Writing Lesson

Earlier this week I started talking about voice when writing.  I find this a difficult task with third graders.  But the lesson today went so well.  I am so excited.  When I began talking about it, I used Scholastic's Trait Crate and introduced their lesson with How are your Peeling, and making a collage of faces from magazines where you can tell their voice. (happy, sad, scared) 
Today I followed it up with our first writing assignment.  My aid and I each wrote our own I AM FROM poems and I posted them.  Our reading specialist read them to the class so the class couldn't tell who was who, and the class guessed which poem belonged to each of us.  They were correct. 
I pasted out a brainstorm page that had the different categories we both used.  It was just a table, we then went through and the students identified the categories in our poems. 
Afterward, the students began writing their own.  IT was a great lesson that I can't wait to finish Monday. 
I am going to have the students publish their poems without names and have students guess the voice for each poem.

You can get the lesson here.

Kids, Parties and the Government

It seems like a while since I was able to post. It was a busy weekend. My parents watched my kids so my husband and I could have a date. It was pretty pathetic, dinner and shopping without kids. It amazes me what I look forward to when I have a 3 year old and 21 month old boys. The weekend ended with a baby shower, for someone I use to babysit, it made me feel old and ready for another.

But I was able to finish gathering the pictures for a pretty cool government lesson. I wanted my students to draw a comparison to the federal, local, and state governments and how our school us run. We created a tree diagram showing the four locations and the three branches. It turned out really cool. And I think the students were really able to see the comparison.

Verbs

I just want to say how exhausted I am this week.  It is our state testing and it is just an exhausting task.  I can't imagine how exhausted my students are.  One of my students told his mom that he was worried about me because I had to continually walk around and that he thinks that I would get too tired.  I thought it was so cute that someone was worrying about me, when I was worrying for them so much.

Working through my exhaustion I prepared this for next week. I created a series of verb activities.  I made a small poster and some activities along with the a center.  It seems that parts of speech is something that goes in one ear and out the other with my students, so I try to hit things over and over.


You can get the pack here.  I am having a sale at my store this week, so stop on by.

Testing

Today is day 3!  We are half way through our state assessment and I have to say I am so proud of my students.  They are all really working hard.  They love the little notes that I have been leaving with a treat.  The BIG donuts were a big hit yesterday.  Here is the little note that I made for the students today and I will be giving them a Blow Pop.

Motivational Note Day 2

The first day of the state testing is finished and I think it all went well.  The kids really took their time and I saw them using some of the test taking ideas I had taught them. YAY!  I just finished my motivational notes for day two.  They have testing all day so I give them an extra special treat and give them a donut as well.

First Day of State Testing

Tomorrow is the first day of your state testing, and I am already getting nervous for my students.  Which explains the beer near by :).  I just created these little notes that I am going to put on the desks tomorrow morning with Smarties.   AAAHHHH the pressure!

Each day I place a card on their desks with a little treat.  I always seem to start with this one.  What do you do for your students during state testing?

My First Linky Party

So I am going to try this out.  I have been in this blogging world for about a month now and I am really falling in love.  This is my first linky party and I am really excited.  I just hope that I do it all correctly.  This is for all the upper elementary teacher out there. 

Be sure to head over to Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies to check out all of the great blogs. 

Math Centers

Our statewide testing is coming next week and to give my students a fun "break" and review all the skills that will be on the tests I have created and purchased different centers to review all the skills that they will need to know.  My math class is all on the same ability level making the centers easier to manage a create/manage as many as  I am this week.  So far we have worked on:
Elapsed Time:
  I created a center that had 6 movie posters and a sheet to fill out.  The students pretend that they are working in a movie theater and they have to manage the show times for the theater.  I will post the worksheet so you can see.
   There is also a purchased elapsed time center from Evan Moore.  Students practice finding the finish times and correctly showing the time on a blank analog clock.
Graphing:
   Students have to create a graph given different questions.  I purchased this center many years ago, it was from The Mailbox magazines.  Students are to create a graph by following the directions and then redraw it on their worksheets.  There are then 6 questions for students to answer about they graph.
   The other graphing center had a pictograph, pie graph and bar graph and had the students answer questions about each graph.  The questions asked right there questions and interpret each graph.
Look for more posts about different centers. 
You can find the elapsed time activity here.

Historical Fiction

I just finished this packet to help in teaching historical fiction. In the classroom we do genre studies. I use the genre throughout my mini-lessons, guided reading groups and different centers.  I will be using historical fiction to teach the elements of the genre, problem/solution, and making connections.  I started this week. I was able to take my students on a hike, and during the hike we began exploring the genre through a grab bag of elements.  Along the way a student would pull out an element and we would discuss that element.  You can find the materials I created at my TPT store.  Just click here.

Beautiful Weather

I am so thankful for the weather we are having today in Pennsylvania, and for my school.  Only here can I take the entire afternoon and go for a hike with my students and teach along the way.  I am looking forward to our first spring hike.

Similes and Metaphors

I just completed creating this simile and metaphor packet that I have been using in my my classroom while teaching figurative language.  It has been helpful for my students.  You can get it here.  Make sure to rate it please.