Get Your Students to Talk Non-Stop (The Good Way)

Some teachers prefer a quite room where students are independently working on completing a task. Not me! I love the buzzing sound of students working together and teaching one another. I find sometimes, they even do a better job at teaching one another than me standing up there! Which is why it is so important that I build talking skills into our daily work. Just like with anything, we must explicitly teach, model, and give feedback on conversational skills. I'm sharing a few things I've done in my room to help this year.

Conversational Moves

First, we need to discuss what it means to have a conversation and more importantly, how do we make it MOVE! We created this chart together. I prepared it before hand and left spaces for us to fill in. You can tell because my handwriting got all messy #teachertruth.

Give 'Em Supports

Later, we talked about the different types of way we can participate in a conversation. I made a handy hand-out that students glued into their notebooks. I however can NOT find the one that I made at school, so I retyped it up to share with you all! Click on the picture to download your own version!

We talked about 4 ways (there are more, but we are starting with these four) we can participate:

If you are looking for a more permanent display, I have sentence stems in my store for purchase here. I found that having a student copy easily at their finger tips is great for book clubs and partnership talks.

Here's the best part about this work: you can use it during ANY content! This is something you can always work into your daily work. Give your students the opportunity to have meaningful conversation and the supports and you will see their engagement and understanding of the topic just blossom!

How do you help students share their ideas with each other?

Every Digital Classroom Should Use Popplet

Hi friends!  It's Debbi from 3rd Grade Pad and I'm back again for another tech tool to share!  But, let's me honest...

Well...Have I got the perfect starter tool for you!

In all honesty, I can only juggle about 3 tools at a time.  Any more than that, the kids forget how to use it (time wasting).  Symbaloo and Padlet are the biggies for me.  Once my kids are proficient in those, I can bring in something else.

It is available in both web-based and for iPads.  ANY classroom with digital access can benefit!
Ready to be convinced?  Here goes!

I promise you…there is nothing SIMPLER than Popplet!  Double tap anywhere and POP!  You have your first popple.  Tap on any of the settings below to create the popple of your choice.
See the little white circles? Simply press and drag to create an ATTACHED popple.
BAM!  Instant graphic organizer!

This graphic organizing tool can easily be used across the curriculum!

This week,  we located examples of text features.  They took pictures using their iPads and added text to label & explain the feature.  Talk about actively engaged!

What an amazing job!

One of my little buddies asked to make a popplet about our reading.  Can't you see kids working in groups making different presentations for the class to EXPLAIN what they researched??

Other ideas?
Retell a story in order
Main Idea & Details
Problem/Solution
Beginning/Middle/End


In math this week, we were working on place value.
How perfect it is to start with a number:

Would this make an AMAZING center activity!  No  copies..no laminating.  Roll three dice and GO!

• Create a base 10 model and snap a picture
• Write the number in expanded form
• Write the number in word form

This could also be used to show different parts to create wholes, different expressions to express a number--the number of digits will depend on your needs!

For science & social studies, students can respond in so many ways to show understanding!
Learning about animal groups?
Learning about types of rocks?
Name the group-the popples will describe the attributes

This is all fun, but it is important that the students are focused on the task.  I give my kids an easy rubric so that they stay on track.  Since this is one of those tasks that the parents DON'T see, I add two places to check off.  One is for the students--this is their promise to have double checked what is expected.

The right side is for me to do the final check.  Kids on iPads can take screen shots or you could check them off personally.  I like the chance to discuss and help them make improvements-clarify their thoughts.  When I can, that is!

Despite the fact little buddy has HORRIBLE handwriting…yes, I WILL be using some of Melissa's tips for this guy, but…He had done an AMAZING job!  Do you give your kids feedback when they do an amazing job?  I like to give them hearts.  Love hearing when they look over their papers and are excited when they earn a COVETED heart!

I'd sure love to hear how YOU use Popplet…or if you TRY it!

10 Upper Elementary Pinners to Follow

I don't know what teachers did before Pinterest! If I am being real honest, Pinterest was my primary source of professional development  during my first year of teaching! Pinterest is very visual, full of ideas, and incredibly addicting! Save yourself some time on Pinterest by following pinners that are pinning valuable ideas (not just products), pin often and pin about the grade level that you teach. Here are 10 pinners that you need to follow if you teach grades 3-6.

(Click on their logo to be directed  directly to their Pinterest page.)

Sorry about the shameless plug for my own Pinterest boards, but I really am proud of the thousands of hours that I have spent collecting the greatest ideas and blog posts! My boards just got a big facelift.

My favorite boards: iTeach Third and Classroom Tips & Ideas.

If you are not following Rachel Lynette yet, you need to follow her NOW! I'll wait.... WOW, right?!

My favorite boards: A+ Teaching Tips and Minds in Boom Guest Posts.

Kristin is a prolific pinner. If there is a great idea out there- you can find it on Kristin's boards! She clearly spends lots of time looking for great ideas to share and I appreciate that.

My favorite boards: Classroom Management & Organization and 3rd Grade Math.

Jenn must spend all day on Pinterest! Her boards are jam packed with ideas!

My favorite boards: Classroom Ideas and Upper Elementary Snapshots.

I just love how neat and organized all of Melissa's boards are! She has some unique boards too.

My favorite boards: Teaching Critical Thinking and Problem Solving and Technology & Digital Citizenship.

Ashleigh teaches 3rd grade and so her pins are always so relevant to my classroom

My favorite boards: Classroom Management & Organization and Teacher Fashion on a Teacher Salary.

Mary has a HUGE collection of pins for every topic! I like that the focus is on upper elementary and I don't have to dig through Kindergarten posts.

My favorite boards: Classroom Tips & Tricks and Classroom Organization Ideas.

Kelly has a few amazing collaborative boards. That means that she has lots of awesome teachers pinning on her boards. It leads to some fantastic ideas!

My favorite boards: Teaching Upper Elementary and Creative Classroom Pics.

Jodi from Clutter-Free Classroom has over 150 Pinterest boards! I love how she organizes her boards so that the current holiday or season is right at the top. It makes it easy to find the ideas that I need for right now.

My favorite boards: Classroom Organization and Classroom Management.

Blair Turner has sensational boards for the upper elementary teacher. I love all of the blog posts that she pins!

My favorite boards: One Community at a Time and One Anchor Chart at a Time.


Looking for even more AMAZING pinners to follow? Don't forget to follow the boards of the 10 collaborators of this blog. They are all such talented third grade teachers who share amazing ideas with others! Click HERE for links to their Pinterest boards, blogs and other social media.

Do you teach upper elementary and have a Pinterest board? Leave a link in the comments so that we can all follow you!

Using ChatterPix Kids in the Classroom

If you have an iPad in the classroom, you'll want to download this FREE app. 

Chatterpix Kids is awesome. The possibilities with this hilarious app are endless. What is it? Well. you can take a picture of anything and add a mouth and face to it to make it talk. 

 Here are some ways to use it in the classroom as an educational tool. 

1. Have kids ALWAYS write their script before creating a video. 

2. Kids can screenshot historical figures and have those figures "talk" about important points in their life. 

3. Take pictures of characters in a book and have them describe character traits. 

4. Take a picture of a county and have them describe the county. 

5. Take a picture of a item that can be measured and have the item talk about their measurements. 

I'd love to know how you decide to use this app in YOUR classroom. Leave some tips below. 

5 Tips for Students with Poor Handwriting

Every year I have at least 1 or 2 students with really poor handwriting. I’m sure you’ve experienced it too... You know , the students that like to write ONEREALLYLONGWORDWITHOUTANYSPACESINBETWEENANDINALLCAPS! How about those whose letters always seem to float off the paper like balloons. My personal favorite, are those that can’t even read their own writing, but expect you to understand it!

Well after years of struggling to read some of my students' writings, I've come up with a few tips and strategies to help my kiddos out.

Let me begin by saying that I understand that we live in a digital world where most of what we write takes place on some form of a digital device... we type rather than write nowadays. However, I still think that it's important for every child to be able to communicate effectively the old fashioned way... with a pen or pencil. So here's how to help those poor babies whose writing might look somewhat like this...

Use Graph Paper:

I like to use graph paper or grid paper for my students that have difficulty with letter sizing. I usually print out a few copies of this 1 cm graph paper to have handy whenever I neat it. I then have them practice copying the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." (This sentence uses all of the letters of the alphabet.) I tell my kids that they can only write one letter inside each box and that their letters must stay inside of the box. This activity helps them practice keeping their letters uniform.

Use Small Stickers or Stamps:

I like to use small stickers or stamps for students that like to squish their words together. To help them remember to leave space between words, I ask them to place a sticker or stamp between every word. Students love using stickers and stamps so this trick helps them remember to space correctly! As long as you don’t mind a few stickers on your students work, this trick has been a winner with my kids! They love using stickers so much, that they WANT to space their words so that they can use them.

Use Shaded Paper:

Shaded Paper, as I like to call it, (otherwise known as highlighted paper) is great to use for students that have difficulty with letter formation and don’t quite understand that some letters hang below the line and others go to the top of the line. My favorite shaded paper can be downloaded for free here. In this picture, you can see how the first time my student copies the sentence his letters are too big, however, he does MUCH better on his second attempt. Also, notice how he's using the stamp to space out his words.

Try Different Pencils:

Many times my students with poor handwriting write so hard that their pencils have absolutely NO POINT on them. The flat point not only makes their writing messy, but I also believe it’s part of the reason their letters are illegible. That’s why I like to give them mechanical pencils with different sized lead to try out. This helps make sure that my students are writing with a “sharp” point at all times. At first, your student will tend to gravitate back to their #2 pencil, since that’s what they’ve been used to writing with, a flat tipped pencil. But encourage them to keep using the mechanical pencil. At least until you start to see some improvement in their handwriting.

Use a Pencil Grip:

With some students, I’ve found that part of the problem lies with the way they like to hold their pencil. I’ve found that some of them don’t like the feel of the gritty pencil tip against their skin so they hold their pencil in all sorts of weird and uncomfortable looking ways. So with these students,  I like to introduce pencil grips. Again, there are a few different varieties out on the market so test some and  see which one your student feels most comfortable with.