Help Us Start Daily 5!

I apologize for the lack of updates. We were crazy busy all year preparing for, among many other things, the PARCC (which is now GONE in Ohio... Hallelujah!) I have finished my second year of teaching. In August, I'll start year THREE in third grade. I have completely fallen in love with third grade and can't wait to get back in a routine and post our activities and ideas regularly. One thing I'm trying for the first time this year is Daily 5. I have been studying the book and I am so excited to implement this with my students! We could really use some extra resources to use during Daily 5. I would like for my students to have portable CD players for Listen to Reading, some soft, small rugs for Read to Someone, and engaging puzzles and task cards for Word Work. I wrote a project request on Donors Choose to get some great Daily 5 materials! My project has't had any donations yet, and Wednesday (July 15th) is the last day to use the code SPARK to get your donation DOUBLED! July 15 also happens to be my birthday! My project getting a nice jump start would be the greatest birthday gift ever! Here's the link to our awesome project... www.donorschoose.org/misskuhn **EDIT- I am having trouble getting the link to work. You may search for our project using our zip code, 45764, and it will be the first one listed in the search results. You may also search for our project name... BLAST OFF to a Successful Daily 5 in Third Grade. Thanks! Have a wonderful week!

January Currently

I'm sorry for not posting in ages! I'm going to try to do better in 2014. ;)

Joining the Currently fun with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade

On another note, I have officially created my first TPT product. It is a pack of four Common Core Language Arts centers for third grade. They are all New Year's themed. I would be so, so, so appreciative if you check it out. Thanks :) 

Here it is: 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/New-Years-Literacy-Centers-1036373

Hope your New Year is wonderful! 

Our Schedule

Hi Teacher Friends!

We've been very busy this week in third grade. We have been learning about rocks and fossils in science. I have lots of pictures to share of the projects we've been doing with that. We are also finishing up our addition chapter in math.

I thought I'd stop in for a quick post tonight and give you a peek at our daily schedule. This is a very rough schedule and it's not uncommon for us to change our plans on the spot. I try to stick as close to this as possible.

8:30- Kiddos start arriving and go to breakfast. After breakfast, they start their morning work, which is a math and reading common core practice page. Here's a link to the math one: http://www.amazon.com/Common-Core-Math-Today-Grade/dp/1624426018/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1380756471&sr=8-2&keywords=common+core+4+today

9:00- Announcements, Pledge of Allegiance, Star Spangled Banner and School Pledge

9:05- We work together to go over the common core sheets mentioned earlier

9:20- Restroom break

9:25- Whole group Language Arts from the Wonders reading series

10:40- Specials (PE, library, music or keyboarding)

11:20- Read Aloud

11:35- Lunch

12:05- Recess

12:40- Checklist work and small group reading. Most kids work on a weekly checklist while I have guided reading with small group. The checklists usually include practicing spelling words in various mediums, writing in journals, reading silently, doing comprehension worksheets and taking AR tests. The kids have all week to finish the checklists. I usually only get to one or two guided reading groups each day.

1:10- Cursive. Yes, I know it's not  on common core. But we still like to expose them to it. It's not for a grade, we only do a few lines a day, and they absolutely LOVE it.

1:20- Math. We're using McGraw Hill My Math and I am so obsessed with it

2:20- Science or Social Studies

2:50- Daily Points. OWL binders, pack up

3:05- Read Aloud

3:15- Dismissal

Well that's our crazy day. It took a few weeks, but we've finally settled into a routine and it feels so nice. I also do two or three brain breaks throughout the day. I'll put on a song like Tooty Tah and we dance. Fridays are the kids' favorite brain break days because we do the Cha Cha Slide for one of them.

Know what else my kids like? That silly little Geico Hump Day commercial. On Wednesdays, if we are quiet and responsible all day, we watch that video in the last few minutes before dismissal. I hope all of YOU had a great Hump Day too!

The Quiet Game

Good Evening!

I'm sorry for neglecting you all for so long. Between pre-assessments, diagnostic tests, establishing routines, open houses, assemblies and more, I kind of lost track of time and put blogging on the back burner.

I wanted to share one of my very favorite behavior management strategies ever with you.

Behold the Quiet Game.

We all have times when you're waiting with a group of kids in the hallway. Maybe waiting for 3 or 4 stragglers to finish up in the restroom, maybe waiting for the previous class to finish so you can lead your kids into the library, whatever.

To keep everyone quiet during those times, we play the quiet game. It's so easy. I start by picking the friend who is being the most quiet. Then, he or she becomes "it" and picks the friend who is being the most quiet. And so on. You would NOT believe how much my kids love this game. They BEG to play the quiet game. Every other group of kids I've ever tried it with have gotten bored with it after about two days, but these guys love it.

We get SO many compliments from other teachers for being quiet in the hallway. I have the quiet game to thank for that!

Hope you can use this with your kids and hope you have a wonderful week!

My Classroom!!

School starts tomorrow! I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting at graduation. I am so excited to meet my sweet third graders! 

After many, many late nights, my classroom is ready to go! My theme is owls and bright colors and I am so happy with how it turned out!

Without further ado, here is my first ever classroom! 

This is my door! I cut the tree out myself and painted the leaves on. The owls in the window have the kids' names. The curtains are noise-reducing and I found them at Walmart! 

This is the view when you walk through the door!

My computers are to the left when you walk in. The green bulletin board will hold our rules once we make them together on the first day. The pocket chart will be our schedule. 

This is where I will write our daily objectives for each subject. I cut the letters on my cricut. 

This is my desk. The red bulletin board is for my schedules, notes etc. The top of the green shelf behind my desk now has some pictures of my friends and family. I just hadn't added them when I took this. 

I'm really proud of this part. I originally saw it on Pinterest and modified it a bit. The kids' names are on the magnets. As long as they complete their homework, their names will stay in the club. A missed homework assignment will mean taking the name off of the board. At the end of the month, anyone who is left in the club will get lunch with me. 

The kids will go to this check-in station when they arrive in the morning. They will put their homework in the tray and their binder in the basket. I'll have a post on my binder system coming soon. The right side of the table holds my supplies to share with kiddos who don't have their own.

This is my guided reading table. 

My cabinets. All of the reading posters are from Really Good Stuff, which I am completely obsessed with. 

This is my behavior chart that I shared in an earlier post. 

 I love this cart. I got it for Christmas. The letters were cut on the cricut and stuck on with Mod Podge. 

This is the board behind my library. The tree on the right is my job chart. The kids' names will be on little owls and go inside the houses. My calendar is on the other side. We won't be having a full calendar meeting, but I couldn't resist putting one up for reference. 

My rug! It took me forever to find one I wanted. I like the look of the color blocks, but most of the ones I found were ABC and I wanted something a little more "grown up". After weeks of searching, I found this multiplication/division rug at Toys R Us. It's perfect for 3rd grade! 

My shelves full of books! I wanted to share a little story about the shelves. My awesome cousin actually had this classroom before me. She is now the principal of our school (and she so deserves it). She gave me everything that was in her classroom, but my most favorite would have to be the shelves. Her dad (my uncle, obviously) made them himself. They are perfect and so much sturdier than anything that could have come from a store. I love that such a special family keepsake is in my classroom!

Long before I had a classroom of my own, I decided that I wanted this beautiful quote to be the centerpiece of my library. It means the world to me and I can't wait to put many, many stories into the hearts of my sweet  little ones big kids! 

My chair and easel

Kids' names on the lockers. We have 12 lockers per room, so they share them. 

Owl curtains! For you fellow owl lovers, they're at Walmart. 

Inside of my door. The top poster is for bus lists and the bottom is for upcoming events!

That's it! Thank you for reading! Our first day of school is TOMORROW! I'm sure I'll have lots of stories to share with you then! 

Owls Behavior Chart

I had never planned on having a theme for my classroom. That is, until Pinterest came along and I saw so many precious things that I just couldn't resist.

I (like many of you, I'm assuming) have jumped on the Owl bandwagon. I also have a lot of materials with polkadots and stripes, so my self-titled theme is going to be "Owls and Bright Colors." Original, I know. ;)

Tonight I made a behavior chart. It's certainly not anything new. This basic format has been floating around Pinterest for as long as Pinterest has existed. Using the basic outline as an inspiration, I created my own chart. I'm really proud of how it turned out.

I bought some cute owl clip art from the much-loved Scrappin Doodles. I got the black and white outline version and colored the owls on Paint to fit what I had in mind. Then, I typed up the labels and glued them to construction paper. Then I glued all of them together. Quick and easy.

The titles for each color are: Purple- Hey now! You're an "Owl"-Star; Blue- "Owl"standing Job; Green- Ready to Learn; Yellow- Stop and Think; Orange- Make Better Choices; Red- Tomorrow Will Be a Better Day

All of the kiddos will have a clothespin with their name on it. Everyone will start each day on green and can move up or down the chart depending on how they are behaving. 

At the end of the day, everyone who is on green will get one point, blues will get two and purples three. At the end of every month, the students will be able to spend their points in a class auction. I'll definitely share more about that once we actually have one. ;)

Hope you all had a great weekend! 

Birdie, Birdie...

Okay, I can not take credit from this. The awesome first grade team at my Partnership school (explained in the post below) thought of it. But it's such a fun idea that I had to share it with you.

We had been working hard on a bird unit for a few weeks. At the end, the children got to take on the role of birds as they made their very own nests.

The base of the nests were made by rolling down the top of a brown paper bag until it was about 2 inches high. The children used their hands to shape the bottom of the bag into a circle. Then, the children had to find a place in the classroom to hide their nests. They were encouraged to use their new knowledge of birds to find the "best" place. It needed to be away from predators and out of the rain.

While the children were at PE, we spread bits of tissue paper, Easter basket grass, ribbon and yarn all over the floor. After picking up the children, the activity was explained to them. They had learned that birds use their beaks to collect materials for their nest, so the children would be using their mouths- no hands allowed! They picked up the materials with their mouth and carried it back to their nest. As you can imagine, this caused a lot of giggles. They had a blast, though. It was a great way for them to really connect with something birds do.

With all of the excitement from our bird unit, some of our little friends even brought in treasures from home to share with the class. We got to see a big feather and a real nest during share time. 

I hope you are able to use this fun activities with the little birdies in your class! :)