[ubs]

So what are y'all going to do the last couple of weeks of school? Any great ideas of time-consuming activities? Our books are being taken away to count so I can't depend on having them to teach science and social studies. Our grades have to be turned in early next week, and we still have 2 weeks left. Oh yes, it's fourth grade.

[Tatum]

Writing-- I usually do a lot of writing in these days. We do reflection pieces adn a poem called "How I've Grown in Fourth Grade". I do this in couplets. We also write about our most memorable moments in paragraph form. These go into their folders for next year. They can do autobiographies and I compare them to the ones they wrote in the first week of school. Huge improvements!

Social Studies- I have them color maps. There are many little projects you can do. Have them color the state flag of a state and write all facts about that state (flower, motto, bird,, etc) I also do region postcards. They choose a state to write from and they have to tell info about that region/state and draw a picture on back. This assesses their knowledge of regions/states. Play state and capital games and puzzles.

Math- you can do a ton of games, centers and fun coloring sheets.

Reading- Book commercials. Have them choose their favorite book form the year and write a commercial for it. Kids have a blast doing htis and they can practice their presenting skills.
Choose a quick novel or stories from basal and do skill building activities, story maps or comprehension questions. Summarizing is always a good thing too.

[1gr81ntheus]

Make transparencies of wordsearches (you may have to create a wordsearch that's appropriate at puzzlemaker.com) with words related to a topic such as Native Americans. The students have to make an accurate statement using the word they can circle before they can go to the overhead and circle it. For instance, the word a student found is mound, they need to say a sentence with mound, one in relation to Native Americans before they can go circle it.

They can use the overhead to trace a mural and color it. They can add some words to it too.

Find a set of class books and a tape. Or they could just listen to a book on CD from iTunes and draw a picture to go with the story. You know, build those visualization skills.

Have your students write letters to the next year students.

[kristen_teach]

You have great ideas already. More ideas:

*Jeopardy games to review material- If you have a projection system, you can use some of these websites:
Template http://www.graves.k12.ky.us/tech/jeo...structions.htm
Lots of premade PowerPoints- including Jeopardy
http://jc-schools.net/ppt.html

If you do not have that technology, you can still play a game using the chalkboard as the screen.

*Poetry reading- we are practicing reading poetry in different ways (set to a beat, choral reading, partner reading, adding actions, etc.). Then, students are picking a poem and reading it on their own or with a partner. Great for poetry appreciation and fluency! I am also adding a poetry notebook of poems they have written as their "ticket" into the reading.

*Take a field trip to a park for lunch and to write some science observations.

*Math games- check out Marilyn Burns' books.

*Hands on science experiments- lots of websites available.