Double the Prep Work... Double the Fun?!

Hey, friends!  Do you remember when I told you that I would be teaching third AND fourth grade this year?!  Well, I am really excited about it!  Now that the new school-year is just around the corner, I figured that this is a pretty good time to fully explain what I will be doing!

I will be teaching basically the top 25% of the third and fourth graders at my building.  I will still be departmentalized, and I will still be teaching language arts and social studies.  This year, I will have a new partner who will teach math and science.  My former partner will be teaching at another school in the district. So, on top of the new standards, a new teacher evaluation program, a new position, a new schedule, and a new partner, I am SURE we will have to work out a few new procedures as well.  I should  just go ahead and buckle my seat belt now.   :)  It's going to be a wild ride!

Now, don't be fooled!   I will not be doing a multi-age split.  I will have two distinct classes with two distinct grade levels and curricular pieces.  I am honestly really excited about the chance to work with some of my old students again, and I am really excited about the chance to have this year's third graders again as fourth graders.  It will be kind of like I'm looping part-time.  :)  Ha!  I'm chompin' at the bits to pull a whole lot of MEATY components like Close Reading and Interactive Notebooks into our existing curriculum.  At the same time, it's double the prep work... and not really double the fun.  At least not yet!  I'm still missing a key component... my kiddos!  In the meantime, I am working my tail off to get ready for another unforgettable year!

Since my in-laws were in town for a few days, I decided to stay at home and tie up some loose ends here before going back into my classroom tomorrow to work.  So, I am sitting here cutting and organizing my two new spelling programs.  The Reading Street spelling lists are too easy for this population, so I created Affix Avengers for the third graders to work with prefixes and suffixes and Word Warriors for my fourth graders to work with Greek and Latin Roots.  :)  I am so excited because both programs run similarly, and both of them are SO focused on making meaning and examining patterns between words.  I seriously couldn't be happier with them!

I've also been busy with my fourth grade focus wall headers.  I am SO glad I made the language arts set last summer because I totally wouldn't have been able to handle creating them right now.  :)  Instead, fortunately I was able to simply make a few aesthetic enhancements, print, and begin the process of cutting and laminating.  I already have my third grade set ready to go at school... and I am really happy that I decided to go with the same color scheme for both sets.  The third grade set is chevron, and the fourth grade set has a solid background, but the colors coordinate, so it should make displaying my I Can Statements a little more cohesive and a little easier to manage two grade levels.

In order to ensure that I don't go crazy trying to display learning targets  and effectively utilize my focus wall, I spent a whole day aligning the two grade levels by unit.   I had to move some of the Reading Street stories around, but I think it aligned pretty nicely once it was all said and done.  This will serve as a pacing guide for me... and a starting point.   It will keep me focused on what will be accessed, and then I will use the skills and strategies as a foundation for other activities and projects.  I am SO glad I was able to get this out of the way before I go back at school.  Especially since I will be going back to college AGAIN this year to add another endorsement to the list.  :)  Time will certainly be my biggest challenge this year, but hopefully this pacing chart will prevent me from spinning my wheels!

I really AM trying to keep up with all of my emails and TpT Q&As, but if it takes me a little while to get back to you, now you know why.  :)  Please forgive me!  As much as I love blogging and being able to share my creations with all of you, I really do have to put my own classroom needs first.  Thanks for being understanding, friends!  Have a great day!