Thursday, August 25, 2011

Let's Go Fly a Kite


We've been digging in the dictionary.
I decided to see what they could handle today with
guide words and searching for a word in the big ole
dictionary.  Let's just say Mr. Webster would be proud!

They found the given word, wrote the definition on
the kite, wrote the page numbers on the bow, wrote the
guide words on the bow, and finally found the part of
speech and recorded it as well.

Looking Good!


Fables and Sequencing


In order to see if students understood fables and sequencing,
I devised a short activity.  Students independently read the famous
fable, The Tortoise and the Hare.  Working together in groups of
three students then chose 4 events from the story and recorded
them on a small piece of paper.  They then attached them to a
tortoise.  Groups mixed up their events and traded with other 
groups.  Finally, groups were asked to put the events from the 
other groups in the correct sequence.

One completed sequence chart...





Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Sunday, August 21, 2011

First Secret Readers

Friday afternoons are good for a lot of things, but in my classroom
they are best used for secret readers and readers' theatre.  A couple of
times a month (on Friday) Mrs. Simpson and I combine our classes 
and anxiously await our secret reader.  The rest of the Fridays students 
will be performing readers' theatre for the other classroom.

Friday, August 19 we opened our "Secret Reader Season" with 
2 familiar faces, but with new roles in our school.

Mrs. Rowlett, Principal and Mrs. Spencer, Assistant Principal

They shared a wonderful book titled 
You Read to Me and I'll Read to You.
It's a funny book of poetry written for two voices and I must say
 it was perfect for these two voices.  

Thanks so much ladies.....the kids truly enjoyed it!



Sequence

The second week of school has now come to a close.
We dove into our reading series - Reading Street.
I chose to skip the first story because it's what I call
heavy.  It's long and requires schema the students do not
yet have.  I went to the 2nd story:  What About Me?
Our skill all week was sequencing and fables.  Below you will 
see a sequence chart we did together as a class using events
from the story.





Owl Surprise


Mrs. Simpson and I cooked up a fun owl surprise at the
end of our short owl unit the first week of school.  
OWL PELLETS

Check out all the new facts we know about owls
after reading 2 non-fiction books.


Owls cannot digest the fur and bones of the animals
that they eat so they cough or regurgitate those parts up
in an owl pellet form.  The two classes participated in 
an owl pellet dissection.  Inside students found the skull,
ribs, pelvis, and much more of mice and other small rodents.

It was amazing to hear them as they worked!
One of them even said, "This is like, SCIENCE!"
It was well worth the money and time invested for this activity.



Saturday, August 13, 2011

Graphing Fun

We began with a little graphing in math the first week.
The lesson started with a quick SmartBoard lesson on graphing.
We did a quick graph for the number of boys and girls, favorite
color, and favorite vegetable.  We wrapped up the lesson with
a quick pictograph of what we did over the summer.


Finally, the students turned the class pictograph into a
bar graph by coloring the correct number of bars for each.


First Day of School Treat


We had a great first day of school.  I sent each student
home with a special treat from me.  It turned out super cute.


Wednesday, August 10, 2011

First Few Days...

Well, the first two days of school are officially over.
I've met my new 3rd graders and so far so good.  I have
a class of 15 sweet boys and girls.  The first night I sent home
an "OWL" about me bag (instead of ALL about me) to be filled with 
goodies that tell about the student.  I loved listening and getting to 
know the students' likes and dislikes with these bags.





 Today we read one of my favorite "first week" of school picture
books, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  We enjoyed reading 
the story and "harvesting" unusual words.  I asked the kids to listen
as I read and pick out interesting, unusual, or unfamiliar words.  They
did awesome and we came up with a list of 11 words.  We then
discussed each word and they recorded this in their Reading Journals.  
Here's my chart:


After we watched an animated version of Chrysanthemum on 
www.unitedstreaming.com, I introduced Readers' Theatre to the class.
They were excited as I assigned parts for our first readers' theatre....Chrysanthemum!
We began practicing reading and reading with expression today.
I can't wait to see how they do tomorrow.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Ready or Not....Here We Go!

Putting the finishing touches on an "OWL"standing
third grade classroom.  Can't wait to meet my 3rd graders
next week.  Ready or not - here we go!