Week 1 in Third Grade

Most of this week was all about getting to know the students.  Students practiced listening and getting to know each other.  One of the things I was looking for and wanting to teach was the importance of actually listening to each other.  Students were randomly partnered up and had to ask three questions. 

1. What was the most fun you had this summer?
2. How many brothers and sisters do you have?
3. Do you own any pets? If so, what type and what is the pets name?

I then had each student introduce their partner and asked each kid to answer one of the three questions.  Most students struggled in this.  The had "forgotten" the answers and had to re-ask the question.  I expected this and we got into the discussion of really listening to what somebody has to say and be engaged in learning about people.  During this conversation, it was brought up that sometimes they are ignored by parents and siblings as parents and sibling use electronic devices.  I asked how many students felt that way and every hand went up.  I am as guilty as anybody in that regards when it comes to my parenting skills, but after seeing how kids felt, I am going to try and do much better to put away my device when my own children talk to me.

Students were then allowed to ask me any question about me they wanted.  My favorite one was weather or not I liked unicorns.  I told them it depended whether it was a magical or non magical unicorn.  

This week we of course did some math, writing, and reading practice and a whole bunch of learning the procedures of my class.

We read the book "What if everybody did that?" and had a great discussion about rules and breaking rules.

In the third grade students in AZ have to learn cursive so during my read-aloud time, students write in their cursive books.  We are reading Muggie Maggie, a book about a girl who doesn't want to learn cursive.  The students find the book entertaining.

Students also learned about magnets and to what objects do magnets stick.  The conclusion was that they only stick to metals, but they discovered not all metals.  We had a discussion that iron was one of the most magnetic minerals.

We planted a flower garden.  Every student planted a type of flower seed and we are hoping that eventually all the seeds will germinate and become flowers that they can take home to their parents.

We also collected a ton of insects for the insect board.  In the video above you can see some of these insects as they were alive.

Our real trial came when we learned how to log into the computers and take a reading test.  This was to be expected and I hope to turn the login time from 30 minutes to 5 minutes.  We shall see.

One of the things we have been talking about is Perseverance.  Mrs. Patton suggested we watch Ormie the Pig from YouTube and it was definitely worth it.

Students also learned to collaborate and plan together while trying to make some geometric shapes out of popsicle sticks and clay.  Here are some of the best pictures from that activity.

Finally another one of our methods of getting to know each other was a simple addition dice game where kids rolled dice and got points based on who had the highest number.  I jumped in on this game so that I would have a chance to get to know everybody as well.

Teaching elementary school is tough.  I have more respect for all those elementary teachers.  I am working my buns off trying to keep up with the other teachers and understanding all the little intricacies of teaching third grade.