August Super Hero Assembly

These kids worked SUPER hard to get ready for the first

SUPER HERO ASSEMBLY

of the year!

Their teachers thought they did a

WONDERful job!

The whole third grade teaching time was just

AMAZED

at how the entire third grade taught the rest of the school about the 

7 Habits of Happy Kids.

Mrs. Kim, our SUPER principal, started us off by introducing what we would be doing.

Mrs. Belinda, from Third Grade to the Edge, was our fearless leader.

We taught the school the motions to help them remember the 7 Habits of Happy Kids.

Different students took parts in briefly explaining each of the 7 Habits.

We sang songs that told everyone

We Feel Great!

We sang how we would

All Work Together

We also told everyone how we know we are 

Super Kids!

Your teachers are SO proud of you!

You are going to be

FANTASTIC

leaders this year!

STUDENTS:  What did you learn from being part of the assembly?  What was your favorite part?  Why?

Back to School Bash: First Days of School Plans

I can't believe we are on our third week of the Back to School Bash!!

It has been a great way to see what others are doing in their classrooms for sure!

We had our winner of the TPT products drawn last week and she has been contacted, but the giveaway is not done yet! 

Keep scrolling to find out the new giveaway you can enter for the next 2 weeks!

This week we are talking about:

I usually was not a fan of planning the first day and week of school.

I dreaded it to be 100% honest with you.

However, a few years ago, our school decided to do 2 weeks of character education before we started anything else.  That was awesome!

It really made the difference in how I looked at and treated the first 2 weeks of school.

For 2 years we used the book The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon.

There is a book for adults and a book for kids.

This year we are using the book The Leader in Me and the 7 Habits.

With my kids being third graders, I have been able to keep the language of The Energy Bus even though we are moving on to something else.  It has really helped.

My pictures from the first day of school must be on my big camera, so I will add those later - Sorry.

However, this is what we do since our first day of school is only a half day of school.

When the kids arrive, they see their desk looking somewhat like this.

A Superhero rubber duck from me, a bag of Lucky Charms from my partner teacher, their folder for the year, a name tag, a packet of information for the parents to take home and fill out, as well as a Welcome to Third Grade note from me.  This note welcomes them to third grade and walks them through what I need them to do this morning while I meet the other parents and children.  It has worked very well.

This is an example of my note:

From there, we have DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time.

The first week I read to them.  This year, I chose to read Third Grade Angels and The Lemonade War to my class.  We finished The Third Grade Angels pretty quickly and I liked the message in the book.  The kids really liked it.  I tend to read our read aloud books MUCH faster than the other teachers on my team, so we started Lemonade Wars after they did.

After DEAR time, we spent the first of MANY moments learning procedures.

I spend many planned moments as well as spontaneous moments teaching, modeling and practicing procedures.  If these are not learned in the first week or two of school, you are in for a rough year.

The next item on our first day of school plans involved each third grade class visiting the other third grade classrooms.  We really embrace the idea that EACH third grade child is OUR child.  Our children are not just the ones in our homeroom each day.  We want all of the third graders to know the other teachers because they will have most of them as teachers at some point during the year due to our schedules.  In this 5 minute visit, we do "All About Me" bags.  The teachers each place 3-5 items that tell about them in the bag, so the kids can learn about them.  

What's in my bag?

- chocolate

- Harry Potter book

- Burts Bees chap stick

- picture of my family

-items that show my favorite sports teams - The Braves and Alabama football

We end with our own class because that is when we give them THEIR All About Me bags.

This is their homework for the night. They can fill the bag with all things about them and can decorate the bag to represent themselves.  

The last part of the day as we wait for closing announcements and calls for buses is spent making self-portraits. I will talk more about these in the next linky party next week.

That is the end of Day 1.

The next few days are spent continuing to read our read aloud books.

A favorite is also the sharing of the "All About Me" bags.  We usually choose 3-4 to share a day.

I love this because it gives me a chance to introduce speaking and listening skills from the very first day.  We also are able to talk about what are good questions to ask.

The kids LOVE this part of the day.

I always write each child a note telling them how much I enjoyed their bag and mention

something special about their bag.  They love getting these notes from me.

I mentioned how we spend the first 2 weeks teaching character education.

Third grade is the highest grade in our school and we are in charge of the first SOAR or SUPERHERO assembly of the year.

To help with all of this, we decided to have a Leadership Camp for the first 2 weeks.

We spend about 30-45 minutes each day talking to the third grade as a whole about what is expected of them.  We also work on songs we are going to sing for the assembly at the end of the second week of school.

We put each class in their school shirt for this part so we can tell the difference.

We also have name tags on each child for at least the first week of school.

After our singing part of Leadership Camp, each teacher takes a lesson to teach to each homeroom.

Our topics are:

What is a Superhero?

A Hero in Math Class

A Hero in Specials

A Hero in Reading Class

A Hero's Behavior

A Hero's Goals

My lesson was A Hero in Reading since I am the reading teacher leader for the school.

I plan on blogging about that lesson soon.

I feel like it is very important the first weeks of school to be real with the kids and to just sit back getting to know them.  This class of mine this year LOVES to color - anything. We enjoyed sitting around the desks coloring and talking with each other.

One procedure we are harping BIG time this year is hallway behavior. 

Due to our schedules, our classes will be walking in the hallway A LOT by themselves - without teacher supervision.  Each third grade teacher made a sign with the class name on the front.

On the back is the afternoon schedule so they will know where to go.

I have been emphasizing this procedure with the Brownie Point system.

I tweaked it to fit us a little bit.

Each time the class gets a compliment from another adult, they get to add a brownie to the cookie pan.  Additionally, the first 2 weeks of school we have a "Mystery Walker" every time we leave the room to go somewhere.  If the "Mystery Walker" does the right thing, a brownie is added to the pan.

When the pan is full of brownies, the class earns a brownie party!

I am proud to say, we earned a brownie party the first week of school!

Just look at that great line!

Another part of Leadership Camp is learning our Common Language of third grade.

Each teacher will teach a part of our common language:

whole brain teaching

12 Powerful Words

Line Up Chants

Celebrations

Attention Getters

Here is a group of my kiddos learning the 12 Powerful Words by Larry Bell.

We LOVE it!!!

The first weeks of school - 

EXHAUSTING, but oh so important!

What do you do?

Please link up with us to show your plans.

An InLinkz Link-up

On top of this, we are having ANOTHER giveaway!!!!

That's right!! You could win ONE of TWO $50 gift certificates to TPT!

Be sure to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My School Tribe

I have been a little a lot MIA this week

because I have been having a SUPER time

with these people. 

Our theme at school for the past few years has been The Energy Bus,

but this year we are going to The Leader in Me.

We are going to focus on how each child has SUPER powers,

and then using those powers to be a leader.

I am very excited about what this year holds.

There is really no order to these pictures.

I just wanted to share my fabulous school tribe with my blog tribe!

Thanks to Belinda, from Third Grade to the Edge, for most of these pictures due to her and the selfie stick!

Third Grade Team

Working on our Placemat Consensus activity - what do we see the Leader in Me looking like in our school.

Talking about the Placemat Consensus project - what we want The Leader in Me to look like.

Another picture of our FABULOUS third grade team!

Teamwork at it's finest - working to get the rubber band off the cup!

We went ALL over the school searching for Superheroes only to find someone had taken some of them.
This is our confused face!

LOVE these people!

More teambuilding activities

I had the honor of presenting 3 different mini lessons during our PD time together.

One of the lessons I presented along with two other FANTASTIC teachers, was a lesson on anchor charts in the reading classroom.  We talked specifically about Accountable Talk during this time.  Then, the teachers were able to create a chart to use in their rooms.

ALL of these people play an important part of my tribe.

I am so glad our leaders decided for our PD to be together, so we can learn, grow, and share together in the same room at the same time.

I am extremely thankful for this group of ladies - 

my third grade team...

and my partner teacher, Kim.

We accept each other.

We help each other.

We support each other.

We can be crazy with each other.

This year is going to be the best for so many reasons!!!

Coming Together with Classroom Improvements

I was visiting the Blessed Teacher today, and saw this link up

with Ashley and Angie called

#2getherwearebetter.

Each month on the second, they (and other teachers) come together to talk about things

we can all improve upon as teachers.  Since I am so new to all of this and need all the help I can get, I thought I would join in on the fun!

 What do I want to improve on in my classroom this year?

A lot!!!  I wish I could post pictures of my classroom, 

but I cannot get into my classroom until next week sometime.

Please bear with me throughout this with no pics.

Bulletin Boards

I have 3.

They are all different sizes.

Bulletin Board #1

I decided last year to not put up a calendar because I always forgot to change the calendar.

I also thought that as a third grade teacher that space could be better utilized.

So, I have that board that I need to do something with that is productive.

Bulletin Board #2

This is a little bit larger.

In the past it has been a data board, a sweet words board, and a science topic board.

We don't have data boards any more. I use data notebooks for my kiddos.

The sweet words board did not go like I had planned - largely due to me!

We are going to be doing A LOT of writing this year and I had thought about using this as a writing board, but .....

Bulletin Board #3

This is the biggest board that is actually a covered corkboard.

This means I can't staple on it!!!!

So... since I can't staple on it, I have hot glued aluminum pizza pans to the board.

I attached clothespins with chef hats (my room is a cafe/bakery theme).

Each hat has a child's name on it and they can choose work of theirs to be displayed.

I really like this board, but am VERY open to changing it around if something else comes up!

I also have a wall that is covered with UGLY hospital green (do you picture it?) lockers!

I hope to be able to give each child their own locker this year.

In the past I have put 2 kids in a locker.

Leader in Me

Our school is reading/implementing The Leader in Me this year.  For the past two years, we have used The Energy Bus as our school kickoff program.  For two weeks, we focus on character education and what is expected from our kids.  This year, we are using The Leader in Me. I am a little hesitant because it is something new.  I also know myself and know I want to make it a year long thing - not just a first 2 weeks of school thing.

How can I do this?  Do you have any suggestions?  I want my classroom to be a place where the kids feel safe and know they can succeed at their own levels as well as to their own abilities.

I am sure there is a lot more I can say to this, but I hate that I don't have pictures!

Plus, after this post, I am even MORE overwhelmed than I was before - NOT GOOD!!

So, help a sister out! I will be around to visit others and see if I can help any of you!

I am so glad that I have found this community!