Here are my Reading Signs Like most teachers, I love to add brightness and motivation to my classroom, but I am on a budget! I can't go out and buy all new things to liven the place up. When I was was going to college, I had a teacher that told me it was important to put "good" things on the walls of my classroom for those students who might be zoning out. While I would prefer to think that my students will be completely engaged in every thing I … [Read more...]
Freebie!!! Classroom Behavior Plan That Works: Baseballs and a Clip Chart
Here's a freebie you can use for your class!!! Another thing that I am refreshing/updating in my classroom is my behavior system. When I first started teaching I went through many different behavior systems until I finally found something that worked best for me. My first year of teaching third grade showed me that students really need boundaries and they need clear expectations with follow through. I knew that I wanted to have a clipchart in the … [Read more...]
Multiplication “Multiples” Clip Cards
It has been a bittersweet summer this year. I am cherishing every minute with my daughter and I am working hard to get back into "teacher" mode. Summer is my favorite time of the year and I am looking forward to my family's yearly trip to the Outer Banks in NC...but that week borders on the start of the school year. One thing that I am doing to get ready for the school year is cleaning out and organizing my math centers and games. This … [Read more...]
Interactive Reading Journals/Notebooks: Starting The Year Off Right
A few years ago before the school year started, I stood in my classroom with two huge piles of notebooks. I knew there had to be a way to practice our reading standards and skills while creating a reference tool for my third graders. I had always used a writer's notebook, and I really liked the way I could teach mini lessons and my students could reference the information if they needed to. I looked around online and learned about the concept … [Read more...]
Say What?! Persuasive Paragraph Writing
In our classroom we have been working on writing persuasive paragraphs. This is the first year that third grade is working on persuasive writing so I had to think of some engaging activities to get my class motivated! This is an activity we did that used sentence starters to try to persuade our families to let us get a puppy, a cell phone or let us stay up later. Once students wrote their rough drafts using a graphic organizer, they edited … [Read more...]
Author Study: Eve Bunting
In third grade we are in the middle of our first author study. We chose the beloved Eve Bunting! In our reading anthology we read, "A Days Work" which is a wonderful story with a great message about telling the truth. Eve Bunting always tackles the tough issues, and she is a great author to use to teach about theme and the message in … [Read more...]
