Cause and Effect Angry Birds Style!!

So this will be a quick post since I'm extremely tired. I feel as if I have short-term memory loss because I have so many things to do, I can't keep track (I can't even remember items I quickly thought to myself to add to my list!). Anyways..I'm doing cause and effect this week with my kids and saw this really cute anchor chart on pinterest. 

Source: Uploaded by user via Rebecca on Pinterest

Since I'm not the best artist, I asked my good friend who is subbing as our upper grade counselor (who is on maternity). She gladly agreed to make this beautiful angry birds inspired cause and effect anchor chart! I decided to modify the key words a bit from the pinterest one but if I have to say so myself I think it came out even better than the original (and I didn't think that was even possible!)..She's that good!!

This chart got the kids SO EXCITED, since they ALL play angry birds on their iPads or iPhones (so spoiled these days!). It got some really great conversations and examples going just from the picture itself!

Hope you have a happy Friday!! 

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

Score!!

So I woke up early this morning to hit up a garage sale all the way out in Hawaii Kai!! I know that I'm on a hunt for books since this lady is a teacher. When I get there I find out that she is also a third grade teacher!! She had about 6 boxes full of box. I walked away with a HUGE bag of about 30+ chapter/picture books for $14. Talk about deals!! I also got suckered into buying a class set of brand new clipboards for only $10!! I was so excited!

THEN, things get even better!! I head back to town and see a sale in an apartment on the same street that I live on. My BF doesn't want to go because it looks a little 'ghetto' but I decide we should just look. BOY am I happy I did. I scored hard cover picture books (tons of new Dr. Seuss books) 2 for 25 cents!! Can you believe that?? I also walked away with a few chapter books that were in great condition!! I got 15 books for $1.75. Boy am I one happy teacher...Only a teacher would understand this joy of buying books :)

Well it's almost 6:00 here and I have really got to get some work done. I was planning on using this day to plan, grade, and begin report cards but that hasn't happened. I've only managed to finish a book and take a nap :/ Better get going before the BF finishes work. We're off for a late date night (which is why I needed to take a nap!) to watch 21 JumpStreet.

Symmetry Art and An Award!!

Whoohoo! It's Friday!! 

Okay so this week was the start of fourth quarter here in Hawaii. In the third grade we rotate classes for science, social studies, art, and health. This is so helpful when it comes to planning and grading (although after seeing such wonderful ideas on other blogs, it makes me want to teach all subjects to my kids!). Anyways..This quarter I'm teaching Art. I love to incorporate math into art! My kids worked on using pattern blocks to create pieces of art that had rotational symmetry.  Here are a few examples:

This took awhile though, because they needed to explore with the blocks then transfer it to a piece of paper by tracing, outlining, then coloring. 

SO I was in search of a simpler option. I then remembered a project I had done in high school and I got an idea for my art project. Playing off of the pattern block rotational symmetry, the students are going to be creating mandalas to show rotational symmetry. 

I used a circle template I made and cut them up into fourths (great fraction review with kids). Then guided the kids to draw designs on their 1/4 piece (not too detailed) They then need to outline both sides with a sharpie (thick sharpies work best). Once this is done, they get their own circle template that they must cut out neatly and carefully. Once this is done, they fold it into fourths. They must now use the 1/4 piece as a template and put it under their circle so that they can trace with pencil. Once done, FLIP the template over, place in the next space and trace. FLIP again, trace FLIP again and trace your final piece. When done it should look like this: (well these aren't the complete versions but works in progress)

I was hoping that we'd have time to finish today but we ran out of time :(

In other news, I got hit by two wonderful bloggers with an award!! 

Amy at The Crazy Adventures of a University Grad and Heather at Beg, Borrow, and Teach awarded me with The Lovely Blog Award!

 I want to thank these wonderful ladies for making my day!! I happened to check my blog at lunch and wanted you to know that you brought joy to my heart, I was so excited!! 

I only recently discovered Amy's blog and learned that she is working as a teacher on call!  Her blog posts are already great, and I can't imagine how lucky her future class will be. Amy, will you please come and be my on call teacher?! haha. 

Heather is a fellow third grade teacher :) I recently found her in the upper grades linky party! She is another amazing blogger who shares tons of great ideas and resources! 

If you aren't already following these two ladies..please rush on over and do so now :) 

Just as we expect our students to do, blog awards also have rules to follow:

1. Link back to the blogger who awarded you.

2. Follow the blogger who sent it to you.

3. Pass the award onto 15 other lovely bloggers.

Well, as all avid blog stalkers readers know, there are so many great blogs out there and this is a TOUGH job but here they are: 

1. Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher

2. Dana at 3rd Grade Gridiron 

3. Christi at Ms. Fultz's Corner

4. Abby at Third Grade Bookworm

5.Courtney at Swimming INto Second

6. Hope at 2nd Grade Shenanigans

7. Melissa at Life's a Teach!

8. Heather at Heather's Heart 

9.Patti at A Series of 3rd Grade Events

10.Lorraine at Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies

11. Mrs. Tolbert at Daisy Days for Learning

12. Katherine at Third Grade Teacher Files

13 Meghan at Third Grade in the First State

14. Nicole at Teaching with Style!

15. Wendy at One Happy Teacher

Stop on over and start following these lovely ladies and their lovely blogs :D I'm off to cook some dinner...

Look forward to my garage sale finds tomorrow...I found a retired teacher who is selling her lot!! Can't wait!!

Summarizing Breakthrough!! and Touched by TTCT project!!

Really, is it only Tuesday?! Monday (our first day back from break) FLEW by. My kids and I both could not believe how quickly the day had gone. Unfortunately, today seemed to drag on quite awhile :/ BUT with that long seeming day we had a breakthrough!! My students have finally got down SUMMARIZING!. I don't know about the rest of you but this is always so difficult! I get summaries that go on and on and on, contain all the tiniest details and have a billion ANDS. Today I was so proud of them I wanted to jump and scream for joy!

For those of you who are familiar with thinking maps, I had the students use a flow map to draw pictures in sequential order.Before drawing though, we talked about what it meant to summarize. Since we read the Lorax for Dr. Seuss day and most of the kids watched it over break we used the movie for an example. Since it was break some of the kids got to go with their friends. When they went home their parents asked "how was the movie?". I asked students if it took an hour 45 min to retell the movie? They laughed. We talked about how a summary is short version of the story with only the MOST important events (in your own words of course). They were then asked to think of 5 pictures to draw that will show the most important things that happened in the story (in order). Of course they were thrilled to do this!!

Sorry for the poor quality. I'm using my phone. Also, I didn't realize how small these boxes would be for the kiddos to draw in :/ 

Part 2 of the flow map.

After picture drawing was done I then had them write a sentence that would tell about the picture. Then they go onto their next picture. Their summaries turned out amazing, I was so proud of them!! This dear boy has struggled since second grade in re-telling stories. He doesn't answer when asked orally, and his mother has come in multiple times distraught because she doesn't know how to help him. He is one of those kids that write: He planted a garden because he planted a garden he wanted to plant a garden because it was nice. Can't wait to send this one home to mom!! 

I also gave them the option of doing their flow maps in their notebook since Miss Mizufuka made the boxes too small :/ 

The best thing about it is that they now LOVE doing summaries (especially since it involves drawing!!) 

Okay. I know that this post is getting long but I just had to share. For those of you taking part of the Teachers Taking Care of Teachers Project I was wondering what you all were doing?? I decided to share the project with my students. I told them about what was happening and some of the kids wanted to cry! Today kids came in with their own books to donate. We made cute little labels to put in the inside of books. I also had a parent that came by to drop of TON of supplies: books, pens, pencils, glue, crayons, etc. She also insisted on helping out with shipping costs!! How sweet.

I was so touched with how generous the kids and families were with this reaching out project. This whole lot came from only 4 students (and a few of my shopping add-ins)

The rest are bringing more in tomorrow. I have decided that we are actually going to adopt two classes, since our original class no longer needs any supplies. (I had already went on a crazy spree of buying post-its, pens, highlighters, sharpes, staplers, etc to donate).

Alright, I'm done. Promise. For anyone that is still here reading..THanks!!

Awesome Giveaway!!

Head on over to Daisy Days for Learning. She is a wonderful third grade teacher who is hosting a pretty awesome giveaway for hitting 100 followers! Congratulations! She will be giving away EVERYTHING in her TPT store to ONE lucky winner. This is a giveaway you don't want to miss. Head on over to her blog to check it out.

She will be choosing a winner on Tuesday so head on over now! Good Luck :) 

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

Spring Break is OFFICIALLY OVER :( and a re-do of my Freebies!

Spring Break is officially Over and I am very sad. It really did go by too quickly. I am going to be very envious of those bloggers who will just be starting their breaks :p 

Anyways I'm reposting two of my freebies- Some library book bin labels and morning math work for the remaining weeks of march. I posted it earlier but oopsie, newbie me forgot to share it. Soo if you tried to grab a copy earlier, I apologize it should work now!! Head on over to my original post to read more about it!

Click the picture below (and cross your fingers it works!) for your copy of my library book bin labels. Again, I'm a new teacher so my library isn't as large as I wish. If I'm missing any labels that you would like to match your library, please let me know and I'll create those for you when I get the chance! 

And here are the morning math sheets:

I'd also like to send a big THANK YOU out to Lorraine at Fabulous Fourth Grade Froggies for hosting the upper grade link-up! If you're a new blogger like myself, this is a great way to get your blog out there an up you following list as well as find some other amazing blogs!! Head on over and check it out if you haven't already done so. I'm off to finishing my planning for the week! 

Leave a comment if you decide to grab a copy of any of my freebies. Hopefully you can use it in your classroom as well :) Have a great work week fellow bloggers!!

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

Calling All Grade 3-5 Bloggers!!

So I recently found this linky party that Lorraine at Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies is hosting. She is calling all upper grade bloggers to link up, so we can all find one another and share even more awesome ideas! This is a great opportunity to find other blogs in your specific grade level or snatch ideas and modify from other grades.Hop on over to her blog to check it out!

 

Spring Break Recap and some Freebies

I can't believe how quickly Spring Break has come and gone. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get started on report cards as I had hoped. My mom flew in from Maui for a short stay since she was on break too (she is a pre-school teacher). We did a TON of shopping. My brother is getting married in May so we took her around to find an outfit to wear to the wedding. We completely decked her out with blinded out earrings and a necklace that matches her blingy (yet elegant) jacket. It's safe to say that I am completely shopped out. It was nice to spend some quality time with my mom. My boyfriend is the sweetest and treated us to a spa day at Heaven on Earth Salon. It was so nice and relaxing!! 

I did manage to get some partying socializing in :) The day school (and after school tutoring) let out for break I went out for some very much needed happy hour drinks with some lovely ladies from school. We had such a good time enjoying each others company, having some good food and drinks that we surprised ourselves and stayed out till 1 am! I also met up with my future sister-in law's sister to plan a surprise bridal shower. I'm very excited but this is the first shower I'm throwing!! If any of you have any ideas or advice..I would LOVE some help :)

Anyways, since break is just about done and I feel guilty for not starting/finishing report cards I needed to get at least some work done. I created my morning math work for the remaining two weeks of march. There are three problems that the students work on for each day. The problems are all review on math concepts previously covered such as multiplication, addition, place value, division, subtraction, elapsed time, etc.  Below is your copy, if you want it! Just click on the picture and it's yours!

Awhile back I posted about this awesome website that organizes your entire classroom library. All you do is scan the ISBN code using your smart phone (or you could manually enter it on your computer). Students can then check out the books. {CLICK HERE} to check my post out about this site!

Here's what the site looks like. It's pretty easy to use as well. Click Here to link up to the site.

Since I have inputted all of my books I wanted to reorganize my library as well. The site allows you to even specify where your book is located (basket k, or chapter series: amber brown). My library is currently organized by AR levels but I wanted to change it up and go it by genre, chapter series and favorite authors. My library isn't anywhere near the size I would like it to be so I don't have too many full chapter series yet. Today, I've been working hard on making labels for my library bins. 

If you have an extensive library, this may be missing some titles or series that you may need. Feel free to grab a copy here. If you would like me to add something to this, please leave a comment and I'd be more than happy to make it and send to you! Also, if you decide to grab a copy..please leave me a comment :) I'd like to know all my hard work can be put to used by somebody else as well. Enjoy!!

Teachers Taking Care of Teachers

So I am linking up to Crystal over at Kreative in Kinder to help out all the teachers (and students) who have lost everything in the recent tornadoes. What a sad and devastating thing that happened but what a great thing to be able to reach out and help them in this time of need! Head on over to her blog to get the details on how you can help.



Link up and repost to your blog! Think of how happy and touched you will make someone feel :)

Top 10 Award

I just have to send a HUGE shout out and THANK YOU to Molly over at Lessons with Laughter for awarding me with the Top 10 Blog Award!!

I was so excited and am extremely honored to have been awarded with this, being that there are SO MANY amazing bloggers out there. If you aren't already following her, you must go check it out because she has so many cute ideas!!

So I'm supposed to nominate 10 of my favorite teaching blogs. This is so difficult because there are so many out there that give wonderful ideas for my class and make me smile each day. So to all you bloggers that I follow, Thank you for making me a better teacher and continuing to give me that extra inspiration and motivation when I need a little push :)

Here are 10 awesome (sorry for the over-use of this word...my kiddos are rubbing off on me! haha) bloggers that I enjoy learning from and checking up on their class happenings each day. Check them out when you have a chance because they all have great ideas to share!

1. Miss Ice over at Third Grade Sprinkles
2. Katie at Adventures of an Art Teacher
3. Maria at Charmed in the Third Grade
4. Ashleigh over at Ashleigh's Education Journey
5. Mrs. Childress and Ms. Winstead at Fabulous Fourth Grade
6. Courtney at Miss Third Grade
7. Amanda at One Extra Degree
8. Amy at Step into Second Grade with Mrs. Lemons
9. Doris at Third Grade Thinkers
10. Christie at Teaching in Flip Flops

PS: These blogs are in no particular order, all of these ladies are amazing :)

On another note, I stopped by at a garage sale on my way home from the market. I scored about 10 books for $2.50. I was a happy shopper. The books weren't in the greatest condition but they were good books, a lot of non fiction finds too. The boy that was selling his books was so adorable! He was sitting by and guarding his books and asked me "why are you buying books?" When I told him I was a teacher he sounded very surprised haha (I look pretty young for my age.) We ended up having a long conversation about my kids, what he remembers from third grade, about his fourth and fifth grade experience and then him telling me why they were selling everything. Apparently they are moving to Japan, what a wonderful experience!! How I could resist supporting that little cutie by not buying his books :)

Anyways I'm off to clean the house (hopefully I don't get distracted)

3 days down, and 1 more to go till Spring BREAK!!

Yess! I keep telling myself one more day one more day. I am completely burnt out and the kids are on vacay mode. Today was one crazy hectic day. Have you ever thought about what your life would be like WITHOUT technology?? It seems so hard to imagine the days when we had no cell phones, computers, internet, etc. For the past week our phone lines at school have been down so we have been relying on email. Today I get to school and our entire network was down. That means that we had no internet, could not access files that are on our 'server' and worst of all we couldn't even print!! Lucky thing today was a Wednesday. It was crazy since we had no idea that we had indoor recess (even though it was completely sunny)--due to the storm (that passed, yay!) which made the playground all muddy. Also, since we're wrapping up the quarter and collected data for grades we needed to use the computer lab. I admit, I'm guilty..I'm also on vacay mode. I procrastinated (but I learned my lesson, I promise!) and thought I'd print the kids usernames and passwords when I get to school. Lo and behold I couldn't even access the darn things. I was scrambling but it all worked out and I sure am happy that we're at "1 more day till break!"

I spent a lot of time yesterday watching tutorials by the amazing Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files. I'm slowly learning and getting the hang of this blogging thing. Again, I'm always open and welcome to tips and advice from you other bloggers (yes, you reading this! :P) . Anywayys I wanted to see if I could embed this google doc. I made a past-tense verb sort for my kids last night. I had them organize it using a tree map format. I have pictures of their maps being put together but forgot to snap a picture of a completed verb tree map. I'll try and remember tomorrow and then post it up.

Click here if you would like a copy. 

Here's one as the student just began putting it together. At the very top is their title "Past Tense Verbs". Next,  they added their branches which were the four different rules. Below each rule they needed to paste a word that followed the rule. They were also required to write the correct form of the past-tense verb.




Hope you enjoy the rest of this beautiful Wednesday (the sun is back..Yay!). I'm off to take a shower, clean the house and get ready for some One Tree Hill

Rainy Days

Have you ever heard other teachers say that their students tend to 'act out' or 'get crazy' when it's rainy, windy, or full moon?? I find it so funny how it coincidentally happens  that everybody's kids can be wild at the same time. WELL..here in beautiful Hawaii it has been STORMING like crazy this week. Luckily, yesterday my kiddos were amazingly well behaved, focused and completely engaged. I felt so proud when all the other teachers were complaining about how their kids were driving them nuts.

It seems that every Monday morning the copier seems to not work. I need to learn my lesson and make my copies on Friday from now on. Well, since all that I was planning on doing got chucked when the copier broke I had to improvise. I remember seeing this super cute idea on pinterest where they used easter eggs to show fractions. I had a whole bag full of eggs in my closet (from last year) so decided to have the kids show equivalent fractions! 

I just wrote some equivalent fractions on the eggs and color coordinated different sets of bags I took apart the eggs and the kid shad to put them all back together. 

Here they are working with partners to put together the eggs. 

The kids really had so much fun doing this and I was truly able to see who understands their equivalent fractions and who doesn't. I also made a worksheet to go along with this for them to complete once their done. I'm still learning how to upload documents and saving them as pdf files so that fonts can be seen.

Well I'm off to watch the news and see what's new with this crazy storm. Last night the thunder was sooo loud it sounded like there were bombs going off! I've never in my life heard thunder this loud..loud enough to set off car alarms. **Forgot to mention, it even HAILED here today! Amazing and scary at the same time. I am enjoying this nippy weather and am off to curl up, watch the news and blog stalk. Here's a photo that I saw on Happy Hour Hawaii's Facebook page. Not sure who took it but it is an amazingly beautiful photo. Have a great rest of the week fellow bloggers :)

Freebie

Alright, since I'm totally new to this blogging thing I am still learning how to do things and navigate. I've been doing some research on how to upload files to my blog so that I can share some things that I have made/am making. I'm going to be sharing a common core math assessment for elapsed time that I had made earlier in the year. This is for all you grade 3 teachers who are reading. I hope you can find this assessment useful. Hopefully this works :) Click here if you would like to check out my very first freebie. 

PS: Any tips and or pointers for this newbie would be greatly appreciated :)

Weekend

Happy Saturday All!

Hope that everyone had a Seuss-tastic Friday. I was shocked to find out that a handful of my kids could not do a simple rhyming worksheet. They were to color in bubbles if the word rhymed with green (bean, mean, etc) and so on. I was a bit upset. It led to a lesson on rhyming. I read Dr Seuss' Hop on Pop and my kids LOVED it. I guess books are NEVER too babyish . Their faces were lit up the entire time and they were laughing their heads off. We also read the Lorax which is an awesome book and has an amazing message. We spent a lot of time discussing the story, the message then the kiddos went off and wrote a continuation of the story. It was truly precious, especially the pictures.

It's Saturday and I wish I could go garage sailing for some new class books. I am in total re-organize mode of my class library since I have inputted them all on the website Classroom Booksource. It truly is great, the kids have learned quickly how to check in and check out books. Some of the irresponsible ones have difficulty remembering but they'll get it! I totally want to re-organize the entire library by genre, author, etc. Any good ideas of how to organize?? Unfortunately, I can't go garage sailing because I'm off to a Thinking Maps Prof. Development class I'm taking.

Enjoy your weekend!

My Ocean Themed Class

Hey!!

Yay. It's Thursday and only 5 days till spring break!! I am totally ready for break and have some big plans to clean and organize my house, my class and hopefully create some awesome things for the kiddos when they return from break. This group of kids I have are tough!! They are extremely low and all the things I think will work or have worked in the past..don't work for some of these kids. It amazes me how behind some of them are :(

Anywayyys I wanted to share a few pictures of my beach/ocean themed classroom. I uploaded a pic to my pinterest account of one of my bulletin boards and it started spreading really quickly. Soo if you're already planning ahead for next year here's some ideas :)

This is Behavior Beach. My red, yellow, green light behavior system. The red and blue rings hanging are my bathroom passes. They are supposed to resemble the lifeguard ring thingies :D Since the kids are now in third, I let them know that I trust them and they are independent. They are allowed to use the bathroom at any time (other than teaching/learning time). All they need to do is put the pass on their desk so I know where they are. 

This is a view of my class from the doorway

Our schedule which looks pretty ghetto :P It bothered me that the times were handwritten so I made laminated cards with the time on it 

This is in our library "Reader's Reef". Displays all different type of genres and descriptions from the awesome Beth Newingham. If you haven't seen her site yet..you NEED to check it out.

Unfortunately these are all of the pictures I have right now. If you can see to the right of this last bulletin board you see some fishing net. Its a net hanging and the board reads "Fishing for a good book?!" The background resembles the same board as the readers reef with fish, sand and coral. The kids make book recommendation on fish cutouts, they color, I laminate and then we put it up into the net. Other children can get book ideas if they're ever at a loss for what to read.