Thank you so much to all of my sweet followers who participated in my I {Heart} Fall Giveaway!
And the Winner is….
Congratulations to Adelia! Please email me at secondgradeshenanigans@gmail.com to collect your prizes!
And for all of the rest of my followers, I am throwing a little fall celebration in my TPT shop until tomorrow night…midnight!
All of my units will be on sale including all of my favorite fall units! Visit my shop by clicking on any of the pictures below!
Have a happy weekend!
I have been super happy lately! Well, I like to think that I am happy all of the time, but this fall weather has a way of making me all giddy inside! Plus, our weather has been GOR.GEOUS! So, in celebration of my favorite season and my favorite bloggy friends, I am having a little giveaway to get you in the fall spirit!
One lucky winner will receive all four of my Halloween Units:
Pumpkin Biographies
Pumpkin Book Reports
Trick or Treat: Writing is Sweet
A collection of writing lessons, craftivities, science experiments and more!
And my favorite math centers…
Here is how you can enter to win all four units:
1. Follow my blog.
2. Follow my little TPT shop.
3. Follow my Facebook page.
The giveaway ends this Thursday evening, so don’t wait to enter!
One of my favorite things about 3rd grade (so far) is the study of our beautiful state! At first, it completely stressed me out! Now that I am in my groove, it is so much fun to teach and the kids are all about South Carolina History!
This year, I decided to dive head first into notebooking for all subject areas! Let me tell you…at first, it will make you want to pull your hair out! Teaching third graders about designing their own table of contents was quite a task! Now, it is super smooth and very beneficial!
With that said, I didn’t want for our notebooks to be a bunch of notes that the students will never use. So, I have been trying some different strategies that engage the students in “note taking” and make our notebooks something that are user friendly…even for the parents! Here is a look inside our notebooks.
So far, we have included important anchor charts (I take a picture and make a copy for each student), activities, and maps.
We also keep a vocabulary pocket for each major unit! I have found that library pockets work perfectly for this section. We write our words on index cards and the students pull them out when they need to reference a certain word.
During our study of the six regions that divide our state, the students were taken on a little tour around each region. Their “souvenir” at the end of each region was two postcards. One to record fast facts from the region and one to write a persuasive letter to someone in the school enticing them to go for a visit. We kept all of our fast facts in our backpack housed in our SC notebooks.
For all of my SC people, if you would like a copy of the SC postcards, click on the picture below!
We ended our big study of the regions with a little cookie decorating! The students were given the task to create a cookie that represented all six regions of our state. Mr. King (a.k.a. the hubs) even came to learn all about the regions! I don’t know which surprise they were more excited about…the cookies…or Mr. King! He takes directions from third graders quite well! :)
Hard at work…
The Finished Products…
I would say it was a success!
I can’t wait to see what else we can get into as we learn about the most beautiful state! Well, I may be a little partial! Happy Sunday, friends!
Did you know that today was National Talk Like a Pirate Day? Well…I didn’t…until 2 days ago when one of my sweet parents emailed me a little FYI! Ha! Pirates are so fun, so I thought to myself…why not make a day out of it?! Today was definitely one of those “Keep calm and pretend that it’s on the lesson plan” kind of days! {Those are the best…right?}
This week in math, we began our addition unit. Today we did “arrrdition” pirate style!
The students had to solve addition equations to discover which food pirates can’t get enough of. If they solved the equation without any mistakes, they collected a letter tile to match the color of their equation. Once they collected each tile, they could figure out the mystery word which was…
Then, we had some pirate popcorn for a little snack! If you would like to snag this activity, click HERE!
During our writing time, we researched about a pirate that goes right along with our studies in South Carolina History.
The students read all about this famous pirate in our SC Weekly newspapers and then wrote an informational paragraph about all of the facts that they learned.
Since we have been learning all about the six regions that divide South Carolina, it was the perfect time for the students to create their own treasure maps. They had to illustrate each region including landforms, major cities, and rivers. Then, they wrote clues that will lead to their treasure. Their clues had to include information from each region.
And no pirate day would be complete without…
Bandanas! I so wish you could see their sweet faces! What a great day!
This pirate is off to bed! Hope you all had a fabulous day!
This past weekend, we had our South Carolina Meet Up and let me tell you…Carolina Girls {plus GA and NC girls} truly are the best in the world! These girls were all so stinkin’ cute and equally sweet! We talked teacher all morning long! I so wish that I could have spent more time with these ladies, but that is just a perfect excuse for another meet up!
Here is our group:
Be sure and check out all of their blogs! You will be so glad that you did!
Autumn, Ashley, and Tammy from Fanatical in First Grade
Kim will have a blog coming soon!
Elizabeth from Fun in 4B
Gretchen from Always a Lesson
Ginger from Ginger Snaps
Dana from 3rd Grade Gridiron
Shasta from The Loop
Heather and Juli from Simple In Second
Amanda from Teaching Maddeness
Amber from Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher
Rachel from The Tattooed Teacher
Elisabeth from Twins, Teaching and Tacos
Rebecca from Landing in K
Natalie from Teachery Tidbits
Lacie from Polka Dots & Pencils
Last week, my kiddos were all about some science! We began our first little mini unit on the scientific method, but first we had to discuss some things to look forward to in science!
We began our science instruction with a fun little thinking/writing/making craftivity. When I saw Amy Lemon’s mathematicians, (isn’t she the best?!?) I just couldn’t resist. They really didn’t fit into my math instruction, so what better way to include these cute little dudes than by turning them into mad scientists?!
After we created a list of scientific words and actions that we would need to transform into a scientist, the kiddos wrote about what they hope to learn this year during our science studies!
After our brains were focused on all things science, we were ready to set up our notebooks for the year! Once again, we turned to good ol’ Mod Podge! Yep…love this stuff!
I introduced the tools that we would be responsible for using/knowing this year in 3rd grade. Then, we completed a little match and design on our science notebook covers!
Finally, we ended the week working our way through the scientific method. Thanks to Ginger, my kiddos fell completely in love with the Boat Afloat experiment!
I have to say…they made some pretty amazing boats! I think I’ve got some future scientists/engineers on my hands!
Hope y’all are having a great week!
