Five for Friday 5/6/14

It's been an exhausting week and I still have a few more days until summer.  This is truly beginning to feel like the never ending school year! We've been keeping busy and having lots of fun activities to keep us learning and to stay motivated.  

Have you ever heard of Boosterthon? A few weeks ago our PTA brought them out to our school for a huge fundraiser.  Boosterthon really does an excellent job pumping the kids up to raise money for your school.  With a focus on leadership, good character, and fitness the final event of the Boosterthon Fundraiser was the Fun Run.  The kids asked family and friends to pledge $1 for every lap they ran at the Fun Run, the culminating event.  The kids were SO excited and most did over 35 laps!

This girls was ready to RUN at the Fun Run!  

We've been studying energy in my third grade class...we certainly are full of energy, but sometimes have difficulty understanding our science textbook.  During this lesson, students used wind-up cars to demonstrate potential and kinetic energy.  I have to laugh because I can't see any cars in this photo, they were zooming so fast around my room! 

We were able to squeeze in another science experiment.  Since we've been learning about energy, we tried making circuits of energy with Energy Balls.  One of my fantastic teammates loaned these to me...they were awesome! If students made a successful circuit the ball would flash red and make a sound.  These boys are having a blast making a human circuit of energy! 

This week my grade level has planned fun themed days to help countdown to summer.  Look out for a post on this soon. :) However, on Tuesday of this week we had some special literacy activities.  I got to read aloud Mustache Baby, a very sweet and silly story, to a small group of kids. 

Afterwards my mustache babies made our own mustache disguises...um, hello cheap and easy last minute project! 

We also played Pin the Mustache on the Baby, which was a hit! 

I couldn't wait to create Hope King's Dive into Summer writing pieces with my kiddies! Once they saw what it was going to look like they were chomping at the bit for extra writing time- SCORE! Here's my horrific sample...yes, that is my drawing of a car....and yes, I have a boring white straw for my snorkel. I bought fun packs of neon straws, but decided to save those for my students.  *Sigh* the sacrifices I make for these kids. ;) 

We've got only a few days left, I can't wait!

Erin

Animal House!

Hello All! I've had so much fun exploring animals this year with my third graders! I've already shared some of our activities HERE.  Beware, these is a huge photo dump in this post.  I just loved everything we did and just have to share all of the cuteness! 

First up is the fabulous informational text, What if You Had Animal Teeth.  Short bursts of information and easy to read fast facts make this book and it's partner What if You Had Animal Hair favorites in my classroom.  I love how the book appeals to the natural inquisitiveness that my students possess...we've all heard the, "What if...." questions in our classroom! 

I placed a few students in charge of documenting information from the text onto sticky-notes for our chart. 

We then used these charts to help inspire our opinionated writing on what type of animal teeth we would like to have and why.  It's a proud teacher moment to see those kiddos of mine walking up to the chart and using their resources! 

We then made these adorable little faces of ourselves my partner found on TPT...so cute!

I loved how they all turned out! It makes for one silly looking bulletin board outside our classroom! 

The next idea came from Pinterest.  After reading Who Eats What we created our own food chains puzzles.

Each student got three to four styrofoam cups and a handful of permanent markers.

They then had to come up with their own food chain...I am always amazed by their creativity. 

After each student had a chance to finish their food chain we then played rotated around the room, trying to stack one another's food chains in the appropriate order.

As a culminating activity we created habitat murals in groups.   I let my kids create the classroom rubric for the project, which really helped with the buy-in.   I loved hearing their conversations relating to things we've learned throughout our animal chapter on animal needs and behaviors! 

They also had free reign of my extra craft supplies...which was a BIG deal.  This group was creating the coral reef and had declared the sparkly purple poms make the perfect sea urchins! 

The rainforest habitat group found some use for my leftover tissue paper squares.  

Check out the artwork! I love this jaguar scaling the tree! 

At the beginning of the year I made these flip charts for my Open House...I learned how from Kelly HERE! I loved how the flip chart allowed me to share important information at a glance..well, I thought  my students might like these for the same reason! 

I wish I had a template to share with you, but I made this the old fashioned way by cutting and pasting. I'll add it to my summer To Do list ;) 

My third graders loved to use the free WB Animals app for their research! 

To help keep track of students' research...and for me to keep track of their work habits, we used Doctopus through Google Drive.  This is my first time using Doctopus and I'm loving it so far! I can't wait to share more with it! 

Well...if you're still with me you earn a gold star in my book! We've got 17 days left of school...not that I'm counting down or anything ;) 

XOXO

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears...Oh My!!!

 Lions, and tigers, and bears...oh my!  I LOVE teaching about animals! It's one of my favorite science units in third grade, unlike *cough* Energy and Heat *cough*.  Any who,  I thought I'd take the time to share some of the fun activities we've been up to...

It looks like a zoo in here! 

No, I'm not talking about the disorganized mess in the corner of this photo (yikes!) My students were asked to bring in a stuffed animal to school for their homework.  We then did some research to classify our animals.

Next up we placed our animals into the wild! Also known as...butcher paper.  Students had some great conversations and debates on where to place their animal based on their animal's needs.  We also noticed some food chains, one poor lamb was almost sacrificed by her owner when she was placed next to a gray wolf! 

I've already blogged about these cute camo critters, but I just love them so much! You can read about theme HERE. 

This last week we read What if You Had Animal Teeth, which is such a fun read! If you don't have it in your classroom library, I STRONGLY recommend it.  The kids love the short bursts of informational text and the silly illustrations.

After completing a close read of the text, my students built this sticky-note chart filled with facts about some of the animal teeth included in the book.  

We then used this chart as inspiration for an opinion piece.  My students formed an opinion on what type of animal teeth they wish they could have.  The chart was used to help provide evidential reasons that supported their opinions.

This adorable craftivity was found on TPT by one of my awesome teammates. Unfortunately, I'm unsure of who the creator is.  If you know, please let me know! I'd love to give credit!

Isn't this the cutest!? I can't wait until I hang these up in the hallway! 

Something else we've been loving? Watching Planet Earth DVDs while we pack up for the day! 

This week we'll be creating habitat murals, I can't wait to see what kinds of ideas they come up with!!

Camo Critters

Hi Y'all!
I'm in an especially cheery mood because Chicagoland has finally decided to change seasons and become SPRING! Yahoo! Goodbye winter coats, boots, and sweaters...hopefully I won't be needing you until November!

I wanted to share a fun little activity we did today that goes along with our Animal Unit.  The idea actually comes from our ancient vintage Science textbook!  This activity was used as an introduction into the second portion of our chapter on animal behaviors and survival techniques.

First, my kiddies were given a quarter piece of computer paper and asked to draw an insect that could be camouflage with the surroundings of our classroom.

Next, my students cut out their little buggies trying not to leave any traces of the white paper.

Then, they each got a small pieces of tape and placed their bug around the room.  I love to see how creative they all get! 

I didn't even spot this one until the end of the day!!!

Finally, when all was said and done we played what we called 'Birds of Prey'.  My students were given one minute to 'fly' around the room to try and spot as many camo critters as they could find.

It's a simple and engaging activity that led us into a great discussion on camouflage and how animals use that to survive in the wild, which means that this teacher is happy, happy, happy! 

What are some of your favorite engaging (and simple) activities to incorporate in your classroom?? I'd love to know!

Boy, We Were Wrong About the Solar System- A Science Must Read Mentor Text

My kiddies have been loving our unit on the solar system and I have to admit that I'm having a lot of fun with it to!  We love exploring each of the planets in our solar system, creating craters in the sand like on the moon, and demonstrating how eclipses work with flashlights and our globe.  

I don't know about you, but our science text book is outdated...like really, really outdated.  This is especially difficult with the solar system since so many things have changed! Enter: Boy We Were Wrong About the Solar System!  

To kick off our solar system unit I read Kathleen Kudlinski's informational book that covers from the early greek astronomers, to Isaac Newton, up to the demotion of Pluto from a planet to a dwarf planet.  It's a great text that clues readers into how we are always making new discoveries in science and changing our thinking of what we know.  

Poor Pluto, was a Young Authors Award winner, written and illustrated by third-grade students is another beloved read aloud for this unit.  The illustrations hand-drawn by the third grade students and simple story line are so enjoyable! In the story a third grade class welcomes Pluto to be a part of their room, since he is no longer a planet.  In the end, they decide it's best for Pluto to return to the solar system.  Adorable, fun, and the it ignites a lot of students into wanting to write their own stories! 

For more great science read alouds check out Collaboration Cuties! I adore their weekly linky parties and adding new books to my Amazon wish list!