The Kind Kids Club

During the month of December our class focused on the importance of paying it forward! Students from The Kind Kids Club invited my students to do RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness) around our school and throughout the community.

Our first RAK was to start "You've Been Elf'ed" around our school. Students chose two classes to be secret elves for and we left some candy canes with a poem from the Elf.

Next, members from The Kind Kids Club sent us Jingles, a reindeer mascot, to deliver our daily RAKs and keep eye on us. Here are some of the letters Jingles left for us:

Our RAKs included making cards for our cafeteria ladies, sitting with a new friend at lunch, playing with someone new at recess, caroling around the school, and adopting two students for our Holiday Giving Project. We also invited the other third grade classes to join us in "lighting up" our school! Students wrote friendly letters to their classmates telling them why they are an important part of their class.

My students' favorite RAK was caroling around the school. We invited my teaching partner's class to join in on the fun. Each class chose three classes to serenade with holiday cheer; however, we ended up being invited to several other classrooms. Students sung some holiday classics and we gave each teacher a candy cane as we left. This RAK was a wonderful way to spread cheer throughout our school!

Holiday Giving Project
We adopted two sisters from an elementary school in our community for our Holiday Giving Project. This school has had a challenging year, and I knew asking the principal if we could help any of their students would be a great way for us to give back. The idea for the project comes from the lovely Laura Candler from Teaching Resources. Students were asked to complete chores at home to earn money for their gifts. We had a wrapping party before delivering the gifts. My students went above and beyond in showing generosity toward these young girls. 

Our last RAK activity was given to us by our wonderful school counselor! She gave our class a drawing of the Grinch and encouraged my students to help his heart grow by performing RAKs. Each time I saw a student demonstrating kindness to his or her friends, I would write the RAK on a heart and tape it to our Grinch. My students set a class goal of 17 hearts. I'm proud to say they met their goal! :) I enjoyed this activity because it helped me as the classroom teacher focus on positive reinforcement. It's so easy to only see the negative behavior the weeks leading up to break, but focusing on RAKs helped my students remain calm.

The last day before break each student was given a certificate and inducted into The Kind Kids Club.

Jingles brought us some of our favorite books for our classroom library!

I hope these RAKs give you some ideas for next year! I love teaching students the importance of being kind and generous to others.

We Saved Fred!

I know, I know I've been a lame blogger. My intentions of becoming a super teacher didn't work out too well. Instead of setting unrealistic expectations for myself, I'm going to post when I can.

So here I go, let's try this again...

This school year has been fabulous! I have a wonderful group of spunky, fun, energetic kiddos! Have I mentioned how much I adore them? Well, I do! I have never fallen so quickly for a group of students. These kids make teaching so enjoyable. I love spending my day with them!

My grade level decided to departmentalize this school year. I teach math and social studies to my homeroom and another class and my teammate teaches reading and science. It's been a learning experience, but not as bad as I imagined it would be! The hardest part has been connecting with a second group of kids. The funniest part has been teambuilding, which leads me to our "We Saved Fred" activity.

In an effort to connect the students in both classes and build our teambuilding skills, I challenged my students to save Fred, the worm. This activity is not my original idea and is quite popular on Pinterest. We enjoyed using Smart Chick's freebie on TPT.

"Fred, the gummy worm, has been spending his time boating on the lake near his home. He is not too bright, he is a worm after all. He has never learned to swim and he never wears his life preserver. The worst has finally happened! Fred’s boat has capsized and he is stuck! His life preserver is caught under the boat, but he cannot reach it without falling into the water and drowning. Can you save FRED?"

Each pair of students were given a gummy worm (Fred), plastic cup, 4 paper clips, and gummy life saver (life preserver). They had to figure out how to save Fred using only 4 paper clips. Students could not touch Fred, the boat, or the life preserver directly with their hands. They could only use their paper clips.

We've been practicing the 7 Habits of Happy Kids in our classrooms, so I also challenged my students to "Synergize." Students used their critical thinking skills and creativity to work together to rescue Fred! They didn't realize they were learning too! ;)

We Saved Fred! Could you?

100th Day Postcard Project!

One of the things I love about social media is the great ideas you get from other teachers! While planning for the 100th day of school, I stumbled across a post from a teacher requesting 100 postcards for her students for their 100th day of school. I messaged this teacher and asked if I could join in on her fun idea! She thankfully shared the love, and her brilliant idea made our 100th day so special! (Thanks Mrs. Austin!)

Here's how the 100th Day Postcard Project worked in my classroom:

First, I e-mailed my family, colleagues, students' parents, and facebook friends asking them to send our class a postcard for the 100th day of school. The postcard could be from anywhere around the country or world. Next, I wrote a post on several teacher pages asking fellow teachers to send our classroom a postcard from theirs. The response was overwhelming and I was so overjoyed that we received 113 postcards from around the country! I left all of the postcards in a manila envelope and surprised my kiddos with them on our 100th day of school. We've been studying geography and this project served as a great culminating activity. We used the book, The Scrambled States of America to locate where our postcard came from!

Some of our postcards

After the 100th day of school, I displayed some of our postcards on a map. I left the rest of them in our classroom for my students to look at and read. 

Some of my favorite postcards:

 Thank you Ms. Paula from Right Road Kids!

 My sweet friend from high school, Hannah!

My friend's mom rallied a lot of postcard for us! Thank you Jenn and Mrs. Berry!

Thank you, Dana! This teacher adores your blog! 

Our class favorite was a postcard from England! My kiddos were so excited about the royal mail stamp! At first, they thought it was from the Queen! ;)

Thank you Ms. Hand's 3rd Grade class! We cannot wait to write you back!

A HUGE thank you again to Mrs. Austin for this fun 100th day activity! This project made so many wonderful memories for my students! I think it will become a 100th day tradition! 

Yes, Virginia, the 100th Day of School is for Third Graders too!

Typically the 100th Day of School is celebrated by Kinders and Firsties, but when I started teaching third grade I decided I would still celebrate learning whenever possible. There are a lot of ways to incorporate third grade curriculum into the 100th Day of School. 

Thursday, January 30th was our 100th Day of School. My students had a wonderful day filled with lots of 100th Day activities. Here's how we celebrated the 100th Day of School...Third Grade Style!

When my students came into our room, they were greeted with this banner.

I showed one of my mom's a Pinterest inspired picture and she decorated our door! The kids loved it!

Next, my students were surprised with these goodies on their desks.

100th Day snack was inspired by Pinterest! What did I ever do before this incredible social network?! 100 Days Smarter hat comes from Maria Manore's TPT store and can be found here.

100th Day Challenge

We spent the morning completing Rachel Lynette's 100th Day of School Challenge. This activity is a fun, scavenger hunt which incorporates ELA, math, and social studies! My students did this activity in teams, and I timed them to see which team could finish first.

100th Day Book 

We reviewed multiplication with one of our favorite books!

100 Math Equations

For math, my students worked in pairs to figure out one hundred equations that equaled 100. We reviewed what makes an equation an equation, and students were able to use any operation as long as the answer was 100! At the end of the activity, we charted 100 equations together as a class.

I grabbed this Ways to Make 100 freebie from a teacher blog and I forgot to save it. If this is your wonderful creation, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!

100th Day Project

For our 100th Day Project, students were allowed to decorate a t-shirt or cape with 100 items. In order to gear this project toward 3rd, I decided to add a twist! Students were told they had to show multiplication on their t-shirt/cape. We reviewed the ways to show multiplication - equal groups, repeated addition, and arrays. The kids once again blew me away with their creativity. Check out these awesome t-shirts and capes! 

Their teacher decided to join in on the fun, too! 

We concluded our 100th Day Project with a fun-filled fashion show. I invited the students' parents and another 3rd grade class to our show! 

One of my mom's donated balloons from the Dollar Tree. 

I used red butcher paper as our runway!

Look at these future models! They had a blast!

We concluded our 100th Day celebration with a yummy treat! One of my mom's is so talented and she baked us this delicious treat! Almost too cute to eat! Almost! ;)

I also gave my kiddos a 100th Day goodie bag!

The goodie bag consisted of a fruit roll up, wacky straw, and gooey eyes ring!

Our 100th Day celebration was a blast! We had a great day celebrating being "100 Days Smarter!"

Stay tuned for a post about our 100th Day Postcard Project! :)

Data, Data, Data, Daaa-ta!

Most days it feels like all we do is test, test, test! Every time I turn around there's another assessment my kiddos are required to take. As a teacher, it can become super stressful because time is not our friend and we have things to teach!

Due to this testing epidemic, our school has focused heavily on data. Each student has a data folder which contains their reading level goals, reading genre graph, multiplication facts graph, personal goals and self reflection, and DEA data.

Discovery Education Assessments or DEA are predictive tests which shows which standards students have mastered and where they fall within their grade level. There are four levels of mastery: below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced. Students take these assessments three times throughout the school year before TCAP.

Other than the stress and anxiety created for my students, I like the feedback given from DEA. This year I've been able to do individual data chats with my students and it's been neat to see them take ownership of their learning and set their own goals. After the second test, we had good conversation about "realistic" goals. I think it's extremely important for students to take ownership and understand their own data. This year I had my students attend parent-teacher conferences to explain their data to their parents. My goal next year is to have student-led conferences! I've really been enjoying the data "part" of testing and believe me, it's the "only" part! I won't get started on my feelings about the "other" parts!

After Winter break, I decided to make a class DEA data chart. I was inspired by Sarah's data wall from A Rocky Top Teacher, so I decided to make my own.

Each student was given a reading and math clothespin. Their student number is on the back, but we turned the pins so the numbers could not been seen. We had a great conversation about our strengths and weaknesses, and how our data is our own business! We also discussed the importance of our team, and how we need to continue to build each other up and encourage each other to do our very best! I always tell my kiddos all they can do is their best! Lastly, we made class goals for the third DEA test. I allowed the students to take ownership and we set goals for how many students we wanted to move to proficient and advanced. Students had already set individual goals, so the class goals tied everything together!

Do you have a data wall in your classroom? How do you track your students' data? I'd love to hear about it!

Reflecting and Goal Setting

Happy New Year, friends!

Our winter break was extended due to extreme freezing temperatures, so this past week was our first full week back in school. Boy, am I exhausted! I forgot how much I stand throughout the day. Teaching is hard work, folks! But boy was I excited to be back with my sweet kiddos!

This week I introduced my third graders to the second habit, Begin with the End in Mind, from Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Happy Kids. This habit teaches children to set goals and develop a plan for them. We discussed ways we could be good citizens at school, in our classroom, and at home. Students brainstormed and wrote out their goals on a graphic organizer. Then, we reviewed the parts of a paragraph - including a topic sentence, supporting details, and concluding sentence. Students wrote a paragraph describing their new year goals. The kids totally "blew" me away with their writing! One of them suggested that we add a hook at the beginning of our paragraph! It's so neat to see how much they mature throughout the year!

Thanks to Pinterest, we added a self portrait to our writing! I originally saw this idea on Cara Carroll's The First Grade Parade, and there are several other examples on Pinterest. Our writing paper and New Year's hat is a freebie from Amy Murdock on Teachers Pay Teachers. I love the way these turned out!

We're going to "blow" you away with our New Year's resolutions!