10 days in...

I'm exhausted.

It's only two weeks in.

Open House was last week and I still haven't recovered.





In addition to ya know, teaching, I've sat in on a planning meeting for our upcoming Rodeo night, an ELL presentation, had a meeting about advanced students, had a grade level meeting, and gotten my room ready for Open House...by Wednesday.

Thursday morning I helped to lead a new teacher training, will teach all day, make a quick run to Sonic, and get ready for two hours of Open House.  

I've got amazing parents who brought me cookies for Open House:

 

Thank goodness Friday was already planned, next week is planned, and I've got a busy weekend ahead of me!

There were some late nights, but I've got this view:

 

In terms of long range plans and grade level plans, I'm already behind.  I was behind on day 2.  I'm not really sorry about it.

By no means have we wasted time in the classroom.  Instead, I'm in an adjustment period where I'm quickly realizing things in third grade take much longer than I'm used to...because they're 7 and 8 years old.  

In math, we've explored number talks, built problems with cubes, learned about arrays, and started making the connection between repeated addition and multiplication.  

I picked a student who was struggling to give me the number of items in each box.  That ownership and helping me make our reference guide was really important to that kiddo.

They've taken their first three "entrance tickets" (10% formative assessments) and are continuing to learn about math discourse.  Two of them went into the grade book.

In reading, we've built up our independent reading stamina, read several picture books,  taken our STAR test for beginning of the year benchmarks, reviewed fiction and nonfiction, completed sorts, and I've begun benchmarking for AIMSweb oral reading fluency.

In writing we've covered nouns (common vs. proper), friendly letters, and brainstormed ideas for our letter to ourselves at the end of the year. 

(The post-its were a spur of the moment decision but I like how the notebooks turned out.  Students wrote their own examples underneath the post-its.  We also got up and labeled different nouns around the classroom.)

I also used the post-its on the anchor chart:

  

Last week we began drafting our three paragraph essays and revised/edited with partners.  Final drafts are due Monday, but it's not for a grade. I'm using their first papers as a benchmark so I can make a list of mini-lessons the class needs.  We've also been doing morning journals (available {here}) and I'm slowly incorporating mini language lessons about restating the question in the answer, capitalizing proper nouns, and using evidence to explain our thinking.

They also built up their writing stamina and enjoyed free choice seating:

They've learned about summaries and practiced whole group (to My Mouth is a Volcano and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day), in table teams (to Thank You Mr. Falker), and individually with their books.

We've reviewed fiction and nonfiction writing. They also cut up extra book orders to sort into F and NF, which allowed me to go over procedures for gluing, cutting, and using class supplies.

We spent a few hours doing activities on Monday's solar eclipse and have most of our classroom routines down.  

We've already changed seats, know where our privacy folders are kept, and have our graduation count down board ready. 

We've established our sentence frames for talking to one another:

We've done some get to know you activities and brain breaks as well.  We've practiced gallery walks and structured movement in the classroom.  We've taken pictures, celebrated a birthday, practiced routines, and taken pictures in our class photo booth. We've reviewed assembly procedures and learned about our first fundraiser for the school in a popcorn assembly.

I'm not a sit quietly and do worksheets kind of teacher.  So while I may technically be behind 10 days in, I think we've done some quality learning.  That's what makes this worth while. 

First Week of Third Grade

There has truly been no greater meme then the one above.

I survived the first day of school.  More importantly, I did it without the aid of coffee or Mountain Dew.  That's right folks, you're looking at a teacher who went caffeine free the first week of the school year. Granted, a nap happened after school.  To be totally fair, a nap happened most of the first week.

I had every intention of coming home each day and blogging about what happened.  But those good intentions didn't get fulfilled.  I'll do my best to recap the whole week at once.

Monday, August 14th

Without an alarm, I woke up at 12:18 ready to start the day.  However, there was still a good five hours before I actually needed to be up and luckily I was able to get a little more rest.

I left early to grab Starbucks on the way to school.  Last week the front of the school and the nearby roundabout were torn up with construction, so I gave myself extra time.

I got to work and after finalizing my first day plans (which ended up taking three days to get through), I set up my photo booth:

We took a pod picture, but I spaced on getting a grade level one.  We ended up taking that picture on Tuesday. I also set out water bottles for their first day treats. 

Officially I have 23 third graders on my roster, but I have a push in student all day from the autism room.  24 is a great number.  Granted, I keep feeling like I've lost a good dozen students because I'm used to fifth grade numbers.  But nope, I just have two dozen kids to keep track of and it's a rather nice feeling.  (Right now, one of the fifth grade classes is sitting at 41 students.  I am so glad I switched.)

I went outside, met students and families, then we came inside to start our day.  Some teachers wanted to jump right in to teaching cursive and silent worksheets.  

We went a different route.  I explained breakfast procedures and had them write about how they were feeling.  We then watched {this Kid President} video to lighten the mood.

Afterwards, we talked about how we were going to help each other out and make this year awesome.

The first day was a combination of get to know you team builders and procedures.  We incorporated movement and practiced talking with one another.  One of  my favorites is "Find Someone Who":

Kids get up, introduce themselves to one another, and ask get to know you questions.  It incorporates movement in a controlled way, which they need after hearing about school procedures and class rules.

Lunch will be an adjustment this year.  I'm used to 12:15, but alas, lunch this year is at 11:25.  The kids get 20 minutes to eat and 20 minutes to play, but teachers are only contracted a 30 minute lunch.  I spend the first 10 minutes in the lunchroom on duty with my kids.  As a trade off, this means I no longer have morning crosswalk duty, which is a blessing.

For those of you who have never experienced the joy of lunchroom duty, it looks a little something like this:

And is best described in this {video}.

But in all seriousness, I spend half the time separating classes into two lines and walking around passing out sporks, napkins, and ketch up packets.  I often fight with sealed fruit cups and have spilled on myself every single day.  I have a new hatred for capri sun juice pouches.  

By the time my ten minutes of duty is up, I've lost most of my appetite.  Watching several hundred kids shovel food into their mouths will do that.  Still, I'd prefer the duty at the start of my lunch period because most of the other teachers have outdoor playground duty and well, it's hot outside.

We did read First Day Jitters on the first day of school and practiced procedures.  I allotted forty minutes for filling out agendas for the first time and going over back to school paperwork.  It was barely enough time.

There weren't any tears the first day, I got hugs goodbye, and as soon as the bell rang, I was ready for a nap.  

I stayed an hour and a half after school getting ready for the next day, grabbed take out (B had softball and I hate cooking for one), and was asleep by 8 pm.

Tuesday

I spent before school prepping these treats:

I ended up passing them out at the end of the day, but still. It's the thought that counts.  I'd also like to thank Costco for having the box of 54 rice krispies on sale for under $7.  Smaller class sizes means the hubs now has a lot of rice krispies to enjoy as a snack for softball.

We did a classroom scavenger hunt the second day (because we ran out of time on the first day of school).  It was a great opportunity to embed voice levels, team work, appropriate movement around the classroom, the location of extra clipboards (if they didn't bring their own from home), and challenges.  Plus involving students in this process means not only are they more likely to remember where something is because they discovered it, but also have a higher sense of shared responsibility and ownership in the classroom.  These feelings of ownership mean that (hopefully) they will take pride in our room and treat things with respect.

 They did a really good job with moving around the classroom appropriately:

They also worked quite well as a team:

To further practice team work, they learned how to do a sort with "No Way Jose! That's a Fact Jack!"

I created several dozen statements about third grade.  Some of them are true (that's a fact, Jack!) and some of them are false (no way Jose).  Students worked together to sort out the statements and explain their thinking.  The point of the activity was to dispel some myths about third grade and to practice team work.

After each table sorted their cards, they went to investigate how another group sorted theirs.  They couldn't touch the other team's cards, but had to practice complete sentence stems:

I agree with ___ because ____
I disagree with ____ because ____

We'll eventually post more, but for the first week, we're using just these two sentence stems.  I have a few kiddos that are ELL, so these sentence stems are a great way for them to practice and structure their responses.

We also managed to take a grade level photo (since that slipped our minds day one):

This is the first time I've ever worked on a predominately male team. It's an adjustment. I've also taught all the men about a few different technology components, so that feels nice to be helpful.  

We've split up planning responsibilities this year and I'm really excited about it.  Almost everyone is on board.  Our two newest teachers are planning math because the Engage NY curriculum is already scripted.  It doesn't mean they get off easy because of how copy intensive this program can be, but rather they get to read the scripted lessons and narrow them down to create lesson plans for us to use.  Two others are planning writing and I'm planning reading with Ms. H.  We moved down from fifth together and are quite used to sharing the responsibilities.  Language will be shared between us and the writing team.  We haven't talked about science or social studies yet, but have a grade level meeting this week. 

We also did a few gallery walks, where students use markers to answer questions that I've prepared on big butcher paper.  I use this as an opportunity to practice using markers, whisper voices, sharing ideas, agreeing or disagreeing appropriately, and moving around the classroom.

After each group visits each question, we talk as a class and make our class norms.  

We used math manipulatives in the form of cubes to practice solving math problems in a hands-on way.  I gave them five minutes of free play to get it out of their systems, then we used the cubes to solve problems.  Ms. S happened to stop by during the five minutes of exploratory free play and was delighted to see their towers:

Three tables built towers, one table built fidget spinners. 

We did actually do some math with the cubes as well:

It was a great chance to embed Number Talk norms and quickly assess some of my students' background knowledge.

This problem was awesome:

It was nice to see how they worked with numbers.

I also had student helpers solve problems on the board:

I didn't know all of their strategies (the ribbon strategy?!) but got it after they explained their thinking.

The rest of the week was a blur.  I napped almost every day after school.  We read the following picture books:

Ms. Nelson is Missing  

This classic tells the tale of a teacher who brings out her alter-ego when the kids are misbehaving.  Not only did we practice coming to the carpet, answering questions, and being good listeners, we also did a gallery walk about how we should treat each other and our teacher.

My Mouth is a Volcano

 
This is newer find for me and quickly became one of my favorites.  It tells the story of Louis who has a problem interrupting (erupting) others.  The tables turn when he realizes how it feels and how being interrupted hurts feelings.  His mom helps him with strategies for not blurting out.

First Day Jitters

This book goes through the typical struggles of getting ready for school, not wanting to start at a new school, being anxious about making friends, and is quite relate-able for students.  But *spoiler alert*, the main character is actually the teacher!

Thank You Mr. Falker

It's always a struggle to not cry with this one.  Patricia Polacco tells of her own childhood struggles to learn to read while dealing with family deaths, a cross country move, and bullying.  We talk about perseverance, bullying, and asking for help.  We also used this book to learn about writing summaries, which we practiced as a class and with table teams.

We practiced fire drills, took a STAR test on the computer, worked on our reading stamina, set up our daily response journals, and had some talks about choices. We learned about Class Dojo and they helped me create the categories for positive and negative choices.  Granted, I already knew what categories I wanted, but they were so excited to participate in making classroom decisions.  That buy-in from students is important.

They got new book orders:

I always give a few weeks between passing these out and having the orders be due to allow for pay day and students to do extra chores to earn books.  I put our class code and the due date on the book orders to make it easy for families.  I also gave them time to explore and get excited about books.  It's important and I get to see what books are on the "must have" list so I can use Scholastic dollars to stock up on things they want to read. 

(For non-teachers, every order placed earns teachers points.  I think if I place a $25 order this month, I get $10 free to spend on books.  It's quite nice to help me build my library.  Plus Scholastic's prices are quite low to make books affordable for kids.  It's a great system.)

We talked about how to care for dry erase markers and set up classroom supplies.  I print their names on sticky labels and use packing tape to secure the labels.  I usually do this at home and can go through the class set during an episode of Friends.

Alas, I do not do these classroom chores alone.

We made a T chart about what constitutes a nurse visit:

 

We learned about stamina and practiced independent reading:

We had a busy, busy, busy week.  I've gotten two love notes so far and lots of hugs.  Third grade is off to a wonderful start!

My Classroom

It's been a long few days and I'm not quite done, but without further ado, here is my classroom for the 2015-2016 school year!

My wreath:

I'd originally planned to hang it over my door, but I didn't like how it sat with the window.  I worried that if my door was slammed the wreath would break.  You can read more about the process of the crayon wreath {here}.

I made it stick out from the wall with strategically placed push pins:

My chair:

Not that I sit in it often, but this chair was a great investment.  I found it at Goodwill, store tags still attached, for ten dollars. 

My classroom command center:

It includes files that I need, our calendar, our Scholastic book code, our specials schedule, the treasure box, and my dropbox (where they turn in all papers to me).  Underneath the wobbly computer desk is a laundry bin that holds anchor charts and a pile of dictionaries.  I have bins under my dropbox and treasure box which hold math manipulatives and extra table supplies.  I wanted to make a space that was helpful to both myself and my students.  After all, it's not just my classroom.  It's our learning room.

I added a few more things to the wall beside my desk:

I just wanted to make my happy place a little more exciting.  The Eagles and stuffed eagle pendant are from my trip to DENSI 2015.  The painted V is signed by all my students from last year.  The YALE pendant is from my bestie.   The certificate is from Harry Reid as a thank you for my service (Teach for America). 

Our schedule board:

I purchased the border at Joann's and laminated it for durability.  The cards were a {free download} from TpT.

My banner:

It's from the dollar section at Joann's and is hung on my certificate.  I did have to add the twine myself, but thought this was adorable. 

My bulletin board:

I want to add washi tape as the trim for the tent, but it's mostly done!

Bulletin board letters:

This font is Swagger and downloaded from dafont.com.  I printed on scrapbook paper and hand cut them.  When I was done, several people offered me their cricuts. (Thanks gals, but before would have been better!)

Australia Cards

I love reading Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day with my students.  

Like Alexander, students have complex emotions and some times want to move to Australia.  These cards are a subtle indication to their neighbors to provide kindness and space.

Reading Ranger Goals Board:

I made the goals banner from a good find at the dollar spot at Target!

I also have my Harry Potter CAFE signs:

This {freebie} combines lots of my favorite things: Harry Potter, pink, and zebra print!

Here is one of their first day treats:

It's hot, so I wanted water.  It's healthy and I know there are no allergies! 

Tomorrow I'll be finishing my classroom, then doing my nails for the first day.