The Classroom!

I was able to go to my room this week and I started getting it all dolled up. I am not as excited this year with decorating but it came out nice.






I am more interested in getting instruction planned. Being in a new district is already a lot different. My old district was very strict, so to say. This district is strict in certain avenues but nothing like my old district, which has its pros and cons. I am thankful for being in a strict district last year. I think it prepared me more than I thought it would. 

I think am going to start using Socrative for my daily warm-ups. A friend of mine said that Geddit was awesome. I have not had a chance to check it out on the computer yet. I just need to get started ASAP. Next week is nothing but training and I am excited to see how this district does things. I am really really excited for that. I am going to implement the crap out of task cards this year. They are perfect! I am going to be making my own math task cards. I will put those on here and on my TPT store. Majority of my task cards will be free of course on my blog. I plan to have the first unit, PLACE VALUE, done by the end of this week because school starts in two weeks. It is plenty of time to prepare, right?

Until next time,

-PFons-

Task Cards and Organizing!

Well, I have not prepared as much as I wanted to. I have been really kicking booty on my Master's degree. I feel that is all I have done this summer. I have not had a chance to do much of anything else. I did complete my transportation display. 

I love it. I wanted to get another ribbon to put around it but it is cute the way it is. I have not done anything else. I have been buying slowly and I need to organize my books. I just do not know where to start really. 

I have bought some task cards for early finishers, math, reading and writing. I have an idea of how I want to incorporate them but I need to see how my new district wants instruction done. It seems that I have free range but I want to get with my team first. Here are some cards that I bought from the TpT store. 

I clearly cut, laminated and cut again over 150 cards. It is completely worth it. Some things that are on my to do list is 

1. Make math station rotations
2. Complete first day gifts - will take picture when they are completed. I am using french fry like containers and adding candy and a welcome label.
3. Make first day PPT over expectations and classroom rules
4. Organize my books for my library
5. Figure out how I am going to set up early finisher task card station.
6. Make stations

This is just some of the things. I still have not done nearly as much planning as I did last year. I really need to get on it. One more week then training and then school begins. I haven't even gotten my own kids clothes or supplies yet. I am really falling behind. Who knew adding school would add so much extra work. I need to get back into the routine of staying up late and getting up early. 

Until Next Time,

-PFons-

Freebies!!!!

Well, I made a huge change this year. I am no longer working for the same district. :-( I happily moved to a district I live in and a school that I went to from kinder to the middle of 4th. In addition, my mom, dad, 2 uncles, sister, brother, great uncle and my kids went to. How neat is that? I will be teaching with some of my old teachers! Best part is I am 45 seconds away without traffic. haha. 1 minute and 30 seconds with traffic. 

I am teaching fourth grade, all inclusive. I am nervous about teaching reading and writing, but I have been doing research and signed up for some good trainings with the district. Plus, my bestie is an ELA teacher for 5th. She has been a huge help. 

I am excited about math this year. I bought a new iPad and I am going to try to get more donated to me for my classroom. I just think it is important to have in your classroom and for stations. I am going incorporate task cards this year and will be getting those ready soon. 

Now time for the freebies!!! 

This is similar to the Pride Paws I use to do at my old school. I will implement this as a normal classroom management. You cut out the owls into squares and then give as many as you see fit for good behavior and on getting right answers. Really, anytime you want. I will do a drawing at the end of the week for one student to get a prize. I got the pictures from http://www.mycutegraphics.com/graphics/owl/black-white-owl.html   

This is going to be my transportation display. I am going to laminate them and add clothes pins to mark where students are. This will help with the beginning of the school year and for subs. I got the idea from Pinterest. I will cut them out and paste them on a bright color card stock paper. The big blank circle is my out line for the bright color card stock paper. I will show pictures this week as I make them. I will add ribbons to connect them. Below is the sample I got the idea from.

Click for the link to for the above website

These are free downloads. If the images are not working then leave a comment I will send you the document. 

Until next time,

-PFons-

New Title and New Things!

If you did not notice or are new to me, I changed my blog title. I am no longer a 3rd grade teacher. I am looping with my students to  4th grade! I am extremely excited and cannot wait for the next school year to begin. 

The TEKs have changed for 4th and there is not a lot of material out there for these TEKs. I plan to create several items and I have already started taking notes of the new things to create. I have seen several things from Pinterest that I can add to stations or make for my students for review. I want to get a jump start on stations because I spent a lot of my time creating stations last year. Since I will not be teaching 3rd grade my old stations need to have a lot more rigor and meet the new standards.

I have also started Graduate school! I am studying Curriculum and Instruction. It will be really nice to say I have my Masters in the next year and a half. I am currently working on my philosophy of teaching ELLs and how it fits into my instructional setting. FUN! 

The end of my school year ended fantastically. I had a carnival theme for the end of year party and the students absolutely loved it! They also have no idea that I will be their teacher next year. I want to surprise them with a letter right before school starts. Wouldn't that be exciting? Some may not be thrilled. 

I wanted to give a heads up on me and I WILL be posting more throughout the summer with ideas and freebies. I need to update my current number lines by adding decimals and more rigor on the fractions. That is my first project of the summer!

Until next time,

-PFons-

Multitasking and Health

There has been a lot that I am trying to get involved in. I have been trying my best as a teacher 

Such as prepare for everyday and week. 

Plus, allow my creative side out. Doing bulletin boards really are an outlet for me. 

I am currently making a blanket for a friend. Trying to update my TELPAS training. In the process of motivating myself to workout. I have been eating healthy for a while. It's finding the energy to workout. So, I have been taking SPARK for that. Which leads me to 

My new adventure 

Yep, I am now a distributor. I am excited about this because I want to be able to make extra money and I use their products. Plus, this is the motivation I needed to get back in shape. Here is my direct site

https://www.advocare.com/140244500/default.aspx

Copy paste it. Link thing does not work on the iPhone, if so not sure how it works, new to iPhone. I ordered some new products and cannot wait to get them in. One I am really excited about is called catalyst. It's supposed to help you tone fast, feed your muscles, and help with muscle recovery. This is exactly what I needed. 

In addition, I found this amazing lady who does Zumba and is starting to make it big. Here is her link to her site. I have been doing her videos and they are perfect. Great motivation to get back into working out.

http://www.dancefitnesswithjessica.com

I am so ready for bed.

Until next time,

-PFons-

Measurement!

This week we have been working with measurement. In third grade measurement consists of length of customary units and metric units. Also, we measure time, perimeter, area and temperature.

Wednesday:

To start this week off we made a foldable. We talked individually about each unit we will measure (unit, foot and yard). After we discussed the inch the students went around and measured items that look like an inch. We did this with the other units as well. The only thing we could not measure, but we mentioned, was a mile. We also discussed the difference between customary and non-customary units. The students really liked it.

*To help measure inches I made sure students used the TEA math reference materials.

Thursday:

We used line segments to measure to the nearest inch. I first used classroom items to measure to the nearest inch. I used the TEA math reference material to measure items to the nearest inch. I always started at zero on the ruler when comparing to the nearest inch. After a few examples of this I stopped measuring from the zero. In both classes no one caught on and added the extra inches.  I immediately fixed this misconception and we continued with a few more before moving to a worksheet with line segments. After each example I had students talk in groups to help each other discuss the nearest inch. I also introduced what a line segment is when they started the worksheet.  I had the students do the worksheet independently while I walked around and assisted struggling students.

Friday:

Friday we did the same activity but we covered to the nearest half inch. I also extend by first reviewing nearest inch then adding nearest half-inch. Both of my classes did wonderful. I had them do a practice sheet to find the nearest inch and half inch.  I was really impressed with how my students picked up on measurement so quickly.

We had an ice day so no school on Tuesday. Monday we finished the unit of fractions on a number line. You can find fractions on a number line at my TPT store or click the image below.

I also made an end of the unit assessment over measurement. You can click the picture below to get it at my TPT store.

I also made a checkpoint for measuring to the nearest inchand nearest half inch.  You can get it at my TPT store for FREE!!! It has 15 questions that is all STAAR related. The centimeter and inch checkpoint unit will be uploaded soon too!

I started making materials because there are things out there that do not work for my students. I make items that will work for my students and that will meet their needs. I make sure everything is STAAR related but extends students thinking. Everything is open ended and no multiple answer choices. I notice that my students do a lot better when they do get answer choices. 

I went to a training recently over the new TEKS and wow. Third grade is going to pick up a lot of Geometry next year. This will be interesting and fun. I was never a huge geometry fan but after teaching it last year it has become one of my favorite subjects to teach. 

A quick run down of other things outside of the major lesson is I am writing a lesson for my guided math (pictographs), making stations (adding new ones..fun), and writing a lesson for tutorials we start on Tuesday. oh, I will have a huge unit up hopefully by the end of the day over all math TEKS for third grade. They are cards students will paste onto card stock paper and solve. This will be like a warm-up and the students will ring clip their work together and it will be their resource book for STAAR. Example below...

I wish I would have done this since the beginning of the school year. I am working on that currently. That is just math.. haha.. I still have science. I need to research animals for students to find the animals inherited traits and learned behavior and write about them. I think they will love this. We discussed a raccoon and its adaptability. Students loved it. 

I better get going and get this done soon, it is SUPER BOWL day!!!

Until Next Time,

-PFons-

3rd Grade Fractions

It has been a while but that is the life of a first year teacher. Oh wait, the life of a first year teacher of a testing grade. I have enjoyed it so far. Let's move on.

Well, we have been doing fractions since the beginning of the 2014 year. This is the first time since I started teaching that I feel I have a hand in what I am teaching. Here are a few pictures...

I just love this anchor chart. I found it on Pinterest. I have used it everyday since I made it. The students are actually using it too. I have been pushing my students to use the anchor charts I have in the room. 

I also want to give a way a FREE fraction assessment (TEKS correlated 3.2C and 3.10A) that I made for my 3rd graders and FREE fraction practice cards you can use as warm-ups, a station, partner work, or whatever you decide to use them for. I have not used them yet in my class but will Monday. These are 3rd grade TEKS correlated (3.10A). My students love to have problems on strips of paper that they can paste on bright construction paper and solve. I will pick a handful of them and post them on my bulletin board along side their picture. They really love this!

Oh, did I mention that both are editable? You need to email me or comment with your email address for the editable version. I have the latest Microsoft so you may need to do some formatting adjustments. 

The fraction assessment - Fractions Assessment

Fractions on a number line cards - Fraction Cards

                             
I hope that you enjoy these FREE items!


Until Next Time,

PFons

*UPDATE* Here is the TPT store link to get your editable Fraction Cards! TPT - Fractions On A Number Line