Desoto Caverns

Our class recently took a field trip to Desoto Caverns. We got to enjoy the extremely fun maze with children running everyone making their way through. Then we moved onto rock climbing where my sweet friends tried their hardest to stay latched onto the wall! After that, we got to enjoy the astounding cave. We all enjoyed learning about its rich history! If you’d like to find out about it..visit here. Finally, we got the pan for gems through the water. Overall, we had a exceptionally fun-filled day and loved every bit of it! Here are some pictures to prove our enjoyment! =)

Rocks

Tell me some things you know about rocks! =)

Pinterest!

So.. I'm in LOVE with Pinterest! I get SO many ideas on things to do from that website. If you haven't ever been there, you definately should check it out! You do have to have an invite, but you can request one & they will send you one within about 24 hours. It's quite addicting. Anyways...one thing I found on Pinterest was THIS! So I made....these! I can't wait to give these to my students with their goldfish! I thought this idea was SO cute!

Youre Ofishally in 3rd Grade

Lettering Delights!

Have you ever heard of Lettering Delights? If not, you have GOT to check it out. It has AWESOME fonts, clip arts, graphics, etc. to use for pretty much anything. Go to www.letteringdelights.com to check out more. You will have to download Creative Delights browser from here. You can also use the try me now tools & save the images to use in Word & what not. I can't wait to use these more! My brain will not stop thinking about all the ways I can use this! HaHa! I revamped my transportation list with a font I purchased...check it out. :)

Transportation List

Transportation List!

Look what I made! :)

Transportation List2

Giveaway!

Who doesn't love a freebie? Head on over to First Grade Honey Bunch to check out a FABULOUS giveaway!

AMSTI training

The past week I have been at AMSTI training! AMSTI stands for Alabama Math & Science Technology Initiative. To put it short & sweet, it’s a hands-on approach to math & science to improve the teaching & learning for our little ones. During training, we do exactly the activities that we are going to teach the kids to do. I LOVE this because it helps to understand some of the problems they may have & it better helps prepare you to teach them. I was already year 1 & 2 trained in math & year 1 in science, so I had to finish my science training. While I was there, we did activities that had to do with Earth Materials & the Human Body. Unfortunately, I only took pictures of the activities we did with the Human Body. We dissected owl pellets, & if you'd like to know more about them, you can go

here. 

We also have the students put together the skeletons of the human body & make them into some type of character. I made mine into a hula girl.


The next thing we did was make models of the leg, arm, and thumb, to discuss joints & muscles. These models were a GREAT visual representation for the students to see how it all the muscles, bones, & joints work together as well as the muscles contracting.

Leg!

ARM!

We also talked about clouds & weather, & I made a poster to represent them!

Of course we did a great deal more, but this was all I took pictures of. We had an AMAZING instructor & I can't wait to get back & do all the things I learned with my students!

ICEE!

I have gone to a few different professional developments this summer. At one, Greater Birmingham Mathematics, I had a GREAT method for problem solving introduced to me by another lady in the class. I LOVED it, I could really use it for any word problem, especially problems that are on the ARMT! I am even trying to do it with my Daily Data. Daily Data is a venn diagram that is up on one of my boards in my class & my students answer a question to get the data. For example, I enjoy riding a bike & I enjoy swimming. If they like both, of course they put their choice in the middle. I use magnets cut outs of ladybugs with the students numbers (so i can use them year after year) to put their answer. The students do something different with the data each day of the week. Here is an example of the ICEE method &  a picture of my Daily Data in my classroom. I'm also going to include the schedule my students follow with the Daily Data. Last year I had my students complete the responses in their math notebook, which I still plan on doing this year, but I'm also going to include a format for which I would like my students to complete the responses. Use if you wish! :)

ICEE Method for Problem Solving

Daily Data


Daily Data Print Out

Sqworl!

I recently made a SQWORL with websites for reading. My students will use this during listening to reading of the Daily 4. They can also use it during reading intervention when my other sweet friends are meeting with me. I really LOVE how it makes all the websites right there for them 1 click away. It is somewhat like a favorites tab that I used to have mine choose from, but now they can just choose my saved SQWORL sit & have all these wonderful websites. Check it out yourself!

http://sqworl.com/ofj62m 

Classroom Setup!

While I'm waiting to post my pictures from the way I setup my classroom this year, I'm going to post some pictures of my setup last year. I changed all of the bulletin boards & did some things different, while keeping some the same. I'm not anywhere close to being done with my setup this year, but wanted to show what my room looked like last year to compare. Of course, some things were changed during the year because I love to rearrange & change things up, but here is what it looked like at the beginning of last year! :)