Freebie to Celebrate New Blog Template!!

I have put off updating my blog template all summer!!  YIKES!!  Where does time go?? Thankfully the wonderful people over at Honey Bunch Blog Design were able to help me out.  They have premade templates as well as custom order templates.  They were awesome to work with.  Picked my design, added some extra buttons and BAM!!!  They uploaded it today!!!  All of this in less that 48 hrs!    They are great!!  If you are in need of a new design, head on over!!

To celebrate  my new blog design.  I am giving away my latest TPT  Back to School item....It is a getting to know your students fun project.   What do you think?? First 3 comments will receive this FREE!!!

Sneak Peek!!!

I have been busy working on my latest theme!!  I leave for our family vacation in a week (no camping this time!!! Daughter got poison ivy the last time!!), so I want to finish it before I go!  Many of you have been asking for a Monkey Theme... Here is a Sneak Peek!!

Looking forward to finishing this one and on to my next one before the school year starts!!!  I am thinking I see OWLS in the future!!

BIOBOXZ!!!

 Well, I have decided to finally finish my BioBoxz that I used in my classroom this year!  One of my co-teachers had this box on her desk with pictures of her students from a previous year.  My mind instantly starts thinking of a way to make this a fun project for students.  So I played around with it for a while and decided that a biography book would be the perfect fit!

So the BIOBOXZ was born!!  The kids loved working with these and they asked to do it again.  So my teaching partners and I decided that we would each teach a different person from Pa History and each box would be a layer of that person.

 You can find the BIOBOXZ on my TPT store starting today!!!  Want to try it for FREE??? Be the first 5 people to comment below with your email address and I will send it to you!  All I ask that you give it a rating in my TPT store.  Thanks!

Organization Ideas for me to try!!

July already!!!  Seriously!!  I usually give myself till July until I start thinking about the next school year. We have had nothing but humid, rainy weather here in the Northeast!

 One area that I really want to do better is to take Anecdotal Notes.  I found this awesome blog called Eberhart's Explorers where she had some great organizational ideas.  I can't wait to try this one.  Take a clipboard and use mailing labels to write about the students.  Put the mailing label on an index card
and use it to refer back for Parent Teacher Conference and report cards.

Plus the clipboard is so cute!!!  I really need to redo mine!  Unfortunately, I have a junky classroom set!!  That is a lot of recovering!

IT"S OVER!!! STATE TESTING!!!!

 As some of you know, I was moved into 3rd grade in January due to a teacher retiring!!  Big change from 5th grade to 3rd grade.  I was a little stressed to say the least!!

I knew that state testing was starting on April 8th and my goal was to get the kids ready for that big day!!  I didn't want to do the typical test prep review that everyone does with packets, so I went to my favorite source....Teacher Pay Teachers!!

 Ari over at The Science Penguin has amazing Math resources on her Math Penquin blog.

  I found her test prep for 3rd grade and thought "This would be more interesting than test packets!!"

 It has 10 different stations that the student can rotate through.  I decided that we would do 2 rotations a day.  This gave me 5 days of station activities.  The students were so excited to work with their partners and I was so excited to change up testing review.  Thanks Ari!!

I also used one of my own....Spider Round Up Game.  The kids loved reviewing rounding to the Tens and Hundreds.  Go on over and grab this FREEBIE!!

Text Features Fun

 I love to incorporate Text Features in my nonfiction reading.  Our school recently purchased a set from Time For Kids Biographies and Science Scoops.  I LOVE these books!!!  They allow me to differentiate instruction while still concentrating on text features.

 When I first introduced this topic, I used a powerpoint presentation to show various examples of text features.  After that lesson, I gave them these books and they worked with a partner to find examples of text features using the worksheet below.

 

Day 2: We review the power point and I copied various examples from our National Geographic For Kids.  LOVE copying things on 11X17 in color for the students to work with in groups.  Once I gave them their 11x17 copies, they had 3 minutes to use post it notes to mark examples of text features.  I then placed in with another group to share what they found in their article.  Each group had different articles.....sorry forgot that concept. 

Day 3: I gave them their 12x18 construction paper and showed them how to fold it. We then cut where we need to have flaps.  Because this was with 3rd graders, I did mark with a dot every 2 inches so they knew where to cut. After cutting their flaps, they glues their TEXT FEATURE titles on the FRONT!  I stressed the front because I have a 3rd graders!  I then gave them the example page and they had to cut and place by the text feature.  This is key......I had to check them before they glued to make sure they were correct!!  Below is the outcome of this day! This took way more time than I had planned~

 

Day 4-? 

  This is where we are making an example of a text feature article.  I gave all the student the same 2 paragraphs about Abraham Lincoln and showed them the structure that I wanted.  We also went over the rubric so they knew my expectations.  You could make this as simple as you wanted or more difficult depending on the age of your kids.  We are still creating our, so after my class is done I will post more pictures.

   You can find the link for the Text Features above....First 5 people to leave a comment with their email, I will send it to you!! 

Sugar Plum Fairy for Sound Unit!!

 I have a secret!!  I am addicted to Pinterest!!  While browsing for my upcoming Sound Unit for my 3rd Grade kiddos.  I ran across this amazing duo that plays the Sugar Plum Fairy with  crystal vases!  It is beautiful!!  I know I am going to have to incorporate it in the unit some how, but I thought I would pass it along to my followers!!