Monday Motivation {Daily Schedules}

Hey friends! I am back today sharing about my daily schedule! In truth, I haven't had a schedule that I have been truly happy with in some time. We don't really have much control over when we do certain things (recess, activity, lunch) and this year, we were required to give up an additional 30 minutes to do RTI four days a week. Our Friday schedules are also different do to PLC time. I will not be including that information here, but here is what the layout of our day looks like.

When I was setting up my room a couple of years ago, I found these ADORABLE daily schedule cards from Amy Groesbeck! You can grab yourself a set HERE!

This schedule ended up changing as the year went on. Here is the schedule that I ended up sticking with for the year.

When students come in, they have a this message on the board.

We are a Title I school and offer free breakfast every day. We didn't always use morning work, but when we did, we used this, from Kiki's Classroom. You can purchase the yearlong set HERE!

Sometimes, students would just get on the computers and do Reflex Math or work on Cursive Workbooks. Eating breakfast in the classroom made it difficult to complete the morning math fully. We would try to finish it later on in the day.

 After morning routine, we jump right into Reading Workshop. I had the resource students this year and we did inclusion, so the resource teacher pushed in each day. In our district, we use the Fountas and Pinnell balanced literacy model and we also use Literacy By Design. We also have the freedom to supplement our mini lessons with whatever resources we choose. I only use the LBD leveled readers during my Guided Reading time. Each week, our mini lesson focused on a specific standard. During our Guided Reading group time, students do Daily 5. You can read more about that HERE. As students are doing Daily 5, they have the week to respond to the skill we are focusing on in their reading notebooks.

After reading, we go straight into writing. Because of our tight schedule this year, I felt like writing was always where we had the least amount of time. Guided Reading would always run over. I really am hoping our schedule allows for more writing time this year. 

I used Ashleigh Swinford's writing units this year. They follow the writing workshop model and they are wonderful! You can purchase those in her shop HERE! The one thing that I feel like I really didn't do a great job with was teaching grammar. Ashleigh's units do have a small grammar focus, but they are not lessons. This coming year, my team will be using Rooted in Reading and I am excited that they will have a grammar focus each week.

After writing, we had a 45 minute activity block. These are our specials, related arts, whatever you call them at your school!

We are required to have PE twice a week in order to abide by state law, so library isn't an official activity block. We have to carve out 20 minutes once a week to go. I would prefer that it be a full activity time, but hey....I'm not the one running things!

When we return from activity, we have one of our favorite times of the day - Read Aloud!

These are just a few of the novels we read this past school year. We also read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and The Swamp Fox. I would love some more 3rd grade novel suggestions for next year!

After read aloud, we have math. 

About a month into the school year, I discovered Hope King and Amy Lemon's Magic of Math for third grade and it totally transformed our math time! Students have never been more engaged in math in my classroom. I will say that it required lots of copies and preparation, but now I have a ton of it ready for reuse for next year. 

If you are interested in purchasing the third grade Magic of Math, just click on the image below!

You will certainly not regret it! These movable fraction number lines took me some time to assemble, but now I have them for years to come!

After math, we had recess, lunch, and a quick restroom break. 

When we returned, we had about a 45 minute content block. We had to alternate between Science and Social Studies because we didn't have time in our schedule to do both in one day. For the sake of grading, we usually alternated after completing a concept, instead of a whole unit. 

We tried our best to make this time as hands on as possible. We did have a couple of Science Kits to use and we pretty much planned our own curriculum for Social Studies as the text books don't make for much excitement. 

The last 30 minutes of the day was reserved for our intervention time. While I was meeting with these four students, the rest of the students would be on computers or devices working on Reflex Math or Imagine Learning. 

This coming year, I plan on using these progress monitoring cards from Mrs. D's corner! You can snag her freebie HERE! 

After RTI, we pack up and dismiss for the day! 

I hope you have enjoyed this insight into my daily schedule! 

3rd Grade Math Assessments

I've been spending the first few days of my summer break working on finishing up my latest project! I have been wanting for the longest time to have some pre and post assessments to use in my classroom. I really want to start focusing on targeting weak skills before teaching a unit and also doing remediation for students during each unit. This product took a lot of work, but I'm confident that this will help me have more success guiding and teaching my math instruction this year.

The bundle will include 8 pre assessments, 8 post assessments, and the checklists for both. The unit tests are aligned with the South Carolina 3rd grade standards, but they are very similar to the Common Core standards.

The unit tests included are in the following order:

1) Place Value
2) Addition and Subtraction
3) Multiplication
4) Division
5) Area and Perimeter
6) Geometry
7) Fractions
8) Measurement and Data

I don't plan on using the pre assessments to take up a whole lesson. I want to use them during my morning work block, so that I don't have to spend time taking up a lesson. I would recommend doing it several days before you plan on teaching it so that you have time to analyze the data using the checklist. Each pre assessment has 10 questions covering all of the standards under that unit strand. The checklist looks like this:

At the top of each checklist are the standards. They are editable so that you can type in each child's name. Once you have graded each assessment, just fill in the row with x's or check mark's to show which standards were mastered on each unit assessment. To see which standards students are struggling with, I would highlight the columns with lots of x's. In addition, you many also want to highlight the students who missed most of the questions so you know know is not getting the content. If you wish to group your students based on the data for guided math, that is also an option.

As far as the post assessments go, you will use the checklists to see which students need reteaching or which standards you need to reteach. You will use the same process. Highlight standards with lots of x's or students who missed lots of questions.

AND, coming soon, the South Carolina Regions and Places unit. I have been working on this for a HOT minute, but I put it on the back burner so I could finish up these math assessments! The unit will come with full lesson plans, one flipchart with embedded links to each lesson, and resources to accompany each lesson!

I hope you an find this product as useful as I know I will! You can purchase your copy in my TPT shop by clicking my blog button below.

If you would like to win a free copy, drop me a comment and let me know what your favorite thing to do over summer break is! I will choose a winner by Sunday! Please leave your email in the comment so I can contact you!

Math Homework Bundle for the Year

I have been working on this math homework bundle for quite some time, but between taking care of a little one, moving schools, and trying to find time for myself too, it has been quite the undertaking! But it is finally done!!

This bundle was written with the 3rd grade South Carolina College and Career Ready Standards in mind, but they are quite similar to the Common Core standards. There are only a few minor differences and I have covered them both quite well.

I have included 118 half sheets total for all five domains:
* Number Sense and Base 10
* Number Sense Fractions
* Geometry
* Algebraic Thinking & Operations
* Measurement and Data Analysis


To see how each page is set up, see the image below.

This bundle can be used in numerous ways. If you choose not to go the traditional homework route, these can be used as assessments or exit tickets instead.

To purchase the entire set, click the image above!

In my true fashion, I always give away one set of my newest creations. If you wish to win this set, all you need to do is guess my latest Netflix addiction!  Happy guessing!

Let's Celebrate Earty Day

I think many teachers feel like they don't have the time to really celebrate and learn about Earth Day because of the pressures of testing. The state test is a week after Earth Day this year so I feel like I don't really have time either! But, it is so important to take that time to talk about this holiday because many students seem to be unaware of the things that are happening to our planet. Even if it's just having kids read an article for morning work or reading aloud a book to help get across the message. 

To help those of you who may not have enough time to spend teaching and learning about Earth Day, you can use these printables and activities!

There are reading, writing, and math activities included! 

To purchase your set, click my blog button below!

St. Patricks Day Writing

So I used to love Lucky Charms as a kid. As I was laying in bed the other night, I was thinking how perfectly that little treat goes along with St. Patrick's Day and how fun it would be to use Lucky Charms for some fun writing! So this little pack was born!

I came up with two different writing activities. First, students can write about their favorite Lucky Charms marshmallow. I even included a fun little class graphing activity! The second writing activity is for for students to persuade someone to eat or not eat Lucky Charms!

Just a little preview from the pack!

Click on my blog button below to head to my shop and grab your copy!

Measuring Liquid Volume

Every year, measurement tends to be the one thing that my students struggle with the most. I'm not sure why, but I think maybe it's that it's just boring. LOL I dunno!

This year, I plan on letting students rotate to several stations and practice estimating how much they think is in a container and then actually measure it out and see. To end the lesson, I made this SCOOT activity as a review! I think it will be a fun way to assess what they learned!

Here are some sample pages from the file! They will then record all their answeres on this recording sheet.

You can purchase this activity for $2.50 in my shop! Just click my button below!

And for you South Carolina third grade teachers, I am still working on this!

It is huge project, so it will take me a while to finish, but I am getting there!

 Leave a comment telling me your favorite way to teach estimating and measuring liquid volume and I will choose one person to win a free copy of my Estimating and Measuring Scoot activity Wednesday, March 11th! Good Luck! {Please leave your email in the comment!}

Multiplication Freebie

As you may have noticed, my blog has recieved a little makeover! I love it! Thanks to Megan Favre at a A Bird in Hand Designs!

I have just returned from my maternity leave and man did I miss my kiddos!! To help my kids really learn their facts, we always do weekly timed tests starting with 0's and 1's and then moving up each week. As kids pass each test, they color in a section of their multiplication sundae sheets. You can see the example below! 

At the end of the year, we have an ice cream sundae party to celebrate!

Here is the checklist I use to keep track so students don't try to cheat on their coloring sheets. =)

If you wish to download this editable file, please click the image below! You will need the following fonts for it to look like mine: KG What the Teacher Wants and KG When Oceans Rise. These are both free fonts you can download from TPT or Dafont.com

I created my own timed tests to use. The students just fill in what math fact they are on in the first column and then I call out the second factor. When they have done that, they turn their papers over and I set a timer for a given amount of time. I usually give them a minute and a half. You can do what is best for you. I collect all of the papers when the timer goes off. They must correctly answer all 13 questions to pass.