VCCCV Practice

All these snow days have required a bit of "creativity" in our planning as a 3rd grade team! We are having to combine some skills in order to get everything in before testing. Don't you just love standardized testing?

One of our phonics/spelling skills is the VCCCV syllabication pattern. I do not anticipate my 3rd graders struggling with this skill too much, but I made this center for my kids to practice this pattern. It provides a good assessment of the skills pattern. This goes along with the story Fly, Eagle, Fly! from the Reading Street series.

If you want to use this in your own classroom, you can find it here.

Simplifying Fractions Made Easy (I hope...)

Every year I have 3rd grade friends who really struggle to understand how to simplify fractions. I made this to help my kids understand how to find the greatest common factor.

There is a chart with factors below the fractions where they can mark out and circle the appropriate fractions. I am hoping that it will help them in the beginnings of simplifying so that it becomes routine for them when they are doing it on their own.

I hope that this is helpful to some of your kiddos who are struggling to simplify fractions!

Get it for free in my TPT store.

You can get it here.

More Snow Days

Living in Tennessee, we get very little snow. With all these crazy snowstorms across the Southeast, we have had a very odd winter. So far we have used 7 snow days and we have potential for another one tomorrow. I was shocked how much snow we really got yesterday. Here in Tennessee we are used to being disappointed by our weather reports. They were right on it this time! Sadly, it is melting quickly, but there is potential for refreezing tonight. Teachers and students are loving all these unexpected breaks!!

I have been working all morning on Fact and Opinion. Our 3rd grade team was told NOT to teach the skill because it would not be tested. WRONG. We got the specific skills that will be on our end of year assessment (TCAPs) and surprise, surprise...fact and opinion is tested! Not just that, but several other skills that we were told not to teach. Gotta love it. Needless to say, we are a little stressed about making up time and getting in those skills.

Here is what my morning is looking like on this beautiful snowy day!

(Of course the Olympics are on in the background!)

I have been looking for any resources I can find on fact and opinion.

Here are some good freebies!

Fact and Opinion Freebie by Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher
Fact or Opinion Reading Center Station Activity Game by Workaholic NBCT
Facts and Opinions Sort Freebie by Speechy Musings
Also check this out from ReadWorks

I have a random teacher question...hopefully someone can help me out. Does anyone know how to lock your text and graphics into a flip chart in ActiveInspire? I want to share this with my teammates and TPT, but I am not sure how to save it so it opens with my fonts? I do not want to totally lock the flip chart because there is an interactive part for the kids to sort facts and opinions. Any suggestions? THANKS!

The Olympic Spirit

If you were in my 3rd grade classroom, you would know just how in the "Olympic Spirit" I really am. My kids are reading all about the Olympics (reading and finding text-based evidence as they go). They have an Olympic Reading challenge they are doing. We are tracking the medals. I am loving it.

One of our skills this week was narrative writing. I, of course, had to pull in the Olympics. I made a quick, easy writing paper. You can grab it for free in my TPT store. I hope that your kids enjoy it!!

Go grab a FREE copy here!

Winter Blues

I have a serious case of the winter blues. It is pretty pathetic really. Our Christmas break was extended by 3 days because of severe cold weather and damage it caused across our county. I told you...it is pathetic. I have only been back at work for 10 days and I am WORN OUT already. Part of it has to do with observations hanging over my head, part of it has to do with TCAP's being right around the corner, and A LOT of it has to do with getting married in May. I love my kids, I love teaching, and I love getting to inspire little learners, but...I just have wedding/marriage on the brain! I am trying to balance it all and make sure I am my best for my kids everyday.

For all of you with the winter blues, here is a new product that I hope you can find helpful in your classroom.

To motivate my kids to read, I made AR punch cards. When they earn points, they get a punch in their cards. When they fill a card they get to retire their card and get a small prize. They have worked really well in my classroom this year! I have been very pleased. I have a lot of kids working really hard to get their next card.

I hope that this is something that helps get your kids motivate to read!

You can grab these in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here!

Happy [almost] Friday!

Thanksgiving Freebie

I think I might officially be the worst blogger...ever. It is so hard for me to keep my blog up to date without feeling completely guilty. There is just never enough time in the day. I promise I do not neglect my sweet students like I do my blog.

While I am keeping busy with school, I figured I would share a Thanksgiving freebie. I made this optional reading challenge for my kids over the break next week. I know that not all will participate, but my kids who need that extra challenge will eat it up! They love anything that will give them a chance to be rewarded for their hard work. I know I will have several excited kids the Monday after break. Anything to get my kiddos to read!

Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers here store to grab this freebie.

Whirlwind

This year has been a whirlwind already! Our county went back to school 4 weeks ago and the craziness has yet to end. This is my 4th year teaching and I have never felt this frazzled so early in a year. I feel like I am running a never ending, always quickening race. There is just so much going on outside of actual teaching. I am sure that most of you can relate! It seems that it gets a little crazier each year.

Despite this craziness, we have lessons plan and to teach! Our third grade team has found an awesome resource that we buy for each Reading Street unit. I LOVE these packets that Sarah Kirby makes. They are so helpful for making my focus wall each week. It saves me SO much work each week to have these pre-made for me. If you are interested in checking Sarah's work out (and I highly suggest you do), then you can find it here for Unit 1 and here for her Teachers Pay Teachers store. She also has a great blog...Permanently Primary.



While I like to buy what others have created, I sometimes have a little spare (Ha! Spare, right?) time to create some of my own activities for my classroom. This afternoon, I had some time to myself and my school work, so I made a little math freebie. In math we have been working on rounding. Most of my kiddos are doing really well with it, but some of my little guys need a little extra practice. I made this freebie to practice rounding to the nearest 10. You can find it here.

I hope that you all are enjoying this weekend! We have had some beautiful warm weather here in Tennessee. Perfect game day weather for the Vols!

Have a great week!