Wow, it has been a minute since I blogged. I finally had a little downtime to blog and show you a little about what life has been like at my new school! Note: Parent Permission has been given for Student Photos.
So, first, let’s start with a hands-on activity with Play-Doh and Dry Erase Markers. The students LOVED this activity. We needed work on commas in compound sentences and using commas in a series. I busted out the Play-Doh (by the way, just always have Play-Doh on hand. There are so many uses for it! I walked around and helped with spelling, corrected comma placement, and even had a few come to my table that were not getting it. Overall, it was a FUN activity!
I am still learning so much about my school but I love how they have the students involved in many of the activities just during the day. For example, announcements are one thing that my students love to help with! Our Student Council also got to help with the Nine Weeks Awards Ceremony! The kids taking part in things like this is such a confidence boost for them. Side Note: The Announcement Day was PJ Day. lol.
We also learned about Prefixes and Suffixes. We made a flipbook using construction paper and I assigned my Prefix and Suffix Resource in Google Classroom for them to complete and use a reference for the flipbook! Prefixes and Suffixes are HARD for students. To me, they seem so easy but I have watched even my own child struggle–so I know it is a hard concept for nine-year-olds. While this unit helped–I am constantly throwing them in ANYWHERE possible when I teach.
I am going a little out of order here, but during Drug-Free week (also Halloween and Book Fair Week) we had a Costume Parade. Dress up as your favorite book character. It was so much fun! Honestly, a tad stressful so I called in my Mom to help with Livi’s costume–but it was fun after that was done! lol. I went as “The Bad Case of the Stripes.” And yes, the paint did come off! (As the middle picture shows.)
Olivia went as Olivia the Pig…and Mom really outdid herself. I couldn’t be more grateful!
Finally, my favorite costumes were Mr. and Ms. Jasper (they are a father/daughter team that team teaches together in 3rd grade. Amazing people and very cute costumes!
We also learned about Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases this month! Usually, I do my famous Paper Airplane Activity–but I really did not think my students could handle that sort of unstructure. Just being honest. However, I wanted it to be memorable too. So I took Lego Party Favor Boxes (from my desk pets that will come in January) and hid 12 of them around the room. Any object will work. The students numbered from 1-12 on notebook paper and had a clipboard. They walked (this was not a race) around the room to find where the boxes were placed. Once they found a box, they would write the prepositional phrase for where the box was placed. (Examples: between the hand sanitizers, on the table, under the remote.)
I promise, after an activity like this–they never forget prepositional phrases again. 🙂
We also did some “Scary Themed” or “Costume Themed” things. I tried to keep HALLOWEEN out of the activities but we still enjoyed some themed activities. One is Costume Catastrophe. Basically, the costumes for a costume party get mixed up at the store. When the kids show up to get the costumes–they have to make inferences on which costume belongs to which child. I didn’t think to snap pics in the classroom (we have Book Fair that day, etc.) but here is the activity.
Throughout the month, we have been SO busy–doing things with our own kids, Fall Fest at the school, and just life in general. I think sometimes people think I only teach, TpT and Blog. In reality–it’s hard to find time to do those things sometimes. 🙂 Below we have:
- Before School
- Before Gymnastics
- After School (always holds my hand crossing the road.)
- PJ Day (these are her favorite jammies.)
- Olivia got the Good News Call of the Day so she was Reward with Target.
- My professional looking gymmastics photo!
- Night walk with my kids–Randy was putting out Penny Wise. lol.
- Fall Fest
- Halloween
- Halloween Decor in our Neighborhood!
Rex is also doing GREAT however, Randy does a lot of running around with him. Scouts, Camping, Music Memory for UIL, etc.
Back to some classroom content–we have need work on VOCABULARY! So we started an ever-growing word wall and then worked on some comprehension task cards that included vocabulary. However, I made it a tad more of a competition and the kids loved it! Basically, when you offer a homework pass–kids are all in.
The kids completed the task cards in groups…then when we went over them, if they got it right, one person from their team got to draw out a tile (1-5.) At the end of going over ALL of the task cards, the teams added up the totals and the winning team got a homework pass! Total buy-in and they tried hard!
We also have been reading fiction and covering realistic fiction, plot, story elements, etc. Enemy Pie is one of my favorites for teaching this! So is Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun!
We also did an activity that helped with Procedural Writing. Each class drew a Monster and write SPECIFIC prodecural instructions for how they drew their Monsters. Then we traded instructions with the other class. The students had to draw another student’s Monster based on the instructions provided. I think the results turned out great!
Around our classroom, we have added anchor charts, the vocabulary word wall I mentioned, and we still have our social contracts posted! I love seeing the walls fill up with student work and learning though!
We have been reading The Wild Robots and The Wild Robot Escapes since school started! Really great read a louds. We even did a PBL and build robots out of recycled items across the grade level!
Finally, the last week of October was INSANE. lol. I already showed the Costume Parade and Fall Fest…but my desk took a major hit that week. lol. It was also Homecoming Week! My mom made Olivia a PRECIOUS Mum though (it is a Texas thing–Google It.) And she loved it!
My kids did earn Exceptional Class of the Week…so we go to take a ride on the Big Blue Slide before lunch on Friday AND the kids got to DJ during lunch! It was my first time (since the slide opening when I had COVID.) It was fun!
I am struggling a bit with Fast Finishers…so I am learning to provide opportunities for my students that finish more quickly (and actually do it correctly.) lol. My Roll and Write Task Cards help and so do these Prefix and Suffix Activities from Amazon.
Lastly, one of my favorite monthly things our school does is Kona Ice for the kids (and teachers!) It is so fun and really organized! The kids look forward to it each month! This is a district thing–but just different campuses on different weeks.
I hope you guys are surviving (even hopefully thriving) this year! Its been a challenge at times but we are almost to Thanksgiving Break and that shocks me! We can do it!
Love you all!
Hillary
