Sunday's Words for the Week Seeking Wisdom

Do you have a prayer that you find yourself praying time and time again? I am an extremely indecisive person so I often am seeking God's wisdom in decisions I must make. I have a big one to make and one that could change so many things for me. How do you know what to do? Which way to go and what path to take? I recently was praying for guidance for another situation I was unsure about and received the answer with such unbelievable clarity it took my breath away. It still amazes me when I think of it. There is no doubt for me that God will reveal the way to go if I will just be still and patient and keep my eyes open. How about you? Has this happened to you before? I'd love to hear.

“Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her” (pr. 3:13-15).

James 1:5- But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

I am reading the book, "God's Will" right now. Is anyone familiar with it? I'm just starting it but it seems good.

Another prayer I have is one for a little boy in my class. We found out on Friday that he is leaving suddenly and will start a new school on Monday. My kids have tender hearts and they immediately broke down and started crying which of course made me tear up so by the end of the day we were all bawling. He sat stone faced. I could tell he was scared and trying hard not to feel. It broke my heart. I know there are bigger prayers out there but if you can squeeze a prayer in for him it would be so appreciated!

Wishing you a peaceful week.

Doris

Connecting Reading and Math

Do you ever need to move on to the next concept even though you know your kids aren't quite ready? Wish I could sit on multiplication a bit longer but according to the pacing calendars I needed to move on over a week ago...Yikes! My kids are already looking dazed and confused!

I'm hoping to ease them into division with some concrete hands on experiences to make it more meaningful and keep them engaged. I'm using literature and these wonderful books to help them understand what it is all about. Love how I can sneak some reading into math! These are awesome books and they have them for all sorts of math concepts.... I introduced the whole concept of division as sharing with the book, The Doorbell Rang. So cute and kids could relate to the idea of sharing. We read and discussed the math throughout this book.

After reading the book, the kids got cookies (cookie crisip cereal) and worked on dividing the cookies.

I led them through this activity so I could continuously make the connections between what they were doing and what we had just learned about multiplication.

Those who were productively working got the right to eat their cookies afterwards.

Here is the recording sheet I made for this activity if you would like it:

Division as Sharing

The next step is to give them experience with division as repeated subtraction. Here is the sheet I made up for this one. I'm using it on Groundhog's Day. Another way third graders can get the holiday in and still keep up with the curriculum!

Here it is if you would like to sneak it in as well....Have fun!

Division Groundhog

Groundhog's Day and Poetry

Groundhog's Day is one of those holidays that just sneaks up on me. I'm swamped in curriculum and am ready to start heavy units like the Explorers but will find a way to work the Groundhog in somewhere.

One place that seems to work well is in poetry. I love that poetry is short and manageable but hits so many of my language arts and sometimes content objectives. We'll be looking at how good writers vary their sentence length using this poem. Lots of long and stretchy sentences in this one. We will look at this poem with both our reader's and writer's eyes. We'll highlight pizzazzy writing like the description of the "leafy bed" and the word "glorious". Here is the Sentence fluency target we are trying to hit. We refer to these posters all the time! We'll definitely work on reading with fluency with this one. Some expression too as the groundhog is speaking throughout this one. Good poem for reviewing the quotation mark.

Here is the poem and follow up. As shown on the picture above (different poem) my students cut the poem off and glue it into their analogy and add their own illustration and labels or captions. The follow up is filled out and graded by me.

Poem Groundhog

Please feel free to use this one. Comment or email if you get a chance to let me know so I know if people want me to keep posting the poems. I do one almost every week. I can start posting them once a week if people want them.

Sunday's Words For the Week: Creating a Retreat

I would say many of us would get the same diagnosis at this point in the year! From the response of last Sunday's post I can tell that teachers are as stressed as the kids these days. We're half way through the school year yet have so much more teaching to go. The pressure to get kids ready for their next school step is real and weighing heavily on many of our minds.

So how can we deal with it all without making ourselves crazy or taking it out on our families? I must say that I rely on the teachings found in this book to help me manage the stress and busyness that is my life.

Here is an excerpt on stress and rest: God commands us to rest (Exodus 16:23) So how can we tap into this rest? Simply abide. To rest, I have only to shut out the distractions of the world,draw deep within, and commune with the Lord in the quiet center of my heart where He resides. Though winds of conflict and waves of busyness assail me, I rest safely in the arms of the One who whispers, "Peace, be still."

Lovely words. It is during these quiet moments that I find I am best able to find peace with the stress and change my thoughts and attitudes and make the choice to let the stress go and trust in what is to come.

In my book study class, we talked about creating a home retreat or sanctuary in which to go to find this peace. A bunch of us are creating and sharing our ideas with each other. Mine is simple, a cozy window seat with things nearby that I love and find comfort in like family pictures, books of inspiration, candles, music. It is a place I go to pray and seek God's guidance. Do you have such a place in your home. Do you think it would help if you did? Please join and show us your home retreat.
Please link up and show us a picture (I'll try to show mine next week) or email and tell us about it.

Spin a Story and Sequencing

I don't know about you, but these short weeks are killing me! I mean we had a workday on Monday and only four days with kids but I'm exhausted! I need a snowday something fierce, something like THIS maybe:

Wow, can you imagine? We'd be out until May around here! I'm a bit bitter, we haven't had ANYTHING to speak of and it's already the end of January! So instead of playing in the snow, I'm hanging out with my students trying to teach them a thing or two about Energy. I'm whipping through this unit and trying to tie some language arts into it all.

I like using these reuseable anchor charts with these gigantic post it notes that we can fill out but then remove so we can do it again and again with other stories. Here is our sequence chart for The Story of Fern the Fossil and How Coal is Formed. We sequence using a Thinking Map of course. This one is the sequence chain. Perfect for retellings:

My students used the "Spin A Story" wheel to retell the events in the order in which they happened. There is just enough room in each section to tell the main point and draw a picture. I like that because we are leading up to Summarizing where you only give the "gist" of the story.

More examples of their great work...will they remember it for the Benchmark Test this week??

We're talking a lot about increasing the quality of our work since we are getting closer to fourth grade. Maybe I'm rushing it a bit but with high fifty degree weather, it feels like spring this week. Anyway, this one did a great job.

Here is the wheel in case anyone would like it. I ran it on tag so it would hold up better.

Scan 0011




Scan 0010
Have a great end of the week!

Sunday's Words for the Week

The first month of 2012 is FLYING by! I found this and loved it! It's hanging on my bulletin board in my home office where I can see it everyday. Well, I didn't pick a great week to begin my focus on my 2012 goal of "live in the moment". I was sick and my moments were filled with flu like symptoms! My kids did a good job putting up with a teacher who couldn't get through a lesson without a coughing fit and one who gave far too many independent activities. A sweet moment came when a boy entered the room one morning, looked at me and said, "Oh thank God! I was sure we were going to have a substitute!" He then proceeded to greet kids as they came saying, "It's OK guys, Mrs.Young's here." Honestly, I was touched. I wouldn't have wanted me for a teacher last week! (:





I try to go for a good run every day if I can. Last week I was doing good just to drag myself out the door and into my classroom. I missed my workouts and felt myself getting crankier and crankier. I got back on the treadmill this weekend and am a new person!

So true for me! Do you think this works for our students too? In the book, "The Highly Engaged Classroom", Robert Marzano shares research that indicates that programs which promote physical movement have a positive effect on students' ability to attend and focus.

He mentions a school that created an "Exer-learning Lab" that is equipped with treadmills and stationary bikes connected to video consoles. Selected students with academic concerns spend time here prior to reading to help them focus better when back in the classroom. What do you think about that?

I wanted to finish this post by mentioning Rachel's word for 2012 posted in the comments last week. It is BREATHE! I loved it...awesome! It made me think of what a great destressing strategy just breathing is! I got a chance to hear someone speak on High School Student Stress a few years back. She shared the 1-3-10 strategy with us. Do you know of it? I train my students to use it in the beginning of the year. It uses slow breathing as a way to help students deal with school stress and to get them ready to learn. I use it if the energy level is too high in the classroom, like sometimes after recess or lunch or if we are ready to learn something new and hard. (Or sometimes if their teacher is feeling stressed and needs it!) It really does work. Here are the steps below if you want to give it a try:
One Three Ten

How about you? Do you have a calm down strategy that you use with your students? I'd love to hear!!