Time Capsule Cont (Cute Time Capsule Idea)

Time Capsule Cont':

Last night I blogged about the time capsule project my students are working on. First thing this morning they asked if they were going to work on them. They're so excited about this project. I took a few pictures today: 

This is a picture of the brown envelopes they are decorating as their time capsules. 

This is the picture of the stationery we made. Last names are blurred out for obvious reasons. I also gave them each a copy of our class list so they can cross names off as they write letters to classmates. 

And finally, here is an example of a letter written to a classmate. Is this not precious? 

A Tour of our State, A Freebie, & A Little Notebooking (Cute Idea)

A Tour of our State, A Freebie, & A Little Notebooking:
One of my favorite things about 3rd grade (so far) is the study of our beautiful state! At first, it completely stressed me out! Now that I am in my groove, it is so much fun to teach and the kids are all about South Carolina History!
This year, I decided to dive head first into notebooking for all subject areas! Let me tell you…at first, it will make you want to pull your hair out! Teaching third graders about designing their own table of contents was quite a task! Now, it is super smooth and very beneficial!
With that said, I didn’t want for our notebooks to be a bunch of notes that the students will never use. So, I have been trying some different strategies that engage the students in “note taking” and make our notebooks something that are user friendly…even for the parents! Here is a look inside our notebooks.
 

So far, we have included important anchor charts (I take a picture and make a copy for each student), activities, and maps.

   

We also keep a vocabulary pocket for each major unit! I have found that library pockets work perfectly for this section. We write our words on index cards and the students pull them out when they need to reference a certain word.

During our study of the six regions that divide our state, the students were taken on a little tour around each region. Their “souvenir” at the end of each region was two postcards. One to record fast facts from the region and one to write a persuasive letter to someone in the school enticing them to go for a visit. We kept all of our fast facts in our backpack housed in our SC notebooks.

   

For all of my SC people, if you would like a copy of the SC postcards, click on the picture below!

We ended our big study of the regions with a little cookie decorating! The students were given the task to create a cookie that represented all six regions of our state. Mr. King (a.k.a. the hubs) even came to learn all about the regions! I don’t know which surprise they were more excited about…the cookies…or Mr. King! He takes directions from third graders quite well! :)

  

Hard at work…

 

The Finished Products…

I would say it was a success!

I can’t wait to see what else we can get into as we learn about the most beautiful state! Well, I may be a little partial! Happy Sunday, friends!

My House All Year (Teaching Months) (Cute way to teach months)

My House All Year (Teaching Months):

Hello, Friends! I hope you are all having a good week... thank goodness it is almost Friday! (This teacher needs a WEEKEND!!) Before I head to bed, I wanted to share a writing activity that I started with my students this week. It is a book called My House All Year  and I learned about it from my wonderful cooperating teacher while I was student teaching (Thanks Lynda!! Love ya!). In this book, my students will write a sentence about each month of the year and draw a picture to accompany the sentence. This book will provide my students with writing practice and math practice (time: months of the year and seasons). We will only do one page a day and I am really encouraging my students to do their best, because I am going to give these books to their parents at Parent-Teacher Conferences.

Here is a sample of the My House All Year Book:

(BTW: I have my students draw a tree on each page to show the change in seasons.)

Before I introduced the books to my students I read My House to them. This book has interesting pictures and my students LOVED it. Click the picture below to check it out:

How do you teach your students about the months of the year?

Reward Ideas

Source: i1071.photobucket.com via AmberLee on Pinterest

Attention Getters

Source: pocketfullofkinders.blogspot.com via Carrie on Pinterest

2nd Grade Shenanigans

Source: shenanigansinsecond.blogspot.co.nz via Georgia on Pinterest