Geometric and Numeric Patterns

I know...I know...I am breaking the rules by making two posts in one day, and making them so close together. However, I didn't want to put too much stuff in one post and make everyone confused. These past couple of weeks, we have been studying geometric and numeric patterns. This has been interesting because the way in which I have taught geometric patterns this year is different since our state standards have changed. I wanted to give my kids an assessment on our patterns without making them sit down with a worksheet, so I came up with this neat little trifold chart. I put 3 problems on index cards, taped them in the three sections, and let them go to town. They did such a great job of supporting one anther and I was able to see where we still need some help.

Me on the Map

Trying to get my kids to understand that Alabama is NOT a county has been like pulling eye teeth, so I decided to do my own version of "Me on the Map". Since I don't have the book, there was a lot of making things up as I went along. However, I would like to give a big shout out to Google Earth for helping me make everything more visual. With each step, we would type in our "destination" and Google Earth would zoom in. This really helped everyone go from big picture down to little picture. By the end of the mini unit, everyone is now able to tell me that we live in the STATE of Alabama which is part of the COUNTRY United States of America. 

While trying to get this completed, I undertook a giant task for one of my graduate classes...I brought it to work with me. Since one of our schools was damaged from storms recently, my class project was to organize a supply drive. Well my school went through something similar last year so my school did extra well collecting--this made me very stressed trying to get everything loaded to take to my contact person. Here are pictures just from MY grade level (I had 5 other grade levels to load too). The kids had so much fun bringing in the stuff and really wished the children in the other area well; it melted my heart.

Magnetic Numbers and The Hundred Dresses

I know that I have been absent for a little while, but things have been crazy around here! All of us third grade teachers are trying to get ourselves ready for hard core interventions before state testing. We have such a long way to go in such a short time.

In order to get all of my kids split into the groups that they needed to be in for math, I gave them a super quick assessment that I could check in 2 seconds. Then I was able to divide them into groups based on their needs and assign them to a teacher for interventions. The students that are not assigned a specific group are left for practice stations. I used my magnetic numbers that I made on my white board to keep track of which group they're in. The same thing was done for reading.

I LOVE my magnetic numbers for groups!!!! My kids are able to just take a quick look at the board and know where they're supposed to be without me having to repeat myself. It's like magic. First I bought a set then I got smart by making my own. Why didn't I do that in the first place??? Ha ha ha.

With all the testing murmurs going through the air, I wanted to get started reading another book. I decided to read The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. I have to read books that have wonderful lessons, and this one really fits the bill. Never have read this book before, I didn't know what to expect for the kids. But they really are thinking through the characters' actions. I am hoping that they will see the whole message of the book. They are not always to taught how to treat other people that are different from themselves; therefore, I wanting these past and future book discussions to really stick! Fingers are crossed.

Spelling Fractions--FREEBIE!

We have been working on fractions this week. Fun, fun, fun! So, I was thinking about how I could get my kids to work with their spelling words in conjunction with something else. Well, I found it! Spelling Fractions. They had to write the a fraction for the number of vowels and the number consonants in each of their spelling words. They even get to color code their words, and nothing is more fun than getting to color during the school day ;) It took a lot of thinking. They even had to use their functional text skills on this one!

Click here to download: Spelling Fractions

Now, since I am not about to spent ten years to make boxes to around the letters on the computer, I just drew them after I printed the page. It took less than on minute.

Volcano Projects

Going to grad school doesn't make it easy to post on a regular basis, let me tell you. I am so excited that we finally finished our volcano projects! Our reading story was all about volcanoes, so why not learn as much as we can about volcanoes??

We started out with doing a K-W-L chart before ever reading our reading story and starting our research. Then the races were off! I split the students into groups, giving them all different resources to use to find as much information as possible. They were to write all their important information in their discovery journals. This took about 3 days since we do not get a lot of time for science/social studies.

They had so much fun doing their research! It was hard to make them stop. Since we did not have enough books for everyone, we rotated the groups. This insured that everyone got a change with all the resources. 

After the research was complete, the students were busy little bees constructing their posters. They needed to include a pictures of volcanoes and the information that they found. Here a couple finished products...

I knew it was then time to finish our K-W-L chart. We were going to complete a science experiment to go with our research, but it has been too rainy for the past week. May be another time.

This coming week we are starting fractions!!! I'm pretty excited about this too, because we are going to be playing some great games and learn how to cross multiply. Fun, fun, fun!!!

First Steps to Division

We have been working so hard on our multiplication, now it's time to move onto division. A few years ago, my co-workers found this book that allowed the kids to divide cookies along with the characters.

You always have 12 cookies, but as more and more friends come over, everyone must figure out how to divide the cookies among everyone.

After each "problem", we discussed how figured out we know how many cookies to give each person--equal groups, multiplication. Then we made those into division problems.

We related what we were doing to division problems on our assignment.

I'm so excited  that we started our volcano projects this week! They are going great. When they are all said and done, I will post pictures and what we did to complete them with our experiments. I'm hoping that it will end with my kids being able to make a post on our class blog, which we have not done in a while. Here is the link if you want to check it out!

thirdgradeadventures.blog.com

Miraculous Journeys of Read Alouds

My day usually starts with a cup of coffee and some great breakfast in the wee hours in the morning--getting to school around 5:20 AM. There is just no way that I could get my "goods" together without getting to school at the butt crack of dawn. It's amazing the things that one is able to get done when no one else is in the building! Grading, emailing, planning, cleaning, etc got done this morning.

Being a Christian in the teaching world isn't the easiest thing simply because the field tries to demand that you never talk about God. I've got news for them--I do anyway! Finding ways to tell the gospel story is a great pleasure of mine, and I just pray that the kids pick up on it. Living in the "Bible Belt" makes it easier since most if not all the kids go to church. Therefore, when choosing read-alouds, I have my absolute favorites that are not only wonderful pieces of literature, but they spread the gospel (take that Washington!!) in a variety of ways.

This time around, I am reading The Miraculous Journery of Edward Tulane. This book teaches the kids so many life lessons with the strongest theme being the power of love of selfishness. The rabbit, Edward, is a great representation of Christ and how he "plays in ten thousand places" (there is a book by Eugene Peterson with this title that is WONDERFUL) in order to identify with "humanity". While reading the book, my heart and spirit just swells thinking about all these amazing themes and with the hope that my students are able to pick up on these in some regard. This is part of my prayers for my students. I do believe that my kids are starting to get it with the evident of their writing. Now if they will turn about and put their learning into action, I would be so excited! One step at a time, ha ha ha.

This is what I did: There is a critical part of the story (don't worry I am not going to give it away just in case you want to read it) that gives you a different view of Edward. I asked the students if they had begun to have sympathy for Edward. Of course they had to explain with details. I was pretty impressed with their answers. I figured I would get a lot of "no"s. However, I got a lot of "yes"s. They explained to me how his character had changed, how people deserve to feel safe, everyone needs a chance to become someone special. They really put a lot of themselves into this and showed how they would treat Edward. It made me feel as if these kids were really learning something important about character.

Story of the week: I know that I have already included one, but this one was just too good in my opinion to not include. I have a noise detector that looks like a traffic light and will sound off if it flashes read. Well, one of my students asked me if the police will come if it goes off. I said that I was like the police that regard. Another one of my students comes up to me and asks me if I have a secret lab under my classroom! Ha ha ha! I said..."why...yes, I do." Oh, there are so many things that I could tell my students about the "secret lab"...hhhhmmmm....how devious am I feeling...

Anywho....The same student asked when we were going to have the rolling computer lab so they could post on the class blog. I told them that it would be a while, but I had a plan. The child proceeds to ask me if I was going to have a "sneak attack"! I mean, what in the world?!?! I just sat there laughing. What else could I do??