I'm 3 weeks into summer holidays & here's what I've been up to:

1. I celebrated my 13th wedding anniversary today.  Hubby & I went to the new Cameron Diaz movie Sex Tape!

2. We have been working our tails off the last 5 days getting our house ready to put on the market.  Today we met with the realtor & the FOR SALE sign is on the front lawn!

3. I am trying to complete my biggest TpT product ever!!  I planned it all out on the drive home from Vegas & each night I try get some work done on it.  It's a slow process

TpT Vegas!

I am finally home after being on the road for 18 days with the family.  We drove down the Oregon & California coast, then back home through Vegas.  I planned the trip so we'd be in Vegas for the first ever TpT Conference on July 11th.  I was totally blown away by the whole experience - the energy, the creativity, the expertise, and the TpT celebrities.

Here are my 5 take-aways from TpT Vegas:

1) NETWORK - I need to get my store name out there.  I noticed a lot people had super cute business cards that they were handing out.  What an awesome idea! 

2) Larger Products - The majority of my products can be completed in one class, but one speaker suggested creating larger products.  I started working on a 2 week product last night.  I'm excited for this new challenge.

3) Believe - Everyone has a TpT story.  I want mine to be awesome.  I can do this!

4) You can write several blog posts at once & then set a schedule for when you want them to go live on your blog.  I did not know this!  How cool is that?

5) Set Goals!  I am a list maker & goal setter.  I love crossing things off a list.  For some reason I never posted clear TpT goals in a place I could see every day.  This I am going to do.

It sounds like there will be another TpT conference next summer in Vegas.  I've got a lot of work to do before then.  

Bike Sketches

We finished up a three week bike unit a few days ago.  Every morning over half the school got on their bikes and rode around the neighbourhood and paths along the river.  What a great start to the day!  On our last day, the students biked about 11 km to a nearby park.  Since the bikes were parked at the school for several days, I incorporated them into an art lesson.  I gave each student seven different-sized pieces of paper, a pencil, and an eraser.  They had to sketch different parts of their bike, but it had to be a "zoomed in" view.  After the drawings were complete, the students arranged them on a piece of black construction paper.  

Here are a few pictures:

A Month To Go

It's still business like usual in Canada.  Our last day of school is one month from today - June 27th!  

My Grade 4s started learning about fractions last week.  Here are couple activities we did.

For the whole and half activity, I had my students use Jot Thoughts (a Kagan strategy).  I challenged them to create as many fractions that were equal to one whole in one minute.  Then I repeated the process with 1/2 fractions.

Underneath each flap is a picture showing the fraction.

An Oldie, But A Goodie

Don't you love when you can pull out a classic lesson that you know will be a hit with your students?

My fourth graders loved making their Area Robots.  Every year I tweak the activity a little bit.  This time around, I provided the students with a typed question and answer form to attach beside their robot. Here are a couple finished pieces.

I just about forgot to mention the big TpT Sale coming up.  Everything in my store is 15% off during the site-wide sale.  Happy Shopping!!

Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

If you're from southern Alberta, then you've heard of Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.  If you haven't had the chance to visit this part of Canada, then you gotta go. Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is a place where First Nations people hunted buffalo.  It's the oldest and most preserved buffalo jump and has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

As part of our First Nations News Broadcast activity, my Grade 4 students had to create a model of Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.  I gave them only one class to complete it.  Here are a couple of their creations: