We Like to Move It, Move It….

We move a lot in our room.  I have a class of 31 kiddos this year and 20 of them are boys.  We are an active bunch.  Any time we can be up out of our seats and moving around while we learn we do it!  This year activities like Scoot, Write the Room, Quiz-Quiz-Trade, Inside-Outside Circles and others have been my best friends. 

This week we reviewed simple, complex and compound sentences with some task cards I made and Inside-Outside Circles.  My class loves learning and reviewing this way.  It feels like a game and they would much rather do things the “fun way,” instead of the “worksheet way!”

Cooperative learning strategies like Inside-Outside Circles gives me an opportunity to walk around the circle, give extra support and instruction to the kiddos who are still struggling and hear what they are thinking.  Not only did they have to read the sentence out loud to their partner (fluency practice) and tell them which type of sentence is was, but they also had to use one of our favorite words….because.  They had to explain to their partner why it was simple, complex or compound.  Again, this was a great opportunity to listen to their explanations and see what we may need extra work on, what they had a firm grasp of and fix any misconceptions they still had. 

I uploaded the task cards I used and they are available as a free download, I hope that you find them useful and find a fun way to use them.  I included several different ideas.  If you come up with one that isn’t on the list I would love to hear how you used it!  Email me or upload the pic to Insta and tag me….The Blessed Teacher!  Click on the pic below to grab them!

 

A New Year….A New Beginning

I’m back.  I can’t believe how long I was gone.  It was a long 2 month hiatus, not really by choice.  More because of a computer malfunction that took me forever to correct.  Anyways, I tried not beat myself up about missing 2 months of blogging and creating but I really have missed it….and you all!!!  It feels good to be back.  And, there is no better way to get back in the swing of things than with Farley’s Currently…..my all time favorite Linky! 


Here we go 2015……..

Listening…. Currently I’m listening to the silence.  We had friends over for the New Year celebration and didn’t get to bed until after 1 this morning.  My teenagers, their friends, and my husband are still sound asleep and the breakfast casserole is in the oven.  It’s been a relaxing and quiet morning!


Loving……My family time.  Last year, we lost my father in law the day after Christmas.  Our break was a whirlwind of hospice and funeral plans.  Nothing will remind you faster about the importance of cherishing your family and the time you have with them more than losing someone you love.  Time is flying by faster and faster each year and I am determined to make the most of the moments I have with my girls.  2015 marks the year that my oldest will get her license (maybe) and take her first trip to New York City without us!  They are growing up so very fast.


Thinking……  When the girls were little my husband and I used to talk about all of the things we wanted them to see and experience “once they were old enough.”  Sadly, they are old enough but we are almost out of time!  Oldest daughter is halfway through her sophomore year already, yikes.  I really want to take them back east and show them where I grew up, we want to do a family mission trip, we want to travel to important historical sights….the list is long and time (and money) are in short supply!


Wanting……I’m afraid my wanting isn’t as heartfelt as the others…I really want a pair of Kendra Scott earrings.  I love jewelry.  I inherited that trait from my mother.  I love that you won’t wake up one day after indulging in tons of yummy Christmas treats and the jewelry will be too tight.  It won’t happen, jewelry is very forgiving!  Alas, I have a hard time splurging on myself and the mister and I had a strict no gifts policy for the holiday this year, thanks to the new dishwasher we had to buy on black Friday!


Needing…..to take down the Christmas tree.  Nothing more needs to be said, I’m sure you all understand.  I think we may draw straws this year. 


Yes….to getting back into a running routine.  I’m scared to turn on my Nike app and see how many days it’s been….ugh…


Maybe….to planning another trip with my man and another girls’ trip.  Last year we flew to San Antonio to see a former player’s senior night basketball game.  This year we need to plan on heading to USC for graduation.  My husband has another former player who is finishing his degree and we need to go help him celebrate! 


I wish….. I plan on turning my dreams into plans this year and making things happen.  My oldest will start driving this year and we are stressing out about paying for her insurance and all of the other things that come along with that.  My plan is to work hard on TpT, this blog, working on my craft and producing quality products that will truly help in classrooms.  I would love to be able to make enough to help with the growing costs of having two teenage daughters!  And don’t even get me started on how close college is to happening….yikes!


Well, here’s to 2015 and all of the excitement it’s going to bring.  I can’t wait to share another year of life with all of you, I love the blogging world!


Happy New Year everyone!
 
 

Visual Plans 10/13–10/17

I

I’m a little late to the visual plans party this week.  We had the day off of school today…..which means that I ran errands and did hours of school work in an effort to get caught up!  We also have an incredibly short crazy week this week.  We have two full days on Tuesday and Wednesday and then 10:00 dismissal on Thursday and Friday for Parent Teacher Conferences.  Oh, and it’s spirit week with dress up days and the high school is celebrating their homecoming and is bringing their parade by our school on Friday morning!  CRAZY!!! 

Remember to download the plans to have clickable links to the products I will be using this week!

This week is going to be all about review in ELA.  We will be using my new ELA Scoots to review spelling rules and compound sentences.

We started learning about determining the main idea and key details in a passage last week.  I feel like they need more targeted practice with this skill before we go back dive back into longer text.  So, this week we will be using one of my favorite resources. 

 

I haven’t quite decided how I am going to be using them yet.  I’m learning towards copying them on colored paper, making a recording sheet and using them as a scoot activity.  My class is in LOVE with scoot! 

I will only have time to teach math this week on Tuesday and Wednesday and can’t afford to fall behind on the pacing guide!  I found this amazing Subtraction resource from Jessica at The Teacher Talk.  Click on the link in my plans to go to her TpT store and check it out.  I just know it is going to be worth every penny!

Unfortunately, science and social studies will be taking a hit this week as well with the short days.  We will not have time for both so we will spend our content area time learning about the layers of the Earth and then eating them!!! This activity is a HUGE hit every year.  Who doesn’t love combining learning with yummy snacks!

Click on the pic to check it out in my store.  It’s one of my Top 10 best sellers and it’s on sale this week!

I’m off to do some more conference prep!  Have a great week everyone!

Introducing…..Create-A-Country

We just finished up our Social Studies unit on maps and landforms.  This fun project was created out of my desire to have my kiddos show me what they know in a fun and hands on way.  Our kiddos are tested. to. death….especially in third grade, and as often as I can I like to do things the “fun,” way.  So, Create-A-Country was born. 

The project required my students to use everything they had learned about the parts of a map and what they knew about landforms.  They got to be creative, which they love, and use salt dough!  It was definitely a hit! 

The letter went home on a Friday and I also sent a text reminder to parents through the Remind app (if you don’t use Remind, you should….it’s amazing!).  The salt dough came in on Monday, most of it in great condition!  There were a few bags of something that looked more like goop than dough, but a little more flour and some kneading took care of that.  I modified the directions for making the dough and clarified that it should come to school looking like dough and you should be able to form it into a ball! 

 We decided that it would be much easier for the kids to bring the dough already made than to try and make enough for a class of 31 (yes, 31) kids.  Not one parent seemed to mind.  Most kiddos said it took them about 5 minutes to make, and it’s only 3 cheap ingredients! 

On Monday we started off by discussing the project requirements, going over the checklist and brainstorming our ideas for our imaginary countries! 

Tuesday, we began making our 3D salt dough maps!  I taped a piece of wax paper to cover about 3/4 of a piece of long tagboard.  The part of the paper not covered by wax paper is where they would write their map title, map key, and compass rose.

We let the dough dry overnight and got to work painting and labeling our maps with our symbols on Wednesday.

They were so proud of how their maps were coming out that they asked if I would call and invite our principal down to see them.  He came down to our room and took a tour of our countries.  My favorite moment was when he asked one of my cuties why they were doing this project.  The student replied, “Well, you see, Mrs. Wood likes to do things the fun way if she can instead of giving us a test.  So, we are showing her what we learned about maps and londforms by making these salt dough maps.”  Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Thursday we finished any labeling or drawing that we needed to and then wrote an encyclopedia entry about our imaginary country.  They had so much fun getting creative about facts about their country and what their country is famous for.

Finally, on Friday it was time for a gallery walk to learn more about our classmate’s countries and then maps went home at the end of the day. 

It was at times a bit messy, but they did an amazing job cleaning up.  But, it was totally worth it all to see how excited they were about showing off their learning in a fun and hands on way!

If you would like to check out the Create-A-Country Salt Dough Map project it is now uploaded to TpT and on sale for 20% off through tomorrow!

Don’t forget to take advantage of my Sunday Funday Buy 2 Get One FREE sale!  Buy 2 products from my store and get a free product (of equal or lesser value)!  Just email me at jmwood614@yahoo.com with your TpT username, the products you purchased today and which item you would like free!

A Peek at my Week {Visual Plans for 9/15-9/19}

I fiiinnnallly feel like we are in a little bit of a routine.  We have learned all but Listen to Reading in Daily 5, have built our stamina to 20 minutes, and I was able to pull small groups last week!  WooHoo!  PTL for the small things! 

I am excited for this week for a few reasons. #1 as you are reading this, I will be in Flagstaff (yea for cooler weather) celebrating the wedding of our little cousin Shelby, who isn’t so little anymore!  Shelby was 4 when my husband and I started dating.  I’m feeling a little old that she is old enough to get married but we are so excited to celebrate with family!!!!

#2 We are working on one of my favorite units in science and cruising along towards a super fun culminating project in social studies.  In science this week we will continue our study of rocks and minerals.  We will learn about they types of rocks and how they are formed by completing this cute little flipbook.

Then we get to do candy comparisons!  We sent a letter home last week asking for donations of 3 types of candy and on Thursday this week we will enjoy 3 different pieces of candy and compare the candy to the types of rocks.

It is a super fun and hands on way to make connections!  If you would like information on this activity along with a few other rock activities, you can check out my “Rock On,” pack on TpT, just click on the pic below! 

This pack is also available in a bundle with 2 of my other popular earth science products.

  Click the picture to check out the bundle!

In Social Studies we are finishing up our maps lapbooks and moving on to landforms.  When our geography unit is finished I have created a super fun culminating activity.  I am all about project based learning and I would much rather have my kiddos show what they know by being creative and hands on than by taking yet another pencil & paper test. I will be posting it on TpT soon.  I want to make sure it is kid tested and teacher approved and that I have lots of fun pics to include before listing it!  

 

In math we will continue our work on multiplication and division and fingers crossed, math centers will be in full swing this week!

Click on my plans to download them.  After downloading the plans you will be able to click on all of the links and grab the freebies and check out the other products I’ll be using this week.

I'm off to the wedding now! 

 Happy Sunday everyone!

 

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!