Wonders Anyone????

Well, we've been in school for 3 weeks now, and I do have to say that this year has been going wonderfully!! I am so greatful for a good class that tries so hard ;)

These past few weeks have been so busy, I have not had time or even thought about taking pictures of what we have been doing. I could tell you all about it, but I won't bore you with the details without the pictures :)

Thursday night was our first time to have "Teacher Talks" instead of a traditional Open House. It gave us a chance to talk to the parents about expectations and issues in the classroom. Also, parents were able to voice their opinions and ask questions. I loved it! I hope that the parents enjoyed it too. I think that this should be an annual thing.

I was thinking that the parents would ask questions about our new reading program McGraw-Hill's Wonders, but I was wrong. There is SO MUCH stuff to teach whole group, I have YET to get to small groups!! Another team member and I were talking after school about how we could use our RTI time for reading stations and leveled readers. Then if we go to a 6 day reading rotation, it would give us time to pull small groups to discuss their leveled reader.

Any of you use Wonders???? How do you all make it work with whole group and small group in your reading block?? I have 90 minutes, but it isn't enough most days....

The program is big on showing evidence. I think that I am going to "steal" an idea from a team member and make a "show your evidence" bulletin board as an aid. Once I get it together I will post pictures to show y'all.

First week is over!

We have been in school for a week now, and my class is wonderful!! They are so sweet. My boys are ALL boy, but that's okay with me...I can handle that.

Over the week we have been doing various activities to get to know one another. Here are a few things that we did.....

We designed T-shirts to represent our interests.

We completed a graphic organizer to tell about ourselves.

We wrote numbers that told something about ourselves then drew pictures. It was so cute watching them explain their numbers to the class.

(Confession: This picture is from another 3rd grade room, I let my kiddos take their home, ha ha)

They had a chance to answer some questions about school. After those questions, they were able to ask me any two questions. Well, that was interesting. One of my favorites was asking me if I knew how to sing the "Star Spangled Banner". They tried to get me to sing it.

On Thursday, I decided to have my students participate in a team building activity with spaghetti noodles and marshmallows. Thank you Pinterest for this great idea! The goal was to build the biggest tower as a group. In order to create a tall structure, they had to work as a team. It really should me who is a team player and who wasn't. They had a blast! They learned that working with as a team is very important to get things done. Lets just say there were groups that worked more as a team cleaning up than building their tower.

 

 

Charlotte's Web

 

Wow, it's been difficult getting my "goods" together after this Christmas/New Year break!! The kiddos and I have been reading Charlotte's Web for our reading unit. It's so wonderful to FINALLY see my students engaged in reading since my 3rd grade team decided to dump Scott Foresman's Reading Street. No longer do I see my students with their heads on the desks or trying to find ANY excuse to stop reading. They actually are excited about what we are going to do in reading and what is going to happen next in our books! I know there might be some of you that actually like Reading Street, but it was a dream come true for me when my team put the junk on the shelf!!

We are working on Charlotte's Web for 3 weeks. During this time, cause/effect and characterization have been the main focus..

 

 

 Before diving into the book, I spent one whole day building their background knowledge. This included looking at how people lived during the time the book was written, thinking about our knowledge of farms, and making connections to other E.B. White novels

Once Charlotte was introduced in the book, we took a look at "fact and opinion" which included finding the facts about spiders. We created a KWL chart about spiders, filling in K and W before reading for the day and filling in L after we read our chapters. They picked up so much information!! It was easy for the them to see the facts and opinions. It's a teacher's dream come true!!

 

There was another day that we looked at the different ways E. B. White described the farm with senosry words or phrases. We also looked at the characteristics of the main characters.

Fridays are when we have FUNcational text Friday and to allow the kids to have fun. This Friday will be making pigs in a blanket day with a recipe. Fun, Fun, Fun ;) Also, this has been a great way to demonstrate how to write a research paper using animals. All of the kiddos have picked out a book from the library and will be on a writing adventure this week and next. Can't wait!!

when making this unit, I used many things from the Teacher Created Resources unit book and a WONDERFUL site that has TONS of units perfect for 3rd grade!! Click here to visit it ;)
We're not done with the book yet, but I can't wait to see what will come out of it when we're finished!!

Journaling Expectations and Newsletters

It's the middle of my summer and I have to tell ya, that I am READY to go back to work!! To most people that have lives, it sounds crazy. But I am one of those people that doesn't have a life and gets bored after a few days of vacation. I have been trying to do some recreational reading; however, it doesn't sooth the thoughts of all the things that I have to do before school starts. Even though I have a huge list of things still yet to do, it doesn't replace my desire to go back to work to teach some kiddos.

I figured that I would share with you some of the things that I worked on yesterday. I am a journalling freak! My kids need to have a journal for everything. Last year, we talked about our expectations for each on, but it they didn't always abide by those. Therefore, I came up with a new plan to glue the expectations inside their journals. Maybe this will help them remember what kind of work they are supposed to do.

(The pictures will take you to the files)

Morning Journal Expectations

Each morning we have RTI time and the kiddos are working at stations (mainly reading stations)

Writing Journals Expectations

My kiddos use a journal to go through the stages of writing until they get to their final drafts. They write their final drafts on pieces of loose leaf paper.

 Reading Journal Expectations

During our reading block the kids go stations so I can pull small groups

Math Journal Expectations

 During our math block the kiddos have math workshop time

Last year I put all of the newsletters on the class blog, but I don't think as many parents visited the blog to get the newsletter as I had hoped. To try to keep that from happening again, I created an introduction newsletter that shows the parents what to expect on the newsletter and where they can find it. Also, I tried to make it clear that they can request a hard copy since I know not all homes have internet. 

If you want the DOC file, just leave your email address. Otherwise, the picture is to a PDF.

My list continues to get smaller, but it still a long one. I have other things that I will share latter, but I figured this could be a start. I really need to slow down my pace since we don't go back until middle of August. 

End of the Year Mementos

This year has flown by! It's hard to believe that in just a few days I will be saying my good-byes to my students. We turned in our textbooks today, I will be posting my grades tomorrow morning, and field day and class parties are on Friday--it's officially over. I have been trying to think of some things that I could do with my students that they could take home with them that would hold some memories down the road. From the help of my co-workers, I was able to come up with 2 ideas that we big hits!!

Idea #1--Write letters for the next school year. I had my students write letters to themselves about things that might want to know or be reminded of on the first day of school when going into the 4th grade. These students really blew my away with some of the things they came up with. We put the letters into envelopes and decorated them. They will be able to open them the first of the following school year.

Idea #2--An alphabet memory book. My students are in the middle of creating an alphabet book that contains information that we have learned correlating with the letter it begins with (A=addition, c=clouds).

Gearing Up Next Year

Since it's almost the end of the year, I have been trying to get myself thinking about how I should prepare for next year. So many things have been floating through my mind that a list is going to made soon before I forget half of my ideas or ambitions. 

One of things that I really want to do is do a better job reaching my students. There has been a huge culture shift at my school that seems to have happened overnight. One thing my school did as a whole is read Ruby Payne's Understanding Poverty to help us understand our children's culture a little better; however, I was not in that particular book study (I lead a different one). So I decided that I would get some books for me to read over the summer to help me make some plans while I have a break from graduate classes. Here are the books that I ordered (maybe you all can tell how well you liked them and how they helped you):

 

                   Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What   Schools Can Do about It

                                                            Eric Jensen

A Mind Shaped by Poverty: Ten Things Educators Should Know

     Regenia Rawlinson

Why Culture Counts: Teaching Children of Poverty

Donna Walker Tileston, Sandra K Darling