Day of Silence

There are no words.

Dry Erase Desks?

 I thought I would take the time to share one of my favorite secrets with everyone. I use dry erase boards a lot during math and sometimes I just don't have the time to drag out my student white boards, markers, and erasers. To help with this problem I often let my students use their desks as their dry erase boards. Yes I said desks. My kids LOVE the fact they get the write on their desks. On a side note, I always go over the rules; we are only allowed to draw on our desks when we have permission and only with dry eraser markers. This secret really works. I promise. I have even taken it a step further and have drawn on my teacher table during small groups. It works just the same. I have found over the years of doing this that newer markers work best and some colors are better than others when it comes to leaving residue. The student's desks allow the students to have a larger working area. It works great when we are working with manipulatives. If any residue is left after erasing, a good Clorox Wipe (or any wet wipe) will take it right off. Here are a few pictures to show you what I am talking about. I hope everyone enjoys this tip. Happy Blogging!

BTW: I do know the ones place says 9 and there are only 2 units. My student hadn't finished placing her units when I took this picture. :)





2. A little residue was left after erasing.



1. Using our desks to work on making numbers







3. Good as new after using a wet wipe!



Base Ten Bots



Too Cute!

 I feel like such a slacker. Last week was crazy. We had our GAPSS accreditation review at my school last Tuesday and we were all stressed out. Everything went fine and looking back at it; I don't even know why I was stressed out about it. I finally had the time to finish up a math performance task today that my class did a while back. It is a place value performance task, looking at numbers in the thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones place. The kids got to create their own Base Ten Bots out of cubes, flats, rods, and units. After they made their bot, they had to answer questions related to the number it took to build the robot. They had to put the number in a place value chart, be able to write the number in standard, expanded, and word form. They had to find what the number would be with 10, 100, 1,000 more and 10, 100, 1,000 less.  They also had to round the number to the nearest 10, 100, and 1,000 and more. My kids had a blast making the Base Ten Bots and I really got a chance to assess their number sense knowledge. You can check out the task by clicking on the picture. I hope your class enjoys this activity as much as mine did!

Theme Day Tuesday!

My third grade classroom theme this year is ladybugs. I also incorporated polka-dots into the design because of the versatility of them. I have decided to show bits and pieces of my room to all you that carry out the theme of my room this year. So, every Tuesday I will be posting one different ladybug/polka-dot theme idea. I always enjoy getting ideas from other teachers on the web when it comes to classroom design and I am hoping I might be able to inspire some of you as well. My first theme idea comes from my behavior management system. This summer, I was reading about Canter's Behavior Management System and I thought I would try it this year in my room. Canter suggested tally marks on the board, but I changed it to spots on a ladybug. We have a goal of 50 spots. When we get there we will be having free center time and no homework for a week! Right now we have 44 spots. I have a really good class this year. I added the caption "Spotted Begin Good", and voila, my behavior management system! I have it in the front of my room on my white board so all can see. Check out the picture below! What do you use for you behavior management system?

National Constitution Day!

       I always introduce our government unit by reading the Magic Tree House books, Revolutionary War on Wednesday and the Research Guide to Revolutionary War on Wednesday. During the weeks leading up to National Constitution Day, we read both of these books. We did several activities including a novel study that I created. At the end of the unit, we made the Betsy Ross one cut, five pointed star. We labeled each star with one of the original thirteen colonies. Then, we created the first American flag with different facts about the American Revolution. You can check out the novel study and learn how to make the flag for yourself by clicking on our class flag. I hope you all had a great Constitution Day. Happy Blogging!

New Products

Mrs. J is holding a linky party. Head on over to her site to see some of the newest teacher created items on Teachers pay Teachers. If you would like, link up your newest product and then link back to her in your blog. Here is the link below:
http://publicschoolteachersodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-products-linky-party.html

Great Buy!

My mother-n-law bought these adorable frames at the dollar store. Since my classroom theme is ladybugs they are perfect. They are specifically made to display student work in the hallway. All you have to do is remove the perforated inside (which are name labels). I decided to laminate them. This has made them a lot sturdier. This also has been great about keeping the work protected from passersby. I hot glued (a teacher's best friend) the outer corner of the frames on the sides and bottom. This way I can slip the student's work in and out without having to remove the frame. You can't get any better than the dollar store. Check them out for yourself!