Back To School Friend Wanted Ads

Hi There!  It’s Jillian from The Starr Spangled Planner.  The ladies of iTeachThird invited me here today to share one of my FAVORITE back-to-school activities with you:  Friend Wanted Ads!  

Essentially, students write an advertisement sharing the qualities they look for in a friend.  This not only helps them think deeply about what they are searching for in a good friend, but what they, in turn, can offer their friend in that relationship.

This activity is perfect for helping students build new relationships at the beginning of the year.  The anonymity boosts confidence and allows students to approach new friendships without judgment!

I like to introduce this activity with a "friendship warm up."  We come together at meeting and I start with the question, "What is friendship?"  I write their responses down on chart paper (structured like the table above) so that we can refer back to it throughout our discussion, and throughout the year.

I then move on to the next three questions, allowing for 4 or 5 responses to each question.  Once we have laid the foundation for our conversation, I can begin to introduce the friendship advertisements.

I usually start with something like, "It can be hard to make new friends.  Some of you are new to our school.  You may be looking around at all new faces and wondering who you will call friend in a few days time.  Some of you are in this classroom, but your best friend is in another classroom.  You may be wondering how you are going to make it through this year without them.  Others may look around the classroom and see many familiar friends, but know that you can never have too many!"

I explain that, 'We are going to be doing an activity to get to know each other as friends.  The goal is that we will all be friends in this classroom, but I know that you may grow closer to some than others.  We are going to be writing advertisements to share what we are looking for in a new friend, and what kind of friend we think we can be for someone else."

At this point my students usually look at each other with a confused face... you gotta love getting that look from your WHOLE class!  I assure them it will be okay, because I have an example to share with them.

When I'm finished, you can see that the little light bulbs went off, and they have a solid understanding of what is being asked of them.  I make sure to answer a few lingering questions, and I set them off to writing!

When they have all finished, and they all feel confident in their ads, I type them out.  I do this so that it is TRULY anonymous (you know some handwriting is a dead giveaway!)  Then, I cover each name with a colorful piece of cardstock and tape it ONLY at the top.  This creates a little flap that allows the name to be unveiled.  That way, when I post all of these beautiful advertisements to my bulletin board, students can read the ads, and  lift the flaps of any that seem like a potential friend and find out who it is!  Exciting right?

This is truly one of my all time favorite activities... and sometimes I get upset that it's over by the second week of school.  I'm still working on ways to reinvent it throughout the year, so I welcome any ideas!  

I hope you and your kiddos enjoy this activity as much as we do!  Thanks for stopping by, and thank you to the ladies of iTeachThird for having me!

How I Use Weekly Homework Packets in my Classroom

Hey everyone, I'm Alexis from Laugh Eat Learn! I was honored when the iTeachThird team asked me to guest post on their amazing blog. A little background about me, I have taught third grade for the last two years. Last year I had a huge problem with homework so I'm writing today about my personal homework evolution and how I changed a negative into a big positive in my classroom with weekly homework packets. 

Homework. Just the word used to make me shake my head! Like most of us, we have been doing homework for the majority of our lives. Starting in elementary, middle and high school, I remember textbooks, page numbers to read/do, and thick packets of work. In college, I recall articles and textbooks to read, and papers upon papers to write. Even as a teacher, I dreaded homework. The students never did it. The parents expected and demanded it (mostly because they too have been doing homework for years and that's just what you do in school). Then there is me, caught in the middle of this love/hate relationship with homework.

LOVE

• I love how you can teach a lesson that day and see the success when they use that skill or strategy at home in their homework. 
• I love when students DO their homework. 
• I love sending work home that is responsive and aligned to my lessons.
• I love when we can correct our homework together and see them helping each other out with the problem set. 
• I love to see them applying their knowledge from the lesson. 
• I love rewarding them for taking their knowledge home and challenging themselves. 

HATE

• I hate the prep behind homework. 
• I hate how time consuming checking homework can be, especially because it takes away from our core learning time!
• I hate sending home filler work to appease the parents that expect homework every night. 
• I hate that the majority of my students come in with excuses on why they didn't complete their homework. 
• I hate that I have to keep students in from recess to do their homework because they didn't do it the night before. 
• I hate bribing them to do their homework. 
• I hate(d) homework, who doesn't?! 

As you can see, there is way too much negativity up there so I knew I needed to change something. First, I decided to completely scrap everything I've ever done with my 3rd grade homework, and thought about the basics of what I wanted my students to do while they were home. I thought back to when I taught Kindergarten and used to give monthly homework packets from Kelly's Kindergarten. The skills we covered in class that month were embedded within this monthly packet. Yes, it was a packet but there was a ton of flexibility for the families of my students. They could do their one page a night, double up and/or work on the go. At the end of the month, my kiddos would bring back their packets and earn stickers for completing their work. Simple. 

I decided to jump back to that thinking but with third grade goggles instead. I knew I wanted my students to practice reading, writing and math at home. I knew I wanted them to continue to read at home for 25 minutes a night.

I knew I wanted the flexibility of giving a weekly packet out on Monday and not seeing it again until the following Monday (versus turning in a paper every single day for Ms. Sanchez to colle... I mean correct). I wanted the flexibility back for my families who had multiple things going on every night. I wanted families to divvy up the work they wanted to complete at home, on their own schedules. I knew I didn't want them to spend a lot of time at home working on these because frankly they are 8 and 9 year olds who need a break too! Ultimately this is how my Weekly Homework Packets were (re)born.

They were created on half sheets of paper, which save paper and time (2 for the price of one, anyone?). They draw the students in because they are much smaller than their old homework ways. They have a coloring option when they complete their nightly reading (who doesn't like to color?)

The best part is they are completely Common Core aligned, focusing both Math and ELA.  Each sheet is labeled with the Common Core State Standard for quick assessment of the standard. The format stays the same within ALL the monthly packets I've created so far, so you can easily change out targets that fit for YOUR classroom.

Yes, these are packets. Yes, they are not individualized based on every lesson in my classroom. But they can be!

Each pack comes with a table of contents with a brief title of the homework sheet and the standard, making it very easy for you to quickly grab what you need!  By the end of creating these packets, I will end up with a year full of homework that can easily interchanged between the months regardless of what you're teaching or where your students' needs are. ALL Common Core State Standards for both Math and ELA will be reviewed in these packets multiple times, giving you plenty of opportunities for spiral review throughout the year. 

Each morning, we gather at the carpet for homework check. It's quick, taking only a couple minutes, and simple. My homework checker says "Stand up if you did your reading last night". My kiddos stand, we count, they sit back down. Next, the homework checker says "Stand up if you completed one page from your packet." Repeat the above.

We add the two totals together and the homework checker adds the amount to our Weekly Homework Graphs. I was originally inspired by Stephanie from 3rd Grade Thoughts on her post about how she uses homework checks and graphs. By the end of the week, if we have met our goal, we get to have an allotted amount of free choice on Friday. This can be anything in your classroom. I've done snippets of videos, games, art time, silent ball, extra recess, etc. But what if the students are not being honest you ask? To quote Frozen, you have to "let it go". You continue to remind them to be honest, you move on that morning but you hold them accountable on Mondays (see below) when the packets are due. You, as a teacher, don't want to waste quality learning time on checking everyone's homework, every morning. 

On Mondays, students come in and we meet for morning meeting. We quickly do our homework check for Friday's homework (see above!). While they are unpacking for the morning, they turn in their previous weeks homework packets to my mailbox.

With my area prepped with homework punch cards, hole punch and brag tags, I quickly go through the homework in my mailbox, paying attention to their answers. If someone left a page blank, I call their name up and go over it with them. I make a plan with them to complete the page. I call the rest of the students who have turned it in.

A complete packet earns 5 punches on their Homework Club Punch Cards for the five days of week and a brag tag. These few incentives are free and easy to manage within your classroom.

You decide what works for you. Once I've created these packets, you should be able to interchange them for any month you teach a certain subject. For example, we are working on Fractions in my classroom right now (found in my March Weekly Packets), but maybe you are working on Place Value. No problem! Pull the math pages from my December Weekly Packets (where we focused on Place Value) and supplement them in for the month you need. I've specificity created a math and ELA frame so they could jump around.

And if you need to tweak a few things here, there or even create something completely different... I've created a Editable Weekly Homework Packet. The weekly covers are the only things that tie to the monthly themes. You as the teacher have the flexibility you need with these packets.

Printing is simple with these half sheets. It will cut down on paper and time. Simply copy double sided with the staple option on double staple on the left. Once you are done with your copies, all you will have to do is cut them in half and pass out! 

I've asked my parents to be honest with me in regards to the (drastic) change in homework. The great thing is that a lot of them reached out on their own to say they love the difference. They are finding the content matches with my lessons and their child's abilities. They are also loving the flexibility these packets have during the week. I know one of my students has soccer every Monday and Wednesday, so she doubles up on Tuesday and Thursday to complete them on time. They are still getting authentic homework but with tons more flexibility. 

I've seen my classroom's attitude about homework completely change in the last couple of months since I've implemented these Weekly Homework Packets. I'm not getting students running up to me every morning with excuses why they didn't do it. Lucky for me, I have the majority of my classroom doing their homework every. single. night. and best of all, they are excited about it. I don't have students staying in for recess every day. That gives me the break I need and the freedom they need! The benefits are endless. I'm happy to say that I finally have something in place that is easy on me (prep and classroom time in mind), fun for my students (but still has them using the skills they learn in class), and satisfies the parents and their "traditional" expectations.

I've currently completed December-May of these Weekly Homework Packets but my ultimate goal this summer (see, teacher working!) is to get a head start of the back to school rush! The whole rest of the year (June-November) will continue to be a growing project. This product, as it grows, continues to be deeply discounted until I complete the whole month. Make sure you are following me on TPT to get the latest updates and catch my Weekly Homework Packets for $1 when I first upload them! 

To celebrate my guest post on iTeachThird, I've got for you a BACK TO SCHOOL Freebie! Included is one complete week of my homework packet to test this out with your classroom! All you need to do is hop on over to my TPT store to snag the freebie! I hope you have enjoyed a sneak peek into my classroom and how I use homework in my 3rd grade classroom! Happy Summer! 

Rubrics: A Teacher's (and Students') Best Friend

Hey all! It's Kelli from Tales of a Tenacious Teacher! I'm here to share about my love (and sometimes hate... but mostly love) relationship with rubrics and why I choose to use them in my classroom.

Now, think of your best friend.

Trust me on where I'm going with this.

My best friend is none other than my husband. He supports me in what I do. He guides me towards becoming a better person. He helps me grow and understand things more. Much like what a rubric does for teachers and students alike.

Don't let my husband know that I just compared him to a rubric, though.

But that is why I've really latched onto the idea of using rubrics in various aspects of my classroom. Not only do rubrics guide me as the teacher, but they can be a great support for students as well.

I'm going to share with you how I come up with my rubrics so they are regular and routine, how I roll them out in my classroom, and how I keep them relevant. I'll also be sharing where I've gone wrong in implementing them in the past to better help you use them in your classroom!

I try (try being the key word) to make all my rubrics consistent and routine. That way, I don't have to teach about what each level means. When I introduce a new topic- anything from an academic focus to keeping desks clean (yes, there's a rubric for that)- I can use the same layout and students know what it means. Here's what to think about:

My ideal answers for my classroom:
1) 4
2) Beginning, Developing, Meeting, Exceeding (these can have interchangeable names as shared below)
3) Seed, Seedling, Tree, Apple Tree

You can change this up for your style! Only want 3 levels- go for it. Don't like those names for each level- gone! Prefer smiley faces, hand signals, or dancing penguins- switch 'em out (just try to make them make sense).

I go with the "growing" theme for a few reasons. We teach about seeds and life structures in 3rd grade- great connection to our science curriculum. It also instills the growth mindset that they are growing in their understanding of a topic. My team and I started out with numbers- but those just didn't really intrigue students. Then we tried the smiley faces, but we didn't like the negativity (like we had a sad face for level one, straight face for level two, etc.) Then, one of my genius teammates thought about using this seed thing instead and it stuck! I love it!

I even got lovely new custom clip art to use this year for things- that's how much I buy into this thing.

So here is my scale I use for all my rubrics (starting this year, well, starting midyear last year). My students refer to themselves as seeds, seedlings, trees, and apple trees on various topics when they are discussing their progress.

Whatever visuals, levels, and so on you choose to use:  Make it regular and routine!!

Alright- your scale is decided on! Doesn't that feel good?

But now what?

It's time to roll 'em out. But not... so... fast...

You'll need to plan out your expectations before you share them with students. This is probably the most time consuming part depending on the topic, but obviously- the most important part. This is where you can clearly share your expectations with students. I typically try (again, key word) to make up my own to use first before I share with students.

Character Traits- The death of me at times.

Once you have your expectations set up, it's time to share them out with your students! Last year, I used my hand drawn plant symbols and then added post-its underneath to describe what that "level" would look like for each topic. This one below is on our book log expectations. To make it more engaging, I would cover up certain words and have students discuss and guess what word would be underneath it. After each piece of labeling tape was removed, we discussed what that would look like in our work by showing examples (either student examples with names removed or ones I generate to fit that level). We sometimes include these examples on our rubric as well for an extra visual.

However, if you want to make it super engaging, you can even have students help create the rubric expectations! Start this process in reverse. Show examples and have students discuss and notice what each example has or is missing. Then use that to help create your expectations and fill in your rubric together as you go. This is much more time consuming, but can be very powerful and gets students able to recognize and distinguish differences between a "seedling" piece of work and a "tree."

Your rubric is regular and routine. You've rolled it out. Now- how do you keep it relevant and in the front of students' (and your own- let's be honest) minds?

DISPLAY 'EM!

Have them visibly up in your room for students to reference and look at. 

Because they are displayed, I often have students draw a little picture of what level they think their work is at before they turn it in. For example, before they turn in their book log, I would have them stop and reflect on theirs and compare their work to the rubric expectations. They would then draw a little seed, seedling, tree, or apple tree next to their name to self-reflect. And more times than not, they are spot on! No shock to them when I draw my own symbol on their paper to show that I agree with them based on our rubric!

I'm making a more permanent display this year for our rubrics that we are actively using on one of the bulletin boards.

The first things up for when we come back to school: using our paper correctly, using our best handwriting, coloring, and accountable talk. We'll change these out/move them to other parts of room when we need more space for newer topics, but I like the idea of having it in one location.

Also, haves students interact with the rubric as they go through a process. When we were doing poetry, I had them put their rubrics in our Smart Pals and rate themselves on their progress in the middle of our unit. That way, they could see where they could continue to grow and improve.


Naturally, I made a rubric to rate myself on my own use of rubrics.

As you can see, there's many areas of improvement in my implementation thanks to my trusty rubric I made! You can use rubrics in a variety of settings in the classroom- want expectations to be clear on something? Try a rubric!

If you are interested in using a "growth" theme scale in your classroom this year, grab this freebie and watch your students grow!

Read Alouds That Help You Teach 3rd Grade Skills

I always enjoy introducing a topic using a book. If it's the right book it can hook the kids immediately & honestly I really enjoy reading a great book out loud. It always makes me feel really connected to the class and I always walk away from it feeling joyful. I think that has a lot to do with how the kids respond too. If I like the book, it shows and they tend to enjoy it more when it seems I'm enjoying it. Some of my favorite memories are of us reading a book together as s class.
Here are just a few from this past year that caused fantastic class conversations and student "Ah-ha" moments...

Exclamation Mark
I read this one near the beginning of the year and it helped us review ending punctuation. This book is SO MUCH fun to read. The kids & I just laugh when the question mark shows up. Ha! I actually read this one a few times this year because we loved it so much & the extra exposure helped students that struggle pick up on the humor if they didn't understand it the first time.

Duck. Rabbit!
It's a Duck! No, It's a Rabbit! Haha! The kids were all talking during this read aloud that helped us to understand Point of View. I also was able to link this one to opinion writing & persuasive statements. After we read a few pages I stopped and had them jot down a couple reasons that supported their opinion of duck or rabbit. They shared those ideas with a neighbor to help them see their point of view and maybe even persuade their neighbor to change their mind. There were so many great conversations happening during this one. We read this one more than once as well to remind the kids of the skills learned.

Who Would Win? Lobster vs. Crab
This series is AMAZING! If you don't have these in your classroom library they are a must for your Scholastic wish list this year. The kids absolutely devoured these once I read one out loud. I had to require that they only keep 1 in their book box so others in the class could read them! This is the kind of problem I want to have in my classrooms always!
I used these books to teach opinion writing and persuasive statements. The kids would have a pencil and paper as I read the fact pages about each animal. When I do this I only read the fact pages that really help support their opinions so be sure you read through the book first and plan which  pages you'll read. They would jot down notes about each creature and naturally conversations began to occur. "The lobster will win because..." and "That trait will help the crab in a fight".  Now at the end of these books there is a "fight scene" between the two creatures and one ends up the "winner".  I stop just before the fight scene and we complete the following activity...
We would review how to write a strong opinion paragraph. Then using the facts they jotted down they wrote who they thought would win and why.  After everyone had created their paragraph I would read the end. When I read the endings they were on the edge of their seats people! You could hear a pin drop in my class & then when it's finally over TONS of conversation about their opinions would occur. Now I know this sounds like chaos, but if you listen closely you hear them sharing text evidence about why the ending has to be wrong or right. I had one student this past year who read the bull shark version with a partner and he was so adamant that the ending was wrong that he was referencing other books. It was great and also convincing. After hearing his evidence I even thought there might be a misprint in the book. I even encouraged him to write a letter to the author. :)  He was engaged, reading, researching, and thinking! It doesn't get much better than that does it!?

Amelia Bedelia 4 Mayor
Oh Amelia! This lady is always doing the craziest stuff! At first I thought these would be too childish, but really when you read Amelia Bedelia it takes a lot of word knowledge to fully understand the humor in her books. So I gave it a try this year to teach homonyms and figurative language. When I read these out loud it was a slow read in a way. Meaning, I had to pause a lot because there was so much humor they were missing. This book ended up taking us 3 read aloud sessions because we took the time to understand what was really happening in small sessions. I also had the class say whether it was figurative language or a confused homonym when we came across those classic "Amelia Moments". After reading this out loud the kids started picking these up on their own and pointing out confused homonyms to me or a neighbor. Success!

Oh The Places You'll Go!
I LOVE this book. It might be my all time favorite picture book after this year. It may have been the first time I read it and the kids really understood it. I used this book to teach figurative language this past year. I wrote some of the figurative phrases on a chart paper. As we read we paused and the students made sense of them together. Then we wrote what the phrase meant in kid friendly language next to the figurative phrase. I felt so proud of them after this lesson. Figurative language is so hard to understand and they really worked together & thought hard about each page. They walked away from the carpet feeling like they could do anything!

Books can connect our kids to so many concepts & it's important for us to remember how much our older elementary students enjoy hearing a story.
What are your go-to books to read out loud & teach skills?