Let me say up front that week two did not go as planned. I did not get to focus on Read to Self like I wanted, but I did introduce Word Work and it was a hit. Listen to Reading was not as impressive to my students, but I thought they did a great job listening to Boom Town each day. On Thursday I was brave enough (and prepared) to introduce my clickers - big yay and amen to that activity!!! My students begged me to use clickers everyday, all day - oh how I wish I was that prepared! So now my weekend will be used grading and creating clicker activities.
Now onto a few pics:
I wrote loose objectives on boards from Pinterest. They were more focus skills than objectives, but they reminded me to stay on track.
These adorable guys are Quiet Critters. They can be found in the Halloween section of Michaels for $2.99 of sixteen. They sit on my students' desks and remind them to be quiet. They don't like a loud talking or talking when teaching is going on, nor do they enjoy being handled. Quiet Critters leave when these behaviors go on, and no treats are given if they leave. On the other hand, Skittles, Gummi Bears, and tickets were rewarded for keeping Quiet Critters all day! Very popular and successful for most of my students, so yay me!
These are part of my Word Work center/station. I've read about them on several blogs, and downloaded an activity sheet called Shake, Read, Write from a blog (Fourth Grade Frolics I believe). I have four: weekly spelling words, weekly vocabulary words, sight words, and Teacher's Choice (words I think third graders should know - right now I have days of the week). The students sift through the pom-poms (tactile and just fun) to pull out a word, read the word, spell the word as they write. Then they repeat, but highlight vowels when they are finished writing, and finally rainbow write.
Here is my reason for using a center that is perfect for first grade in third grade: writing. In a few years the ARMT+ (or whatever it will be called by then) will be used as writing assessment. Spelling is part of writing. Our students are taught to read sight words, but not always to spell. Or sometimes they just need more practice to be successful at spelling. There are words such as days of the week, months of the year, holiday, etc., that I think kids should learn to spell, so this is the perfect place for this as well. And let us not forget, third graders are kids - they like to do things like this. Give them a pencil, tell them to write their words, and you can forget it; but give them highlights and ink pens of different colors and tell them to write their words - they love it!
Most of the trash is out, the old furniture removed and a lot of stuff put away. I consider that progress! I'll paint my new bookshelf and move it in next week and hopefully that will let me clear away the rest of the stuff that is on my desks. Today, I put up my door decorations (most of it anyway) and try to work on my small group area.
My Daily Five books are on the way (thanks, Mom!) and I've found several good blogs about using it in the classroom. I went to Momma's school yesterday and got ideas from her colleague (thanks, MCG). One of the ones I liked best was having the students place a clothespin to the bookbasket they checked out from in the classroom library. I'm thinking bookmarks or something flat since I don't think clothespins will work on my baskets, or looking for new baskets (always fun and mine are chipped). My momma also showed me the magic of air freshener - spray on white board, wipe, and magic - the board is clean!
I did finish my ticket board (sorry for the sideways picture)and it did turn out cute if I say so myself. I'm going to put owls on the corners where I wasn't thinking about the ribbon overlapping. I put up objective boards above my calendar (not perfectly spaced, but they will be taken up and down so much so I can write on them, hopefully they will look like I use them). The paper lanterns added a fun and playful touch to the room and another splash of color. I hope my students like all of this!
