Third Grade Airlines- Regions Day!

Hello Buddies-

In third grade we have been studying the regions of the United States. Now, I'll give a #teacherconfession here- I do not like teaching Social Studies. I just don't! I didn't like it in 5th grade and I don't like it in 3rd. Phew- it felt good to say it outloud. 

However, every so often something clicks and I find myself looking forward to a particular lesson or activity that is Social Studies related. That day, was Regions Day!

We broke our classrooms up into the five regions and each took control of helping our kids board "Third Grade Airlines" and flying off to the next region. Airline ticket and all!

Prior to the day we decided that we would do some nonfiction reading, some writing, a little digital viewing, and they would make a souvenir to take with them. We also decided to dress up for each region. 

Here are my colleagues and I dressed for our region. 

My LOVE for Disney and my kind colleagues allowed me to be the Southwest. We did some nonfiction reading and writing from a regions packet I found on TPT. The kids used some of the information they learned to write postcards home. Postcards were a great format as they were quick and helped the kids to pick the best facts from the reading selection. 

Taking some notes to include in our postcards to our
friends "back home" in New Jersey.

Once our postcards were finished it was time to go souvenir shopping. We made Mickey Mouse Ears as no trip to the southeast is complete without a trip to Disney and no trip to Disney is complete without your own Mouse ears. After the ears were ready I told the kids it was time for the fireworks display. If you know Disney, you know they REALLY know how to do fireworks! We ended our rotation by watching Wishes fireworks show on the SMARTBoard. It was fantastic and the kids were adorable "ooh-ing", and "aah-ing" at all the right spots!

We really had a blast having the kids "fly-off" to different regions. We even made them wings to wear for their first flight on third grade airlines. Each classroom also had a walkie-talkie borrowed from the office so we could make sure our flights left on time. Communicating with my SUPER colleagues via walkie-talkie was hysterical! One colleague even announced that her "flight would be delayed" because they were running a little behind on their activities. It was also a ton of fun mixing the kids up a little bit. Each flight contained kids from all three classes and one special ed class. This is only 1/5 of what the kids participated in as they traveled the five regions. 

Just wondering- Is there any subject you really don't like to teach?

See you later buddies!

Damien 

Teaching Theme- Disney Style

Hello! My name is Damien and I am a Disney Fanatic! 

I know, that's not much of a confession.  Heck, as I write this I am wearing a Mickey Mouse hoodie and watching the Disneyland 60th special on ABC (I cried twice). Disney movies, Disney songs, and Walt Disney World are a part of my soul. I am who I am because I was raised on Disney films!

So, what does all this have to do with teaching. Well, Disney always seems to find a way to sneak into my classroom and most recently it was to teach my kids how to identify, support, and write about theme. 

Here's one of my friends following along with the lyrics as we
listened to the song. 

The lesson started with me using an anchor chart to define the word theme.  I quickly passed out lyrics to the song "Let it Go" from Frozen, maybe you've heard of it-LOL. I told the kids that while I played the song I wanted them to listen while trying to find the message the author wanted us to apply to our own life.  When this was done we examined the lyrics for text evidence to support our theme. 

Here's our Writing About Theme Anchor Chart with
markers on what is expected when writing about theme. 

On our second day I modeled to my third grade heroes how to write about the theme as we wrote about Let it Go together. 

Over the next few days I exposed my kids to two others Disney songs giving them greater independence in finding the theme and the evidence to support it. We listened to "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan and "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story. 

One of the great things about this lesson was that their was minimal "reading" required. I am an ICR classroom with five special education students and this allowed everyone to practice identifying theme without their reading abilities getting in the way. I also found youtube videos of the songs and placed them in my Google Classroom incase my friends wanted or needed to listen to them a second (or third) time. This really allowed my friends to focus on the skill and not be hindered by trying to apply it to the reading they were doing (that time was coming soon). 

 This lesson was a *magical* way to learn about identifying and writing about theme. 

Have a *Magical* Day Buddies!
-Damien 

Publishing Informational Texts

Hello Buddies-

Have you ever heard of Bare Books?  Bare Books, or barebooks.com, sell hard cover blank (or bare) books that students can write in. They also have a plethora of other items that you can purchase, bare, for your students. In the past I have used bare board games, bare books, and other items they sell.  

The entire third grade at my school orders barbers to publish our informational writing. The kids LOVE the idea that they are creating "real books" with hard covers and often tell us how they remember watching their older siblings work on their books when they were in third grade. 

If you haven't checked them out- well, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

Here are my third grade superheroes "reading" their published informational texts using Bare Books

Let me know if you check them out. 
Bye Buddies!
-Damien 

Everything Old is New Again...

Hello Buddies-

So last week I posted that I was moving from Fifth Grade to Third Grade this September and that meant saying GOODBYE to my very pretty and well loved Harry Potter Classroom Theme.  After some mourning of the "end of an era" (that's what I have been calling it) it was time to start planning.  

Step one was to pick a theme and some colors to go along with it.  After much debate a theme was chosen and the colors were picked.  I am happy to a announce that my new theme will be....

SUPERHEROES IN TRAINING

I'm super excited about the theme and if you follow us on Pinterest (if not, what are you waiting for) you've seen some of the SUPER ideas I have up my sleeve thanks to the wonderful people sharing their themes and ideas.  

Now colors- well, I was replacing my *magical* blue, silver, and purple with a heroic red, yellow, and blue.  That meant some painting, therefore making everything old new again...

This is what my shelves looked like during my Harry Potter theme. 

The process begins

These were my heroic colors

Now- I'm lucky enough to have a phenomenal co-teacher who came in with her family to help paint.  In one day we painted two metal shelves, a filing cabinet, my mailboxes (they were nine years old and UGLY), the top of my wall length shelves, and a small patio table I use during Writer's Workshop. Since the floors in my room hadn't been done yet I was free to be messy as the custodians were going to do my floor after the painting was done. 

Here's some work in progress: 

Painting Yellow over Grey was NOT fun at all.
Read: MULTIPLE COATS!

This cabinet was once purple!

This was after the first coat dried- There was a second coat applied the next day. 

The chaos in progress. Here you can see the mailboxes we painted as well. 

I'm SUPER (expect a ton of SUPER puns in the future) excited about my new theme and am embracing the change.  If you have any SUPER ideas (see!) feel free to share below! 

Up, Up, and Away!

Damien