My Plans in Pictures {September 5-9}

This week is a super short week.  Monday is Labor Day and then Tuesday is another day off for students.  Our district moved to full day professional development days for teachers last year.  The days usually back to a 3 day weekend giving our families a 4 day weekend.  Teachers are given choices and we get to sign up for professional development classes that will be most meaningful to us.  Tomorrow I will be taking a class on building my classroom website and then a class on planning instructional units for ELA.  I'm looking forward to learning a lot and getting a lot of work done!

Here are my plans for Wednesday-Friday in pictures!

Spelling: We will be working on phonograms {we use the Spalding program} and high frequency words.  We won't have a normal spelling list or test because of the shortened week.

Grammar:

We will be learning all about abstract nouns using my Abstract Noun Pack.  There is a flip book to put in their interactive notebook, a slideshow to use to teach and practice, a write the room to practice and then a culminating art project.

Reading:  In reading this week we will be learning how to use context clues.  The activities in this pack are always a huge hit, especially the made up words.  

My kiddos always love coming up with made up words of their own and writing their own sentences.  It is an amazing way to practice and they don't even know that's what they are doing they are having so much fun!

Writing:  This week we will be finishing up an opinion writing piece.  We will have a mini-lesson on stretching out our sentences and will use that to revise our opinion piece.  We will use the activities from my S.U.P.E.R. Sentences pack.

Math:  This week in math we will begin learning the strategies for multiplying and dividing by 2 and 5.  You can read more about the strategies I use to teach multiplication HERE.  And HERE. I'm so excited for my kiddos to start wearing their multiplication and division wrist bands as we learn!  

M.A.T.H. Centers:  In centers this week we will be reviewing arrays using my Hip,Hip, Array pack.

We will also review division as equal sharing using my division task cards.

Science:  In science we have been learning about the types of rocks and how they are formed.  This candy comparison is always a huge hit!  There is just something so engaging about making a lesson yummy!  This activity is part of my rocks unit, you can check it out HERE.

It's going to be another fun and exciting week in third grade.  It will all be capped off by our local high school rivalry football game!  The two high schools are a mile apart.  The K-8 school I teach at feeds to one of the schools and my husband teaches/coaches and our daughters  attend and are on the Pom Team at the rival school!  It's going to be an exciting way to end the short week!

Today and tomorrow you can grab all of the products that I will be using for 20% off in my store!  Use the links to go check them out.

Happy Labor Day everyone!

My Weekly Lesson Plans in Pictures {August 14-19}

Back to School was a huge success!  I was so happy to meet my class and our first three days together were amazing!  I love that we started on a Wednesday this year.  Those three days are a great opportunity to take it slow and learn our routines, procedures and expectations and then we can hit the ground running on our first full week.

Monday will start our first full week of the school year and here is what our week looks like in pictures!

Spelling:

We won't officially start our spelling time until next week.  We still need to finish assessing our kiddos and then meet as a grade level to work out our spelling groups.  We switch classes during this time to do targeted instruction on phonograms and spelling rules that each group specifically needs to work on.

During our spelling time this week I will continue to focus on our classroom routines, procedures and expectations.

We learned most of our routines last week, thanks to my trusty Routines and Procedures Binder I was able to stay on track and not forget any!  This week we will discuss what to do when you finish an assignment early and learn the "Fun When You're Done," options.

We will also continue to learn our classroom expectations during our Morning Meeting.  We have already learned to Be Respectful, Be Trustworthy and Be an Active Listener.  This week we will work on Be Safe and Be Your Best.

Classroom Expectations

Grammar:

Grammar this week will focus on reviewing and learning the Parts of Speech.  We will do lots of interactive and get up out of your seat activities!

Reading:

This first part of our week will focus on learning how to "Table Talk."  We do a LOT of taking about our learning in our classroom and I think it is sooo important to teach them HOW to have a good conversation.  We started last week and will finish learning about it early this week.  We will have our first "official," Table Talk using First Day Jitters toward the end of the week.  The great thing about Table Talk is that once they learn how to do it, I can use for ANY content area!  

Writing:

This week during writing we will focus on  how to write a good paragraph using Color Coded Paragraphs.  In third grade they need to begin writing multiple paragraphs, so I spend a little time at the beginning of the year making sure they know the parts of a paragraph and how to write a good paragraph.  We also write a friendly letter in our Home Journal every Friday so I need them to be able to write a good paragraph for that!  Head to my TpT store to download the freebie!!

Math:

Our first Instructional Unit in Math is Understanding Multiplication and Division.  I'm excited to have a new resource this year, our district adopted My Math and it will be so nice to have some resources!  I will still use my Monster Multiplication resource to introduce the concept of multiplication, as well as my journal companion to Each Orange Had 8 Slices.  I love using hands on and fun activities to introduce and practice this new skill!

Science:

I'm excited to get our Earth Science unit underway.  I love teaching this unit and I have so many fun...and yummy things up my sleeve!  This week we will learn about the different types of rocks!

To check out any of the products I will be using click on the links!  

It should a fun and busy week in third grade this week and I can't wait!!!

Back to School, Visual Plans, Freebies and Sale!

It’s here.  The first day of school!  I’m linking up my visual plans for a peek at my week! 


I’ve spent the last 2 weeks prepping my room and getting organized.  We’ve had Meet the Teacher….I’m ready to get started!

Here are my plans for the first week!


I'm linking up with the fabulous Mrs. Wills for a Peek at my Week!






The first week will be busy with First Day Jitters, getting to know you activities and learning how to Table Talk!  Our first framework is called Collaborate and Communicate and we spend several days learning how to have conversations about our learning using activities and lesson from my Table Talk pack.  Once students learn how to “Table Talk,”  we use it all year long and across content areas!  This pack will take you through it step by step! 


I forgot to include the link to Jivey's amazing Mentor Sentence pack in the picture so HERE it is. If you don't already own these...run to her store and grab them.  They are amazing and I will never teach grammar with worksheets again.


I’ve also included in my visual plans cards to use to practice Table Talking after reading First Day Jitters!  Don’t forget to download the visual plans to get all of the links to the products and FREEBIES!  Click on the pictures of the plans to download!  Any product of mine featured in my plans will also be on SALE for the next 2 days!!!






I love teaching math and I LOVE teaching multiplication!  It is so fun and they always come to thrid grade so excited to learn it!  I love using the picture book Each Orange Had Eight Slices to introduce multiplication and this summer I made a little journal companion to use with it!  I’m so excited to get started! You can read my blog post about it HERE.


I also LOVE Number Talks and I can’t wait to start them again this year!  If you haven’t already read about my love for Number Talks you can find that post HERE. 


I plan on beginning to introduce our new M.A.T.H. centers slowly this week.  I’ve learned over the years to take it very slow when introducing math centers and Daily 5.  The more intentional you are at the beginning of the year about teaching and practicing those procedures the more it will pay off in smooth sailing down the road!  I’m excited to get started and I love how cute my new board turned out!  The packs to create the bulletin boards are available in my TpT store!





I’m so excited to get this year started tomorrow!  How many of you go back this week?  If not this week, when do you go back?


Happy Back to School Season everyone!

Using Picture Books to Teach Math {Multiplication}

I love using picture books during math!  Today’s featured book is Each Orange Had 8 Slices by Paul Giganti, Jr. 
 



I use this book in the fall every year as we begin learning multiplication.  Each page has a story problem that students can solve using repeated addition and multiplication.  I created this fun little problem solving journal as a companion to the book.  There is a page in the journal for each page of the picture book. 





In the past, we have used notebook paper or our math journals, but I love this little journal because it doesn’t take up as much space if I want to collect them after a day’s work to look them over.  I also love that I can send them home when we are finished with the book ( I don’t send math journals home until the end of the year) and it can be a great conversation starter at home for parents to ask what students are learning about multiplication!





As we begin learning about repeated addition and multiplication, I have included some number sentence frames to help students write them correctly.  This scaffolding really helps those students that are still struggling with the concept.





Something else that I really love about this book and the journal is that I am able to differentiate.  I teach the gifted cluster in my grade level so I have general ed. students, as well as the students who are identified as gifted in my grade level.  Many of the quantitatively gifted students already know how repeated addition and multiplication work.  Each story problem in the book also includes a challenging question that uses multi-steps or multiplication with 3 factors!  I challenge the students who are ready for it to solve for that last question in each page of their journal. 


The book includes 11 story problems and we certainly do not work through them all in one day, in fact last year we only did one a day in our journals as a warm up.  We did the first one together whole group so I could help guide them and model for them.  The next day, I projected the next page from the book under my document camera and students did it independently or with a partner.  Day 3, we once again worked whole group so I could model and guide them through explaining their thinking in their journal.  Day 4, they worked independently to solve the problem that I projected and then I gave them time to discuss their journal page with their table groups. 


I love the versatility of this little journal too.  You can use it like I did last year as a math warm up each day.  You could put the book or multiple copies of the book and use it as a math center….the possibilities are numerous! 


Have you used Each Orange Had 8 Slices in your classroom?  Comment below and let us know how you use it! 


Check back here at The Blessed Teacher to read about other picture books I use to teach math!

More About Multiplication

Multiplication is such a huge part of third grade and I had such a great response to my post about the strategies that I  use to teach it.  So, I thought I would share some other resources we use in the classroom.

1.  Kim Sutton’s Number Line

I absolutely adore this number line!  The colored dots come with it which is a huge time saver!   I put velcro dots on the back of mine and each year as we learn about the different factors I place them on the number line.  The multiples of 2 all get a red dot, the threes are green and so on.  We practice skip counting by the different multiples and it helps ensure that they are practicing their skip counting correctly.  As my husband likes to say, “ Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect!” 

2.  Multiplication Wheels

I found this as an awesome freebie on TpT.  I copied them on cardstock and laminated them.  They are great to use as a quick practice or even as a quick time filler if we finish something early.  Sometimes as a fun twist I will time them to see how quickly they can finish.  I stop the timer when half of the class is finished.  I give everyone else time to finish and then we check our answers and I reveal their time.  The next time we practice that factor we try and beat our time.  We store them in a basket for each table and they can practice their facts as a fun when you’re done choice!

3. LOTS of practice during Centers

I love using math centers in the afternoon.  It gives my kiddos time to practice important skills and it gives me time to pull small groups to reteach and enrich.  I have all kinds of multiplication practice in their centers.  My newest is my “Hip, Hip, Array,” pack.  They absolutely love to use the classroom iPods or iPad to check their answers with the QR codes, and it makes checking their work much faster for me!

Click on the pic above to check them out!

I also have free Multiplication Task Cards on my Facebook page.  All you have to do is like The Blessed Teacher on Facebook to have access to the fan freebie tab. 

I would love to hear some of your favorite strategies and resources for teaching multiplication!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

Multiplication Strategies….Where Have You Been All My Life?

The other evening I shared a picture on Instagram of a stack of multiplication “fast Facts,” that I was grading.  The caption talked about the strategies by Van de Walle that I use and many of you asked if I would share them.  I will….gladly!  But first, a story. 

 

I was that kid in third grade.  You know the one, the teacher thought I NEVER practiced my facts at home because I just didn’t know them…at all.   The truth was that my dad worked with me nightly, in fact many nights ended in tears, sometimes from me….sometimes from him !  I just couldn’t seem to get those facts down and I was turtle slow at recalling them.  So, I was that kid.  The one who got pulled into the hall with every helper mom that visited our room.  I felt stupid and like I was terrible at math.  In truth, math just didn’t make sense to me.  I didn’t understand how or why it worked. 

Fast forward years later to a workshop I took on teaching multiplication to students.  I sat in the meeting with my mouth hanging open thinking that I wish my third grade teacher had taught multiplication like this.  It made So. Much. Sense!!!!  I have been teaching these strategies faithfully, every year and I have seen a huge improvement.  They aren’t the only way to do multiplication and my kiddos know that.  They know about skipping counting, repeated addition, they have lots of different strategies.  But, most of them will choose to use these.  They are efficient.  They can get to the product quickly. 

 

I uploaded a document explaining all of the strategies HERE.  Be sure to read the last section about the helping fact strategies, those are some of the most helpful!

I also have posters and strategy practice included in my  Multiplication…A “Monster,” Pack of Resources pack in my TpT store.  It will be on sale for the rest of the week for those of you who are interested in the purchasing it for the posters and strategy practice!  Just click on the picture to check it out!

I hope this helps with some of the questions you had the other night!  If you have other questions about how I teach the strategies or how I use them in my room, just comment below and I will get them answered! 

 

Have a great night everyone!

Whew….What a Week!….Oh yeah, and a Freebie!

This week was C.R.A.Z.Y. at school!  We had the Fun Run for our big school wide fundraiser, the high school’s homecoming parade, and door decorating for Red Ribbon Week.  Oh yeah, and we still had to try and teach some things!  I was chatting with my student teacher earlier this week about all the craziness that is upon us the next few weeks.  I feel kind of bad for her because there is so much going on during these few weeks that she has full responsibility.  However, I guess it is a good way for her to experience what life is really like this time of year in an elementary school.
Between all of the madness we did manage to do some work on inferencing.  Hands down, my favorite way to introduce inferencing is using Abby’s “Mystery Box.”  You can check out Abby’s blog about the Mystery Box Activity here.

My kiddos love this activity.
Then, a brilliant co-worker of mine showed up at lunch with a great third grade twist on the activity!  She used some pieces from Abby’s activity to have her students make a foldable and write clues about their favorite food.  So….of course I had to try it with my class.
How cute are the magnifying glasses this kiddo drew!


The clues were glued under each flap on the foldable.  On the back, students wrote their favorite food and covered it with the question marks taped on so that you can flip it up and reveal the answer.

Have you guessed what it is yet?

I love how she spelled tortellini!  Too cute.
If you don’t already have Abby’s Mystery Box activity, I highly recommend it.  It is a huge hit every year and something I pull out from time to time for a fun review of a super important reading skill.
Also new this week, we assigned our character pumpkin activity.  Students will be making the pumpkin part of the project at home and working on the character description in class.  If you didn’t download the project earlier, here it is again.  Just click the pic to download it for FREE!

And to round out my crazy busy week, I finally finished up my “Monster” pack of multiplication resources.
 
Just in time to begin our unit on multiplication.  This is by far one of my favorite things to teach in third grade math, I think because they come to third grade so excited to learn it.  It is 72 pages full of fun ways to learn and practice multiplication and it is all Common Core aligned! You can check it out at my TpT store!
I am off to watch one of my all time favorite bloggers, Cara from The First Grade Parade, on one of my favorite shows, House Hunters!
Here’s to the end of a crazy week, and the beginning of a crazy weekend!  Happy Friday everyone.