I Heart Teaching Elementary: What We've Been Up To!

It's been a busy couple of weeks! We are finally done with beginning of year assessments. Thank goodness! Love being able to get down to business and I am pretty sure the kids do too. This blog post is a hodge podge of some of what we've been up to.

Our county's 3rd grade teachers decided it was best to start with the standard that covers representing and interpreting data first. We knew this was much easier than starting with larger numbers in place value and you can have a little fun while easing back into school. So we've been working on data with bar graphs, picture graphs and soon we'll be doing line plots. We've been doing notebook prompts and centers from my Dealing with Data pack. Here's a picture of one of my kiddo's completed bar graph center activity.

I love that these are low prep and all they need are a paper clip, pencil and dry erase marker. Keeps them busy when I need to pull a small group. If you are interested in either the notebook prompts or center activities, click the pictures below.

For word study I have 3 groups because I use Words Their Way for differentiated instruction. On days that the kids are practicing their words, I pull a group to the back table and play a game with them using their words for the week. The first game I used this year is Tic-Tac-Toe. I made and laminated the boards and the kids choose 9 of the words off their list to write in the spaces. I turn over a word card, and they have to say where in the sort it goes. Then using a dry erase marker, they write an X or O over their word if they have it. The first person to get three in a row is the winner. If we have extra time, I let them play until someone covers their whole board. The kids love it and it helps us practice the word patterns. I'm sharing the boards I made so if you'd like them, click on the pic.

The beginning of the year is all about practicing what a complete sentence is. We worked on subjects and predicates first and now we've moved onto complete and incomplete sentences. Since we worked on subjects and predicates first, the kids are having an easier time identifying the complete sentences. So today we did a complete/incomplete sentence sort in groups. They had to sort the sentences or phrases under the correct heading. Then once they were finished, they needed to use the answer key to check their work. (Forgot to take a pic!) I was really hoping to use the QR codes answer key that comes in my pack but unfortunately our technology wasn't working out. So we did it the old fashioned way! If you would like to check out the activities I've been using for sentences, click on the picture.

I'll wrap this up by talking about Reading. Once we did the beginning of year lessons like choosing a just right book and building up our stamina in reading, I was able to start conferencing with students. Over the summer, we were given a conference sheet that we could use. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for so I created my own using it as a reference. I copy 2 to a page, front and back and it saves a ton of paper. It's so easy to check off things and makes the conference times quick and painless. If you'd like to try it out click on the pic.