It’s the start of another year, and thankfully this year I don’t have to have completely separate tables/desks spaced 6 feet apart. A year of that was PLENTY! Even though there are still spacing protocols in place, my classroom feels more like a classroom this year, and for that I am grateful. While last year was crazy and chaotic with all of the changes yet monotonous and dull being stuck at the front of a room keeping eyes glued to a Zoom screen while trying to interact with my in-person learners, it certainly pushed me to try some new things. […]
Category: Third Grade
One of the bulletin boards I always set up at the beginning of the year is my Greek and Latin Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes board. It starts out blank, but by the end of the year, it is packed with cards and we refer to it quite often as we are reading or discussing vocabulary. Some years I just add cards as we go, sometimes I post them by word part, and one year we had so many cards that I took them down halfway through the year and put them back in alphabetical order. I’ve been adding new cards
This laptop cart has been quite a project! Getting all of the parts that fit the way I wanted to hold the computers was no easy feat! I needed the cart from IKEA specifically so the middle shelf could be adjusted… and that took about a month to get here. Luckily, I found some cheap file folder holders at Ocean State and zip ties at the Dollar Store. Amazon had the colored washi tape and power strips that could hold a bunch of wide plugs. Then a few laptops had plugs on the top, others were too big for the
Instead of welcome letters, I’m keeping things short and sweet and sending welcome postcards this year. I don’t quite have all of my ducks in a row with third grade, fourth grade, in-person learners, virtual learners, individual materials, and two classrooms that look very different from what I’m used to. (Breathe!) But, here they are, the postcards to welcome a new set of students to another year. That last part is the part that makes me smile. 🙂
I still don’t know what our school has planned as far as in-person, virtual, or hybrid learning. But I know that at some point we will be back in the building. So, in preparation, I created a set of social distance greeting signs. Hopefully, they will help students connect with one another, even while being far apart. In past years, I’ve tried doing the individual greetings with each child, but I was never great at remembering what steps there were for each child. I’m thinking I may try it again this year, and with a visual reminder of the choices,
I love anchor charts. I hate hanging anchor charts on my walls. They either take up precious bulletin board space, or they constantly fall down (or just wave at me from one droopy corner). So, a few years ago, I created a set of mini anchor charts for my tables using IKEA’s Tolsby Frames. After much frustration to get everything just the right size, I finally had a small set of charts. Multiplication chart, synonyms for overused words, math talk stems, commonly misspelled words, and more. And I also made some cute motivational cards to keep it fun and positive!
A friend asked if I had ever used or created printable Post-Its to use in my classroom. A logical question, since I do love Post-Its! While I had never printed on them before, my curiosity was piqued and I was on it the next morning! It took a few days, but I finally had a full set of printables that I could see myself using in the classroom (whenever we head back, that is!) Positive notes of praise, notes of encouragement to keep going, sentence starters for those days when I want to be more specific, writing checklists (my stamp
DIY Project #1: I was cleaning out some old kindergarten supplies and came across the purple drawer container which used to house all of my alphabet stamps. I thought it could be a cute desk holder for all of those knick-knacks that get cluttered around, so I brought it home for a little TLC. I peeled off all the old ABC stickers and gave it a good cleaning, printed out some new labels and taped them on (I would have put them on the inside, but the label goo didn’t come off), and then painted the outside with an acrylic
Last fall, I did a Gratitude Journal with my students. Every day, for 42 days in a row, they had to write down 3 things they were grateful for, or write about how they were grateful that day. At the end, they did two short reflections. For students who are used to only having homework Monday through Thursday, there was a bit of a grumble at the beginning when they had to do work on the weekends. But by the end, many were sad to see the project end. Here are a few things my students said they were grateful
We have a program at my school where students are encouraged to set weekly goals, and long term goals. I find that after a while, kids set the same goals week after week. “I want to pass my math fact test” or “I want to read x number of minutes.” I am also a teacher who likes to present extra optional challenges to my kids, and sometimes they are accepted, and other times ignored. We also do the MindUP program, which encourages qualities such as optimism, gratitude, perspective taking, happiness, etc. Some tricky concepts for some children! If only I