Comparing Water and Land on the Earth

Today we started our unit for Common Core Standard RI.3.3 - Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

I decided to create a unit that revolved around Earth Day since that is coming up soon.

We started with a scientific and mathematical exploration of how much land and water there is on the Earth.  To simulate this, I threw an inflatable globe for the students to catch.  They had to tell me where their thumbs landed, on the land or on water.

A student then kept a tally of the results on our new Smart Board.  (YES! I am super exicted - we just got it two weeks ago, so I no longer have Smart Board envy!).

After a few rounds, I had them make predictions about how many times it would land on each if we threw it 100 times. I needed to remind a few that their totals needed to equal 100 - a fun little mini-math lesson! We continued on and finished with the results below:

I let them look at the globe and answer how close their predictions were, and why they thought we came up with the results that we did. 

Here were some responses:

I Wanna Iguana - Lessons in Opinion, Persuasion, and Point of View

We have been working on Common Core Standard 3.RL.6 - Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.  While we are doing this, we are also working on writing opinion and persuasive writing pieces.  Last week we read I Wanna Iguana.

As we read the story we talked about the two characters in the story and their points of view.  Alex, the little boy, is trying to convince his mom to let him keep his friend's iguana, while mom is not sure that he is up to the responsibility of a new pet.

Afterwards I asked the students to pick a side.  Should Alex's mother let him get an iguana?

Here are a few of their responses:

We already had experience writing persuasive letters asking for a class pet, but I really wanted them to focus on using details from the text.  

Have you been working on point of view?  What resources are you using?
  

April Currently

Is it really April already??? This year is just flying!  In honor of April, I am linking up with Farley's Currently. Aren't they so adorable?  She really does an amazing job with them.

 

II love getting a glimpse into everyone else's life too!  Head on over to link up!

Conference Ideas And Resources

We had our last conferences for the school year last week, but I am just getting around to posting about them.  Is it just me or is that week before Spring Break the LOOOONGEST week ever???  Today was our last day before break and boy do we all need a break right now!

Anyway... I just wanted to share a few things that I do during conferences.  If possible, I have the student run the conference.  I have them complete the sheets below which I found from Lesson Plan SOS.  This really helps them guide what they tell their parents and I have found the students to be VERY honest.  Their reflections usually match their grades closely, and light bulbs seem to go off in many of their heads about their work habits.

They are often tougher on themselves then I would be, but that is often a great teaching point in itself!

 

 

 



This conference I also asked them to write a short note to their parents telling them one thing that they are proud of this quarter and one thing that they are still working on.  It worked great for the conference but also as a mini-assessment.

 

 

I also found these forms from Ms. York's class that I think I might use next year.  I will use the ones above for the beginning of the year conference, and then the ones below for the end of year. 

Do you have your students write self-reflections for conferences?  Do you have any other tips for having successful conferences?

Book Review and Freebies!

On Monday through Thursday my class has specials right after our first recess.  Hands down their favorite special is "Mr. Shea".  Mr. Shea is the counselor at our school and he comes in once a week to work with the kiddos on a variety of topics from team building, self-esteem, and character education. 

But... they were really excited to learn that Mr. Shea was an author!  His first book The Adventures of Bob: To Doodledip For Soup was just published this month.  Our whole school got a sneak preview a few months ago during a special assembly.

The basic premise of the book is that a man named Bob is whisked away to a faraway planet where he is invited by the King to enjoy some soup.  But... Bob doesn't want to eat the soup. His punishment for not eating the soup? He is forced to take home a fat, purple, servant cat named Bongo who doesn't listen to anyone!  He should have eaten the soup!

Mr. Shea has also created his own TPT store where he has several free activities to accompany the book.

Since the assembly, Mr. Shea and Bongo (one of the main characters of the book) have been busy making cute little videos available on YouTube.  The one below is my son, Luke's favorite.




You can purchase a copy of the book at the link above or at Amazon here.

Learning About Point of View and The Powers of Persuasion Plus A Giveaway

We have been working on a unit of persuasion, point of view, and opinion. I found this idea for Point of View using Dear Mrs. LaRue Letters From Obedience School on Teaching With Style. We worked together to complete the chart below similar to what she had on her site.

 

 



Then I divided the students into groups and gave each group a copy of the pictures from the book.  They each wrote their own charts with "the truth" and Ike's Point of View.  They did a great job!

 We have been working on persuasion for the past two days, and I will be sharing some of their work soon!  They used their persuasive abilities to convince me to try on the birthday hat last week for my birthday.  Ever since I began teaching I have forced convinced my students to wear the hat on their birthday (even my middle schoolers!) On my birthday my hubby stopped by with cupcakes for my class and they persuaded me to wear the hat.  Hubs HAD to snap a picture. (Am I the only one who hates having my picture taken???)

Speaking of persuasion, hopefully I can persuade you to check out one of my favorite blogs!

One of my favorite parts of blogging is the camaraderie that exists among teacher bloggers.  I love sharing ideas and resources!  I especially love helping other bloggers celebrate their success by donating to their follower giveaways!  I am excited to help Nikki over at Sent From My iPad celebrate her milestone 100 follower giveaway.  I am giving away an item of the winners' choice from my TPT store, but there are also some other fabulous prizes including an iTunes card and a Wal-Mart card!  Besides the great contest, Nikki always has AMAZING technology resources and ideas, so you will want to follow her anyway :)

Learning About Point of View

Have you ever had one of those impromptu lessons that really ends up working better than what you had originally planned? That happened to me this week when we started our unit on point of view and opinion.  I had originally planned to introduce the topic using Dear Mrs. LaRue, but I accidently left my copy of the book sitting on my counter at home!  Panic mode hit, and I began scouring books throughout my classroom.  Somehow I stumbled upon the book No David - and inspiration hit!





We worked together to complete this last minute thrown together chart focusing on David's point of view and his mother's point of view.

It worked amazingly as an introductory lesson, because there are very few words in the book, and we were able to complete the chart.  I loved the ideas that the kiddos came up with for both sides.  We completed the chart above together then I had the students complete their own chart for the part where David is playing baseball in the house.  Here are a few examples of their work:

A few of them had a hard time with writing in the first person, and what they were thinking, but we were able to talk about it and their revisions showed they understood.

What ways do you teach about point of view? Have you ever had to resort to a new plan?

Hands on Standards - The BEST Way to Teach Math Giveaway

If you have ever worked at more than one school, you know what it is like to leave a must have teaching resource behind because it was purchased by the school.  That is exactly what happened to me.  My previous school had ordered ETA's Hands-on standards books for 7th and 8th grade math as well as algebra.  Well, let me tell you that book became practically my Bible for hands on math lessons.  I learned math in the dark ages - many years ago, when lecturing at students and forcing them to memorize the formulas was the norm in math instruction. Needless to say, I had no idea how to use the manipulatives that we had available at our school.  Once I got my hands on this book, I became a hands on enthusiast and dare I say expert?

Enter this year, I have moved down to third grade and no longer had my book to rely on.  I managed to fumble along ok so far, but, then the math Gods intervened, and I was contacted by ETA to review a product.  They even let me choose!  YES!  I knew exactly what I wanted - the 3rd grade edition of my coveted book! 

My husband's ear drums were not prepared for the squeals of excitement when the book arrived in the mail.  And he was not the only one subjected to who got to share in my happy news. I brought the book into our weekly PLC and shared with my team.  We were fortunate enough to have some extra money in our budget, so we ordered a few more of the books plus a few more manipulatives to be able to implement the amazing ideas.

One thing that I love is that there are pictures!  I am a visual learner, and if I don't see the manipulatives in action, I sometimes don't get it.  This book tells you what to say, what questions to ask, how to let the students explore, how to assess.  Everything for each and every math standard.  I could even leave this for a sub and wouldn't have to worry that they couldn't teach the math the way that I want it to be taught.  YEAH! No more boring review worksheets!

You can check out sample pages for the third grade book here.

And now, the best news - I get to giveaway one of these books to one of my lucky readers!  Woo Hoo!  Trust me - you NEED this book!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was extremely honored to be named one of the top 50 Elementary Teachers on Twitter!  I couldn't believe I was in the top 5!  Twitter has been my go to source for so many things - it is like my in home PLN.  I have learned so much and gotten so many great resources and ideas from the people I follow on Twitter.

Are you on Twitter?  Who are some of your must follow people?  I love to build my Twitter network, so if you are on Twitter follow me @kellys3ps and I will follow you back!

It's Science Fair Time!

Our school science fair is coming up in a little more than a week, and my kiddos have been working hard to get ready.  We have been conducting research about science projects that are similar to the ones the students are doing in order to make hypothesis and design changes.  This week we will work on rough drafts of our reports.

Here are some pictures from one of the projects: What is the effect of pollution on plants?  Unfortunately, the plants haven't grown at all - but a mold started to grow on all of the plant cases except for the one where we added vinegar.  Unintended discoveries- isn't that the beauty of science?

We have been using my Let's Enter The Science Fair graphic organizers to guide our research and writing.

You can get them at Teachers Pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook.

Third Grade Common Core

I had been super jealous hearing about and reading about the first and second grade common core state standards workbooks that were available.  But, luckily for me and third grade teachers everywhere, I no longer have to have common core envy because the third grade book is finally available!  YEAH! 
The book features over 840 pages full of worksheets, activities, centers, and posters with just about everything you need to teach both Math and English aligned to the Third Grade Common Core Standards.

The activities are all full color, ready to print, laminate and use.  Perfect for the busy teacher, because really we could all use anything that saves us time

You can download a small (81 pages!!!) sample to see if it will work for you in your classroom.  The book retails for $39.99 for a single use, but their are additional pricing options as well.

Multiplication Musical Chairs

I have a very energetic class this year, so anytime I can think of a way to get them up and moving while we are learning they love it! This week we played multiplication musical chairs and it was a big hit!

First, I had them each bring their chair to line up to play musical chairs.  Nobody was left out the first round.

Then I gave them each a marker and an index card and asked them to write down a multiplication problem that they could solve themselves, but they thought might be tricky for other students. 

Then I went around to each student and asked them to show me their card and tell me the answer.

Then it was time to play!  I had the students stand up and put their problem on their chair.  Then I played music while they went around the chairs just like musical chairs. When I stopped the music they had to sit in the closest chair to them.  Since I didn't take any chair out, every student found a seat.  Then I went around and asked them to solve the problems on the chair they were at.  If they missed the question they were out and removed their chair and handed me the problem.  Play continued and I swapped out cards occasionally to make it more challenging.  I gave prizes to the top three winners.  A super fun way to practice our multiplication facts!

This game could be easily adapted to review anything from math facts, to vocabulary, to history.  What ideas do you have for it?

Presidential Research Reports

This week we have been hard at work on our Presidential Research Reports.  For this unit our third graders are working on an all school write project of a research paper.  Because Presidents' Day is coming up, I decided to have my kiddos research a president of their choice. 

 They have really loved working on this, and yesterday was one of those great days when all of the students were happily engaged learning about research techniques.  

For most of our morning I really didn't have to do much of anything except help guide some internet searches, "Try looking up quotes by _____ (insert President name) for your quote." and listen to the interesting facts they found, "Mrs. Malloy did you know Barack Obama was born on the same day as me?"  "Mrs. Malloy, did you know that Abraham Lincoln was born in the same state that I was?"

The students used both books and the internet to guide their searches.  One of the students found a list of all the presidents and their pictures in the back of our dictionaries.

The only problem with that is when they tried to find out what number President Obama was they decided that our dictionaries were a little old.  Or rather a lot old!  I think these were the dictionaries I used as a third grader!

Definitely time to upgrade some of our resources! 

This week we will be completing our research using graphic organizers I have included in this Presidential Research reports resource.  

Next week we will write the actual essays.

You can find my Presidential Research Reports Product on Teachers pay Teachers.

What are you doing to celebrate Presidents' Day?

Testing Craziness

My poor kiddos have been subject to a crazy amount of tests in the past two weeks.  Last week we had MAPS testing as well as our common assessment pre-tests.  Our district has common assessments that we use before and after teaching a unit.  Our upcoming unit is on fractions. 

I don't know about you, but sometimes I get the craziest of answers from my kiddos!  Here are a few of the highlights:

I have no idea where this student got the idea of ice cream from the given question, but she sure knows how to write her own problem when she doesn't know the answer!

Food was a common theme - as they all wanted to add food to the number line problem.  This student was into pizza.

This kiddo decided, when in doubt, just copy the question - that has to be worth at least 1/2 a point right? LOL!

At least I figured out where the pizza came from!

I am usually really good at figuring out what to do with student errors and misconceptions, but in this case I am almost at a loss.  I know this is just a pre-test, but almost all of my students didn't even read the problem (or couldn't understand what it was asking).

Any suggestions for reading test questions and following directions?