3rd Grade Animal Research

We just finished up an inquiry into animals from across the world and their habitats. My 3rd graders had a blast picking their animal and conducting their own research in their research folders.

We went through a series of steps to conducting research and brainstorming our thoughts. I charted how we walked through developing our prior knowledge and on the bottom is a sample of the research folder that they students created for their animals. I chose the polar bear, I mean come on, look at him!

We are big on charting in my classroom so the whole lesson is charted in one way or another. I even charted a whole draft of my essay for the students to see and to use as a way to revise and edit.

I created a few worksheets as well which I will post for future use.

Happy Tuesday!

New Placement-3rd Grade! And my Adjectives Lesson, Martin Luther King Jr, and President's Day

Finally got my second placement for the year today! I will be teaching in a 3rd grade classroom next quarter and I am beyond excited to get started! I am hoping to implement some of the same ideas and lessons I brought into my first grade classroom and cater it to 3rd grade.

Here are some of the things I implemented with my first graders. 

First, I created a mini-unit on adjectives that was centered around popcorn called "Let's Get Poppin' For Adjectives!"

The kids LOVED it! I focused the lesson on using the five senses to describe popcorn. The students got really excited when they found out they were going to get to do a little taste testing during the lesson to help them come up with descriptive words. I popped popcorn in a pan in front of class as a demonstration and had bags of popcorn already popped and placed in cups. Let's just say the kids senses went off the charts!

I had this poster pre-made and made popcorn cut outs. After the students had their taste test, they shared out all the words they could think of that described popcorn! My mind was blown! Look what they came up with:

Next, the students got to create their own popcorn boxes, filling in their own descriptive words!

They had a blast! The final portion on the 3rd day consisted of the students writing a poem about popcorn  using a template (I will upload and post) where they plugged in adjectives used to describe popcorn.


Another min-unit I did was centered on Martin Luther King Jr.

I found this quote online and with inspiration from Pinterest, came up with doing A Box of Crayons Lesson.

(Not the best picture) but after reading and discussing the quote about, I had a blank box of crayons (above) that I wanted the students to fill with their own crayons! I made a crayon template (googles crayons and found a black and white picture and made copies), gave each student a sheet, and had them create a crayon that represented themselves. Room 32 has their own box of crayons!

Lastly, I did a mini-unit on Presidents' Day. Since there are so many amazing children's books on Presidents' Day I had a hard time reading just one. We read:

 Both incredible reads centered around primary grade children!

The mini-unit consisted of learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln where we sorted facts and looked at artifacts!

I created these charts for our whole group discussions about the President's to clearly sort facts. 

I am beyond excited to venture into 3rd grade and see what creative elements and mini-units I can bring into the classroom after testing is over! I will be sure to post as soon as I am able too!

First Post

First post on the new blog! Crazy how time flies by. It seems like it was just a month ago I began the journey of starting school at UCLA to get my Multiple Subject Teaching Credential and Master's.

I have been in many classrooms and have observed and taught in many settings, and I must say, primary grades are where my heart is. I spent the past 6 months in a 1st grade classroom and my heart officially belongs to the little ones. I am starting this blog to share my journey through student teaching and the first years of my teaching. I want to share the things I try, that work, and the things that didn't work. I also am using it to babble about life, being in graduate school, and the typical blabbers of being in your 20's.

Here's to the remainder of the school year and teaching in primary.