Happy Dance and a Giveaway! :)

Can you hear me screaming all the way in Ohio?!  Because I am.  :)  Friends, I finally completed my very last grad school class!!!  I am a FREE woman!  Seriously, I am so happy to be able to focus on my family and school now... without one more additional layer. I can't even articulate what a relief it is to check that off of my list.  Graduation is right around the corner.  Woooooo hooo!!!

Okay, now.  In other news... we've been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY with Prudy's Problem: and How She Solved It!  I used my bloggy pal Lisa's fabulous free problem and solution activity pack to create this little ditty.  I had the kiddos cut the puzzle pieces apart and glue them to a large piece of construction paper like so.  :)  Then, they drew Prudy... and  wrote character traits that describe her using their leftover scrap-paper.  (I created this example to get them started.  We came up with the problem and solution together through a class discussion before I added it to my poster.   I also displayed a list of commonly used character traits on the SMARTboard during this activity.  The kiddos were encouraged to brainstorm words on their own as well!)

I pulled out my old Charlotte's Web Bundle from my Before Reading Street Era (B.R.S.)!   I introduced the concept of dynamic and static characters by discussing Wilbur and Charlotte, because MOST thirdsters have read the book, listened to the story, or watched the movie by the time they reach me.  This helps activate prior knowledge before really digging in!  We talked a lot about Prudy and debated whether we think she was a dynamic or a static character and why.  She becomes much more organized by the end of the story, but she never really stops collecting, so we had a great debate about this with lots of evidence from the text to support assertions!  The kids really enjoyed it!  :)  I think I may have some future politicians in my class.  Just sayin'.  ;)

Speaking of prior knowledge, we also talked about collections in general.  I was having camera issues, so I'm sorry for the blurry shot!  My Canon kept trying to refocus every 10 seconds.  (I can relate!  Ha!)  Seriously though... most of my pictures look a tad blurry in this post.  I am so sorry!  I probably changed a setting without realizing it.  Sadsville!!!

Any-who.  We noticed that a few compound words popped up as we created it... and that was uber exciting... to say the least.  Isn't it so much fun when your kiddos get excited about learning?!  I JUST ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!

Speaking of compound words, we have had WAY too much fun learning about them this week!  I totally copied sweet Cara's Compound Cook.  Mine didn't turn out as cute as hers, but I gave it the old college try!!! :)  Not too shabby for a ten minute project though!  I slapped this bad boy down during my planning period in a frenzy!  (The chef... that is.)    I made a few modifications... namely combining the recipe book with the chef... and adding a compilation of words.  We set the kitchen timer for a minute each day to add more words to our chart. This was our chart after two days! :)  The kids were so eager to add more words!

The compound word fun didn't end there.  Since compound words are ALWAYS on the Ohio Achievement Assessment, and since ALL of our spelling words are compound words this week, we also spent some time during morning work completing Cara's cute centers too.    I decided to build upon  her cute cooking themed centers with the following activity!  I quickly typed out words onto popcorn templates and put them inside of a popcorn container.  (Note: the word popcorn is a compound word!  I just happened to have one on hand, so it spurred my inspiration for the following activity.  The kiddos drew a random word from the bucket, and then they created the following foldables to illustrate each compound word.  I think they turned out sooooo stinkin' cute!  You can download the popcorn words for free HERE.  :)

The Starbucks fairy also showed up in my room this week and left a coffee on my desk.  Starbucks might be my favorite compound word.  :)  (My pal Lisa always seems to know when I need a pick-me-up.   She is the best Starbucks fairy ever! I just LOVE her to pieces!)

We also spent some time working on community helpers & drawing conclusions. Oh my goodness!  This was a ridiculously fun lesson, and it was an absolute HIT with the kids!  They took it so seriously!  Just check out this little peanut.  He was not the only child to ask a question while covering peepers with arms.  Bahahaha!  So precious!  They took the "Top Secret" element so seriously, and they worked so hard!!  Check out some of the clues below!

Meanwhile... in Crazy Town... we've been super busy getting ready for our third grade music program and going on two field trips. Our two trips just happened to land back-to-back this year, so to say that the past two weeks have been a whirlwind would be a slight understatement.  :)

First we went to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  If you live ANYWHERE close to the HOF, this is a fabulous trip!  Truly fabulous.  It was five dollars per student (which is WAY cheaper than a regular ticket), and the kiddos walked away with major SWAG.  Each child got a certificate for completing the program, a card that will let them in for free with the purchase of an adult ticket, and a set of football cards.  All of the kids thoroughly enjoyed our tour, and luckily for us, we were already studying communities, so we turned the trip into a discussion about how the HOF impacts our community.  This led us to delve deeper into activities and discussions that helped us really think about what makes our community unique and special.   Cue the chart!  :)

Of course, if you're not from the area, you may not know how important the  Pro Football Hall of Fame is to our itty bitty city... especially in terms of tourism.  Let me tell you friends, this is a one-of-a-kind museum and the festival is a one-of-a-kind-celebration! 

One of the festival committees.  Thousands of volunteers get the festival off of the ground each year!  I'm in the middle!

People travel from all over to see their favorite players get inducted.  This is Charlie Sanders from the Detroit Lions! :)

We have a month full of parades and festivals leading up to Enshrinement and the Hall of Fame Game!  So much fun!

Our second field trip was to our high school for a Wizard of Oz ballet.  Another hit with the kiddos!
When we returned, my partner and I rounded our classes up and met in her classroom.  We discussed what it means to "follow the yellow brick road" using Rachel Lamb's posters.  We displayed them on the board, but the pictures didn't turn out too well with my camera phone.  I also printed four slides per page in grayscale for each of the students.  We went through and asked students to read each slide one at a time.  Then, we asked them to put a star next to the bullet points that they believe they do consistently.  After that, they looked for areas of strength, and they drew themselves walking down the yellow brick road of character.  They wrote the character traits they exhibit around the picture.  (This was a nice tie in with our Language Arts focus this week as well!  Yay!)  We also had the kids identify one area to work on.  We felt like this was a great way to help students reflect on their behaviors and strive to make better choices.  :)  It was a nice way to tie in the ballet in a meaningful way in the ten minutes we had between getting back to the school and going to recess/lunch! I really wanted to have them make a poppy craft with their goal in the center to make a poppy field, but we didn't have extra time to spend on a craft.  Third grade is hectic... especially when you have so much extra stuff going on at school!  So, we had to opt for a less crafty approach.  It happens!

If you want the recording sheet in the picture above, you can find it HERE, but it's nothing fancy. :) I have to share this last example though, because it made my heart melt. Note: This was not on any of the posters. I teach at a public school, and we do have religious diversity.  We are definitely respectful of that.  However, this little surprise reminded ME that I need to continue to walk down the yellow brick road of the Holy Spirit too.  :)  Precious!

We also used Cara's yellow brick road retelling cards to revisit Prudy's Problem... and this was another quick but powerful lesson!  LOVED IT!  I just had the kids gather around the strip on both sides, and we discussed the story.  Together, we decided what we should write on each sticky note.  They used a recording sheet to make their thinking permanent was we went along. :)

Okay, and this is totally unrelated, but I got a kick out of this, and I HAVE to share!  Do you ever find your kids mimic your phrases and behaviors sometimes?!  I notice it every once in a while, and it's always a good reminder to always be a great role model, but sometimes, it just makes me chuckle.  The last spelling test I administered brought on one of those moments.  Check it out!  Can you tell what I call my kiddos sometimes?  It happened not once... but TWICE! Ha! 

Now that you've read my life story, are you ready to win something?!  This is what's up for grabs! 

It's called the "You Can Quote Me Writing Activity Center", and it comes with a HUGE stack of double-sided inspirational quotes.  You simply plop one into the clear sleeve, and you instantly have a nice writing center.  I use this at my computer station as an option during our morning work rotations, and I also make it available for early finishers.  I stapled it to the bottom of my Focus Board, and instead of displaying one student's piece of writing there, I decided to place our spelling list there.  This makes it easy for my thirdsters to type a response about the quote or type their spelling words with ease since it's right above the computer center.  :)  This is a major HOT SPOT in my classroom!  I love the upbeat messages on each card, and I love the reflection component as well.  This is a great classroom tool!  :)  Keep reading to find out how you can win one for your classroom!

a Rafflecopter giveaway