Pumpkin Activities

Each year on Halloween, I get each of my students a mini-pumpkin (expensive, yes, but totally worth it!). We use the pumpkins throughout the day for various activities, and then we paint/decorate them during our party. I've prepared some new activities to do this year. I've put together a very simple pack- some language, math, and a compare/contrast. Check them out! :) Click on the pictures to get a copy.

 

 



Teacher vs. Student Responsibilities

During the first weeks of school, we had a lot of discussion about student and teacher responsibilities. One of the activities we did uses a Venn diagram that students build to communicate who is responsible for what in the classroom. Me and the kids LOVED this!

 I found this in the Lesson Plan SOS TPT store. The whole file is a little spendy but has A TON really great beginning of the year activities and resources. This is a great stand-alone activity, though, and could easily be reproduced to fit the needs of other classrooms without the entire pack. :)

Rolling for Ten (or 100)

Hello again! Third graders (should) have a strong knowledge of combinations to make ten. This year, we work hard at extending that knowledge to build combinations that equal 100 and 1,000. I found this fun activity, and I used it as a warm-up to a Combinations of 100 lesson. My kids loved it, and it really helped them grasp the concept that the combinations of 10 can extend to 100 and beyond.

You can get your copy HERE from Shelley Gray's TPT store. It isn't free, but this activity is just one of a packet of make ten activities. It's perfect for extending to combinations of 100 (or beyond) like I did, for younger grades, or as an intervention for older students. :)

Finally!

Well, I'm FINALLY finding the time to get some posts up. It has been a super busy start to the year, but I'm so excited to start sharing some pictures and activities that we've started! We've been engaged in a lot of review activities, goal setting, community building, and nailing down the procedures and expectations for all of our workshops (math, reading, and writing).

This goal setting activity was one of the first things we did in class. I love having my kids set goals for the year. This was a really fun and different way to set goals and integrate some art into it as well.

How great did these turn out? You can find the inspiration for this activity and the template provided for FREE from the amazing Art Projects for Kids blog. I get SO many ideas from her. :)

A Sweet Fractions Activity

I found the FUNNEST fractions activity that also has a data component. Two for one! And best of all, it's FREE, and you can find it HERE.

Thanks to Buzzing with Ms. B for this activity!

Tableau

Want to get your kids really engaged in reading comprehension? Tableau is a terrific way to incorporate kinesthetic movement and art into reading. After reading Rueben and the Fire, students broke up into groups and created a tableau of their favorite scene. Other groups had to guess which scene students were choosing to tableau.

Read more about Tableau in the classroom HERE.

Angry Verbs!

The most excited my students have EVER been to do a writing activity? You won't be surprised to hear it involved the characters in the game Angry Birds. This idea originated from a second grade blogger. We started by talking about the game Angry Birds. I had a YouTube video all ready to go, but every single student, I kid you not, already knew exactly what it was, and could tell me every single detail about the game. We started generating a word bank of verbs that describe the actions of the birds- dive, soar, fling, bomb, crash, tilt, etc. Once we got a massive list, students began their Angry Verbs writing.

Students developed an Angry Birds story that incorporated the verbs from our list, or others they generated on their own. Typically, with most writing activities, I have the same few students who have to sit and think for some time about how to get started. Not this time! Every student attacked this lesson immediately. Some students wrote a narrative story about the characters in the game, and others wrote a descriptive detailing of how the game works. They all turned out great! Once we did a brief edit/revision, students went through and highlighted their verbs. Add on the coloring page of a character of their choice, and tada!

You can find my Angry Verbs writing template HERE.

The linke for the coloring pages is HERE.