Back From Break Activity: Happy New Years Freebies

Can you believe Christmas has come and gone already? 

I hope everyone had a great one!
I awoke to this scene this morning...

Very unexpected and very pretty...but just about 5 days too early!

I will be back at school next week so the prepping and planning has begun. 

I love starting the first day back with something that will make my kids smile...and think a little too.  One of my very favorite children's poets is Kenn Nesbitt. 

Nesbitt’s poetry for children is “irrepressible, unpredictable, and raucously popular,” in the words of former Children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis. 

Kenn Nesbitt has created a site especially for kids called Poetry4Kids.  I have it on my students' class website and they love visiting it.  You can check it out here: 

Poetry For Kids

I will be using one of his fun poems on our first day back after break. We will glue the poem, 

Hooray!  Hooray! It's New Year's Day inside our poetry journals.  My students can work on their fluency by reading it three ways and then can illustrate and label their visualizations. We'll add some pizzazzy words from this poem to our word wall .  Words like: galore, distant, wondrous, anew all help to expand my kids' reading, writing and speaking vocabularies. 

I created a quick poetry follow up to go along with this poem.  Students will dig back into the text to locate proper nouns, compound words, etc. 

After reading all of the ridiculous resolutions listed in this poem, we'll have a more serious discussion about more realistic goals that my kids can make for themselves. By third grade, students are better able to understand that they are in control of their future.  We've been talking about mindset all year long and add a new mindset message each month.
You can find these in my TPT store.


Monthly Mindset Messages

Goal setting is an important part of  our third grade day. 

I'll give my students time to think and write about some attainable goals for the year ahead. 

I'll have them fill it out on this balloon shaped paper.  Add a string to the bottom and it makes a great display. 

I'll keep the New Year's theme going during math center time.  Students continue to need practice in reading and writing six digit numbers in standard, expanded and word forms. 

I'll have them work with a partner on this activity.  That way they can help "coach" each other. 

We'll end math time with a problem solving partners session.  Here students will answer a two step word problem, work on elapsed time and rounding.  These are all skills that have already been taught but that kids need extra review and practice with. 

I've updated my New Year's File on Teacher Pay Teacher.  You can access all these activity pages there. I've made it a FREE item so just click the link below if you are interested. 

Be sure to follow my blog / store.  I'm working on new files that will be upload soon!

New Years File: 2018

Please visit me at my Youtube channel where I will share more from my classroom!

Youtube Channel

Virginia SOLs and Ancient China: Learning About the Past

Third graders in Virginia now will learn about the ancient civilizations. Much of our social studies time will focus on a look at how these people lived and the contributions they made.  We started with Ancient China and my students are loving the learning connected to this unit. Of course we are starting with books....lots and lots of books! I checked out a ton of both fiction and nonfiction.

Here is our nonfiction browsing wall: 

And our classroom library: 

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We began our unit by recording our prior knowledge and then questions we had about this ancient civilization. 

Students are reading and researching during their "Read to Self" or "Read with a Partner" reading rounds during my small group time. 

We are dividing our learning log into sections for each of the Ancient Civilizations that we will cover. 

Students cut and glue note sheets that correspond with a teaching slide show I use.

Our learning gets documented along with maps we make and vocabulary word cards that students can use to study with.


We will work on some craft making this week and I'll be back to post how that fits into my day.
In the meantime, those interested in checking out the materials I use to teach this unit can head here:

Ancient China Bundle

A Third Grade Christmas: Integrated Book Activities

Hello All! Are you stuffed with stuffing, turkey, potatoes and pie? It was leftovers for the third day in a row around here! It was a great Thanksgiving and I certainly have SO much to be thankful for...like not having to cook for the last few days. Another thing is this super cute holiday shirt that I was gifted with. I simply love its message... keeping it simple is my mantra.  Wouldn't it be heavenly to have a calm and peaceful December? I am determined to keep my peace this holiday by focusing on what the season is about and not overcomplicating things. 

There are so many simple pleasures to look forward to. I'm excited about the month ahead and being able to share fun activities with my third graders. 

I absolutely love finding and sharing the simple gift of a wonderful holiday book with my students. 

We count down the final days before our holiday break by unwrapping a book a day. 

Here is one of my very favorite ones:

We are getting ready to work on summarizing story elements. This one will be perfect. 

Can you figure out the problem after reading page one? 

This one is such a HOOT!  It will delight your students and is a great springboard for so many other activities. Bonny Becker is a master at word choice and includes a great number of juicy words that can help to grow and develop your students' vocabularies in a big way. 

It provides great opportunities for your children to practice using their good reader skills and strategies such as predicting and inferring. 

I've created a reading response booklet to go along with this one. 

To keep the fun going, I found a cute crocodile craft to make with my students. 

We will read the directions first and try answering some of those tricky SOL sequencing questions first. 

My kids will get practice developing their fluency and expression with this poem as they ponder the problem of how to brush an crocodile's teeth.

Here are some other crocodile problems to ponder during our math block. 

I've bundled all these activities and more in a file and added it to my TPT store. 

You can find it here: 

The Christmas Crocodile: Integrated Book Activities

Do you need the book? 

It is on sale for only $7.99!

Click the link below!

The Christmas Crocodile (Nancy Pearl's Book Crush Rediscoveries)

Love the shirt? That's on sale too! I've added that link below as well.

Life is good Women's Crusher Vee Keep It Simple Trees Tee, Cloud White, Medium

What are some of your favorite holiday books to share with your children?

Please share by email: youngdor8@gmail.com

or comment below!

A New Must Read Children's Book

Has it really been two months since I've posted? The demands and obligations of our school life certainly have the power to take over our lives...if we let it. I've been diligent about not allowing school to overrun my life this year. However today I felt compelled to write about a favorite topic.  I ran across a simply marvelous new children's book and just had to share it with anyone who would listen.  It is called, What Should Danny Do?  by Ganit and Adir Levy.  It is an incredibly empowering book to read to our young children and third graders are at the perfect age to get and grow from this book's message. 

What makes this book unique and so engaging is its interactive component. Danny is the main character and he goes about his day and runs into typical kid type challenges along the way. The reader can decide how Danny should react in different situations and then turns to a certain page to read to find out how the action they chose leads to different consequences. How great is that?? You can watch and listen to a partial reading of this book here: 

Danny encounters real life scenarios that our children can connect and relate with. It hits home the important message that kids have power over the outcomes in their lives. They can completely choose the type of day they will have by the minute to minute choices they make. You must add this one to your third grade library. It will become a fast favorite!

Have you used this one in your class? I would love to hear!

comment or email me at youngdor8@gmail.com

Vocabulary Journal Materials and Words for the Year

It's hard to believe, but I've been teaching young kids how to read for about 20 years! In that time I've watched my struggling readers working so hard to get the words off the page only to then look at me with confused little faces.  I can get them to decode the words but if they don't know what those  words mean, it does them no good. 

We use the word "Click" to mean that things are clicking in our brains and we are "getting the text" we are understanding what we read. 

The word "Clunk" means the mind movies are not working. Something is getting in the way of our understanding.  When I investigate further and I begin talking about the text, it becomes clear that often the stumbling block has to do with word meanings. 

For that reason,  I've come to the realization that vocabulary instruction matters in a BIG way.

Implementing a solid vocabulary routine can help give our readers exposure to words they don't always pay attention to in conversation.   Tier two word knowledge is essential if they are to have success reading and understanding third grade text. After all, reading is thinking!

 I will be using a vocabulary plan to aid me in helping my students to expand their limited vocabularies. Without a spare second in the day, I'm working on making this a manageable and workable routine.  We will again refer to these words as our "Word Wiz" words and we will spend time working on these tier two words each week. 

We will record the words, meanings, illustrations, synonyms, antonyms and sentences in our word journals. 

We will add them to lanyards so we can wear our words and interact with them during meaningful and playful practice sessions. 

We'll add words to our Word Wall so that we can refer to them and use them in our speech and writing ALL year long!

I've offered separate sets of the Word Wiz Journal and Resource Set in monthly packs in my TPT store. I've added the last set I use to my TPT store this summer. 

Here is the March set.  I stop after March due to the need to focus on review. 

Click this link to access the final set:

Word Wiz Vocabulary Journal Words and Resources: March Set

I've also now bundled them ALL and am offering them in one set at a discounted price. 

You can check below for the link.  

Word Wiz Bundle: Journal, Words and Resources

How do you handle vocabulary instruction in your classroom? 

Would love to hear!!

Big Thanks and Classroom Decor Give Away!

Hello to all the hardworking classroom decorating divas out there!
I have seen SO many posts of creative, fun and inviting classrooms being put together
You all have inspired me so I'm headed in  to get a start on mine.   

I also appreciate the loyalty and love you all show to this little blog.
Third Grade Thinkers was voted as one of the top 100 Educational Blogs on the web.
How exciting!

As a Thank You I am partnering with Kristen and Jen from the Etsy Shop: Taking it Personally to  host a Back to School Decorating Give Away!

Kristen and Jen, both former teachers themselves, have made the decision to stay home with their young children and open an Etsy shop.  Taking it Personally caters to the needs and wants of teachers. Check out some of their products: 

They specialize in super cute personalized products like these reusable Starbucks cups: 

My favorite product that they sell are their door decals.  How awesome are these??

Our giveaway is this adorable "WELCOME" Door Vinyl Decal and quote.  

Entering to win this for your classroom door is super easy. 

Use the Rafflecopter below to enter. 

All you have to do is follow my Teacher Pay Teacher Store (link is below)

Teacher Pay Teacher Store

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That's it! You are entered!  

We will randomly select one lucky winner one week from today.

The contest will close on August 17. 

In the meantime, check out Kristen and Jen's shop. 

Use the code THINK10 for 10% off with no minimum purchase.

You can also click the link below:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/TakingItPersonallyAZ?coupon=THINK10

Poetry in Third Grade: Poems and Questions

Happy Monday!
I have another new picture book to share today.
This one is called, Daniel Finds a Poem by Micha Archer. 

I LOVE using poetry in my classroom. I use poetry across the curriculum in science, social studies and even math. My students keep a poetry journal that they glue all our poems in and they create "mind movie" illustrations or visualizations of the poems. We generally will glue a poem or two into our journals each week so by the end of the year they leave with their own illustrated poetry anthology.

So I was super excited to find a book to help me introduce the poetry genre to my third graders this September.  In this book, a character named Daniel goes to the park and finds this sign: 

He wonders what a poem is and walks around asking the animals in the park.  

They each give their response.

The artwork is also done by Micha Archer. Just beautiful!

At the end, Daniel goes to "Poetry in the Park Day" and recites the poem he put together using all the responses of the animals he asked. 

How fantastic!  

I love that this book hits home the idea that good writers are mindful of their surroundings. These days, kids and adults too, are so distracted....too plugged into devices of all kinds that they miss all that is happening around them. Good writers slow down and pay attention to sights, sounds and feelings. After reading this story, I'm planning on taking my students outdoors to write "Poetry in the Playground".  We'll take our writer's notebooks with us to record short lines that tell what we see,  hear and feel in our school's playground. We'll come back into the classroom to share and compile our lines to write our first class poem together.  

I can't wait to hear what they come up with!

I will definitely type it out and give it to them to put into their poetry journals. 

We do a lot of shared writing in my classroom. I feel it really helps my young writers develop their skill in brainstorming, composing, editing and revising. 

I created two poetry related pages to go along with this book.  

This first one is an eye spy page. We will search and find different types of words within this poem. 

This will help my new third graders review past learning and show them how writers use a wide variety of words. 

This page can be used with any poem at all. I will keep copies of it so my students can use it for a "Wise Choice" job or for a reading center or station along with a fun selection of poetry books. 

Here's another page that I will use when we have our "Poetry in the Playground" Day. 

You can find these two forms FREE on my TPT store. 

Click the link below:

Poetry Resources

I'm also super excited to say that I've added a new "Pack of Poems" to my store. This one is the fall edition. It contains autumn themed poems and questions. Virginia teachers know how important it is to expose students to poetry throughout the year. It is included in our reading standards and is assessed on the end of the year SOL tests. I have modeled questions to align with those found on these SOL assessments. 

You can check it out by clicking the link below: 

A Pack of Poems: Fall Edition

I've also bundled ALL my poetry packs and am offering them at a super discounted price!

This set includes over 35 poems and question sets.  It is a compilation of all my seasonal poetry packs.

Check it out by clicking the link below: 

A Pack of Poems: Bundle Pack

How do you use poetry in your classroom? 

I would love to hear!  Email me at youngdor8@gmail.com or comment below. 

I am utilizing Instagram to share ideas and would love to connect with you there!

Please click the link below!

LET'S CONNECT ON INSTAGRAM