July Currently...

Whew...little late on this one. Better late than never, right?!?!
Listening:  Two of my three children are working on their basketball skills in the garage. It's so sweet to hear my oldest son "coaching" my youngest son. Melts a momma's heart!
Loving:  I love long summer evenings. 'Nuff said.
Thinking: Our first day of school isn't until Aug 31 this year (very late for us!). However, we have a huge rally that our town hosts each year. It's kind of a big deal - it takes our population from about 7,000 to an estimated 1.2 million this year. As a result, life as we know it shuts down during the last week of July/first week of August. I really need to buckle down a little now to be ready to get back in the teaching game next month.
Wanting: Each year, my kids and I brainstorm a summer fun list that hangs on our fridge all summer long. We check things off as we go - nothing fancy, not necessarily big stuff but the stuff that makes great memories. Tourist attractions, making popsicles, yard yahtzee. That kind of stuff. Anyway...we've made a pretty good dent in it so far but there's still plenty of summer fun to be had!
Needing: Blogging/work. Already covered that!
All Star:  This is a little bit nerdy but I have really nice handwriting. Backstory: we moved when I was in third grade. My new teacher ridiculed my handwriting in front of the class on my second day. I.Was.Mortified. and still remember to this day. As a result, I spent a lot of time perfecting my handwriting to make sure that never happened again.  

May Currently!

Listening:  My third child definitely fits the stereotypical profile of a "youngest child". As I'm working, I've listened to him perform several Top 40 hits on his older sister's ukulele - all while riding a zebra rocking horse.  Please tell me things like this happen in other people's homes, too...

Loving:  It's rare to say this in South Dakota, but our weather was absolutely perfect today! Near 80 degrees, no wind, completely gorgeous. Perfect for double header soccer games!

Thinking:  These report cards aren't going to do themselves - 'nuf said.

Wanting:  If summer really is going to come to So Dak this year, I need to sport some cute new shoes. Last year's sandals are questionable at best.

Needing: Thirteen days left of school and about a million things left to do. The stacks of stuff are plentiful and here I sit...thinking about shoes.

Summer:  Yes - for sure:  We've been putting off several minor home improvement projects. I want to repaint the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. We've got some backyard landscaping to do. I want to change the decor in the family room. Little things that have been bugging me but are hard to squeeze in during the school year craziness.

Hope: Nothing beats a road trip with good friends. I desperately need to laugh so hard my stomach hurts!

Dream:  Endless summer days filled with RELAXATION. Oh wait - I've got three kids. I would have to be dreaming to have days filled with endless relaxation. LOL!  I do savor the time spent with them in the summer months though!  

Area Review

Today we needed a quick, fun activity to review area before we begin our Smarter Balance testing tomorrow.  I chose to try the free new activity I downloaded from iTeach Third.  Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher included her Area and Perimeter Robot Math Craft.  My kids had a great time with this! I was able to differentiate by skill level by selecting different task cards for students based on individual needs. They turned out so well and it was just the right combination of creativity and math to keep students happy AND engaged in their learning. WIN/WIN!
Didn't they turn out cute?!?!

Gone, gone, gone

That's how I feel lately! My poor little blog has been so neglected! It has been the longest winter in South Dakota. I swear, one of my kids has been sick everyday since December! One gets better, the next one gets sick... then throw in conferences, inservices, test prep, EEEEEKKKKK!

Anyway - are you as thrilled as I am about the new blog called iTeach Third?!?!  I am super stoked to subscribe to a blog that is tailored to third grade teachers!  Better yet, I love that they're kicking it off with 11 freebies.  I rushed right over to download them all.  I've already printed/prepped the Color by Product for my third grade thinkers that go bonkers over using their markers. I'm sticking the Area/Perimeter Robot in this week for a little extra fun activity when we finish our Smarter Balance testing. I've also sent the Distributive Doctor out to our print shop.  Every resource that was offered was something that I can use right away. I love it when that happens!  

If you haven't found that blog yet - you're going to want to check it out! 

                                                         

And their Freebies...

                                                                

What Went Well

Another week in the books!  This week seemed to go by very quickly. It was a great week to be in third grade...
What went well...
1.  I.LOVE.THIS!  As we wrapped up our trimester testing, I found this lovely little quote on one of my whiteboards. A sweetie in my class had left this message for her classmates. I love it because lately I've spent so much time talking to my students about how important effort is in achievement.  Apparently (at least for some of them!) it's sinking in!

2.  Multiplication Wall: A hundred years ago when I taught fourth grade, I always kicked off my multiplication unit with this multiplication wall for students to show me how much they understand about multiplication. Crazy that it's now more applicable for my third graders.  Each spot on the wall is written on a little post it note. The kids draw a post it from my basket and represent that equation on a piece of paper. I can quickly see who really understands the concept of  __# of groups x __ in each group.  Added bonus - the kids wanted to do extra ones during their free time because they liked watching the wall fill up!

3.  Jr. Achievement:  I don't know if your community has this program for third graders but I tell you what - it is fantastic! We had two sessions of Jr Achievement last week with three more sessions coming up this week. My class loved it and learned so much about income/expenses/finances.  What a learning opportunity - let's start learning about that when they're young and maybe it won't be such a challenge when they're young adults!

Here's to another great week!

Traditional Literature Quick Check

We've been hard at work learning about the various types of traditional literature. My class has absolutely loved this unit and it seems like they've really "got it" (if you know what I mean!).  This morning I had an assessment sub and I thought it would be a great time to grab some functional data. I placed a basket containing five books (all forms of traditional literature) on the tables with each group. Students were asked to examine each text and determine if it was a fairy tale, fable, legend, or tall tale. Next, I asked them to record this information on a handout and list two reasons WHY they put the text in that category. This ended up being really interesting and sparked some lively discussion among the students because a few of the texts contained features of more than one type. I loved hearing the students justifying their thinking and using what they know about traditional literature! I'm attaching the handout I quickly created if anyone else would like to use it!

     Traditional Literature Review Handout

February Currently (My First Linky!)

What Went Well (a day late!)

Two out of three of my children have come down with a terrible cold. Oldest son had a basketball tournament last weekend. So needless to say - day late on the what went well.

1.  All of our language arts stations last week focused on Martin Luther King, Jr.  One activity in particular that I loved was this QR code comprehension sheet created by Giggles and Grades with Miss Gallagher.  I have a lot of QR code activities to use in my classroom but I loved that the QR code was right on top of the handout on this one - not on a separate sheet.  Genius!                                        
                                                                       
2.  The students also had this little gem in their workstation rotation last week. We have talked about timelines in both social studies and language arts (texts and writing) so my students were pretty comfortable with the timeline process. I liked the comprehension questions that accompanied the timeline. The kids really had to look back and process what they had put together on the actual timeline. I will definitely want to use this one again next year!
                                                                       
3.  Last week we created array cards to go with our multiplication facts from 1-12.  Admittedly, I went into this activity expecting it to be a major pain. The cards are small, only printed on copy paper, and there seems like a ga-jillion of them when the students are cutting them out. I expected this to be a major headache for me and the kids. Surprisingly - not so! The kids did great with maintaining a functional level of organization and it only took 2 (or for some 2.5 - let's be real) math classes.  While kids were cutting/writing, I overhead kids already noticing related problems that could help them when solving more challenging equations.  Lesson learned on the teacher end of things - sometimes I need to nix my skepticism and give it a go!

What Went Well This Week

This past week was a short week for us. We had an inservice day on Friday so we only spent four days with students. Although that never seems to stop me from trying to squeeze in five days worth of "stuff" to accomplish ;)

What went well this week...well, to be perfectly honest - I kind of had an "off" week. I don't know if it's because I knew we only had four days, I'm ridiculously tired of the cold weather, or maybe the reality that it's a long time until May just hit me. But, for whatever reason, this week was just OK and I feel like it was more my problem than my class. On a more positive note:

1.  One of my former high school helpers came by on Tuesday to do her senior project with my class. She has been researching the effects of art therapy on depression and she had a cool activity for my students to do as her culminating project activity. It went well for her and was interesting for me to see some of the results of the students' work.
2.  I also took my class to a middle school play. Our middle school drama club put on their first play in fifteen years. It was a fractured fairy tale so it tied right in to our traditional literature unit of study. My class loved it!
3.  We've been working on adjectives since returning from Christmas break. On Thursday, my kids used Wordle to create a design with adjectives about themselves. I was impressed with some of the adjectives they came up with! We printed them and I'm going to add them to the students' art silhouettes. 
4.  During the Inservice Day, my classroom FINALLY got a water fountain! This.is.big.news! Highlight of the week-type news. My class is going to be thrilled when they see it tomorrow. As for me, water fountains actually gross me out (am I the only one with this affliction????) In case you're wondering - our building is relatively new and apparently water fountains in the hallway are old school. All of the classrooms were equipped with sinks that had fountains on them except my room. My room was designed to be an art and science room and the sinks were made to be more industrial-type. All year, my class has complained about the lack of a water fountain. I got each student their own water bottle, but the bottles seem to get forgotten at home, etc. Anyway - big news about the water fountain. It's the little things :)

On to a better week!

What Went Well This Week

Whew - we made it through the first week back after Christmas break! I have to say this class actually really surprised me with how well they got back into the third grade groove.  I was expecting a few glitches or behaviors when we returned from Christmas break. It was so nice to hop back into learning and start some new stuff.  Anyway... what went well:

1.  We started our fifth unit in Math Investigations. It's the first time I've taught this multiplication unit. I have to say, the approach is different than I've used before. I was a little apprehensive about this one because multiplication and division are kind of big deals in third grade ;)  So far, so good. My kids are excited about it. I've been able to have students model a variety of strategies. And so far (knock on wood), the bulk of the class seems to be "getting it". 

2.  In Reading (whole group), we began a fantastic traditional literature unit put together by Ashleigh from Ashleigh's Education Journey. Oh my gosh - everything that girl puts together is FANTASTIC! This is the one we're using and my kids are LOVING it.  We had indoor recess one day this week and the kids really just wanted to keep discussing our fairy tales. WHAT?!?!  That never happens!

                                                    

3.  To go along with our fairy tale discussion, we also used fairy tales as a kick off to our opinion writing unit. After reading several versions of The Three Little Pigs, I asked the kids to decide if they thought the wolf was big and bad or just a sweet, misunderstood fella.  I let them split into groups to organize their thinking. Then, we spent a writing session having a debate. Yes, I'm aware that an oral debate is not writing, but for many of my students it was very helpful to hear those ideas and opinions out loud before I asked them to jump into the writing process. On Friday, they spent the writing period jotting down ideas they had heard in the debate that supported their opinions. Next week, they are going to take that thinking and work through the opinion writing process on their own.  I can't wait to see what they come up with! I'm thinking that I'm going to have to come up with some craftivity to help them display their published work.

4.  Finally - fun Friday. Sticking with the three little pigs theme (remember I used to be a kindergarten teacher - I love thematic teaching :)  I gave the students random supplies (pipe cleaners, shoe box lids, string, construction paper, tape) and thirty minutes. They had to design a house for the three little pigs that could withstand the big bad wolf (aka me with my high powered blow dryer!). After the thirty minutes, we sat in a circle on the carpet, I chanted the official big bad wolf chant (little pig, little pig, let me come in). I'm sure you can guess what the kids responded with. Then, we huffed and puffed (or turned on the blowdryer) and tested them out one at at time. The kids had a blast. Some kids choose to work with a group and it was a great opportunity for them to practice compromising on ideas and problem solving together. 

                                                 

                                                   

Ummm.. yeah. I sort of forgot that I was going to take pictures and got a little

caught up in the moment so this is my only lonely photo. This cute little house

blew over right away (not enough weight) but it was a good learning experience

for this group of girls.

All in all, it was a great week! I'm feeling good about heading back tomorrow. I'm going to try to post each weekend about "what went well" in my classroom each week. I think sometimes as teachers, it's easy to feel like we don't do enough or we don't do things well enough. I'm hoping this will remind me that even if things don't go exactly as planned, some things still go well and deserve some positive reflection. 

My New Read

Has anyone read this new and improved version of The Daily Five yet?  As a big fan of the first edition, I was intrigued by what could be "improved" from the first book. I have to admit, over the years I've always put my own spin on the sisters' framework but I do believe this management program (if correctly implemented) can produce a high level of independent learning with students of all ages.  As I dug into this book, I can't really say I had any "shut the front door, this is blowing my mind!" moments. The sisters reviewed material covered in the first edition and CAFE books and expanded a bit on some of the timing of early lessons/launching schedule. The big new thing is the addition of Math into the rotations. I'm wondering what that would look like in my classroom?!?!? I currently have my literacy and math blocks completely broken apart.  Could I somehow take some of the workshop activities from Investigations (our district mandated curriculum) and add them back to my Daily Five workstations? Hmmm...sounds simple enough in a blog post but may present a time challenge in real life.  

My current schedule looks something like this:    

8:05	Arrival / Brain Warm Up (Lexia for intervention students)
8:25	Morning Meeting
8:35	Language Arts Whole Group Mini-lesson followed by Independent Reading
9:20	Specials (PE, Music, Counselor, Library, Computers)
9:50	Language
10:20	Workstations (My version of the Daily 5)
11:00	Math Investigations
12:15	Lunch
12:45	Read aloud
1:00	Writing
1:45	Recess
2:00	Science/Social Studies

                                                                            

Could I try something like this?

8:05	Arrival / Brain Warm Up (Lexia for intervention students)
8:25	Morning Meeting
8:35	Language Arts Whole Group Mini-lesson followed by Independent Reading (has to stay at this time for Special Services)
9:20	Specials (PE, Music, Counselor, Library, Computers)
9:50	Language
10:20	Writing
11:00	Math Investigations (Has to stay at this time for Title services)
12:15	Lunch
12:45	Workstations
1:45	Recess
2:00	Science/Social Studies (Has to stay at this time for rotations)

I'm off to play around with this schedule a bit more (and try to find instructions for adding some of my cute fonts into Blogger!)