going to make orange cones at the spot where each kid ended this year and challenge them to go past that point next year
Have fun with 4th grade! They are a great age group!!!