Thinking Stems

My third grade class just wrapped up their lesson on using thinking stems to be a more active reader.

They read the book How many Days to America? by Eve Bunting


Thinking Stems

I'm thinking.....
I'm wondering....
I'm seeing.....
I'm feeling......

Inferring for meaning with poetry

Creatures of the Earth, Sea, and Sky by Georgia Heard


Choose 6 poems that could lend themselves best to dramatic interpretation and copy them onto chart paper.
Together as a class read them several times.
"Think carefully about the poems we just read. Which one is the most interesting to you? Which one makes you think? Hmm.... what is the poem really about? Choose one you'd like to understand better"
"Once you've decided, go to the peom you want to learn more about. Take it with you and find a place in the room you can work well. You'll have about fifteen minutes to build on each other's ideas and figure out how your group can best interpret the peom you've chosen."
Figure 8.6 what the worksheet could look like

*Integrate Writing*
Children saw this activity as a way to construct riddles. They decided to write a poem together and send it home to see if their parents could figure out what they were describing.

*Integrate into the community*
Have each child write a riddle. Post it in the hallway allowing other students to try and infer what the poems are about.  After a week or so, children wrote their titles of the poems.




Reading With Meaning chapter 8

How late is too late?

I haven't really thought about how I will handle contacting parents.
For example, some teachers tell parents they don't always get a chance to check their emails on the weekends. Some teachers don't reply to emails if it is after they go home for the evening. Some teachers don't call parents back after the student or child goes to bed. Some parents say they'll get back to them within the next 24 or 48 hours. What about texts? And I don't know how I feel about it....


I want parents to know that I welcome them, I care about their children, and I'm hear if they need to talk... but then I need the parents to understand I have a life/family too. I think their defenately needs to be guidlines but... it'll be a fine line.

The email thing will be easy to clear up, because I can't check my school mail on my home computer. But phone calls? I think if they call after their child is in bed it must mean it is private enough that they needed to wait until the child was asleep. But then again... I go to bed early 10 ish...

I don't know maybe I'll figure out more later

"A gift for me?"

I'm sitting here reading The First DAys of School by Wong and Wong and read this fun idea I thought I would post.

Supposedly the parents of 25 out of 30 students came to Back-toSChool Night. Some parents explained that their children said they just had to come to get their presents.

What was there present?

It was a letter (that I would have the kids either type or handwrite)

Dear Mom,
Thank you for careing about me and talking the time to come and learn about my class. We have been learning about a young girl named Sadako who bravelt faught leukemia. She believed in good-luck signs. The crane was one sign, a symbol of peace and dreams come true. Here is a crane  made especially for you. With it, I wish you love, peace and everlasting happiness. I love you! Love.....   ,

Then there was an orgami crane the kids had made.

Behavior Managfement

In the past I thought I liked this way of managing behaviors

Note the numbers on the clips instead of names.

I like the visual aspect of this because it is a constant reminder of good and bad behaviors

But I think I might like a check list better.

My third grade teachers use a clipboard to note of any behavior problems. They use one daily and everytime someone is off task or not doing his or her job they'll find his/her name and say, "that's a warning" and make a small note of what they were/n't doing to get in trouble (so not listening, etc.)

This year the kids need a lot of reminders. They give 3 steps before they have to fill out a think sheet. Normally they don't need but 2 reminders before they have to fill out a think sheet.

1. verbal reminder

2. back to your seat

3. safe seat (which I prefer to call a think seat)

4. think sheet

I think I like the check list better because it documents everything! If I had a way to document what the child did to get their clip moved down then I would like it.

Maybe If I could sort problem behavior into 2 types. Maybe interupting and not follwing directions then I could make the left side of the hanging chart thing interupting and the right side not following directions. Then at the end of the day document on paper or the computer of how the behaviors were...

I don't know, that might be too complicated.

End of the day song!

The other 3rd grade teacher plays a song on youtube and then the kids have that much time to get their stuff ready to go home and be on the carpet by the end of the song.

Thinking bubble

My third grade teachers have this thinking bubble they use when they teach thinking about metacognition.



 It looks like this only there is a hole cut in the middle of it the size of a head.

Then as they share connections or what they are thinking they pass the bubble around and speak with the thing around their head!

The kids loved it!