Do You See What They Saw?

Today I asked my students to look at my pitiful drawing of a flower and tell me what they saw. Their answers show you how deep their thinking can go. What do you see?

Multiplication Revolution

Today was a day your students have been working towards since the first day of 3rd grade! General Hall, from the Spartanburg Kiwanis Club came to award those students who achieved mastery of all 12 times tables on a 9 minute test. I am so proud to say that all 20 of my students met this goal. Thanks to the Rap CD, the Monster Mash, daily drills, weeks of tests, and all of your hard work at home, the students were successful! Here are a few pics from the ceremony! Thank you General Hall and the Kiwanis Club!

Rainy Day Recess

Ever wonder what we do for recess when it rains? Take a peek. I think they would rather it rain some times. They love indoor recess. I love the bonding they do during this time, not to mention that most of them always work on something educational the whole time.

South Carolina Sandwich

Today at lunch one of my students ate her sandwich into the shape of our state. I loved that she did this! I am always finding South Carolina shapes in random places. Her excitement led to an impromptu lunchtime review in SC regions, rivers, Native Americans, and battles of the American Revolution and Civil War. Always be on the lookout for our shape. It invites a learning opportunity wherever you are.

Friendly Lunch

I use a variety of coupons to reward positive behaviors. One of the coupons is called "friendly lunch." Students pick a friend to sit at a special table with me and talk during lunch. This is special because they have their own table and they get to talk the whole lunch. It is definitely a special treat. Here is the group that sat with me today. Congrats on the coupons girls!

Class Pet

Mrs. Teachey

Last August when she came in my room, I was as nervous as she was. You cannot let just anyone take over in your classroom. They call it your classroom for a reason. It didn't take long to realize how great Mrs. Teachey was for our class. She was a perfect fit.

Over the year she has been with us, she has written songs and Reader's Theaters. She has led the children on the journey from colonial times through the civil war. She taught the all about rocks. This list could go on for a while.

Most importantly though, she loved our students. She cared for them in a way that only parents and teachers do. It has been an honor to have her be a part of this year.

Today we celebrated her as her time came to an end. We gave her her very own drum to remind her of the time she spent with our class of encouragers. I even had a drum shaped cake brought in for the festivities.





As you can see, the children loved her. One of them tried to hang on just a tad bit longer.





We will miss you Mrs. Teachey, but you will always be a part of room 102.

Real Life Science

Today we learned about physical and behavioral adaptations of animals. According to the state, it is essential for students to know about things such as migration, animal defense, movements, camouflage, hibernation, as well as parts of animals that help them to survive. We watched an awesome little video from Discovery Channel that explained lots of these in great detail, and the kids were loving the lesson. As we were busy learning, these little guys below showed up at the bird feeder just outside our window. This is an actual pic I snapped. Immediately the kids were drawn to them. They thought that they were seeing 2 different kinds of birds. I explained to them that both of these were "red" birds, but one is a male and one is a female.




We watched for about 10 minutes and saw the red one (the boy) begin to feed the female. It was so neat to see this. We decided to look them up on kidrex.org I am so glad we did!! The first picture that came up was a pic of exactly what we had just seen... a boy red bird feeding a girl. The caption under the pic read, "A behavioral adaptation of red birds is that the males feed the females during courtship." I could not have planned a lesson any better. For 30 minutes we had talked about behavioral adaptations, and there, in living color, with 2 perfectly timed birds, we witnessed it. I hope the kids will never forget this. It was so cool! We found some sound bites of the birds online and played them over and over. The birds stayed there between the tree and bird feeder for about an hour. It was indeed a great day of learning in Room 102!

3rd Grade Writing

Have you noticed your child's writing getting better this year? I hope you have! Everyone in the room has come so far this year. Just the other day I read in someone's journal a story about a mermaid. The student wrote, "Her hair was a golden river, and her eyes sparkled like diamonds." That is an awesome use of figurative language. All of my students are using amazing language as they write. It has been incredible to see their minds spill out onto the paper as they write.

Today we received some items from Donors Choose that will help us to become even better writers. Check out these dry erase writing centers. A big thanks to all the donors out there who made this project possible!

New Books!

Thanks to Donors Choose, and at least 1 parent from our class, 2 complete sets of books arrived in our classroom today. The entire series of Cam Jansen and the Weird School series are now permanent residents in our classroom. We are so excited to have these books. All year long students have been taking turns with these from the library. Now there are enough for everyone! 

Back In Time

Just thought I would give you small glimpse of what we did way back on the first week of school. We did different science experiments each day. It started off fun and hasn't stopped yet!!!

Picture Day

Everyone looks so nice today. I think we should have a dress for success day at least once a month. The students are so amazing when they come in all snazzied up. They are more focused, polite, and courteous. Not that they aren't when they are dressed down, but even I feel a little nicer when I spiffy up with a tie. If you ordered a class picture today, it should be back in a few weeks.Don't worry if your child isn't posed right in the class photo at the bottom. That is not the one you purchased. That is me getting a quick shot for the blog. :)

Diamond Del

I sure hope your kids come home talking about all of the amazing things we do in our class every day. Today, they should have plenty to talk about after our Diamond Del adventure. The students mined for rocks and minerals and learned how to classify them. It was a great hands-on learning experience. We also learned that Diamond Del and his sidekick Joe, in the pictures below, were alum of our great WHES. One student said, "I feel like we are famous school." Indeed we are. Del and Joe have been friends since they were 5 and have been mining for students for over 18 years. What a great experience this was for our students!