iListen to Reading…..and a Spooktacular Sale!

Daily 5 has been in full swing for a while now in third grade and I am still lovin’ it as much as I did last year.  Last year one of my biggest challenges was Listen to Reading.  Let me tell you why….
See this…..

This was my old listening center.  No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you.  Yes, this is a cassette player.  Now, I know some of you are probably thinking that I shouldn’t be complaining because I am sure there are schools out there with nothing for listening center.  I agree.  I shouldn’t. But come on people…..it’s a cassette player.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to find books on tape these days?  Not to mention, that when 6 kiddos are all gathered around the cassette player with big ol’ headphones on, it is a recipe for disaster.  So….anyways.  Last year, I finally got tired of the cassette player and when I switched from centers to Daily 5 (best move ever), I decided enough was enough. 
I wrote up my project idea…”iListen to Reading.”  And submitted it to DonorsChoose.org.  One of the greatest things to happen for teachers since coffee! (okay….it’s a toss up between that and Pinterest!) It took a few months, but by January my little project was fully funded and they were shipping me 6 ipod shuffles for my classroom!
So…..here is what Listen to Reading now looks like in my room….


Ahhhh….students peacefully listening to reading.  Being comfortable, instead of crammed around a table, elbowing each other and messing with the tape recorder.  It is truly a beautiful thing.  They absolutely love that they get to listen to an ipod at school and they think they are so special because Mrs. Wood got them through a special project just for them!
I have my kiddos bring in earbuds as part of their school supplies and they keep them in a baggie labeled with their name.  Each ipod is labeled with a vinyl number and is kept in a numbered bag with the corresponding book.  I only put one book on them at a time, the rest stay in my itunes library.  It really is easy to manage and I have so many more story/book options now!
Alright….off to FINALLY carve pumpkins with my own kiddos.  In honor of the holiday everything in my little TpT store is on sale through Halloween….no tricks, just treats for you!

Happy Halloween!

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.
 

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year…..

No, I am not one of “those people,” playing Christmas music already.  From now until right after Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year.  I love all of the parties, decorations, and fun memory making activities.  Of course, life at school gets pretty crazy for the next couple of months with assemblies, holidays, class parties, and projects, but these are the moments that my third graders will remember.  20 years from now, when they think back to our short time together they will remember these memories that we make.  I am sure you all have some things that you do every year to celebrate the holidays at school.  I have seen the character pumpkin idea all over Pinterest and have been waiting for October so we could do it.
Here is one of my favorites from Second Grade Shenanigans….

I tweaked the project a bit so that it relates to third grade curriculum. Instead of doing a full on book report my kiddos have to pick their favorite book.  They will make the character pumpkin at home and in class they will work on writing a character description, which happens to be our writing skill for the week of Halloween! 
Here is the little packet I made to use with my class. Click on the pic to download it for free! 

Can’t wait to start making some more fun memories with my kiddos this season!

Word Detectives

One of the skills that we are working hard on this week is using context clues to determine meaning.  I tell my kiddos that they are “Word Detectives,” and just like police detectives look for clues, it is their job to look for clues to help them determine the meaning of a word.  The first thing we did was work together to make this anchor chart….

Oh. My. Goodness…I can’t even tell you how much fun they had doing this.  I gave them the sentence and we brainstormed words that could fit.  Then I gave them the same sentence with additional clues that narrowed it down to only one possibility.  They LOVED it!  After we made the chart I read aloud this book…

Another HOMERUN!  They ate this book up.  It is filled with “alien,” words and they had so much fun trying to figure out what each of the words meant.  You can click on the picture above to see it on Amazon!
Finally, we went back to our desks and did an activity to practice using context clues.  They were lovin the made up words so much that we used an activity from my “Becoming Word Detectives,” pack. We used context clues to determine what zerples, ermps, and faffen might be.  It always makes my heart happy when I hear things like, “this is so much fun,” as they are actually working hard to learn something! 
 

Authors and Apple Pie

Happy Monday everyone!  We were back today for a “normal,” week of school.  Of course, there is no such thing as normal in third grade!  We have an assembly tomorrow to kick off our big school wide fundraiser and that is guaranteed to get them all crazy!

Today we started talking about identifying an author’s purpose during reading.  Not something kiddos usually get too excited about right?  Well, a little bit of gum and permission to chew it in class will get any third graders attention!  We learned that authors write for P.I.E.  We looked at some examples and made a “Pie Plate,” to help us remember.

While they were quietly working they were allowed to chew on this…..

Last year, when my teammate and I were lesson planning for author’s purpose she joked that we should bring in apple pie for the whole class.  Well, I had remembered seeing this yumminess at the checkout stand.  I know what you’re thinking….gum that tastes like apple pie…really?  It really tastes like apple pie, I promise.  All but one of my kiddos ate it up…literally!  I am hoping that this helps the concept of author’s purpose “stick” with them.
In other news, I finished up with my November Brain Boxes and they are now in my TpT store.

If you missed the post on Brain Boxes you can read about it HERE.  If you are using Brain Boxes in your room I would love to hear how they are working!
Have a great Monday night!

-Mrs. Wood

What a Day!

It was back to school after Fall break today.  What a weird day though, only 2 hours of school with kiddos.  Then it was time to finish up the rest of my Parent/Teacher Conferences.  I can now breathe a huge sigh of relief….they are finished, WooHoo!!!  So, conferences were done, classroom was clean and lessons and copies were done for next week.  What is a girl to do with some extra time on her hands????
Boot shopping and hanging out with my two favorite junior high girls (my daughters!).

Here they are, not exactly the riding boots I’ve had my eye on but these babies were on sale for 70% off!  I just couldn’t pass it up.  They are the most beautiful shade of tan, this picture just does not do them justice. I am hoping this beautiful weather keeps up so I have a chance to wear these soon!
Okay, I promise to focus now and get back to school stuff.  I struggled for many years with what to do with those kiddos who consistently finish their work early.  I want to make sure that they choices they are making are ones that will make their “brains grow!”  One day, while surfing Pinterest I came upon an idea.

I call them “Brain Boxes.”

My kiddos are crazy about them right now and I can’t even tell you how easy it was to make.  I spent less than 5 dollars at Dollar Tree.  The boxes come in packs of 10 and all I did was use a sharpie to number them. I keep them right next to my turn in basket, so when students finish and  turn their work in they can grab a brain box and head back to their desk.  I made an answer document and I copy it double sided so they finish 8 brain boxes before turning the paper in.  Click on the picture to grab the answer sheet.

  I try to make the brain box activities educational, yet fun and I am telling you they can’t get enough of them.  I just finished uploading my October Brain Boxes on TpT and I am working on the November ones.  Hop on over and check them out!
I am off to clean my kitchen and hopefully settle down to watch Project Runway!  Yea for it being Friday tomorrow!

Fall Break Freebies

It’s day 2 of our Fall Break.  According to Facebook we are the only boring family who isn’t at a cabin in the cool weather or at Disneyland!  I’m not feeling too bad about that though.  I have taken a few naps, gotten my booty back in the gym….finally, and made some things for school. It’s been quiet and relaxing!  We go back to school Thursday and have 2 hour days on Thursday and Friday.  I am guessing that a lot of families will still be in vacation mode, so I am not sure how many kiddos will actually show up for school.  I am planning on spending our short morning reviewing some things that are still troubling us…..namely rounding!

This one I plan on using whole group, but it could easily be used as center activity with a small group.  You can grab it at my TpT store and it’s FREE!
I also plan on doing some math centers on Friday morning so I made this little activity to add to the addition ones I already have.

It’s also FREE and at my TpT store! 
The only thing I will ask in return is that if you like it and plan to try it out please consider following my blog and my TpT store.  I am just getting started and it would mean a lot!  Thanks and Happy Tuesday to you all!