Spelling and Vocab packet coming soon!

For those of you who picked up my Spelling and Vocab Packet for Reading Street Units 1 - 3... I'm working on the second half of the year units and I'll post it very soon on Tpt and Teachers Notebook!                                             Here's the link to the free preview on Teachers Pay Teachers

MLK Freebie

I found this freebie at Teachers Pay Teachers.  Its by +Gina Coniglio. She has some great items she calls "brain boosters".  They seem to be easily differentiated higher order thinking on a variety of topics.  I'm going to use this one to help my class think more deeply about Dr. King's ideals  Here's the link.  Link!

TESTING, TESTING...

Busy week!  Sometimes getting to Friday feels like sliding into homeplate! Our district conducts, well actually TEACHERS conduct "universal screening" 3 times a year and 3rd grade has four tests to give.  The scores are part of our APPR this year so everyone is really looking hard at the numbers!

I don't know about you but I am worried about the quality of education coming down to those narrow skills that are easily tested.  Of course those skills should be mastered by every kid, but it seems that they are the only ones receiving focus anymore. It's sadder than sad.

Totally Unofficial Spelling Bee

We had a lot of fun today at the January 2013 Totally Unofficial SPELLING BEE.  I used all of the spelling lists the children studied in Unit 2 of Reading Street Common Core and they did really well!  The big challenge came after all of the lists were done and every word was a challenge word from the same generalizations, but much harder.  Everyone was a terrific sport and the two winners were very proud!  Here's the certificate they'll find on their desks tomorrow.

How -to Writing

This week we are working on developing a "how-to" essay.  It's our first multi-paragraph structured writing of the year. We've done stories and friendly letters, lots of individual paragraphs, etc.,but this is our first real essay.  I guess we're in the big time now.  Over the years I've tried many different planning techniques for this kind of writing activity. Some were more successful than others, but I have used the planner you see here for several years and it always works well. You can use it to develop a single paragraph or a 3-5 paragraph essay.  Click on the link to help yourself to a free copy at my Tpt store.  LINK!

Here's a strange thing:  my students this year have a much more difficult time doing subtraction with regrouping than in other years.  To help reinforce and keep practice going as I move forward, I created a winter themed subtraction activity.  Its over at  my Tpt store. Have a look!