My Favorite Resources for Fourth Grade Teachers

Congratulations fourth grade teacher! Fourth graders can be very independent and curious. The topics they are tackling in math are interesting and you are going to LOVE class read alouds. There are so many awesome fourth grade books!

Now that you know you will be teaching fourth grade, you are probably starting to wonder what resources you might want to have in your classroom. I have compiled a list of my very favorite resources for fourth grade teachers. I hope it helps!

Books

I’m starting with my book recommendations because I think that books are the most important part of ANY classroom! A good classroom library is a must.

It doesn’t have to cost a fortune though. You can get books from garage sales, used book stores and even from your friends. I highly recommend putting a post on your personal Facebook asking if any of your friends have books that their children have outgrown. It’s a great way to grow your library.

Click HERE to read more about organizing your classroom library.

Chapter Books

Here are some of my favorites:

• Fish in a Tree
• Rules
• Frindle
• Restart
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
• The BFG
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Picture Books

I use these for read alouds and mentor texts during reading or writing.

• Bad Seed
• The Good Egg
• What Do You Do With a Problem
• The Jelly Donut Difference
• The Invisible Boy
• The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes

Math Resources for Fourth Grade

Math Centers

Centers and small groups completely changed the way that I taught math. I would NEVER go back to completely teaching in whole group! Math centers and small group instruction make it much easier to differentiate my instruction. Every student doesn’t need the same thing, so why waste time teaching everyone exactly the same way? Plus, math centers are engaging!

If you are looking for more info on how to start and run successful math centers, check out THIS video series that I created.

I’ve also created some great math resources for fourth grade. I highly recommend THESE math centers. They are consistent. The centers will look very similar all year and this means that you don’t have to spend nearly as much time teaching the expectations and directions. Also, you can use the centers in any order that you choose because they aren’t specific to any month or holiday. I love this because we don’t all have the same pacing guide!

Interactive Notebooks

Interactive Notebooks are a FUN way to teach and practice math! They are so much better than traditional note-taking, because instead of just copying notes from the teacher, students are interacting with the material, which leads to a deeper understanding. 

My Interactive Notebooks involve inserting and moving around flaps, foldables, wheels, charts, and more and students love all of the different visuals. But don’t worry, I designed these for notebooks for busy teachers like you. So the cuts are super-simple, and there’s no unnecessary coloring. Your kids can quickly cut, glue, and go!

I have a total of 10 interactive notebooks to cover all the math skills your fourth grade students need.

Click HERE to read more about the Math Interactive Notebooks.

Math Curriculum

My fourth grade math curriculum is your one-stop-shop for math lessons that are fun, engaging, and easy to prep. These comprehensive units have everything you need to teach all of the fourth-grade standards. The full curriculum includes ten units:

• Back to School
• Place Value, Addition & Subtraction
• Multiplication  
• Division
• Comparing Fractions
• Operations with Fractions
• Fractions and Decimals
• Geometry
• Measurement & Data
• Review & Test Prep

Each ready to teach unit comes with instructional PowerPoints for each mini-lesson, daily student activities that are effective and engaging, key vocabulary, task cards, a math game, anchor charts, problems sets and homework, complete lesson plans, helpful resources like hundreds charts and number lines, and more! There’s no reason to look anywhere else.

Right now, the fourth grade curriculum is a growing bundle. This means that the curriculum is not yet complete. When you buy the full year now at a discounted price, you’ll get all the units currently in the store immediately, and you’ll get access to new units as they are added to the store at no additional cost. New units will be released before you will need to teach them. If you start with the fourth grade curriculum at the beginning of the year, you will be able to use it all the way through the year.

My math curriculum works perfectly with my math centers.

Click HERE to see the fourth grade math curriculum.

Writing Resources for Fourth Grade

Teaching writing can be one of the toughest subjects. Many teachers don’t teach it at all, or just brush over the standards by giving their students a journal prompt during reading centers. I totally get it! Without great resources and training, I had no idea how to teach writing and it frustrated me.

Writing Professional Development Course

First, if you are really looking to transform your writing instruction, I highly recommend taking my online writing professional development course. This course was specifically created for grades 2-5 teachers and it includes 27 different videos. When you complete the videos, you will feel so much better about teaching writing!

You’ll learn how to:

• Keep your lessons and preparation simple: Using the workshop model will save you time because you’ll have a simple routine with minimal prep.
• Increase your students’ standardized test scores: You’ll be training your students to work independently—so they’ll be able to perform higher on standardized writing assessments.
• Maximize your limited class time: You’ll learn how to implement short mini-lessons so you can spend less time lecturing and presenting to the entire class.
• Skyrocket your confidence as a writing teacher: Once you start using a modern writing workshop, you’ll see student growth—fast.

Taking the Masterclass is easy. The course is entirely online. You take it where you want, when you want. And it is self-paced–you can watch it in a weekend or a week or take your time going through the modules. You get lifetime access to the course, so you return to the lessons over and over again.

Throughout the course, you’ll find ongoing support in a private Facebook group where you can ask questions, find inspiration, and share ideas. Plus, you will get to print a professional development certificate. Yippee!!

​​Registration for the Not So Wimpy Writing Masterclass is currently closed. Be sure to sign up for the Waitlist so you will be the first to know when we open it again. Sign up now so you don’t miss out!

Free Guide to Writing Lessons

Lots of teachers have told me that they just don’t know what lessons they should teach during writing workshop. I put together THIS free guide to make it easier for you to decide what lessons to include when you are planning your mini lessons. Enjoy!

Year-Long Units

Now that you know what to teach, you are ready to create your writing lesson plans. But that takes time. A lot of time. So I decided to create them for you!

My writing units include lesson plans, mentor text passages, anchor charts, student printables and task cards for the entire year. They are so easy to use that you can leave them for a substitute if you need to!

Grammar Resources for Fourth Grade

Grammar is hard! There are so many rules that our students have to memorize and this can make the lessons rather boring.

Grammar Curriculum

I noticed that most curriculum did not include enough engaging materials and did not break down the grammar skills into small enough pieces. Therefore, I decided to create my own grammar curriculum!My grammar units include an activity for every day of the week.

I broke down the language standards into very small pieces that will make it easier for your students to learn all of the skills.

I have an entire year of done-for-you grammar lessons that covers ALL the fourth grade standards!

Free Grammar Posters

It can be handy to have a resource that students can reference as they learn new skills during the year. You can add a poster to your display each week as you teach the new skills.

Click HERE to grab this freebie!

Reading Resources for Fourth Grade

Some teachers have a reading curriculum that they love. Many do not. I have created some resources to help you to teach and practice reading skills and standards. I think that the most important aspect of any reading resource is whether or not it helps to increase a student’s love for reading.

Book Clubs

I also love using book clubs. I used book clubs with all of my reading groups. It really helped to increase their love for reading and helped them to choose new books for their independent reading time.

If you want to learn more about how I ran my book clubs, you can watch THIS video.

Vocabulary Resources for Fourth Grade

Teaching vocabulary is a must! It will improve your students’ reading comprehension, their writing word choice and their standardized testing scores. That’s big!

I found that adding ten minutes of vocabulary to my daily instruction made a huge difference. I love having a routine!

Monday: introduce word definitions and sentences
Tuesday: antonyms and synonyms
Wednesday: roots, prefixes and suffixes
Thursday: draw pictures to represent the words
Friday: play a review game and take an assessment.

I put together a resource that includes everything that you will need to teach, practice and assess vocabulary words. I carefully researched and chose tier 2 words that show up often in grade level text and on standardized tests.

Facebook Group

Teaching is tough! Don’t do this alone!

I have a Facebook group for fourth grade teachers. It is the perfect place to ask for suggestions or tips when you are having a tough day or to share your favorite resources for fourth grade.

Click HERE to join the group.

I have shared so many great resources for fourth grade, but don’t get overwhelmed! Keep in mind that the most important thing that you need in your fourth grade classroom is a positive relationship with your students. You can do that without centers or anchor charts or reading menus.

I believe in you!

Have a Not So Wimpy day,