Operation! Word Problem Surgery!

Ya'll. Two step word problems are hard. Just hard. No matter what you do, they intimidate kids SO MUCH!

I love a good room transformation to encourage my kids with hard content! I just feel like a broken record...'What's the first step?"..."What are they asking us first?"..."What are the two operations we're using?" 

You know it's bad when you actually get tired of hearing your own self say it! So..

OPERATION TIME! 

This activity is so easy to set up. I hung blue tablecloths from the ceiling and created "operating rooms". I played ER sounds on the Promethean Board. My student teacher and I dressed as doctors and made the students badges. I asked for donations of gloves and face masks to where during operations. I created patient charts for the word problems. I just typed in problems from our math unit.  

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Word-Problem-Surgery-with-Two-Operations-4386022

 Anchor chart holder turned IV/ blood transfusion holder! :) My O+ needed a little more food coloring! 

The students were super engaged through this lesson! They still struggle with these problems, but they are getting better every day! I hope you can use this in your classroom! 

Happy operating!!

The Lemonade War

I've wanted to write this post for quite a while! Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE to read! I never leave home without a book! I am also a firm believer in no child does not like to read, some have just not found the right books yet... I take that responsibility very seriously. I want students to fall in love with reading! I am passionate about creating an experience for my students with finishing a novel. I believe that should totally be celebrated!! If you want to read about our Charlotte's Web celebration, you can here

 http://theboldenrule.blogspot.com/2017/11/some-novel-study-our-terrific-radiant.html

My students can't wait to find out what they will be creating at the end of the novel. Here's where I'm going with this: how many times do we tell our kids, "Reading can take you anywhere!" or "Readers are leaders!" or "Books are dreams you hold in your hands." You get my drift. I love a good reading quote as much as the next teacher. Actually, it's kinda my thing. BUT...if we never show them how books can come to life, we are robbing them of that magic! I want books to inspire my students. I want them to read a book and that book inspire them to do something! It may be creating a fair ground after reading Charlotte's Web or designing animal habitats after reading The One and Only Ivan. I want them to be inspired to launch a kindness campaign when they read a book in which they learn of people being mistreated. I want them to write to government officials after reading about an injustice. I want them to learn they have voices and they deserve to be heard! 

But ya'll....I love math too!!I love seeing students try to work their way through a math problem and to hear how many ways they can approach the problem. How many times do we tell our kids they will use math everyday. But, in this day and age of technology, we ourselves turn to our phones to calculate every little thing. 

Today was the last day of Literacy Camp in my district. It is a new approach they are taking towards summer school. We've only had 16 days together, and tackled the book, The Lemonade War. It's a great story about a brother and sister that are not getting along during the summer (almost EVERY student can relate to that!) and the face off for a lemonade war. Of course my students had the idea of having a war! I made them a few organizing sheets, and they got busy! The watched QVC commercials and fast food ads to study slogans and marketing strategies.  They had to name their stand, create a slogan, and create advertisements. I also gave them a budget of $25 to buy materials. (large paper, small paper, tape, balloons, construction paper, etc.) We divided into 4 teams for our war. 

 

Something else near and dear to my heart: showing my students kindness in the world, and putting tools in their hands that they can use to make the world a better place. We live in such an instant gratification time. Me, me, me. What do I get out of this?  On the flip side, children have HUGE hearts. Well, in the book the sister wants to donate the money to an animal charity. We researched charities and directly linked to lemonade was The Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for children's cancer research. If you'd like to check it out: https://www.alexslemonade.org/

My students were moved, and they actually wanted to make some money to send to this wonderful foundation! I asked parents to donate lemonade mix, cups, and lemons. We were having a picnic for the last day, so perfect timing! They sold their lemonade for .25 a cup. I would have loved to let the students determine their own amount to see if a cheaper price would determine higher sales. When I do this project with my year long students, I will! Teachers asked all of the students selling to tell them about the cause. I wish you could've heard their responses! It was important to them! They made a whooping $60 in less than an hour with around 150 kids, selling quarter lemonade! 

 

This little love was buying a cup for his friend! He was so excited!

 Look at those smiles!!!

This camp is designed to prevent the summer slide with some students who may have struggling throughout the school year. They are working hard, but on a typical school day, there are so. many. factors. going on. Many times, these children may not feel confident to contribute to a group. This project allowed them to be the front runners, and it was a beautiful thing to watch! I hope they carry this confidence into next school year and they know their contributions are needed!!

I will miss them, and they have inspired me to make a plan and make things happen!! 

Some Novel Study! Our Terrific, Radiant Charlotte's Web Unit!

Hi, friends!!

I am trying SO hard to get better at blogging all our adventures in Room 15! We just had our Charlotte's Web celebration yesterday, and it was EVERYTHING I hoped it would be!! It's just one of life's most beautiful things when your students' hard work comes together, and see them actually falling in love with a classic novel. I always have a few students each year that have seen the movie, but we dive right in and I never have any disappointed!  Every novel deserves to be celebrated!

Four little piggies went to town....

Every day we read a chapter, and get busy! I found a gold mine on YouTube: E. B. White reading the novel, and my kids adored it! I asked, "Doesn't it sound like this brilliant author form "back in the day" sitting at a typewriter??" They all said, " Yeeeeees!!" We are studying story structure, character traits, and theme in great detail. The book study we used is available in my TPT store, and I'll link below. We list the characters through and then determine the main ones to list traits about. This is a great opportunity for your students to discuss ideas with each other. I always tell them to think about the actions and thoughts and words they showed throughout the chapter. As I was walking around one day, listening to the discussion, I heard one of my spirited girls tell her partner, " I disagree cause he really ain't shown us nothing this chapter!" We're working through grammar LOL! But, she was passionate about the fact that she believed this character didn't show us enough to list traits for. Is there a better character to enforce traits than Templeton?? They have a ch. trait list in their ELA IAN, and they refer to it when listing traits AND proof in their study. 

I use Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) faithfully. If you are not familiar with it, look it up!! You will not be sorry! I will say, "Give me two strong character traits for _____! I clap twice and say "Teach!" They clap twice and say "OK!" and it's full speed ahead! We come back and record our answers.

We then work on our summaries. In the beginning we do this whole group, through discussion. Summarizing is a VERY difficult skill to teach! They want to tell you every little detail. This is where matchbook summaries come in beautifully. What are those?! I'm glad you asked....

They are magic squares.

Well, almost.

Students record a summary inside of the square, and draw an illustration on the cover. They must keep up with their squares in a Ziplock bag until the end of the novel. They work SO hard on these, and it provides the perfect balance of them being able to put their creative spin on each chapter. The illustrations are one of my favorite parts of the whole study. To see what each student thinks the most important part of the chapter was is so interesting. 

The lapbooks are made from tapping two manila folders together. On one side of the cover, they redesign the cover of the novel. This is actually a choice on my choice board they keep in their ELA IAN. On the other side, they must cut out adjectives or character traits that describe them and glue onto a web, the same way Charlotte writes about Wilbur! If it's avaiable, we always compare the novel and the movie during our celebrations. They record on a Venn Diagram and glue onto the back. I have students from years past, who still come through and say, "Oh, which lapbook are you guys working on?? I still have mine." They are THAT proud of all this hard work!

We also do these activities throughout: 

Pig informational writing, during the beginning. They are always SO surprised to find out how clever pigs actually are!

Spider research, usually around ch. 8-10. I mean, we could stay on that research foreva! Want to get your students writing....give them an animal to research! #canIhaveanothersheet

We formed interview questions for characters in the book, and used Kagan Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up to interview each other. 

I put quotes from the novel around the room. The students went on a gallery walk, and had to record their favorite quote and explain what it meant to them. We do this toward the end, or I'll pull a few from upcoming chapters. 

I also use these for our celebration day!

We do many writings along the way, but we work up to a triple whammy (WBT) to talk about Charlotte's three main character traits. Although, it can be used with any character. The heart in these papers just make me smile. They love these characters. 

 

  Once we are done reading, we start STEM!!! We do STEM after every novel as well! I purchased this unit, and man, it was awesome!! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Charlottes-Web-Storybook-STEM-Novel-3194056

I chose three projects my students could complete, and I tweaked it to meet our standards and grade. I'll be adding that to my store later. 

They could build a parachute for Charlotte's daughters, construct a model of a ferris wheel and create a flipbook telling the history of the ride and explanation of their design, or create a booth for the fair. They fair booth was the most popular, but all were loved! I told them to look around their and bring boxes or anything they could use to build with. They came in with boxes, trinkets for prizes, stickers for tickets, I was blown away by their creativity! We watched this video the day before to get the ideas rolling!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U

They used Legos for the Ferris Wheel. Trying to make it round was a WONDERFUL group effort!! Your Lego loving engineer students will LOVE this project! They usually do not love writing, but when they construct the model first, they want to tell you every detail about their design! 

The fair booth could be food or entertainment. They had to create a full business plan: slogan, customer service, tickets or money, menu, prizes. I just loved watching every, single minute of these two days!

 

As I read the last two chapters to my class, I thought I would be ok. I knew I would tear up like I usually do, but I have a crew this year. The kind of crew that makes you remember why you love teaching, that hang onto every word you say, that genuinely want to learn EVERYDAY.  They have fallen in love with these characters, and it truly warms my heart. I did not hold it together well, and I did not have a dry eye in the room when Charlotte passed. They all said, "I knew it was coming, Mrs. Bolden, but I just wasn't ready!" I know boo, I know. It's like when you watch the same part on a movie, and you think "maybe they won't get kidnapped this time'. I told them great books should make you feel that way! Some kind of emotion, happiness, sadness, hope, wonder.....When we watched the movie everyone sucked in their breath when Charlotte passed with Wilbur there. They were all so happy that she didn't pass alone, like she did in the  novel. 

 

Then....

Celebration Day!!! 

They came dressed as their favorite characters, and oh m gee, what a blast!! I was totally surprised by some of the choices!!! We ate fair food: caramel apples, popcorn fragments (From Templeton's night at the fair), and spider cupcakes. We compared the novel to the movie. They hung onto every word. They told me they now understand why I say the book is always better than the movie. Isn't that what we want the most?! For them to be swept up into a book and fall in love with the characters? As the movie ended with, "It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a  good writer. Charlotte was both." they chimed in with "what's our next novel??" 

I can't wait either, kiddos.

Templeton stuffed! So creative!!

Ferns all dressed up for the fair!

Thanks for hanging until the end!! I'm sorry it was a novel length post!! Another reason I should blog throughout!! I hope you and your students love these activities as much as we did!! 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Charlottes-Web-Novel-Study-3485184

Daily 5 in 3rd Grade: Why I'll NEVER teach without rotations!

Hi friends!

I'm so excited about writing this post about our Daily 5 rotations! So many teachers I talk with ask me, "How do you fit all your activities in?" and "I just don't have time to do what you do!"'

Rotations. Rotations, rotations, rotations. 

I wrote about how reading The Book Whisperer forever changed my reading instruction in my March Madness post. Check it out!

The most important things I learned:

1. Students must CHOOSE what they are reading or they will hate strongly dislike reading! (How many times have we fought that battle??) Unless they already love reading, but we'll get to that in a bit!

2. Students must LOVE what they are writing about. 

If those two things don't happen, they will never fall in love with reading and writing. Which I feel go hand in hand. I also agree with the author when she says she has a love/hate relationship with AR. But, my students are so incredibly proud to see their points climb, and these days I'm more on the love side. :)

We use the Journeys reading series. Our parish bought it for us 2 years ago and I really love it! I think they chose some great stories, but if I had to read the same story, over and over, for 5 days, I would not want to read at all! I would rather take anchor texts and relate them to the skill of the week (main idea, sequencing, text features, etc.) 

Let me just jump right in with what we do. I have a 75 min reading block, but I am SO FORTUNATE to be self contained that it may give or take a few minutes. I usually do a 15-20 mini lesson with the weekly reading skill, and ELA skill, then (4) 10-15 min rotations. We call it Daily 5, but I actually have 4 rotations: read to self, work on writing, word work, and listen to reading. My rotations range from 10-15 min each. My groups are ability grouped, which helps me zero in on specifics. Instead of having a set teacher table rotation, I go back and forth with the groups I'm meeting with. For example, this past week we were finalizing our stories to send to the publisher for our class book. So, a few days my work on writing rotation came to the teacher table. We were also doing a whole class book study on Jake Drake Know It All. I think it's always been in my teaching DNA that I did not like doing a whole class book study. Partly because I am a reader and I always have been. So I remember how painful it was to not be able to read at my own pace in school. However, our Journeys series sent us a class set of Jake Drake. and my students were pumped about it! So, instead of listen to reading they came to me at the teacher table. My high group might be able to make it through 2 chapters while my lower group might only make it halfway through one chapter. 

But, I knew for sure they were engaged while I was reading (so they are listening to fluent reading:so important) or they were on task while a group member read. If they read aloud to me, I usually do not do more than 2-3 sentences per student, because it helps keep their attention, and keeps them on their toes. I was truly blown away by the progress they made! That chapter book is in fact an AR book, and I only had 2 students make an 80% (missing 2 questions) on the test, with many 100% and a few 90%. What was more important to me....they were all so PROUD! I really do have some readers this year and I truly account it to their access to a vast range of books and actual TIME to read! However, I did have many, many students reading on a 1st-2nd grade level, so as much as they read, they really weren't diving into chapter books. Using D5 rotations with these novels has allowed me to differentiate my instruction and really boost their confidence as readers.

I was anti-bookbox!!!!!

 I was not about to spend the money nor did I think I had the room. Boy, was I wrong!! They are amazing!! I lucked out and found some great ones cheaper at WalMart, and have a shelf under my Promethean Board to house them. My students fill their boxes every morning, which means they are NEVER without reading material. I'm sorry if I am jumping all over the place, but there is alot that goes into our day! My library is arranged ABC by title. OMG. Why didn't I do this sooner?? I do write the AR level on my books, but I don't feel it is AT ALL beneficial to limit students to certain levels. If you are actively monitoring students, you will catch if they are being lazy. And, the ultimate goal is to teach your students how to pick just right books! And, hopefully if they are reading a book too challenging they will be able to self assess that they are not quite ready for it. I have a student, natural born reader!! She just finished Harry Potter and is now working on a Babysitters' Club mystery. How many of you just want a simple read after you've read a challenging book?? I know I do! I have sports books that some of my boys love to just look at Steph Curry's 3 point shot. I purposely order those books because it keeps them reading, they just may need a break from a heavy book! All I can say is I've never seen my students coming in with a 1.2 reading level in 3rd grade, earning 63 (yes, 63) AR points in one 9 week period!! 100% of my class went to the last AR school party and as of Spring Break my students had earned 1,832.2 points! To me, it's just impressive and I owe it all to this: they have learned to LOVE reading!

 This is a group at the teacher table during our Jake Drake novel study.

Read to Self:

 Reading Harry Potter

 Another important factor: learn what your students are interested in! We learned about Jesse Owens and during his Olympic time, Adolf Hitler was in control of Germany. My students wanted to know more about that time. I found this Holocaust biography, and could not believe the response to it! She finished this in one day! Every chance she got, she was reading it! She also told everyone how wonderful of a book she thought it was!!

I love this. So much. Books all around.

 

One of my Arabic students reading Who Is Malala Yousafzai. This student has shied away from chapter books all year. This book is on a 4.9 reading level. She finished in two days and made 100% on the test. It matters WHAT they are reading!! She said, "Mrs. Bolden, I've never seen a book about someone like me until this one. Can we order more?" Um, you bet sweet pea!! Courageous Women pack was on the next Scholastic order!!  

Work on writing. Along with writing comes more reading! I implemented a monthly writing menu, and again, my students blew me away! We started in October and they have been on a writing spree ever since! All the exposure to the texts throughout the year helps get their creative juices flowing as writers! As much as I love the Journeys series, it lacked the writing pizazz I was looking for. If students are constantly being told what to write about, compare these two characters, blah, blah....you guessed it...they will not want to write!! My monthly writing menus are in my TpT store if you want to check them out. :)

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/April-Writing-Menu-with-Graphic-Organizers-Publishing-Paper-Freebie-Inc-2473997

Informational writing.

 Opinion writing.

 Narrative writing.

I struggled getting all my spelling and ELA instruction in. Word work to the rescue!! My students are now currently working on ELA task cards in their reading interactive notebooks. They ALWAYS need grammar practice!! They are also available in my store. 

I started this post to talk about using novels in my Daily 5 rotations, and I hope I've made sense for the most part!! I will use varied novels, depending on the group's reading level. To begin:

High: The BFG by Ronald Dahl

Med. High: Crenshaw

Med.: The One and Only Ivan

Med. Low: Charlotte's Web

Low: Magic Tree House Dinos at Dinnertime

I'm creating book studies to go along with all these books. I am soooooo excited because some of my mediums need a push to try chapter books. Another huge bonus for me: I only need 5-6 copies of each novel!! Much easier to get together!!! 

Please tell me your favorite read alouds in third grade!! And, please tell me your tricks using rotations!! Feel free to ask me any questions, I'm sure I've left out important pieces!! 

Happy reading!!