The honeymoon is over!

If you teach at my school, you know who that quote belongs to! If you don't, you can read all about her right here. Love you, Sexy Flexy :)

Anywaysssss....

Yes. The honeymoon is officially over. The room no longer is sparkling clean. It has that worn-in look... you know what I mean. The little darlings who didn't say a word last week are getting more comfortable and that means MORE TALKING! If you had asked me last week, I would have told you that moving to third grade was the best thing that's ever happened to me. I don't think I've ever experienced such a easy first few weeks. And, that's still true. I love, love, love my kiddos. They are awesome and very well behaved. It's just that... the honeymoon is over. I'm realizing what a big change it is to move from first grade to third grade. I'm realizing how much more work it will be. I've been struggling with feeling confident in what I'm doing. But, it's just because it's all new. I know that. And, it really helps that my team is AWESOME!

So, want to see what we've been up to in third grade?

Disclaimer: I will STRAIGHT UP tell you right now that I really have no clue what I'm doing in third grade. I felt reasonably confident that the first grade stuff I posted about last year was good stuff because I had 5 years of experience behind me. I seriously thought about just stopping posting about school stuff for a while until I feel better about what I'm doing. But, you know what? I like to post about my classroom. I love to go back and look at past posts and read about school stuff. I'm not posting this for everybody else... I'm doing it because I like to. So, if you don't want to read about our misadventures in third grade... feel free to skip this post and any others :)

Okay...

Let's start with Me on the Map!

 

It's such a great book for introducing the kids to their place in the world.

This was a neat activity to do the first week of school. I thought it was a great way to start our map unit and it was also great for Open House! The parents loved seeing their little cuties holding up the world :)

There are a lot of really cute Me on the Map ideas out there. We just tried to make one that didn't take up all of our construction paper. I hoard that stuff, I admit it.

Most of them did such a good job! Plus, just sayin... it took them forever and a day to finish them. And, we all know that's a good thing when you have to do Running Records the first week of school.

Before we actually made them, we filled out these little flow maps. They were really helpful in making sure every body's information was accurate.

In math, we've been all about some making numbers. We've focused on place value, adding place value and making numbers different ways.

Not. That. Exciting.

We have been doing a lot of work in our math journals. Can we all just take a moment to notice that this little girl filled out an entire PAGE to answer a word problem?

I especially love this little gem: " Now you're wondering, where did I get 400?" Ha!

Reading has been lots of fun! We've been focusing on character traits. We read  A Bad Case of Stripes on Tuesday and we filled out a bubble map with some character traits. But, the kids had to provide text evidence for the traits. The kids had so much fun trying to prove how they knew she had the traits. They provided quotes and actions.

FYI: The kids wrote some of those. I know how to spell stripes. Promise :)

 

Ohhh, and this is an awesome book to read at the beginning of the year because it's great for talking about being yourself. But, you know that....

My amazing teammate Kate made a graphic organizer to help the kids provide evidence for the traits that they claimed the characters had. So, we read Strega Nona and the kids told me allllll about her. We came up with the traits together and they had to prove them to me.

Isn't it just amazing that third graders can write? HOLY COW.

Then, the next day, the kids had to read a story with a partner and fill in their own! I'm not gonna lie... some of these were great and some were so not great.

The only reason I'm showing this one is because it made me laugh. Is readful a character trait? Is dancey? I'm just glad they were using their amagination :)

Today, the kids filled out a graphic organizer about Stephanie from Stephanie's Ponytail.

It was really good for character traits! And, it was also perfect for the beginning of the year because it's all about being yourself!

I found this graphic organizer on Pinterest. I LOVE it!

The one thing that kind of worried me? 3 kids said Stephanie had black skin. Ummm, do what? They actually wrote the words. I can prove it...

1.

2.

3.

So, yeah, I guess we may be going back over character appearance next week :)

We made a rubric today for their writing. I really let them make the decisions. I'm pretty sure we'll have to change it once they realize how hard it is to write 11 sentences that are PERFECT! But, it's important to aim high, right?

My biggest after-school project this week was setting up the class library after the Great Chapter Book Purhcase of 2012 :) I worked my tail off setting this up.

I labeled all the bins.

Here's the other side...

 When they get a book, they attach their clip to the bucket so they know where it goes back.

It's a good system so far. Hopefully, I won't have to mess with it any more.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering...

this would be my new teacher bag... FULL of papers to grade and go through.

Jealous?

Yeah, didn't think so.

Weekend in Gleason

My mom, Finley and I went to my grandmother's in Gleason this weekend. It's always fun to get to go see her and spend time there. There's not a lot to do there... so, we spend a lot of time just lounging around, watching tv and now playing with the puppy :)

We did venture out on Saturday to a couple of flea markets. I hit the JACKPOT! I've been looking for cheap chapter books for my classroom library. This was pretty much a necessity since I moved from first grade to third. I bought 83 books and the grand total was... $35! Not bad at all! They were good books, too. I got some Harry Potter, Judy Moody, Junie B. Jones, Babysitter's Little Sister, Cam Jansen, Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume. Plus, a ton of "no-name" books that the kids will love, too. It was all very exciting. I'm working on making some labels for the library and organizing them and then I'll show you... along with some other stuff about school. Maybe later this week :)

Books, books and more books.

Miss Finley was a pretty funny puppy this weekend so I took a few pictures of her.

This is her "Maybe if I make this sweet face, you'll get me out of my crate" face. It doesn't always work, but this day it did. So she spent the whole ride to West Tennessee snoozing in my lap. And, I didn't mind one little bit :)

When we got there, we spent basically the whole time on the porch. Because it was nice outside and because it was not nice inside. You see, my grandmother keeps the air set at about 89 degrees. I keep my air on 70. So, I'm usually basically miserable at her house. It's so hot I can't breathe. My aunt and I took turns cutting the air down a little at a time. I think when we left we had gotten it down to about 75 which is much better  than 89!!

A neighbor's cat came up to the door and we had a little stare-down. It may or may not have lasted about five minutes.

But, Finley finally started barking and the cat took off! Finley was feeling pretty proud of herself after that :)

But, she kept her eyes on the door the rest of the night.

On the way home this afternoon, Finley didn't even make her "get me out" face. She just layed down and slept the whole way. And, now she's laying on my bed asleep again... I guess we wore her out!

She's going to the groomer for the first time next Saturday. I realized this weekend that she's starting to look a little rough! Ha. Her hair's basically out of control. She looks like a mad scientist.

All in all, we had a great weekend.

It was nice to get away for a few days.

Teacher's Fashion Linky Party

So, there's a Teacher's Fashion linky party over at From Blood to Books. It's all about what teacher's wear! Sounds fun, so I'm joining in :)

1. What's your favorite store to get your "teacher fashion?"

I really shop at a lot of places. But, I'm a simple girl so the majority of my clothes come from Target and Old Navy. I also shop alot at Loft, Gap and Francesca's. I usually steer clear of the big department stores because I never know which department to find good stuff in! I'm still drawn to the Juniors section... and yet it's all too junior-y. But, in my mind, a lot of the other clothes seem too "mom-ish." It's quite the dilemma.

Seriously about to order this from oldnavy.com!

2. What are some of your favorite accessories?

Right now, I'm into bangle bracelets. I like to mix and match them. I've bought several different kinds of colorful beaded hoop earrings in the last few weeks. And, I always adore a good long necklace. Honestly, though, I have a ton of jewelry that I just don't wear. For some reason, when I put it on, it seems too much. So I usually end up taking most of it off. I guess I like one good piece instead of a lot of little pieces. Ohhh, and for some reason, I'm all about a side ponytail.

Love these bangles.

And, love this necklace from Anthropologie.

3. What kind of shoes do you teach in?

Um, cowboy boots! Maybe not the most professional, but I LOVE them! I think they're so cute with a little dress. That's for sure my favorite look right now. I also wear several different kinds of boots in the winter - rain boots and Steve Madden's are my faves. When it's warm, I wear little sandals if I'm not wearing my cowboy boots.

Be still my heart.

4. Do you have a "go-to" item in your closet?

I have a bunch of little cotton dresses that I pull out all the time when I can't find anything else. Dress and cowboy boots. Every time. And, 99.9% of them are black. I adore black.

I have a million dresses similar to these. I can't stop buying them. I wear them in summer and winter. They're seriosuly the best.

5. Have you ever had a fashion "uh-oh" at school?

I'm a mess. A better question for me would be "Have you ever NOT had a fashion "uh-oh" at school?" I get dry-erase marker on basically every pair of pants I own. I even have a marker streak on my beloved boots. How sad is that? Last year, a strap on one of my sandals broke in the middle of the day and I had to walk around all day with my shoe flapping off my foot... that was a particularly bad one :)

On an unrelated note, we had Open House tonight. And, the sweet secretary at our school volunteered/begged to watch Finley for me tonight during Open House! How nice was that? I totally took her up on it because a) I could never tell her no and b) the poor puppy had already been in a crate all day. 4 more hours would have been miserable for her. I just adore my school and all the wonderful people I work with.

I'll post some of the stuff my third graders have been working on this week a little later. I'm just too tired. And, I've got some puppy cuddling to do :)

So, I Lied...

I said in my last post I wasn't going to blog again for a few days. But, I changed my mind. It's a rainy Sunday, the Olympics are on, the house is clean (ish) and the puppy's happily licking my toenails that I just painted. So, blogging it is! This post is going to be all over the place - fair warning! You can turn back now and I'll never know :)

1. I said before that the few days/weeks before the kids come to school are the most stressful for me. And, I can't overstate that. I realized it again this weekend! I was at my parents yesterday because they like to play with the dog, they cook me yummy dinner and it was the tax-free weekend so my mom and I had some shopping to do! When we got home, I took Finley upstairs with me and laid down "for a minute." Two hours later, my mom came in and got the dog so she could play with her. I slept for almost two more hours! Then, I slept in this morning until 10! I know, I should have gone to church. I just couldn't get it together. Then, this afternoon, Finley and I took another three hour nap! So ridiculous. It hasn't helped that I've been staying up all night watching the Olympics, either.

2. Finley is now sleeping in my bed. I just couldn't bare to listen to her cry in  her crate after she had spent 8 hours in there while I was at work. She's so much happier now, I have to say. She's a good sleeper, always has been, so it hasn't been a problem at all. In fact, it's been kind of nice :) She finds all kinds of places to get comfortable.

She especially likes to lay on my shoulder...

and my hip!

3. As I said, we did a little shopping yesterday. Not a lot because my mom was in the midst of a major cold/sore throat/ear infection. But, we did go a few places and find a few things. I got some fun new tennis shoes. (They're actually running shoes. But, the only time these ladies will be running is if I'm being chased by a large dog or a bee. And, even then, it will be more of a brisk jog.) I also got some cute little flats to wear to school. I have a bad toe (believe me, you don't want to hear the story) so I have to go for comfort when it comes to shoes. So, these were a good find. I also got two cute little dresses from Old Navy that will be perfect for school.

These will be perfect for exercising something!

4. I also got a few other little things. I found a super cute lunch box at Old Navy for one dollar! And, best part, it's leopard print - love. Then, we went in the Dollar Tree to get some stuff for my mom. I decided that was a great place to stock up on some candy for my treat box at school. Now, look, I know you guys are judging me. I know it's more popular right now to have reward menus and treausre slips and all that jazz. But, I kinda think it's okay for a kid to get a sucker every now and then. (I'm ducking. Go ahead and throw the tomatoes at me.) Plus, we have a reward menu that we use for whole group. And, I use tickets for the majority of my rewards. Oh, and I also got them some bookmarks  because they almost flipped out on Friday when I told them to put their books away. "How will we know what page we were on??" Third grade is so different from first, ha!

I want to face plant into that bag.

So cute they make me want to pick up a book. Slow clap for you, Dollar Tree.

5. Now for the beauty portion of this blog post. I realized this summer that my hair was kind of fried. It's gotten really long and I have to really go at it with a straightener to get it even half way presentable. Or, I have to kind of scrunch it. Either way takes a ton of products. I was having trouble rinsing it all out of my hair in the shower! So, one day, I looked down in the shower and saw Finley's shampoo... which is just Johnson's Baby Shampoo. And, gasp, I tried it. Ya'll, I've been using it in my hair ever since! My hair felt so much better and lighter and it all rinsed out much easier. Plus, it smells good!! I know it's weird, but I think it's been really good for my hair. There have to be less chemicals  in that stuff than in adult shampoo. Anyways, just wanted to share in case anybody else's hair was feeling  overprocessed, too.

Ahhh, my childhood.

6. And, now, some more pictures of the my cute little Finny. She's just the best thing ever and I can't get enough of her.

Getting her nightly belly rub :)

She loves to sleep here. She fits perfectly in that little spot.

Up late watching the men's Olympic gymnastics team basically self-implode. Fun times.

 

Love that sweet pup!

Well, that's all I've got. I'm going to go fix dinner (fish tacos, yum!!!) so that I can watch the Olympics tonight.  So excited about the gymnastics event finals! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

So Far, So Good!

I've been a third grade teacher now for two days... and, I'm still alive! It's honestly been a pretty smooth first few days and I don't think it could have gone much better. I officially have about the sweetest class ever. They're seriously adorable.

We've been doing a lot of procedures and a lot of explaining how third grade runs. But, we've also been doing a lot of team building and making friends. Like I said in my last post, I used some activities from Babbling Abby's Back to School for Big Kids unit. You can find it right here. The kids loved all the "Find a Friend" activities. We had a serious discussion today about who could moonwalk (answer: no one) and who thought they could moonwalk (answer: everyone). 

Another activity we did from the unit were Third Grade Backpacks. Instead of just writing about tools for success in third grade, though, we did a few other little pieces of writing, too. We wrote our goals for the year, a list of new friends and what we were excited about in third grade. I think they turned out pretty cute and they're perfect for our Open House next week :)

Here they are hanging out in the hallway. I tried to make sure they matched the pennants that are (shhhhh!) hot-glued to the bulletin board.

Here's a close-up.

How awesome are this cute kiddo's goals for this year?

We made a class promise on Wednesday. It turned out great because the kids wrote it and came up with it themselves. They signed their name on a handprint and decorated it and I stapled them around the promise as signatures. We recited the promise this morning in our Morning Meeting and will do so every day.

We also made an anchor chart today about what we expect from each other: what I expect from my students and what they expect from me. This was a good activity to talk about respect and expectations.

Okay, so have I mentioned my hatred of pocket charts on here? Because, seriously, I hate them. They're big and bulky and ugly and I hate the stands that they hang from for all the same reasons. Other than my calendar, I'm trying to be pocket chart free. So, I made this for my centers this year. It's just like the one I made for my guided reading groups. I saw the idea somewhere on Pinterest. Instead of using those silver clips that I would have had to go buy, I just slipped zip ties in the holes and

wha-la! A center chart!

I'll probably post about my centers again once school gets going and I get it all worked out. It's kind of Daily 5... but, with Book Clubs added in. I'm going to try it. It may BLOW UP in my face (and probably will) but, I want my kids to be REALLY excited about reading and I think Book Clubs are a good way to do that. So, basically, one or two groups of four will be doing book clubs at one time while the rest of the class are doing literacy centers. Then, as each group finishes the Book Clubs, I'll switch them with four other students and they will go into the literacy centers. The clips will be for students to make choices. They can put their clip on any center that has a sticker still available, but they have to go to each center each week. Like I said, there are some Daily 5 elements... but, it's not the whole system.

I made another clip chart this week. (I love me some clips... in case you couldn't tell.) This one is for behavior. I know everybody in blog-land has been using this for years. But, I've always just had a stop-light. Green, yellow and red. No nonsense, ha. I think third graders are maybe a little more mature, though. And, I think you can reason with them a little more and they can reflect on their behavior more than first graders can. So, I'm going all in. We're moving up and down and all around! It's madness.

Don't look too closely! I stuck this baby together at the VERY LAST MINUTE Tuesday night before the kids came on Wednesday. In fact, it's on the back of my previous behvior chart because I didn't even want to leave school to get some more poster board. I didn't want it to be polka dots and stripes and stuff but that was all the paper I had!

Okay, you can look closely... and laugh at me! Because, I'm laughing pretty hard right now at how terribly put-together it is. It's all kinds of crooked and the sides are HORRENDOUS. Oh well!

I did let the kids decorate their clips this year to help give them some ownership. They were pretty darn excited. It doesn't take much :)

Last BIG CHANGE I made to the room this week was I put the kiddos in groups instead of rows.

I know, I know. Everybody puts their kids in tables and I'm a horrible teacher for liking rows better. It's just that:

-tables make your room feel more crowded

-it's harder to get around the room when they're in tables

-tables encourage talking and I don't want them to talk all the time

-I don't like it when kids aren't facing me

-it's easier for me to see what they're working on in rows

-they are directly facing their friends in groups while I am trying to teach

Obviously, I've thought about this a lot. Ha. And, every year, I say I'm going to just put them in tables and just deal with it. But, usually by about the 5th week of school I can't stand it anymore and back to rows we go!

I'm actually liking the tables right now. It helps that the kids are older and more mature. And, third grade is really geared towards group work so I'm trying my *very best* to keep them in tables for as long as I can. (We did a TON of group work in first grade, too. We just did it all on the floor. If I have to put them in rows, the group work won't stop. They'll just do it on the floor. Just wanted to clarify...)

So, tables it is!

(For now.)

I probably won't blog again for a few days. I'm completely exausted. I'm doing ZERO school stuff this weekend. I need to just relax. I think teacher's work harder the few days before the kids come than they do all year. I'm planning on visiting my parents this weekend and playing with my poor little puppy. Her world has been ROCKED this week! But, she's awesome and she's going to get lots of lovin' this week. So don't feel too bad for her :)

Have a good weekend!!!

One Day Down

Today was the day. The much-anticipated first day of school. And, my first day of teaching third grade.

Every year, my principal asks me if I feel like I'm going to throw up a litte on the first day of school. And, every year, I say YES! Haha. I get so nervous. But, this was the first year I said NO.

Don't get me wrong. I'm nervous about third grade. I know it will be very different and a lot of hard work. I know I'll have to go outside my comfort zone and I'll probably find out some hard truths about my teaching. But, to be quite honest, I'm so excited about the year!

The first day went great! I LOVE my class. They are the sweetest, cutest third graders I've ever seen. Plus, it doesn't hurt that I knew about 10 of them pretty well from previous years. I even had about 5 of them in my class! After spending a half day with them, I'm optimistic. I think I'm going to really enjoy them.

Not to mention, it was AMAZING to this former first grade teacher that they could make inferences and write paragraphs on the first day of school! We made a class promise together today and they were so into it. They all had lots of ideas about how our class should be run. It warmed my heart when a few of them told me that their first day of third grade was soooo fun :)

One quick funny story: I asked them today what were some things they had heard about third grade. One kid said "I heard we have to take this big test called TCAP that's the hardest thing in America!" Ha!

We get a nice break tomorrow because it's election day and then we'll have the kiddos all day on Friday. I'll try and take some pictures of some of the cute activities we're planning on working on. We're going to do some activities from Babbling Abby's Back to School for Big Kids pack. Such great stuff!

Oh, before I go, I have to mention my OBSESSION with the Olympics. I seriously can't go to bed each night until it's over. Which does not bode well for the first week of school. I was SO EXCITED when the women's gymnastics team won gold last night!

This may not be a popular opinion, though.

 The announcers keep saying that the FAB FIVE are the best US team since the 1996 team and all that. I agree that they're adorable and sweet and realllly good at gymnastics. But, I don't agree that they're better than the 2008 team! Look at the competition. US and China were neck and neck in Beijing and China was absolutely perfect. The only readon they lost was because Alicia Sacramone fell a few times. Shawn Johnson and Nastia Luikin nailed every single routine. This year, Russia was in second place and they fell a TON. China didn't even make the podium. It just seemed like a down year to me. But what do I know? I know Jordyn Weiber is the cutest thing ever and if I had a gold medal, I'd give it to her in a heartbeat.

Seriously, could they be cuter?

Well, my little brother is pitching tonight so I'd better go. It's going to be a tough order to keep up with the game and the Olympics at the same time. It's a hard life! More third grade updates this weekend. As always, thanks for reading!