Hump Day!

We've done T and we've done H. Today is A.
A is for Activities…

Activities like…

Introductory activities that keep my children engaged, challenged, and feeling successful at the same time! 

Today we did a fabulous introductory division activity that my mini-team came up with. I gave partners an amount of stickers. (Each group got a different number for differentiation! Go me!) The students then had to give each of the 3rd grade teachers (not really) the same number of stickers. There are 7 3rd grade classes at our school, so this was definitely a challenge! 

Some of the groups really surprised me! 

One group took a while, and worked by using multiplication. They basically guessed and checked their way. They finally decided to make 7 groups and split the stickers. 

These two students definitely worked as partners. The young lady cut her stickers into strips and then split those into 7 groups. The young man cut his stickers into individual stickers and then added those on top of the strips. I feel as if I'm not explaining it too well, but they did a great job! 

This group made an array. They were actually the first group completely finished. They made 7 rows and then put stickers in the rows until they had less than 7 stickers left. Those were their remainders. 

Franky is making an appearance from Amelia at Where the Wild Things Learn

Counting stickers…

This activity was awesome. After we sorted the stickers, students wrote about how they solved their problem and wrote an equation. Now to sit down and grade those writings… [womp womp]. 

Another activity my kids and I both love is when they do book partnerships. Three of my students on a similar reading level are reading Roald Dahl's The Witches. 

Two of my three girls are really into this book. They love it. One girl is kind of meh. Which is surprising. How can you be meh?!? Anyway. Twice a week they get together at my kidney table and talk about what they've been reading. They use my question stem cards to ask each other questions about what they've read. I simply sit there and moderate. Sometimes I take notes, sometimes I butt in. Other times I sit there and observe. They really enjoy this time to separate from the rest of the class and to talk about a book that they are all reading. They also love to pick questions for each other!

Linking up with Jivey & Blog Hoppin!

Have a terrific Thursday!!

What a Week!

Oooh. It's been a week.

Sunday I felt a little crummy, but I still went to work on Monday. I actually ended up taking a half day and leaving at 11:30 because I felt so bad.

This week has been crazy busy at school. We began tutoring after school 3x a week due to the impending TESTING. One day is for reading and two are for math.

I have also been ignoring the linky parties, so I'm here to link up!

First up is Tried it Tuesday! (I know, it's no longer Tuesday. FAIL)

Let me just say that Ladybug's Teacher Files is AWESOME. She posted about a week ago about the Great Pencil Challenge. I printed the file IMMEDIATELY. We began the next day. The jist of this is that you challenge the students to see how long they can keep one pencil. I put their numbers on their pencil. And so far it is going so well. The first week I only had TWO children not have their pencils on Friday. This from a class that has probably used over 500 pencils this year! YAY! (We did break yet another sharpener, oh well).

For Workshop Wednesday (Hey! I'm only a day late with this one!), Jivey asked for a small group reading text. When I student taught I used Because of Winn Dixie. Boys and girls both loved it and it is a great way to teach so many different themes, standards. Right now I'm doing two book clubs. I have a group of girls (levels Y & Z) reading Stuart Little. I have a group of boys (all Z) reading Travel Team. The boys love this book. They are all into sports and think it is so cool! I love finding books they are genuinely interested in!

And of course, I have to link up with Farley! And I Heart Recess!

I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday! It's field day so hopefully that will be awesome!

Catching Up

Wow. This weekend has been crazy busy! I have missed out on several linky parties, so I'm going to link up real quick with all of them.

First up, is Workshop Wednesday with Ideas By Jivey. Oops!

This week's theme was Math Card Games. I found this idea somewhere online, but I cannot recall where. It's for equivalent fractions. Students will flip over two cards and create a proper fraction. They will then race their partner to create all the equivalent fractions they can think of. My kids loved this game once they grasped the concept. Generating equivalent fractions is always a hard standard to understand. You can download the game sheet for free at my TPT by clicking on the image below! (sorry it's so teeny)

Okay so on Friday my students got to celebrate bringing in the most Box Tops in March. We had a popcorn and movie celebration. I did throw in some learning. We watched a read-aloud of The Lorax and then watched the 1972 original film. I won a craftivity from Where the Wild Things Learn. It included a graphic organizer for comparing the book with the movie. My students completed that. We also created the craft. They LOVED it! Then, they were able to write haiku's about the earth. We have been working on poetry so this was a great tie-in.

Friday evening, I was able to help out at church with Megan and Erin with the senior high girls. We partnered up with Sole Hope. This organization brings shoes to children in Uganda who would otherwise have infected feet. Our part was in cutting out the pieces of the shoes so that their shoe makers can sew the shoes together.

We had a great time and put together about 30 pairs of shoes. Our goal was 100, so we will probably have another party together sometime soon. This is an awesome organization that really has a heart for Ugandan children.

Saturday was the Middle School missions dinner and I was able to help with that by cooking dinner and helping them to raise money for their summer mission trip. This was a great opportunity to serve with Megan, Mark, and a few other young adults.  No pictures from that unfortunately, too busy!

Sundays mean a link-up with Collaboration Cuties for their Mentor Text Linky. This week the topic is Social Studies. A text I used this year was T is for Tarheel. This is part of a series that encompasses many different topics, however, this book is geared specifically to North Carolina. It goes through the alphabet and my students learn so much. I even learned many things I didn't already know about my state. I love this book and my kids did too. We were also able to make a list of other items that began with that letter that related to North Carolina.

Okay, I believe this post is stinkin long enough! I hope everyone has a great week!! My week will be slam busy as I begin tutoring after school this week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Linking up with:

     

Oh wait!

Where the Wild Things Learn is having an AWESOME giveaway! You should definitely go check it out! She has tons of great prizes to celebrate reaching TWO HUNDRED followers! GO GO GO!