State Assessments Survival Kit for Kids

As February winds down it means it's time to gear up for state assessments. My dear little third graders will have three days of testing before spring break and then three more days after spring break. Lucky for me, they have an positive attitude about the testing since it is there first time. However, they still need all the encouragement they can get. One of the things I do is to give them a testing survival kit. I'll give it to them the day before we test. I talk about the significance of each item and then ask them to leave the kits in their cubbies for later use. 

We will then use an item from the survival kits after our first three testing sessions. After the first day of testing we chew the gum and write directions for blowing bubbles and put them on the bulletin board.  There's some great ideas about this at Lesson Plan SOS.  After the second session we use the red balloons. We put a hexagon washer into each balloon, blow up the balloons, tie them, and them swirl them. They make a fun sound - almost like magic! And of course, we talk about why they are making the sound (if you do this, have a few extra balloons, if the washers have any rough spots, the balloons will break). And then we use the bubbles after our final reading test to celebrate being done (well, sort of - we still have tests after spring break!).
If you'd like a copy of the survival kit page click here.  I'd love some new ideas! How do you encourage your students to do their best on their state assessments?

Valentine Multiplication Freebie

Gosh, can you believe it's almost the middle of February? We have big Valentine's plans in my classroom thanks to the blogging world and Pinterest. The freebie I'm sharing was inspired by Dana at 3rd Grade Gridiron who was sharing ideas created by Denise at Sunny Days in Third Grade. The freebie is a Valentine's Day multiplication hidden picture activity. There are 91 multiplication problems on the paper. I focused on the facts up to five (and tens), but threw in a few hard ones.  The kids have to decide if the answer for the problem is correct or incorrect. If the answer is correct, they color in the square. When they are done it should look like this:

I have colored it in myself and then colored it on the computer. I believe it is mistake free - but this is just the kind of activity where I'll find a renegade correct answer. I sure hope not!  


I hope you can use it!  Click here for the googledoc.

Valarooni

My kids loved our Christmas elf so much that I decided we needed a Valentine's version.  I bought a cute stuff animal at Target who will visit our classroom everyday starting today until Valentine's Day. I call him Valarooni.

Later today he will bring the kids bookmarks that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  Other things he will bring are a  Valentine's pencil, eraser, glow stick, and special Valentine's treat on the big day. I left a note on my board this morning for the kids from our elf as a hint and they are so curious. I love that about third graders! 

Press Here for Cause and Effect

True confessions . . . my name is Debbie and I'm a bookaholic. My three favorite past times are buying books, reading books, and organizing books for my classroom. In fact, when someone new comes into my room they always say, "You have a lot of books." And indeed I do. So it won't surprise you  to hear that last fall when I was blog stalking and somebody (I'm sorry I don't remember who) mentioned the book Press Here by Herve Tullet I hopped onto amazon and bought it. 

The person didn't even say much about but I knew from the description I had to have it. It has since sat in my classroom waiting for the right moment and that moment happened Friday. I was getting ready to introduce cause and effect, I scooped up the book on my way to the carpet, and magic happened! My kids LOVED the book. Now if you're unfamiliar with it let me summarize. It starts with one dot that you press. When you turn the page the dot has doubled. There are many actions for the reader to take from pressing, to shaking, to tilting the book. When the reader turns the page the dots have multiplied, changed, or shifted in some way. My kids were begging to do the actions - there was 100% engagement! They were also making predictions about what would happen next faster than I could call on them.  And all the while I was saying things like, "We caused the dots to go the the left hand side by tilting the book. The cause was tilting and the effect was the dots moving to the left." It was a great way to introduce cause and effect. Of course, my kids now want to make their own version and I certainly wouldn't want to prevent that! I can't wait to see what they come up with! So if you too are a bookaholic, I highly recommend this book. It was more engaging to my third graders than I would ever have thought! And thank you to the blogger who introduced the book to me! Happy reading!

More Ideas for the Hundredth Day

Today is our 100th day of school.  Third graders love celebrations so they were looking forward to today's events. Several of them made projects at home including 3 of my girls who took 100 pictures and used Movie Maker to complete their project. It was great! And the rest of the kids LOVED seeing the pictures of themselves! One of my artistic girls loves horses so she drew a horse using 100.  Here's a picture of her project:

Several of them dressed up like they were 100 and enjoyed being in character. Seeing these energetic people shuffle around was hysterical! 


Between my teaching partner and I we had 16 centers. I created a 100s Chart Challenge for them to do as one of the centers. If they color in the numbers correctly they create a design that looks like the number 100.  I am sharing it below.  I'm also sharing their favorite center which is You Nerd. They have to count how many Nerds in the box (I buy the small boxes which I found 2 for $5 this week) filling out information about the number of Nerds in the box. I am sharing that below as well. If you click on the picture you will end up at my tpt store where you can download the activities for free. 

I would love to hear how you celebrate the 100th day. I'm always interested in new ideas!     

Yes, Virginia, the 100th Day of School is for Third Graders

At my school, third grade is the last year that the 100th day of school is a big thing. Since we started school in the middle of August we are gearing up for our 100th day next week. There are lots of third grade appropriate things to do on the 100th day. Today I'm sharing a booklet that my kids will complete. You can run it off as a booklet or run off half sheets for the activities you want. Check back again soon as I will be posting a few other 100th Day things!  Click on the picture below to download:

Symmetry

I taught a lesson on symmetry this week and used a great website. The website teaches the concept so much better than I could do alone and there were parts that were challenging even for my most math capable kids. I created "follow along" work and an assignment which you can get by clicking on the picture below.  The website is from Links Learning and can be found here.