Exit Tickets & a FREEBIE!

Hello all!  I am truly enjoying my summer break.  I've been doing a whole lot of nothing!  I HAVE however, been working on a little project that is taking FOREVER to finish.  I am switching grades, next year.  Moving on up to 3rd grade, so I had to take some time to familiarize myself with the standards.  THEN, I realized, I have ZERO resources for 3rd grade!  So I started making some exit tickets.  A personal goal of mine is to do more little check for understandings throughout the week.  These tickets I'm hoping will do the trick!  It has also given me the opportunity to get to know what I need to teach next year.  I have 4 tickets per page.  Each page has the standard it addresses in the corner, and there are up to 6 different exit tickets for each standard!!  Check them out! 

EXIT TICKETS 3RD GRADE

 

 

 

I am happy with the product so far, I wish I had my class right now to test them out on!  I am almost done with the other domains and will post them as soon as they are ready!  I would like to offer you my set of 3rd grade Geometry exit tickets!  Click on the picture below to get them! 

 

 

 

 

SMARTBOARD WRITING GIVEAWAY!

Whoa has it really been that long since I posted?  I'm so sorry, I will do better!  I hope that you are enjoying your summer break or getting ready to enjoy it, for those of you still on the clock!  I came on today to let you know about a former colleague of mine who has FINALLY started to upload his products to TPT.  We worked next door to each other for 6 years, and let's just say, he can do amazing things with the SMARTBOARD!  I am really excited about his 101 Story Starters (yep, 101!) notebook.  You or your students can select a genre and be taken to a wealth of prompts that will spark interest and creativity during what could be a dreadful writing block!  There is just something about variety and choice that makes my heart sing.  This product could be a great addition to your Work on Writing resources.   A lucky few of you will be able to test this product out.



                                    

 Just head on over to his TPT store, follow his store, and then download one of his wonderful freebies that he already has posted.  He is just getting started, so you will definitely want to know when new things are added!  Then, come back and comment on this post which product you downloaded, along with your email and you will receive this monster file of common core aligned writing prompts!  Happy Summer!

Do you EDMODO?

Our school "Geek Squad" introduced me to this fantastic way for my students to communicate with each other for educational purposes.  EDMODO is a free service, and requires each child to have a username and password, but they call all sign in by being invited from you, by giving them a group code to sign up, so you don't have to worry about each having an email address which can get crazy!

 

So far, I have used this site to give my students simple polls, that can later be used for data & graphing which we are studying right now. 

 

 

I could also create an assignment, where students have to submit it directly to me instead of just replying to a post.  This is an assignment turned in, the question was What is the difference between a fact and an opinion.  I have the ability to assign a grade and also leave a response to their answer.

 

  The post below was a picture of our caterpillars (which didn't show up for this snapshot), but you can see the student responses below it. 

 

Lastly, students are also able to create post!   That is where you have to set the guidelines, otherwise, they turn it into a mini Facebook!  Make it very clear that the site is used for educational purposes.

As you can see, my kids are STILL struggling with regrouping.  Sigh.... and most likely the others just copied the previous response.

  What I like about the site, is that it is easy to navigate through.  I have 2nd graders, and they log on and can respond to my assignments within minutes!  EDMODO is a great tool for teachers to network.  I  have my personal account and then the one I use for my classroom.  There is an app for your smartphones as well, which is where I took these pics from!  You should check it out!

MENTOR TEXT LINKY-language arts

Hello all!  I'm linking up with the Cuties again!  This week's topic is language arts. 

 

 

My book choice is VOICES IN THE PARK by Anthony Browne. 

 

 

It is an absolute perfect choice for teaching Point of View and Character Traits.  There are 4 very distinct "voices".  A little boy, his mother, a little girl, and her father and also the dogs. 

 

Each voice tells a story about a day in the park.  All four voices are in the park at the exact same time, but all have completely different perspectives of the days events.  This book is excellent for character traits, as the different points of view lend themselves to different analysis of the characters!  It was a hit in my room!  I had the kids list the traits they felt described each character and their point of view.  Many kids had connections to similar park experiences they have had. 

 

 

Do you INSTAGRAM?



CLICK TO FOLLOW ME!

 

 

Do you take a boat load of pictures throughout the day, but don't want to type up an entire blog post about it?  INSTAGRAM is a great outlet to share those pics and great things that are happening in your day!  I just signed on a few weeks ago and it's been pretty fun! I created an INSTAGRAM for my blog from my phone. I'm joining WHAT THE TEACHER WANTS! Instagram Talk about it Tuesdays! Hop on over to see the details and  link up, and also find some of your favorite bloggers on INSTAGRAM!

 

 

Picture Prompt Writing, Bird reports, & countdown

Happy Sunday all!  If your days are anything like mine, you have spent it cleaning, shopping, drinking high-priced coffee, lesson creating/planning and of course blog stalking.  I personally wouldn't have it any other way.  Well except for the fact that Monday is...well....tomorrow :(

My lovely class just finished up a two week unit on Bird Research!  Students were required to:

1.  choose a bird

 

 

2.  locate information via text or online

 

 

3.  list their sources

 

 

4.  strengthen their writing (these were my examples)

Then, they had to do their own!

 

5.  revising & editing with a peer

 

Let me tell you, it was a challenge!  But to top off the unit, I had my students incorporate measurement in with the writing, by asking them to build life-size versions of their bird.  This was probably the ONLY motivation that got most of them to complete all the steps for this report! 

6.  measurements

 

 

HERE ARE A FEW OF MY FINAL PRODUCTS!!

(hummingbird, penguin, roadrunner & a Dodo)

 

 

 

Next up, is my Picture Writing Prompt Packet

 

Hot off the press is my picture prompt writing packet.  At this point in the year, kids should have mastery of the 3 most focused genres of writing in 2nd grade.  Because its the end of the year, I'm giving my kids a little freedom, and allowing them to choose the style of writing they want to do.  So with each picture, there are 3 different prompts to write about, one of each genre.  Check it out!

 

 

 

 

 

   I apologize for the extra long post, but it is FORBIDDEN to post twice in one day!!  The last thing I want to say is that, I have 29 days of school left.  That's all. I will give 3 of these packets away to the first 3 followers to comment and tell me how many days you have left!   Have a great week!

 

Mentor Text-Linky

Happy Monday to you all!  I am joining up with the Collaboration Cuties for their Math Mentor Text Linky!  If you haven't checked it out, PLEASE DO!  I have gotten tons of ideas!  I got THIS idea from one of my brilliant inductees who did an activity that used the Marilyn Burns text The Greedy Triangle.    So, I had to test it out myself!   A dissatisfied triangle ventures out to become different shapes by adding a side and vertex each time.  The text shows the different places we might see such shape, like a pentagon on the soccer ball.  As the Greedy Triangle transformed shapes, I had my students add a side (pretzel) and a vertex (marshmallow) to create the new shape, and then record that information on THIS WORKSHEET.  They loved it!  They were amazed at how easily the new shapes were made.  They also enjoyed eating the snack afterwards!  See pics below! 

 

Here's what you need + the Text.

 

 

Have kids create the shapes by adding a side and vertex at a time.  Record the number of each for the shape.   

 

As a challenge, I asked them to make 3D shapes!

 

 

Voila!  Great activity, the kids were engaged the entire time!!  You can get the worksheet I used by downloading HERE.  If you would like to link up, head on over to the Collaboration Cuties!