Back to School Week

After a wonderful first day of school, I was all set for the rest of the week!

It was still HOT in our classroom... In fact-- on Thursday a fuse blew and the power went out on our side of the building.... which meant no air and no fans... so we went down to a Kindergarten room that did have air, and read to the kinders while they restored our power.

Here's how the rest of the week looked in Miss Woodward's Class...

We continued practicing Read to Self.  They are doing wonderfully with this!  They are also very honest when it comes to the check-ins between practices.

We discussed our "Hopes and Dreams" for the school year and for the future.  We wrote about what we hope to learn this year in third grade, and what we want to be when we grow up.  We displayed our Hopes and Dreams with a craft.  

How cute are these little hot air balloons?!  :)

I had a template for them to trace their balloon and basket.  I also printed out their first day of school pictures for them to cut out and put in the basket.

 When the fans are blowing, their little baskets sway back and forth as if they are really floating through the room!  :)

We also made some "post-it" posters.  I found this idea on another blog.  :)  I wrote a question on chart paper, and they used a sticky note to write their response.  I asked these questions:

-What do you hope to learn this year in third grade?

-What should kids in our class be doing to make things go as smoothly as possible this year?

-What will Miss Woodward need to do to help you this year?

-What will YOU need to do this year in order to be successful?

-School is important because _____.

-Our classroom should be _______ every day.

Some of their responses were kind of funny.  They thought our room should be calm every day, they asked for lots of homework, and thought kids should be nice to Miss Woodward and each other.  :)

This week, we also did a "Who am I?" book.  

They first wrote a page about themselves... leaving out their name.

Then, they wrote their name on the next page and drew a picture of themselves.  I can't wait to bind this into a classroom book to help kids get to know each other.  I also think this could work for kids as young as kinders.  :)

You can download my version for FREE at my TpT store!

And finally, we decorated our book bins.  Read about our book bins here.  I found these book bins at Ikea in a package of five for $2.

It was quite a busy week!  Can't wait to start another one!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

First Day of School!

Happy First Day of School!

Whether some of you have been in school for a few weeks now, or start after Labor Day like many schools in Minnesota, "back to school season" is here.

Our school started this past Monday, and I am already LOVING how this school year is going.  :)  Here is how the first day of school went.

To start the day, I took a tip from Clutter Free Classroom and made a little ball of play dough for each of my students.  Read about that project here.

The kids were a little apprehensive when they came in, but once they started poking and prodding at their play dough, they had so much fun!  It was such a great way to ease any nervousness and welcome my students into their new classroom.

For reading, we started Daily 5... I bought the book that started it all here.  This is my first year trying Daily 5, so if you have any suggestions of how you use Daily 5 in your room, I would love to hear them!  

We talked about Read to Self, and what it should look like, sound like, and feel like.  I put one bin of my classroom books on each table, and I let them look through and choose three books for their book bins.  Then we started practicing Read to Self.  We practiced a few times, checking in between each practice to share celebrations and things they felt they needed to work on.

Some chose to read at their seats, and some chose other places around the room.  I could tell that they liked getting to choose whatever looked interesting to them to read.

For writing, I read them the story First Day Jitters.  We talked and wrote about what "jitters" might be, and a time they have felt "the jitters".  

For math, we explored manipulatives.  I put a bin of mainpuatives at each table, and students got to explore them for five minutes.  After five minutes, they rotated to a new table and explored a new manipulative.  After they had visited all of the tables, we discussed the purpose for using manipulatives and what each one can be used for.

I had things like pattern blocks, unifix cubes, base-10 blocks, and fraction circles out for students to use.

As if our day wasn't busy and crazy enough.... It was about 95 degrees outside, which meant it was much warmer inside.  We have a small window air conditioner in our room, but it has trouble keeping our room cool enough.  We kept the lights off most of the day to try and stay cooler.  We also had a "code blue" (missing kindergartener who was found after about an hour), AND an unplanned fire drill (something had set the system off).   What a way to kick off the year!

Overall though, my first day with my new kiddos went great.  I am so excited for this year!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

"Monday" Made-It: Play Dough!

I recently read a blog post from Clutter Free Classroom about using play dough on the first day of school.  (Yes, even with third graders.)  I loved the idea so much that I decided to try it for the first day of school!  So.... the night before school started, I was busy making 24 little baggies of play dough for my kiddos.

Read about Clutter Free Classroom's take on play dough here.

If I hadn't run out of salt or cream of tartar, this really wouldn't have taken long at all!  But my extra trip to the store delayed my production time.

I got four small balls of play dough out of one batch.  To speed things up, I doubled the recipe to get eight little balls at a time.  I stored each ball in a plastic zip bag labeled with each student's name.

Pretty soon, I had 24 little baggies of play dough for my students!

Stay tuned for my next post about the first day of school and how the kids responded to the play dough!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Peek into my Classroom!

Welcome to my 3rd Grade Classroom!

I settled on a "theme" for this year!  My color scheme/theme is teal, black, white, and silver STARS.  I made this display on the front window of my room (to the right of the photo is my classroom door.  The picture is taken from the hallway.).  For the letters and stars, I used my school's die cut machine.  I drew the bucket myself, and stuffed it with stars to look like it was full.  Each white star has a student's name on it.  I really like how it turned out!  I think it sets the tone for my classroom before you even enter.  :)

From the door, looking left, are my student computers and birthday board...

Looking straight in from the door is my carpet and board area.  I love having my meeting space up front.  So far, we've been spending equal amounts of time at their desks and on the carpet.

The birthday board is a bookshelf that holds our book bins (on the left).  That big black bulletin board was quite a project to install.... but I will save that for another post.  This bulletin board is covered in fabric, and holds my calendar area, a place to post content and language objectives for each lesson, and the area above will have individual student goals for reading and math.

My guided reading table is towards the back of the room.  That blank part of the bulletin board is going to hold reading strategies and story vocabulary.

In the back of the room is the students' hooks and my desk area.

Next to my desk area is where students will turn in work, as well as get supplies they might need throughout the day.

Further down the wall from the supply area is the classroom library.  That was quite the project this summer!  Read about it here.  To the right of the photo is the rainbow carpet in the front of the room.

How have you organized your classroom for the year?

Until next time, 

-Miss Woodward