September Snapshots

Here's a recap of what some of what we studied the 1st month of school.

One story we read in our Harcourt Trophies anthology was Turtle Bay, a tale about a boy named Taro who has a special friendship with an old man named Jiro-San. Everyone, including Taro's sister Yuko, thinks Jiro-San is strange because he spends hours on the beach listening to the wind and sweeping the sand. When Jiro-San reveals special friends--sea turtles-- are going to arrive to lay their eggs the children help him prepare by cleaning the beach. Science and reading were integrated when the class discussed the author's purpose in writing the story and the importance of taking care of the ocean. The children created Styrofoam bowl sea turtles, their limbs and shells displaying story elements such as characters, setting, problem, and solution for our "Sea of Story Elements" display...

 

The craftivity is available at my TPT store:
Turtle Bay Story Elements Craftivity

One of our 1st writing mini lessons was learning good writers "Show Not Tell" using descriptive language. Students practiced this by writing a paragraph describing a specific emotion they felt using vivid language. They then drew self-portraits revealing the emotion they were describing...

We then moved into our poetry unit. First, we created a "Poetry" bubblemap to explore what poetry is. Students created "Types of Poetry" flipbooks to learn about list poems, acrostic poems, diamantes, haikus, and limericks. The children used graphic organizers to generate ideas for their own poetry, including biography poems, "Fall is..." list poems, "Bubblegum" acrostic poems, and season haikus. Here's our "Fall is..." list poems...

our bio poem paper plate people...

and our "Bubblegum" acrostic poems...

 

 

In language arts, we studied the 4 types of sentences (statements, questions, commands, exclamations) and subjects and predicates. We're now learning about a variety of nouns. Students created "6 Types of Nouns" flipbooks to learn about common, proper, plural, irregular plural, and possessive nouns. One of the grammer games we've played to identify nouns was "Common and Proper Nouns Are Outta This World."  Each student received an alien ship and had to identify the noun on it as common or plural, then place it in the correct column...

The activity is available for free at Somewhere Between 1st and 3rd's TPT store.

 

"The Human Body" was our 1st science unit. The class participated in a variety of hands-on exploration to learn about body systems and organs. Some of the activities were attaching velcro organs onto a student wearing a body vest, creating body systems flipbooks, and creating paper bag bodies with labeled organs...



The unit also included learning about nutrition and the effects of drugs and alcohol. Below is the flannelboard food pyramid we used to identify which food group certain foods belong to...

It was a great start to the school year!
Happy learning!

Popcorn Descriptive Writing

Our descriptive writing creativity was popping when we wrote  narratives in which we pretended we were popcorn kernels about to POP in the microwave. The writing process began when students completed a 5 senses popcorn bubblemap. They munched on real popcorn for inspiration while they brainstormed.

 

 

 

The next step was using the popcorn bubble maps for ideas as students composed a first draft. After revising and editing, final drafts were written on popcorn paper. I mounted final copies on yellow construction paper and hung them on a bulletin board titled "3rd Graders Are POPPING With Creativity!" In addition, I hung a real popcorn container filled with yellow tissue paper and photos of the kids enjoying their popcorn.

The "Popcorn Descriptive Writing Packet" is available at my TPT store. It contains directions and printables.

                  Popcorn Descriptive Writing Packet


Happy learning!

First Week Peek

Woot! I've survived the 1st week of school! The 1st day was Tuesday and by Thursday I was running on pure adrenaline, but I'm loving my new class. It's filled with a bunch of cuties. And a few "interesting" personalities. But, that's what makes life interesting, right??? Here's a peek at the 1st week.

The night before school I "brewed" some Jitter Juice...

                                                    

 which the kids guzzled down after we discussed how we felt on the 1st day of school and read First Day Jitters...

 

 It was fun listening to them try to figure out what the Jitter Juice was made from. Then, we read a "Jitter Juice" poem and wrote a paragraph about a time we felt jittery under it. The poem and response will be the 1st page of our poetry folders.

 

 

Another 1st day activity was learning what a constitution is, then creating our own. Students signed and decorated pledge cards to display around it.

 

Our 1st reading activity was learning 9 strategies of good readers, then creating reading strategy bookmarks to help us apply them to our own reading. A bonus is it helps keep our place in our reading anthologies.

 

The most exciting event of the week was our "Can You save Fred" experiment. First, students created scientific method flipbooks. Next, they used the scientific method and teamwork to figure out how to save Fred, a gummyworm. Teams had to get Fred off his capsized boat (upside down cup) and into his lifepreserver (gummy ring) that was under the boat using only 4 paperclips. Teams created a  hypothesis to determine the best way to save Fred, then tested their ideas. Students made flow charts showing the steps and results of the experiment. And, ate some gummy candy of course!

 

 

 

 

 

In language arts we created 4 Types of Sentences flipbooks, then learned what a subject and predicate is. To demonstrate our understanding of these terms we classified phrase sentence strips as either a subject or predicate on the whiteboard.

 

 

I'm now off to get some much needed rest!

 



 

Currently:1st Day of School

Ack! I'm late to Farley's  par-tay! But, the 1st day of the September was my last day to soak up summer vacation and work on lessons before the 1st day back to school! Better late than never, right?
Soooooo...

Listening: Jimmy is interviewing Eva Longoria downstairs while I work on school stuff upstairs.

Loving: It was great meeting the new gang! And, seeing how much the old gang grew during the summer! I know that the 1st day or the 1st week or even the 1st month can be a "honeymoon" period, but my new class seems to be filled with a bunch of sweeties. I quickly assessed which students will be the "interesting" ones. But, that's what keeps life interesting, right?! Plus, we got through EVERYTHING I had planned with some time to spare. That rarely happens to me the 1st day back! Hearing some kids exclaim, "This is fun!" during some activities made me smile.  I'm also shocked I came home so upbeat and full of energy because after a somewhat mild summer in the 70's and low 80's we hit a staggering, humid high 96 today. Recess was hawt, people!

Thinking: I'm reflecting on how today's lessons went and what I have to pack in my teaching bag for tomorrow's and already planning next week's and some monthly and long-term goals and....you get the idea.

Wanting: A looooooong massage! The first day back is exhausting, friends!

Needing: I should be in bed because tomorrow's the 2nd day of school and from past experience I know that's exhausting, too.  However, I'm determined to post this before October rolls around!

3 Trips: This was a toughie because I love traveling. I've always wanted to visit Italy and experience its art, culture, and history. And say, "Delizioso!" after eating a yummy plate of pasta. I've also always wanted to travel to Hawaii and see its volcanos, beaches, and hula dancing at a luaa. The feeling is its strongest between January-March when it's gray and brrrrrr here. And now that I think of it, I would make those 3 trips stops on a cruise around the world : )

I'm too tuckered out to post pics of 1st day activities, but plan to ASAP.

Happy learning!