School and the City

Each year, 3rd graders participate in a "living wax museum" project during the last month of school. It's truly one of my favorite days of the year! We spend a few weeks reviewing nonfiction by studying biographies, then students get to bring biographies to life!  If you haven't tried a wax museum yet, you totally should. It is SO much fun - You will be so impressed by your students! We all have research standards, writing standards, and speaking/listening standards that can be taken care of with this project. Having students write speeches and present in front of an audience is not only meeting standards but it also an important life skill.  My team chooses for students to complete the project almost entirely at school. We spend a few days researching, a few days writing, and a few days making posters. At home, students practice their speeches (aiming to memorize) and put together a costume.  We also encourage artifacts to make our wax museum...

Once upon a time, when I first started teaching, I started building my classroom library.  I gathered books from retiring teachers and Goodwill. Throughout my career, I've grown my library by using Scholastic Book Club points, visiting Scholastic Warehouse sales, and shopping for specific series lots on eBay. The bins are from Dollar Tree, and they've held up well!  I must say - I'm super proud of my library!  My first school required me to have my library sorted by guided reading level. I get that! Students, in order to improve reading skills, should be reading books on or slightly above their instructional reading levels.  My library looked like this for six years... until now.  I noticed this year especially that my students rarely visited my classroom library unless I forced them to "book shop." They LOVE reading on Epic! where they can easily search and sort by categories.  Plus, as a grow as a teacher, I've learned that ...

It's that time of year, y'all! *finally* Time for students to reflect on their year of experiences while you start packing up your classroom. Whew! Exciting, but hectic!  One of my favorite projects for the last week or two of school is this  newspaper creative writing task .  It's a meaningful, creative writing activity for the end of the year! Students use all those writing skills they learned throughout the year to write about how they feel about the end of the year, their favorite memories, and advice for next year's students. We all have standards that state something about "using standard conventions of English" and "with the support of an adult, publish a writing piece." This is a great end-of-year assessment tool to see how much your students have grown in their writing abilities. Copy one of the pages as a work sample, if you need one! Most importantly, it's also a fun way for our students to "publis...

We finished testing last week. Whew! Now we relax AKA anxiously await the results. *fingers crossed* I already told you some of the things we did to prepare for testing, specifically 4 ways to reduce testing anxiety , but here are some things I did throughout the testing week to keep kids calm and positive.  Say Goodbye to Worries: One day, we read Wilma Jean the Worry Machine, which is a Julia Cook book about a young girl who suffers from anxiety. Throughout the book, she learns that worrying isn't helpful and what she can do to deal with it. You can find it on Amazon here (affiliate link) or watch on YouTube here .  After reading, we talked about all of the testing "What Ifs" that students may be wondering. Like Wilma Jean, we discussed worries that we CAN control versus worries that we CANNOT control. Lastly, I encouraged students to write down their worries on a sticky note. I told them no one would see what they wrote - not even me....

Spring has sprung, and  a new season means new text features passages! First, let me tell you about how I teach text features in my classroom.  I love cutting up an old book, magazine, or Scholastic news to make an anchor chart. It's a great way to teach text features in context and make the concept a little less abstract.  Hand motions! Lots of hand motions. Whole brain teaching strategies help vocabulary stick.  See the full video here .  Revisit constantly. Every time you see a text feature, point it out, and discuss how it can help you with comprehension.  Three words: text features passages!  Learn more: I love using text features passages as practice and assessment. I originally created these products for my own classroom. I needed a way to assess my students’ understanding of text features other than by observation, and I wanted the assessment to tie in to our science and social studies curriculum...

I'm so excited, because April is HERE! It's my favorite month because... 1. spring break (duh) 2. my birthday 💁🏼 3. NATIONAL POETRY MONTH! I love using  poetry books  to teach my students poetry. I recently updated my poetry books to meet the needs of my third grade classroom: Use this book as a tool to teach your students poetry! Types of poems included: acrostic bio shape 5 senses haiku personification cinquain diamante (synonym and antonym) This product includes an example, a scaffolded prompt (You Try It!), and a blank space (Write Your Own) for EACH type of poem.  You can print 8.5 x 11 size books, or choose the format suitable for the mini books found in the Target Dollar Spot - sooo cute!  You can purchase the poetry book  here . Use it year after year for fun with your students! *                  *     ...

It's almost that time! *sigh* I've learned a lot about standardized testing throughout the years - unfortunately. Here are 4 of my favorite ways to help reduce my students' testing anxiety: 1. Put a Positive Spin On It Your language is important and will absolutely impact your students' attitude towards the test and therefore their performance. Start saying things like, "This is your opportunity to show how much you've learned this year," and "Your parents and I cannot wait to see how much you have grown!" Do you test in your classroom? Me too. That means I have to use butcher paper to cover up basically everything in my room, which is U-G-L-Y. One idea to make it better: Write inspirational quotes on top of that butcher paper. 2. Read All The Books There are many books about testing, but it's also a great time to talk about reducing anxiety and having strong work ethic. Here are some of my favorites: Testing: Testi...