THIRD GRADE!!!!

Hi everyone! I know it's been FOREVER since I've posted, but things have been such a whirlwind since summer! I am now in my first year of teaching! I have 15 amazing third graders that I love spending time with every day! I will do my best to document our adventures this year when I have free time (what is free time??).

~Miss Hunt

Classroom Library Book Labels

I finally graduated in May with my Masters of Art in Teaching and received my teaching license early in July! I am now officially certified to teach pre-k through sixth grade! :-) Its been a hectic summer of applying for teaching positions and going to interviews. I am still waiting for that right position to come along, but until then I have started preparing for having my very own classroom!

 The first item on my agenda was to sort through my CRAZILY MASSIVE perfectly reasonable collection of children's books. As I pulled out the books that I want to include in my classroom library, I started thinking about how to keep them from getting lost. I definitely didn't want to hand-write my name in every book, so I came up with a wonderful new plan!

After a quick trip to Wal-Mart, I had just what I needed - Avery's sticky name badge/label thingys. I dowloaded the customizable template from their website and designed my own book labels. It was super easy and  I LOVED being able to stick one in the front of each book and be done!!

They say "Please read and return to Miss Hunt's classroom library!" (I couldn't resist adding the cutie poodles! :-)  )

I think they turned out great!I have a ton left, so as I add a new book, it's just  peel, stick, done!

~Miss Hunt

Flashback to Third - Is this Fair?

When I was student teaching in third grade, there was a major epidemic of claiming that things in the class weren't "fair". As any of you who are teachers or have kids of your own know, the kiddos think that it's just not fair if they don't get the best of everything! I saw this idea in various posts on Pinterest and decided to try it out! I had the students sit in a circle on the rug, close their eyes, and imagine that they had an injury somewhere on their body. I received several "but why?"s and curious glances, but they were good sports and went along with it. I then called each student up to the rocking chair one at a time and asked them where their pretend injury was. After each student answered, I placed a band-aid on the back of their hand without explanation. One student said she had a broken arm...and she got a band-aid on her hand. One boy said he had a "terrible horrible cut" on his leg....he got a band-aid on his hand. The kiddos all whispered to each other about what was happening, but never asked a question.

After the last student received his band-aid and sat down, a little girl said "Miss Hunt, how come I said my knee had a bruise but you didn't put the band-aid there? I wanted it on my knee! This just isn't fair!" DING DING DING! That's exactly what I was hoping for! I responded, "but why isn't it fair? Everyone got a band-aid didn't they?" A boy said, "Well YEAH, but what good is it if it's not where I needed it:?" This activity worked out so much better than I expected! We then launched into a long discussion about what fair truly means. One student summed it up best when she said "So maybe fair isn't when everyone gets the same thing...it's when everyone gets just what they need!"

Flashback to Fourth - Pollination

I will be continuing with posts from student teaching this past fall for the next few days! I wanted to highlight a lesson that I found the inspiration for here. I was covering the science SOL 4.4 and had to teach pollination. My first reaction was "how in the WORLD do you get fourth graders to understand pollination???" After some frantic googling, I came across the blog above and fell in love with the activity!!

To start, I poured Starbursts (still in their wrappers) in the bottom of a big bowl and covered them with cheese puffs. The Starbursts represented the nectar found in the "flower" and the cheese puffs were the stamen covered in cheesy "pollen". I then invited my little pollinators up to the table one at a time to root through the stamen to get their nectar. 

 
As they did,  their hands quickly became covered in "pollen". They then had to pick up more nectar from the next flower (cut out of a paper towel) and saw how the "pollen" rubbed off as they did.

 The kids were so excited and one boy shouted "I did it Miss Hunt! I pollinated that flower! I'm a rockin' bee!" I let the students eat their Starburst, but after the lesson, a girl said "Could we help you eat the stamen now??" I even had a parent send a note the next day saying that her child couldn't stop talking about the lesson! A memorable lesson AND a snack? Score! :-)
 

Flashback to Fourth/Third - The Naked Egg

I just wanted to highlight a science experiment that my third and fourth graders thought was the coolest thing ever back in fall! If you soak an egg  in vinegar for a day or two, the shell dissolves. The kiddos had the best time poking the "gooey, bouncy, squishy" egg and then popping the membrane when we were through!

Scrambled States of America game!

After making the Even Steven Odd Todd game (which you can check out here),  I decided to create a series of games based on children's books as a project for my Literacy class. The first game I made is based on The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller

The game asks students to identify where various states are on a map of the United States. You can download the game cards, rules, and game board for FREE here and here. Enjoy!

The First Mr. President

I recently taught my first graders a lesson about George Washington. For this lesson, I created a George Washington Fact Book and a fun review activity. You can download the book  and activity for free by following the links.

The activity involved creating a 3-d model of the Washington Monument. The kiddos had a blast cutting, folding, and most importantly playing with it!

We included two sentences on the sheet that (after filling in the blanks) says "The Washington Monument is named after George Washington. He was the first president of the United States." '

I hope this book and activity are helpful! Let me know if you're able to use it! :-)