Wow! Where Does the Time Go!?

This year is flying! There are only 2 days left in the first quarter for us and I can't believe it. I know I say this in just about every blog post-But really, where does the time go!? I haven't blogged in about 2 months and it baffles me- so here's what we've been up to in 3rd grade...

I've been doing my best to build up some new 3rd grade activities. I started the year off reviewing the 2nd grade concepts so I focused on money, addition, subtraction, and word problems. I created some math bell work papers for the beginning of the year review. You can pick them up HERE for FREE. 

We reviewed telling time to 5 minutes, learned to tell time to 1 minute AND learned how to figure out elapsed time problems. To help my little friends that struggled with telling time to 5 minutes we did the Peek & Check Clock. This is a great tool to use with those littles that struggle to remember or just lack the confidence to tell time to 5 minutes. If you want to see a detailed description of how to complete this activity you can my blog post on Teacher Deals & Dollar Steals HERE.

This year I started using the Daily 5. OhMyGoodness, I LOVE it. I am now kicking myself for trying to create new centers every two weeks for the last 3 years. I will admit that it took a lot of practice so that now it will be done correctly, but the kids love it, it's very little maintenance for me, and they are engaged the entire time. It's a winner in my book! I created some I-Charts to put on the bulletin board that had the same wording we went over when I taught the choices.

If you're interested in these little cuties you can pick them up HERE for FREE. The posters are just my interpretation of The Daily 5 after reading their book, which I highly recommend.

We also reviewed a our Language Arts vocabulary words so we could use the words, and understand them when we're asked to locate parts of our stories. We played a modified version of Headbands with the vocabulary cards I created. I didn't have enough of the plastic headbands for the kids to use so they just put a card on their forehead without looking. The other kids took turns giving clues to get the player to guess their word. At first they struggled with it, but after a couple rounds I saw a huge improvement in their knowledge. They were having fun, and improving their understanding. Don't you just love it when an activity works out that way!?  

We also took some time for a little fun after our fall testing. We created some pumpkins. They all turned out so different and cute! We painted them with small wiffle balls that had been rolled in paint.The paper is in a shirt box so that the wiffle balls can roll around easily and not end up on the floor. 

Here's what it looks like while painting.

This is what one of them looked like when it was all done! Too cute! Some of them turned out scary, and others were cute, but they were all super creative. Then the kids wrote a story about their pumpkins. I really enjoyed reading them because they were all so different. I just love to see what the kids come up with when I don't give them too many guidelines. It turns out so much better than if I give them a prompt. Do you agree? 

So that's what we've been up to in my classroom!

Hopefully it won't be another 2 months until I blog again....

Happy Fall!