Holidays are always bittersweet for me. I miss so many of my family members that are no longer here, but I love being with the family that surrounds me now. When you really think about what is important in life, it always comes back to family and loved ones.

I always think about my students also. Past and present. Are they warm and looking forward to a nice family gathering? Do they feel loved and safe in their homes? I know most are having a wonderful holiday, but some I know are feeling frustrated and miss their lunches at school and our tasty snacks, and the feeling that they are safe. To all children, all over the world, I pray that they find a safe and loving place during this season.

Here is my 'Turkey Curtain.' I love making a curtain out of my students' work!


I used this as a center and we made 'at' words. The Turkey on the purple paper was rather difficult for some of mine. I gave them a number, they put the number on the turkey's belly! Then they had to show the number 4 different ways. Most drew the number, tallied the number, wrote the number word, and then make a number sentence such as: 4 red flowers and 2 blue flowers makes 6! It was a cute activity and I am going to make some of these up for the next big holiday coming up!

Math Puzzles CCSS Aligned 4.NBT.4

Math Puzzles 4.NBT.4

In the picture you see a Teacher Answer Sheet #1 and a Scrambled Squares for Students # 1. The fonts match on the TA Sheet 1-4 and the Scrambled Student Sheet 1-4. I put the 4 TA sheets on a Clipboard to carry with me so I can monitor my students working out the problems.

Students working in journals using Math Puzzles 4.NBT.4

Notice one Student pasted the I Can Statement at the top of her puzzle page. This is required and is included in the Math Puzzle 4.NBT.4 packet. ( I always include PAM somewhere in the  puzzle.) They love it!

This student went to another page where she had some extra room (to save her paper) and starting working her problems out. The journals are graded every 9 weeks and kept to show students growth.

You can see where this student has written her answers in with pencil.

The 4 different fonts keep the students from glancing over at what someone else is doing. All students have the same 31 problems that match 4.NBT.6 but they are scrambled up!

Some students work methodically.

These are finished squares from 5th grade.

After finishing, I check their work by just looking at my 4 clipboard pages. Then they glue the squares and color. Some students never get to the coloring part because they might work slower than others. The first pic shows the different between the usual Magic Squares (this one shown came from superteacherworksheets.com.)  To differentiate by giving some students less problems to work with, just take off the bottom 4 squares from your Teacher Answer Sheet. When the student has cut all of his out, take those bottom pieces away. It gives the same practice but with fewer problems to do which would be helpful with some students who cannot process so many at one time. Hope this helps with your classroom activities. Email me with any questions for comments! Next time I'll show of the work we are doing with task cards. If you follow by email, my next post will come to your mailbox! Thanks so much and I plan to offer a buy 2 get one free on my TPT store! You will also be able to browse and buy products from my blog.  Please keep in touch and let me know how your teaching is going!