Writing Rocks!

I came up with this idea after seeing a post on a blog about "poetry pebbles". I loved the idea, but wanted to expand it beyond just poetry so......Writing Rocks! were born!

I simply wrote random (but interesting) words on rocks and the kids think it's the greatest thing ever! I used two different kinds of rocks for this. The white ones closer to the bag above were landscaping stones. The gray and black rocks are aquarium stones from the pet aisle at Wal-Mart. The aquarium stones are smoother and feel better, but the Sharpie rubs off after a while. As of now, these are in the writing center with the following list of options:

• Write a story using at least five words

•  Write ten sentences

• Look up words you don’t know in the dictionary and write their definitions

• Make up categories that you can sort the words into and record your sort

• Write every word once

• Write 15 words two times each

• Write 20 words in ABC order

When I have my own classroom, I would like to experiment with using these for spelling words. A more fun (and tangible) way to sort the words! 

~Miss Hunt 

Gumball Math

Hi! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I wanted to share a math sheet that I used for fun as a math center right before the holiday break. The page allows the students to practice basic addition and subtraction facts as well as an intro to graphing! My third graders loved it and were THRILLED to get a sticker for great work!

I downloaded this sheet for FREE at:

http://printables4kids.com/gumball-math-color-by-number/

Enjoy!
~Miss Hunt

Money Money Money!

This week we started our unit on money in math. Needless to say, the kids were THRILLED! We started on Thursday by examining my coin collection from around the world, making rubbings and drawings of them, and them comparing and contrasting them with coins from the US.

Then we played a fun "I Have Who Has" game that I created for counting coins.The kids really enjoyed the game! They played it three times and wanted to continue to challenge themselves to do it faster! For a free download of this game, go to

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/I-Have-Who-Has-Money-Game

~Miss Hunt

Quiet Critters

I have been looking for a way to keep my kiddos quiet during independent work time.  After seeing this idea on Pinterest, I just HAD to try it!! These are our Quiet Critters:

 

The students that are working quietly get to have a Critter sit on their desk for the rest of the work time. The kids LOVE them! They work really hard to get one and will look up while they are working and pat the Critter's head. It is adorable and suck a simple fix! Quiet kiddos for the price of a few pom-poms, googly eyes, and foam pieces? Score! :-)

~Miss Hunt

Story Sticks!

My kiddos have been full of stories lately, and unfortunately it takes up a TON of class time! To fix this, I made each of them a story stick:

I used the fat popsicle sticks and little white labels. I wrote each students name on the white label and the story stick lives on their desk. Now they are allowed to tell one story a day during class. After they tell it, they must turn in their story stick. The next morning it is back on their desk and it starts over again. One story a day per student is MUCH more manageable than ten!!

~Miss Hunt

The Circle of Life

We had some sad news with our worm farm today, but also a great discovery! Unfortunately, Slimy did not make it. :-(  The students were heartbroken and asked if we can bury him and have a memorial service! They are so sweet at this age! Shortly after finding Slimy, we found a baby worm in the soil! He was tiny but looked just like the adult worms! One boy in the class got really excited and said "IT HAS TO BE SLIMY'S BABY! We learned that some animals die right after they have a baby!! We should name it Slimy Jr." Then another said "so wait Miss Hunt, if there is a baby worm, that meas that a girl worm and a boy worm had to...." I had never been so grateful to line up for Music before in my life!!!! So without further ado, I shall introduce......

Slimy Jr.

~Miss Hunt

Clip of the Week!

There are two video clips that I just have to share this week! The first is a song and rap on the adaptations of a camel. The kids LOVED singing along with the camel! Check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX8VQIJVpTg&NR=1&feature=fvwp

The second is a music video from Jumpstart about how bats use echolocation to find food. The bat (named Batney Ears!) sings and dances and the kids went nuts! WARNING: this song WILL get stuck in your head for the rest of the day! :-)   Check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr-Y2Tt8gFE

Enjoy!
~Miss Hunt

Love this!!

The Results Are In!

Today we opened the classroom polls and voted on names for our worms. Each student submitted a name, my cooperating teacher and I narrowed it down to 12, and the kiddos each voted for their favorite three names. By the end of the day, we had names for all 8 of our worms! Here they are!

Wormy:

 

D.J.

Slimy:

Hunter:

Freddy:

 

Larry:

Yasha:

 

Squirmy:

The kids have had such a great time with this project and I can't wait to see where it leads us next!

~Miss Hunt

Worm Farm?!?

The first teachable moment with my third graders was the creation of our class worm farm! We will use the worms to discuss numerous topics in science over the next eight weeks including what animals need to survive, habitats, ecosystems, food chains, decomposers, and soil. We put the worm farm together as a class today and the kiddos had a BLAST! First we put our soil in the fish bowl and moistened it (a little too much!)

Then each student had a chance to hold a worm before we put them in. We ended up using eight worms for this bowl. We then buried diced apple peels for the worms to eat. 

Finally we put a screen on the bowl to keep the worms in and covered it with a towel to keep the light out. The kids and I are so excited to take care of our worms and watch their behavior!

SOLs covered: 3.1 (observations), 3.4 (animal adaptations), 3.5 (food chains), 3.6 (ecosystems), 3.7 (soil), 3.8 (animal life cycles), 3.10 (human impact on habitats)

~Miss Hunt