Last Minute Panic (:

Yes, it's the last night of winter break and I'm in big time denial. Still listening to Christmas music and eating chocolate peanutbutter balls. Must I really face a class full of third graders tomorrow?? What am I doing with them? I know I had almost two weeks to get my act together. There's really no excuse to still have empty spaces in my lesson plan book for this week so I had to laugh out loud when I read this comic. Is it only me or can anyone else out there relate to Calvin right about now during these final hours of winter break? Good luck finding your inspiration! Have a great day back tomorrow everyone!

Sunday's Words of the Week

Happy 2012! I love the feeling of a brand new year stretching in front of me. 365 days worth of opportunity. Opportunities to do amazing things...IF I chose to do them. The year lies open like an blank journal just waiting for me to write the words. So how will I fill it? What will those words be for this year? What will my story tell?

One of my favorite songs of inspiration is Word of God Speak.
The lyrics speak to me at this time of year:

"Word Of God Speak"
I'm finding myself at a loss for words

And the funny thing is it's okay

The last thing I need is to be heard

But to hear what You would say

Word of God speak
Would You pour down like rain

Washing my eyes to see Your majesty

To be still and know

That You're in this place

Please let me stay and rest

In Your holiness

Word of God speak

I'm finding myself in the midst of You

Beyond the music, beyond the noise

All that I need is to be with You

And in the quiet hear

Your voice

So let me quiet myself this year and just be still and know. Let me take HIS guidance and let my words tell a story that is positive, uplifting and meaningful.


Wishing you all the absolute best in 2012!

Poetry Station

Yikes! The holiday break is going by quickly! I'm starting to think about plans for next week. I'm planning for Lit Stations and coming up with some poetry to use. So I have some to share and I think I'll take this opportunity to answer some questions I've neglected to respond to. I'm no expert at any of it but here is what I do if you are interested.

How often do you do poetry? I introduce a poem about once a week. I usually do it as "Guess the Covered Word" (see previous post) which is a great way to review using context clues. Then students all get a copy which they glue into their journal. We chorally read it several times and perhaps add words from this poem in the Words to Know section of their reading journal. Sometimes we do: Actors and Reciters. This is where half the class reads it and the other half acts it out silently. Then we switch roles. My goal is to have them read it MULTIPLE times to develop that fluency. Kids just think it's fun and it allows them to get out of seats for a bit and be dramatic! Think of multiple intelligences!

What do you teach from the poem? Lots! Sometimes my grammar lesson comes directly from a poem. I can teach contractions, prefixes, suffixes, even comprehension skills like making inferences, drawing conclusions, etc. It becomes my Shared Reading time!

Where do you get poems from? All over! But I really try to have them fit what I'm teaching and many times they are content area specific. Sometimes I just google for a poem subject and usually have success.

What do kids do at the station? After we have used the poem in the whole group time it is ready for station work. When kids go to that station, they read the poem at least three times. Once with their partner, once with the earphones, and once by themselves. I have those amplifier microphones there too if they want those and can handle it! Then they illustrate their poem for meaning...I'm very picky about this part. It needs to be quality work and they are given a score for their illustration (1-5). The illustration shows meaning. They have learned that Mrs. Young loves captions and labels and often add those to their drawings. Finally they do the follow up sheet. They then do the follow up and do the search and finds etc. I also sneak some testing type questions in here. Plus it forces them to go back and reread again!
I also have other poetry books there so they can read more or collect some more for their poetry journal.

Here are two poems I will use next: The New Year's Poem fits so nicely with our study of fantasy/realism. We will add the words: distant and wondrous to our Words to Know section.

New Years Day Poem
Kids can relate to this one....text to self connections! This winter poem is great for teaching the -er suffix
Poem Winter Labels for the Poetry Journal if interested (:









Poetry Journal
Do you use poetry in your class? I LOVE LOVE LOVE your comments and emails (even if I don't respond right away)!

Where in the World?

Third graders are responsible for knowing a lot about a lot! I'm feeling the pressure of teaching them all the new third grade content plus reviewing all the K-2 social studies learning so they are prepared for the May state tests. One way I review mapping is by pulling out our floor map puzzle pieces. We do this everytime we are "going somewhere new" in our studies. We pulled it our when we were just beginning to learn about Greece and then again for Rome.

Kids love putting this together. We push back the desks to make a big open area on the floor and sit in a big circle, then put out one piece at a time and place it. Throughout the entire process I am reviewing latitude, longitude, hemispheres, continent and ocean names and cardinal/intermediate directions. We use yarn for the Prime Meridian and Equator and index cards with the names for the Oceans.
Then we use unifix cubes to mark all the spots they are responsible for knowing: VA, USA, Egypt, China, etc. etc. It takes teamwork! Kids who are participating well earn the right to place the pieces. Lots of motivation there! Everyone wants to help!

The pieces were done with big colored poster board. They are not laminated but have held up through the years. Using an old opaque projector is the way to go and this would be a great job for a parent volunteer!

Third graders need to learn continents around the world and what geographical features are found in each one.  My students go on to making their own atlas.  I am sharing these printables in a set I've included in my TPT store.  You can check it out here: 

My Own Atlas

Paragraph Writing: Main Idea and Details

My third graders have been loving our Ancient Civilizations Unit. We have been working on identifying Main Idea and Details during our reading block so it seemed natural to transfer what we were learning into our Writing Block and integrate some Social Studies too.

Third graders need to know the different contributions the Ancient Greeks made in the areas of architecture, arts, government and sports. So I had them pick one of these areas and told them we were going to write a paragraph with what they knew. We had just studied this so it was pretty fresh and current. We started with a picture walk through our social studies book to get some visuals in our brains. They then decided on the main idea and picked four details to support that idea and recorded it on the main idea table (see below). It was the one we were using for our reading so they were familiar with the table idea.

I did end up differentiating for this lesson quite a bit. My struggling writers were called to me and we created a chart of this table together. We discussed together and I wrote it on the big chart and they recorded it on their paper. This allowed me to help them use this graphic organizer successfully plus I snuck in some reteaching of these Social Studies concepts and words!
My high achievers ended up doing extra research. We just learned the basics about the Greek government so my skilled writers researched more about this topic to get more interesting details to include in the paragraph. This worked great and they ended up teaching this info to the rest of the class.
From the main idea table it was easy to form the paragraph. We revised and targeted the organization trait and then edited for spelling.
Our final step was creating the pop ups to go along with the writing. Here are the final products: My kids said it was 3D and thought that was cool!

Everyone ended up with a well formed paragraph and product they were proud to have hanging in the hallway:

I like the idea of these pop ups and they can be used for many different ideas. They work great for story structure: background shows the setting, the characters go on the pop ups and they can write about the problem and solution in the paragraph.

Here is how I cut the papers. You really need to use cardstock paper if you want them to stay up. I simply fold the paper in half and make two cuts as shown below.

Then open and pull out the pop up. I cut the bottom of the paper close to the pop up so it stands up better when hung. The bottom is just the ground that the characters are standing on.

Here is the organizer I used for both reading and writing:


Main Idea Table
I'd love to hear your comments if you are going to try this activity. How else can we use this organizer and presentation idea?

Sunday's Words for the Week

Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas Day with family and friends.