Teaching Non-Fiction - Freebies!

This week we begin our unit on non-fiction.

One of the resources I will be using are these 3rd Grade Reading Comprehension Worksheets from K12.com.  The site also features free reading comprehension worksheets for other grades as well.  I will be printing out worksheets from the other grade levels to help differentiate for my kiddos.  I have a few kiddos reading at a first grade level, and a few reading at a 5th grade level, so I love that I can do this.

The site features 36 free printable passages (you could use one a week or pick a few to focus on during a non-fiction unit like I am).  The passages include a a cross-curricular focus on earth science, physical science, history, social sciences, mathematics and life sciences. This allows students to build their reading comprehension skills and reinforce knowledge in other subject areas.

Hope you find them as useful as I did!

November Currently

Well, I missed a few months, but decided to get it in gear for this month with Farley's Currently!

Sending Home Good News

       The other day I handed a free lunch notification letter to one of my students (they come in envelopes for the student's privacy). 
      
       She asked, "What is this? Is it bad?"

      I know that as teachers sometimes we get so bogged down with all of the other things that we do, that the only communication that goes home is negative.  I hated thinking that my kiddos think that whenever a note goes home to their parents it means that they did something wrong.

      So... I started sending home notes that celebrate their successes!  I started with just  a few students this week who had STAR tested (Accelerated Reader) or had 100% on Accelerated Math.  I added a few personal notes to make it even more personal and special.

What ways do you share good news with your parents?

Ways To Show Multiplication Lesson

I had planned this amazing lesson based on this Pinterest Idea  I had seen awhile ago. Instead of marshmallows, I planned on using Fruit Loops.


Well... my third graders had completely different ideas and hijaked my lesson.  And while their ideas were not as "pretty" as the Pinterest pin - they really involved mathematical thinking on their parts.

Counting his fruit loops in his array. (Love the use of our laundry basket a.k.a. lunch basket for a work surface!)

Hard at work - they decided to draw Jenga multiplication tiles to pick out their math facts.

Close to what I had in mind -multiple ways of showing his thinking!

I love how these kiddos decided to use the Fruit Loops to make the sixes!

I love their word problem!  63 goats!  Future textbook writers for sure!  (Love the improvisation when they ran out of fruit loops.)

And one of my favorites - explaining his thinking in his Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book (this kid carries it EVERWHERE!).

Do your students ever "hijack" your lesson?

How do you get your kiddos to engage in mathematical thinking?

Our Tomato Hornworm Returns!

One of my students had brought in a tomato hornworm a few weeks ago.  It was one of the best experiences in our class so far.  Luckily, the tomato hornworm returned, but not in his original form - he had become a moth.

The student had another one that was still in the pupa form as well.

The kiddos had a blast comparing what our little "friend" looked like on his first visit and what he looked like now. They studied both the moth and the pupa and made some observations.

The students also noticed that the moth seemed very quiet and sleepy.  I said, "I wonder if that means moths are nocturnal?"  The students grabbed dictionaries and looked up the word nocturnal.  One of the students noticed that it was an adjective and asked, "Could we use that as a word for Mad Libs?" 

My students create the best lessons!  I've joked with my husband that I should invite a few of the students over each weekend and tell them, "OK this is what we need to learn next week, how should we cover it?"

Do you learn as much from your students as they learn from you?

I've Been Boo-ed!

I have been Boo-ed by the fabulous Mrs. Poultney!

If you've been booed, copy and paste the above pic and these "rules" into your post.
1. Give a shout out to the blogger who booed you and link back to their site!
2. Share 3-5 October activities, books, products (yours or someone else),or freebie(s) that you love!
3. Share the Boo love with 5 bloggers- make sure you check this link to make sure you don't boo someone again:
http://toristeachertips.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/ive-been-booed-fun-october-linky.html

Here are a few of my favorite Halloween Activities:

I love this Multiplication Monster from Yay Third Grade.  I will be doing this activity with my kiddos this week and will post pictures when I have them.

We have been reading the Best Worst Hallowen Ever and I have made a packet on TPT to go along with it.

Another Halloween favorite easy read is
 I have this one for some of my struggling readers and they love it!

A few of my favorite blogs right now are:

Peacocks and Penguins

Sent From My IPad

Technology Tailgate

The Teaching Thief

Cooperative Learning 365

Being a Teacher and A Mom

Friday ended on a not so good note.  My three youngest boys come into my classroom after school each day while I finish up last minute odds and ends.  I am feeling completely swamped, and had planned on staying a little late on Friday.  My class had earned a root beer float party as a reward for Star homework, so my boys were excited to see if their were leftovers.  There were - and they made a few for themselves as I briefly spoke with a parent - I turned around to see a disaster.  While I was cleaning that up, I noticed them dragging chairs into the hallway.  They had gotten their football stuck in a tree outside, and then proceeded to get their shoes stuck up there trying to get the football down. The shoes are still in the tree as I type this!

Admist the chaos, I noticed this note on one of my desks written (thank God in dry erase marker) by my 6 year old.

It almost (*almost*) made up for the chaos!

How do you balance being a teacher and a mom?