Sunday Scoop 5-3-15

Another week of linking up with Teaching Trio for The Sunday Scoop!

I am so lucky that my parents were in town this weekend! My dad put up a new fence where the old one had been knocked down by windstorms this winter. This was a huge help!

We also had the added bonus that they took the three oldest kids swimming for a couple of hours. This gave me a chance to get into the classroom this weekend. I was able to do all of the things that I never have time to do, including planning everything for the week ahead.

Don't get me wrong, I always plan, but I was able to get everything ready as well. I am hoping I won't have to rush around like crazy next week. We will see...

I also have to go grocery shopping and make my salads for next week. This is week three of the salads, and they are the perfect lunch!

Last weekend I made patches for my daughters' leggings. My girls are always putting holes in the knees of their leggings, and it was making me crazy! I sewed cute fabric on to iron-on sticky stuff, and it worked great! Now, I just have to repeat the process ten more times.

While I was in my crafty mode I got stuff to make headbands for my baby girl. I hope i have time for that this week, but I am not super hopeful...

I have been working on getting products ready for my stores this weekend. It has been a rewarding, but long process.

Well, that is it for this week!

Layers of the Earth Reading Passage

I am very excited to let you know about the updates I have made to my Layers of the Earth Reading Passage product. This is one of my top sellers, and I have worked very hard to give it a face lift.

First, I added an easier passage, so that students who struggle with reading can still access the material. I also included a linked up version of the easier reading passage, so students can click on important words/names to get more information on that topic. This includes both websites and pictures. This is a great option for any student as long as your class has access to computers.

Still included are a graphic organizer for students to take notes as they read, and a multiple choice and short answer quiz.

If you have already purchased the product, make sure you go back and download it again. Then, give yourself a pat on the back because the price is going up today! 

You can get it at my Teachers pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook store.

Hamburger Paragraphs

After teaching fourth grade last year, I know exactly what my third graders need to know to be successful next year. This is especially true in writing.

Last year, many of my fourth graders came to school unable to consistently write in a complete sentence. Their pages were full of run-on sentences. This is a common problem for kids because the emphasize on writing right now is ideas and volume (at least in our district).

I feel pretty old school in my belief in the emphasis of grammar in writing. I spend a lot of time teaching the parts of speech and types of sentences because I belief that students need to really know and understand the way we put sentences together in order to do it themselves independently and consistently.

After practicing writing sentences all year (yes, over six months on sentences!), we have been able to start writing paragraphs! I find that literal little third graders need to have explicit instructions to do anything, writing paragraphs included. To that end, I made my own version of the hamburger paragraph model. It is a classic (this is how my third grade teacher taught me to write paragraphs), but the perfect representation for our needs.

After looking at the anchor chart/poster, we sorted paragraphs that were already written to get the feeling for what the model looks like. I had six different paragraphs, so kids could get as much practice as they needed. I also had students copy the paragraphs once they were sorted correctly for even more practice.

I was especially excited when some of my students realized that adding details to their paragraphs was just like adding more condiments - they both make the hamburger (or paragraph) more delicious. I have some smarties this year!

Also included in my Hamburger Paragraphs product is a paragraph organizer which allows students to create a paragraph one sentence at a time. This has been especially helpful for my students who struggled to write their paragraphs independently after the lesson. It just provides an extra layer of support to get students working independently.

I have to say that this was one of the most successful lessons we have done in third grade. We did this about three weeks ago, and we have been writing paragraphs every day since then. I am always so excited when I see that they have used the model all by themselves!


You can get this set for just $3! That is such a bargain for creating stronger writers!

   

Teachers pay Teachers

Teacher's Notebook

Rainbow Self-Monitoring Freebie!

Well, my original post on the Rainbow Self-Monitoring Clip Chart hit 20 views last night! I promised I would share it as a freebie when that happened, so here it is:

Just click on the picture to get access to the Google Drive document I created. You will be able to view/print the pages. If you want to edit it to fit your own needs you will need to...

1. Go to "File"
2. Select "Make a Copy"
3. Select a new name for the copy

Once you have made a copy, you will be able to edit the file to fit your needs (except you won't be able to change the clip art). You will not see any changes I happen to make to the file in your own copy, but if you keep the file I shared with you, then my changes will appear.

I hope you enjoy this freebie! If you like it, check out my TpT and TN stores!

Five for Friday - May 1st

Happy May Day everyone!

Yep, it is time for Five for Friday! Wahoo! I don't think I have been this excited for a Friday in a long time. My students (just a handful of them) have run me ragged this week. I am excited for a fresh start on Monday. 

Without further ado, here are my five for this week...

Of course I forgot to take pictures, but I am so excited about our writing work this week. This trimester is all about opinion writing for our school. (We are using the Lucy Calkins Pathways program.) I really liked the Pathways books for fourth grade, but I didn't feel like my kids were getting enough practice where they needed it with the third grade books. So, instead of having the kids work on one or two pieces of writing all trimester we are writing a shorter piece every week.

This week we wrote a persuasive paragraph about which color was the best. The kids had to brainstorm reasons why a color was the best on Monday, write a rough draft on Tuesday, revise it on Thursday, and we just wrote our final drafts today. I printed out giant crayons on 11 x 17 paper and the kids wrote the paragraphs in the middle oval where "Crayola" would be written. They turned out very adorable.

I do think some of my students were frustrated because I had them redo the crayons if they weren't quality coloring and writing, but we are getting ready to move to fourth grade. Quality counts in fourth grade! I suppose, it counts in third grade too, but the quality bar has definitely been raised this trimester. 

Last week we wrote about why we should get a pet. These turned out great too! (And I did get a picture of one of these!)

In science this week we learned about crayfish. Sadly, all of the crayfish we were sent by the district died. Not just in my classroom, but in every third grade room. I am very upset about that. Last year, in fourth grade, we were sent fish, and all of the fish died too. I wish they wouldn't send us animals that we can't keep alive even when we follow all of the instructions.

Anyway, even though our poor animals died, we still learned a lot. Check out these adorable drawings!

     

We have started to get this little nugget to sleep in her crib at night. We have had quite a few long nights this week, but it will be worth it when we are all sleeping through the night again.

Several of my students have had a hard time remembering which way to draw the symbol for less than or greater than. I made these to help them practice in a fun way. They can practice with the Pac-Men, the alligator teeth, or make their own monsters.

Selfie fun this week...

Rainbow Clip Chart Update

So, today was our first day in class using the Self-Monitoring Clip Charts. I have to say, it was a success. Kids did a much better job monitoring themselves when they had the charts in front of them. Plus, I could always count down and then announce, "If you are ready, you are at a green. If you are still talking, you are at a yellow."

I sent home seven positive notes today, and I could have sent more. I had a few disappointed kids, but I explained that I only had enough time to write seven notes. They were welcome to try for a note tomorrow. I did have to send home one reminder note. This was hard, but the note was well deserved. I am hoping that this system can change the trajectory of this particular student's behavior.

I will let you know how the charts work as the weeks go on.

Student Self-Monitored Rainbow Clip Chart

Ahhhhh!! Has anyone else's class been going crazy lately? My students are having so much trouble following our classroom expectations. We have been practicing coming in from recess and sitting down quietly, working quietly, reading silently during Daily 5, etc... I hate having to constantly get on them for not following expectations. Especially the for the kids that are doing what they need to do.

We have literally gone back to the first week of Daily 5 and are timing ourselves for silent reading. To be fair, we haven't been consistently doing silent reading, so it makes sense that their stamina has slipped, but it is still frustrating that we can only read for about eight minutes some days! I am not going to let silent reading go ever again!

Anyway, I have been thinking really hard about how I can turn responsibility for their individual behavior over to them. I am way too busy to manage behavior for 22 individuals - that is just impossible for any one person to do!

I started giving tickets for good behavior last week. This has worked for some things, but it is missing teeth. Yes, kids who are behaving correctly get tickets for a drawing, but kids who aren't doing what they should do have no consequences. I haven't really needed any consequences stronger than staying in at recess for a chat with this group, so we don't have anything in place already.

I have decided to try a clip chart, but not one that hangs up in the front of the room. I am not a fan of the charts that everyone can see because I feel like it would be embarrassing for kids who are working on following classroom expectations. I never want to embarrass anyone.

Instead, I made these rainbow charts for each student in my class.

Students can keep them on their desks. It isn't 100% private, but it will allow both me and the student to quickly see how the day is going. Plus, I plan on having the students clip themselves up and down the chart. Moving yourself is way less embarrassing than having your teacher move you. Of course, if students need help accurately placing themselves on the chart, I can help them with that too.

You can see that, unlike other clip charts, I gave some broad examples of what each level would look like in the classroom. I am hoping this will help students accurately place themselves on the chart.

I did have my own students in mind when I wrote these. For most of my students their main issues are not being ready during transitions, being off-task during work time, and talking out. I do have a few students who are very distracting to others and sometimes make unsafe choices. I am hoping that these descriptions work for all of my students. For example, kids can go to red right away for making an unsafe choice (such as swinging arms around while holding scissors - yes, it has happened this year), or they can slowly move to red as they continue to talk out or be off-task.

On the flip side, students can move up at anytime. If a student is on red, but then stops distracting others, they can move up to yellow or even green. I think that this ability to move at any time will be important for my students who are still learning how to be successful in a classroom.

While I think that just being aware of their behavior will help most of my students, I still want some sort of carrot and some sort of stick. I am thinking that anytime students clip up they will get a ticket for our class prize drawings. Plus, if students end the day on a blue or purple, they will get a positive note home:

I try to send home positive notes for kids as often as possible, but when I get busy this is one of the first things to go. I am hoping that by having notes ready I will be more likely to follow through. I left room at the bottom to add specific details for each individual child.

On the other hand, kids that end the day at red (maybe orange too) will get a note home that needs to be signed. This will, hopefully, get parents checking in with their students as well.

I really hope this plan gets us through the last eight weeks of school. Plus, I need to get these kids ready for fourth grade!

If you would be interested in this set, I would be happy to share! Just leave a comment on this page, follow the blog, or share this post. As soon as I get five new followers or 20 views of this post, I will post the link to this FREE product!

I am so mad because I haven't been making good choices! I am going to rally and move back up the clip chart.

I did it! I am so happy! I can do anything! Look how much I can learn when I follow directions!