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!!

Class Dojo!!

I just stumbled upon an exciting new classroom management website called Class Dojo.  It uses a point system and provides an online management system to track student behaviors.  Students are awarded points for positive and negative behaviors (which can be customized to fit your classroom rules-rewards). Each student is assigned an avatar and can track his or her own progress.  Check out this screen shot of a sample classroom.

As you can see each student is awarded points.  The green bubble by the student's name shows how many points he or she has.  Here are examples of the positive and negative awards.  You can change this to fit your classroom management style.

You can also track student's behavior using their behavior report card.  It keeps track of how many positive and negative points students receive.  It shows a chart with the percent positive or percent negative.  The report can be downloaded and emailed using a PDF file.  This may be a great way to track certain behaviors for kids for RtII and could also be sent home to parents who request information on their child's behavior.

I told my class we would try this for awhile.  My school has implemented a school-wide behavior management system so I tried to find a way to use this as a supplement.  My third grade team earns tickets so the kids and I decided that for every five points they could earn a ticket. Then we started brainstorming bigger items that they could save up points for such as lunch in the classroom, choose your seat for a day, chew gum in the classroom, class dodgeball game, ice cream treat for the class, movie during lunch, shoes off for a day, 20 minutes with the school's Wii, etc.  The kids and I had a lot of fun coming up with rewards.

We're going to try this for awhile and see what happens!!

Owl Moon Unit-Mentor Text

Today I was able to do something fun with my students!  We used Owl Moon as a Mentor Text to teach descriptive writing using senses and figurative language.

First we talked about our prior knowledge of owls and I introduced the book.

Then, I read the book aloud to the students.  They LOVED "Whooo-whoo-who-who-ooo"-ing with me!!!

After that we discussed how the author used sensory language to describe what was going on in the story.  We determined that she used a lot of what we see, hear, and feel to help us visualize as we read. We made a class chart with these senses.  The students also made a foldable graphic organizer with see, hear, and feel at the top.

Prior to the lesson, I had typed the text of the story on a word document.  We went through the story page by page (using the projector) and highlighted sensory language.  We color coded it to match our GO-purple for hear, blue for see, and pink for feel.  The kids loved discussing the mental images that were created with the language.

Then the kids went through their graphic organizer and starred their favorite examples of sensory language.  We then added these examples to our class graphic organizer.  Next, the kids were given some time to be illustrators and draw pictures to match the mental images that were created through the sensory language.

After that, we delved into figurative language....similes and metaphors.  I taught a mini lesson about using similes and metaphors as authors to help our writing come alive.

Then we went to our mentor text, Owl Moon, to look for examples.  I had a few written on sentence strips.  The kids then had to decide what was being compared and what the author was trying to convey through the use of similes and metaphors.  They circled the comparison word (like, as, was, or is) and underlined the two things being compared.  On the notecard we described what they author meant through the simile or metaphor.  Each kid then wrote an example of a simile or metaphor on a post it that compared themselves or a friend to something in nature.

Finally, we were able to make some OWL TREATS!!  I had seen a cute idea on Pinterest and on the blog, 3rd Grade's a Hoot, and then modified it based on what I could find at the grocery store. I really wanted candy corn for the beak but since it's almost Thanksgiving, they did not have any in stock. I'll change some things next time, but the kids sure had fun!!  Owl Moon Day was a success!!

Reading Response Journals

With one of our Literary Centers (see below) the kids have to read independently and then fill out an entry in their Reader's Journal.  This is an example of the sentence starters they have to choose from when filling out journal entries.

Click here for the Sentence Starters word document.
Sentence Starters

Descriptive Prompt

This month we are focusing on DESCRIPTIVE writing. The first prompt asks students to describe their favorite person.

Click on the link for a word document of the above file.
Descriptive Prompt & Teacher Example

Literary Centers

I am trying something new this year with Literary Centers.  During guided reading time, students are given a task to work on (usually something that connects to our skill for the work, spelling words, or vocabulary words).  When students finish the task, they may choose from one of our Literary Centers.  These are mostly activities that can be completed on their own or with a friend.  The kids love it!

Click here to download the Literary Center Posters that are on each container.
Literary Center Explanation Posters

Student Reflections

Giving students time to reflect on what they've learned is an important component to teaching.  This is a picture of the reflection poster I have in my classroom.  This is a great summarizer for a lesson so you can gauge whether or not the kids understood what was being taught.

Book Report Menu

So, I decided to try doing book reports this year in 3rd grade.  I assign a book every month and then the kids choose a book report format from the menu.  So far the kids have been loving it.  Their favorite is Share Day...the day they turn it in, they get to sit in the "share chair" and show it off.  I think this idea is a keeper.  It can be easily scaffolded to help all learners!!

Click here to download the Book Report Menu.