iMovie

I had seen the idea of students creating book trailers for books, but it all sounded far too complicated to really try. I think the end of the year bug hit me, and I decided why not squeeze a possibly challenging project in to the last two weeks of school? :) Also, my students have been doing their book clubs with 8th graders, so I knew they would have a lot of support in the project.

We decided iMovie would be the best source since they have templates for trailers. I am so incredibly glad that I found an amazing resource at Learning in Hand. These iMovie trailer planning PDFs are AMAZING. My students summarized the story, decided what was important to go into the trailer without giving anything away, and planned out every shot with the planning sheets.

I'm so impressed with the final product. The students had a blast making them and enjoyed watching each others' even more. This will be an activity I repeat for sure!

Here is a little clip from one group's trailer for Million Dollar Shot by Dan Gutman:

Self-Reflection

I am a huge fan of self-reflection for my students. It is very important for them to be able to acknowledge and celebrate their successes throughout each week, as well as look for areas where they can grow the following weeks. This is why (almost) every week my students fill out a Friday Report. The best part is...it's done entirely by the students! We talk about the first half together, ensuring they remember all that happened throughout the week. The second half they fill out based on their opinions of their progress. I like to add comments to the write of the S/N section, especially give them praise for an accomplishment they might not have realized. It's also great for the parents to see what is happening in the classroom! Check out my TPT store to get it!

Valentine's Day Container Challenge

Love is in the air! Yesterday I introduced my students to the Valentine's Day Challenge, and they are pumped. I forgot how much fun it was until I started looking through old pictures and seeing the creativity come out as my students worked on their original designs. If you're looking for a way to spice up your Valentine's containers, this is a fun challenge. I posted the file for everything you'll need on my TPT account. Next week I'll post some pictures of the final projects. For now, here are a few from last year.

Which Piece of the Pie Am I?

I was looking for a cute display for our fraction unit, which happened to fall right around Open House. I came up with 'Which Piece of the Pie am I?' The students decorated a slice of pie with anything that they felt represented them. Then they came up with some fractions about them as clues to post next to their slice. For example, I could say 3/4 of my pets are chickens. They had fun getting creative with their slices and clues, and even more fun seeing if their families could guess correctly! 

Growing Your Brain

My first year of teaching I followed suit of other teachers and made a 100% Club Raffle Jar. When students received 100% on any assessment, they put their names into a jar and were entered in a chance to win some sort of prize. At the time, I thought that I was encouraging students to work hard and persevere. Now I see that I had it completely wrong. I wonder how many of those students actually worked hard and persevered to achieve that 100%? I know there were definitely some, but in many cases students received 100% because they were high performers in certain subjects. Now, this doesn't make these students any less deserving of their pride in their accomplishments, but the raffle was only allowing a small percentage of my class to take pride in their work. What about the student who failed on the first social studies, studied hard, and earned a C on the next? After reading the article The Learning Myth: Why I'll Never Tell My Son He's Smart by Salman Khan last summer, it finally became clear. This article is about children having a growth-mindset and parents and teachers encouraging and celebrating the challenges a child faces, rather than what comes easily to him or her. 

Thus, the idea of the Brain Growing Jar was born. 

During one of our morning meetings, I explained to the students about the growth-mindset. We had a discussion about what it means, why it is important, and how it will look different for each student. We talked about the brain being a muscle and how it will 'grow' when it is challenged. For example, a student that easily earns an A+ on his spelling test might not consider that a 'brain-growing' moment, but celebrates when he was challenged by the multistep word problem in math. 

It was great! The students noticed moments where they persevered through a challenge and were proud to write it down. Even better was each Friday when I drew names from the jar and read the specific challenge. I always asked for permission prior to reading it, but I never had a student say no. They felt comfortable sharing their struggle, knowing they were better because of it.

3rd Year in 3rd Grade!

I am super pumped for this coming school year. Being my third year, I have a better knowledge of the curriculum which will make everything run a bit more smoothly. But, this year being my third year in 3rd grade is bound to be lucky, right? ;)

The last two years I had a space themed classroom (check it out here). This year I decided to change things up and make my room Superhero themed. I'm loving it so far! I got some great ideas and these fantastic letters from Schoolgirl Style. Here is a little sneak peak. More to come!

Songs!

When I started student teaching, I was in a first grade classroom. I remember so clearly the master teacher sitting at the front of the room, puppet on his hand, singing a nursery rhyme. At that moment, I thought, I can never be that 'sing-songy' teacher. Now, eleven years later, my class is singing almost everyday. There is so much value in putting educational content to a catchy tune to help students remember what they are learning. I can name (sing) all fifty states in alphabetical order because of fifth grade. :)

This year I have made it my mission to incorporate more music in my lessons, and what better way to do so than with pop music. We have sung about place value, rounding, regrouping, helping verbs, and prepositions. There are many more songs to come! Because my class enjoys them so much, I wanted to share with any teachers that might find them useful. If you have any questions about the songs, please leave a comment. Hope you like them!

Place Value Song

To the tune of Happy

It might seem crazy what I’m about to say

I’m good at math; teacher take a break.

Listen to my song - it’ll help you.

Just move to the left for place value.

You start with ones

Move it to the left and then you get to the tens

Move to the left and you’re at hundreds and then thousands

Move it to left ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions

Move it to the left, that’s all you have to do to learn place value.

I can write in standard form.

I can write in expanded form.

I can even find the value.

I think of money, it’s so easy to do.

Here’s why.

You start with ones

Move it to the left and then you get to the tens

Move to the left and you’re at hundreds and then thousands

Move it to left ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions

Move it to the left, that’s all you have to do to learn place value.

Ones

Tens

Hundreds

Thousands

Ten thousands

Hundred thousands

Millions

Rounding Song

To the tune of Shake It Off

I can learn to round

Numbers up and down

I can estimate, mmm-mmm

I can estimate, mmm-mmm

First I find the place

I’m not rounding in a race

So I take my time, mmm-mmm

Yes, I take my time, mmm-mmm

Once I find the place

I look next door, to the right

And I sing these words, in my mind

In my mind

So I can get the problem right

If it’s five or bigger, add one more more more

Five or bigger, add one more more more

Fill the zeroes in after to the right right right

Round it up, round it up.

If it’s four or less, let it rest rest rest

Four or less, let it rest rest rest

Fill the zeroes after to the right right right

Round it down, round it down.

I Regroup

To the tune of Let It Go

The subtraction problems look hard today...

The bottom number is too big

I can't subtract easily,

and it looks like I'm gonna fail

I have to remember what I learned with in math class

Where's my math journal? Maybe it can help me...

I do not have enough ones to subtract the bottom from the top

So I have to look at the tens

and now I know....

I regroup, I regroup

Just trade one ten for ten ones

I regroup, I regroup

trade one hundred for ten tens

Now I know how to solve the problem

I just regroup

one thousand for ten hundreds.

Helping Verbs
To the tune of Rude (specific to Easy Grammar curriculum, but can be modified :))

Monday morning, jumped out of bed

Put on my uniform

Got in my mom's car, raced like a jet

All the way to school

Today is the test

On all kinds of verbs

Like action and helping

But  the helping verbs are easy to forget

Am, is, are, was, and were

Be, being, been

Have, has, had

Do, does, did

May, might, and must

Can and could

Will, would, Shall, should

Those are the helping verbs

They help the main verb

I have to look for them

So I can underline them twice

Underline twice

Look in the sentence

Underline twice

I don't wanna miss it

Underline twice

  

All of the helping verbs

It's all part of the verb phrase