Preposition FREEBIE

When I was in 4th grade, my teacher MADE us memorize the entire list of prepositions.  I thought she was so mean!  Well guess what?  I still remember them and I happen to also LOVE grammar!  I guess teachers are right after all....  :)

I recently created a preposition list for students and teachers and you can find it here.  It's free and ready for you to download and use!  The link will take you to my little new store on TPT.  Don't you just LOVE that site?  I sure do!

Student Wipe-Off Pages

I have been SOOOO busy lately. What teacher isn't? Especially teachers who have children of their own who are also incredibly social and busy bees?  Oh and my golden retriever has been ill.  AAHHH!!  Poor girl.  Anyhow, I have finished 5 weeks of school and the time is flying by (enter airplane sound). 

 I love Pinterest. There, I admitted it. There are so many awesome ideas circling around. It's almost like that fantasy we had as children: you're outside and it is raining candy...just reach up and grab all you want. With Pinterest, you can pin all the ideas you want. For free. Wow.

 Anyhow, I made some "student wipe-off page things" (what do you call them???) from a Pinterest teacher.

It was super easy to make. The only trouble I had was making the duct tape "even" on the front and the back. I eventually gave up on perfection, because guess what? There will be a PAGE in the middle and you won't even see the front vs the back!!   :) 

 Here's what you need: clear report covers (they are very sturdy, unlike page protectors),   1-2 roles of cute duct tape (one roll makes about 12). That's it! 

 These can be used for any worksheet imaginable. Oh, one thing: you need to decide which side you want to remain open. I left one of the small sides open. You could also leave the large side open. It's your choice.

Happy creating!!!

Poetry

We've been digging into poetry and have had loads of fun reading them.  After writing our own rhyming poems, we decided to give 2 other poetry forms a try.  The first one is a limerick.  Here is our class limerick poem:

Candy Shop

There once was a girl named Mandy.

And sometimes she ate too much candy.

It was a real treat,

To have something so sweet.

The candy store sure was handy!

The rules are as follows:  5 lines; lines 1, 2, and 5 all rhyme; lines 3 and 4 also rhyme.  They loved this!

Here is our class alphabet poem:

Our Class

All

Busy

Classmates

Do

Everything

Forever

Notice the rule?  You begin with any letter of the alphabet and create one word per line with the next letter.  Oh, and it needs to "tell a story" or make sense.  Fun times!



Phonics Anchor Chart

I cannot tell a lie  - I love anchor charts.  No, I REALLY love anchor charts.  I am a visual person, and I think most kids like to see their learning on display as well.   Anchor charts also help me look good, because they remind me of what's what! 

It was actually fun (really?) to study vowel pairs, vowel digraphs, and diphthongs.  I'm not kidding!  I combed through their book to make this chart in order to put all of the information onto one chart.  We had this chart up for 2 weeks and referred to it during each lesson.  One day, we had to identify the long a sound in words and the kiddos were thrown for a loop when there were no vowel pair words.  I pointed to the chart and asked them which sound also makes the long a sound?  The lightbulbs went off in their little brains when they looked at the "ei" vowel digraph.  Gotta love those charts!!!!!  And bonus: they all performed excellently on their phonics test!  :)

Book Review

The 3rd grade class has had lots of fun learning about writing, specifically how to write a Book Review.    We took about two weeks and marched right through all of the steps.  The final products are ready for tomorrow's peer presentations.  I'm looking forward to that!  I think it will be the perfect activity after we come back from our ballpark field trip.  Imagine trying to accomplish a serious math lesson instead!

The steps are easy:  We chose a book, created a story map, answered specific questions for each of our 3 paragraphs, participated in a peer review, edited, and finally wrote our final draft complete with an illustration (or two).  Whew!  They gave their opinions, talked about what the character learned, and tried not to give away the ending. 

Here is the link for my free download: My Book Review

I melt for student artwork and here are a couple of examples from our final book review:

Leo the Lightning Bug - 3rd grade girl

Diary of a Wimpy Kid - 3rd grade boy

I Love You Blue Kangaroo - 3rd grade girl

Aren't they great?  I'm so proud of them!!!  We're planning on displaying them on our classroom bulletin board which is in the hallway outside of our room.  What's up next?  A Book Report of a non-fiction book!  Let the good times roll!

Gotta love a prefix and suffix!!

I've been completely enjoying my time in 3rd grade.  The kids are a scream!  I've been making anchor charts for them because I'm a visual learner.  I like to see in print what I am learning.  So, I just assume these kids can also benefit - hence the love of anchor charts.  I'm literally obsessed with pinning them on my Pinterest account.  Anyhow, here's my recent anchor chart for our prefix and suffix lessons coming up:

As you can see, I sorta ran out of room with all those suffixes, but it's better in person.  It's just a teaching tool....basically so I don't have to keep writing these things on the board each and every day!  I know my Phonics chart made a real difference with the kiddos, and that's all the proof I need!  It was so handy to scaffold the information from lesson to lesson, and class to class.  Frankly, anchor charts make me feel smarter and also make me look good...Why?   Because all I have to do to remind myself of the answer is LOOK AT THE CHART!  It's all about making things easier for the teacher.  At least, that's what I'm discovering each and every day.

Giant Book List

Well, I still have NOT heard where I will be student teaching and that is so frusturating!  I know I need to trust that God has a plan, but it's hard!  I promise to be a super help to the teacher.  :)

I just love Christmas.  Since this is the last holiday season not in the classroom, I am trying my hardest to simply enjoy every moment.  Among all the decorating, buying, and wrapping, I am making tons of little cookies, throwing my youngest a birthday party and planning for my grandmother's Christmas visit.  Oh yes, I'm also responsible for our family's fancy Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day luncheon.  No pressure. 

Now and then, I turn my head back to school things and I have finished my GIANT book list.  The categories I have included are as follows: 

                                                                               
                                                                               Comprehension (C in CAFE)

                                                                                Accuracy (A in CAFE)

                                                                                Fluency (F in CAFE)

                                                                                 Expanding vocabulary (E in CAFE)

3 ways to read a book

Places to read in the classroom

Taking care of books

Introducing book bins

Beginning of the year

Read to self

Introducing the CAFE board

Read to someone

Predicting

Schema/background knowledge

Making connections strategy

Questioning strategy

Visualizing strategy

Inferring strategy

Synthesizing strategy

Determining importance strategy

 

Whew.  I combined lists from online folks, different books, and my personal library.  Things are much handier when they are in one resource instead of little papers spilling all over our desk or online file boxes.  Thank you to everyone who ever posted a book list.  I probably found you and used something from your list.  The only credit I can take is the time it took to find, organize and type everything up.  Just email me if you want the list:  brooksandamy@hotmail.com

Bye for now!

Vowel Flower Activity

Well, I've been figuring out how to upload documents to a blog.  Good grief, but it's ridiculous!  Hopefully now I am all ready to go (fingers crossed)!  It's funny how a person can take so much time tweaking a bit of clip art because the print preview shows everything all weird.....

Anyhow, here is an activity from a beginning reader unit I created for Kindergarteners.  For complete directions, click on the Vowel Flower Activity.  The Vowel Flower Activity is for students who have just learned their short vowel sounds are are getting ready to read CVC words. 

The "A,E,I,O,and U" vowels are each placed onto a separate flower center:

After you have taped them to the white board or stapled them permanently onto a bulletin board, give each child some "CVC flower petals" and have fun!  Don't create the flower petals to match the colors of the vowel centers.  Just make them all white or random colors.  If there is a color pattern, the kids will notice that and forget paying attention to the vowel sounds!!! (they are so smart!)

Here is an example of the "E" flower:

Here are the empty letter examples:

A variation on the theme is to write the CVC words without the vowel.  The kids have to think harder, but don't forget that CVC words can become different words when the vowel is replaced by another vowel!  Here is an example of this:

This activity could become a center when you are finished.  The kids could also help you come up with more and more words. You could use this as a semi-permanent display to review the word worm periodically (see post below). 

Bye!

WORD WORM

I used to home school my kiddos, and this was a big hit with them. I plan on using this in my classroom; it's basically a variation on Word Walls. 

This friendly WORD WORM has a cute face and its body consists of circles with words the students can read. This project begins when students first learn how to read, so most of the words are CVC words. 

Just create a ton of colorful 3-4" circles. Make the first circle a face (the cuter the better), and the rest of the circles will have one bold word written on it. Tape them up and after awhile, the WORD WORM will circle around the room, up onto the ceiling, and the kids will be super excited about all the words they know! They can predict where it will finally end! This activity is a great motivator.

Materials:
-Dozens of 3-4" circles from different colors of construction paper. You can decide to use a limited amount of colors, or you may use as many colors as you wish.
-Sharpie for clearly writing each word
-Masking tape or other item to attach worm circle to wall/ceiling
-Head of worm: use one circle, make some eyes, a smile, and curly antennas to stick up (the cuter the better)
-CVC words to start, add sight or other as well

-Don't need feet!  Yea, less work!!  :)

Directions:
Using your CVC Picture Cards or existing word list, write each word on a circle. Introduce the worm to the students. Name him (or her)!  Show them the face and tape it to the wall. Show them each word circle and read them together. Tape them to the wall and explain the system to them.
Update the worm each time you have new words.
Students can take turns writing the words if you wish.

The photo below includes words from different categories to give you the idea: