Personification Mini Lesson

To spice up our descriptive writing, our class is focusing on figurative language.  We decided to tackle personification.

To help us understand personification better, we read the book, The Christmas Humbugs by Colleen Monroe.  This picture book kept my third graders' attention and it's jam-packed-full of examples of personification!  It's definitely a keeper.

After reading how the Humbugs tested the humans' holiday spirit, the kids were given the prompt:  describe how the humbugs tested our school spirit.  They had lots of creative ways for the Humbugs to test the students' school spirit (messing up our desks, ripping up the tests, eating all of the cafeteria food, etc).  They can't wait to share their stories!!

Subtraction-Regrouping

My students were having a hard time remembering how/when to regroup with double digit subtraction.  On a whim....I explained that the two digits are partners and if the digit in the one's place needs help, he asks his partner, "Hey Friend, can I have ten?"  This has stuck and seems to help them with regrouping!!

Main Idea with Fiction

My third grade team does a main idea intervention three times a week for thirty minutes.  We are trying to keep the kids' attention and make things fun so we've been working with mentor texts.  Our librarian sent the book, I Repeat, Don't Cheat! my way and I was very excited to read it with the class.

The kids loved it because it dealt with FRIEND ISSUES (which is a drama we deal with on a daily basis :-)).  Anyway we discussed how finding the main idea of fiction is different than finding the main idea of non-fiction.  We decided that we would read this book and at the end write the main idea of the story.

After reading the story (I was happy to see two excellent examples of similes in it!), the kids brainstormed main ideas and I recorded everyone's ideas on a chart.  Then I asked them to ask themselves, "Is this what the book is mostly about?" after I read each main idea.  After that, we crossed out the main ideas that did not focus on what the book was mostly about.  Then, we looked at what was left over and underlined the parts we liked about each of the two main ideas.  We decided to combine the two examples and add a part that incorporated the ending of the story.  It took about a half hour and I was excited with our results!

UPDATE:  Found this cute visual (see below) to help my students better understand how details help support the main idea.  Love!!!!  For a main idea graphic organizer, I've been having the kids trace their hand.  Then they put the main idea in the middle and write 5 details to support the main idea in the middle.  If they can't find five, they have to make up a detail (which could be an opinion) that fits with the main idea.  They mark these with a star so when I check, I know that the detail did not come from the passage.

Gingerbread Man-Context Clues Activity

It's almost December!  This week will be doing some testing to help with our progress monitoring.  I was trying to think of an activity to do with my kids after testing that will keep their interest and also help improve their context clues skills.

In the past, I've done a Gingerbread Man activity with my students where I hide a paper gingerbread man with a secret message (that we are going to decorate gingerbread men cookies) somewhere in the school and they go from place to place finding clues that will eventually lead them to their prize.

This year I've decided to change things up a bit because my kids learn best by doing.  This week we will be using our context clues skills to write clues that detail where the gingerbread men are hidden.  Then we will visit a first grade classroom, read the Gingerbread Man book with them and then go on a school-wide hunt looking for the special gingerbread man.  We will start in their classroom with the first clue.  Then, we will work together to use our context clues skills to move from clue to clue until FINALLY WE FIND THE SPECIAL GINGERBREAD MAN.  This guy will let our friends know the next activity....decorating gingerbread men cookies by following directions (if you're a girl use red gum drops for eyes/boys use green, if your first name starts with a letter A-L use 6 chocolate chips for the mouth, if you are big brother or sister use 4 skittles for buttons, etc).

Hopefully this will be a fun activity!!

Football Subtraction Activity

We are learning single and double-digit subtraction with regrouping and triple-digit subtraction without regrouping.  In order to add a little fun to learning, I decided to create a subtraction activity using the 2011 NFL Player Passing Statistics through game 15.  I included stats for the top 5 plus the three quarterbacks within our region.  Hopefully the kids have fun with this subtraction activity and learn a little something about football too!!  Click here to download a copy.

Library & Gym Reminder

My students have a difficult time remembering their library books on library day and their sneakers on gym day.  SO...I made these reminder door hangers that they can put on their bedroom doors.  Hopefully this helps.  To download & customize a copy click here.

Day Before Thanksgiving Break

 My teammates and I decided to do some fun centers with the kids today.  My center involved following directions to make Acorn Cookies.  We did some other fun activities such as making acorn whistles, using the Giant food circular to plan our Thanksgiving dinners, and practicing our fluency with a Thanksgiving play.

I got the Acorn Cookie idea while browsing through Pinterest.  To follow the recipe, you'll need the following ingredients.

The kids thought they tasted great and they ended up looking just like acorns!!