Welcome to Third Grade

It's hard to believe but we are one week in to our new school year!  We've already been hard at work getting to know one another and learning what life as a third grader looks like.  I'm so excited to get this school year underway.

Here are some of the highlights:

Mr. Lumb came to visit both third grades!  It's become quite the tradition for him to come and read Mr. Tanen's Ties to us.  We loved getting to spend some time being silly with our principal!

Is your favorite color pink?  Did you ride on a plane?  Our second day included a scavenger hunt to get to know one another's interests and hobbies.  

 We made it to the Third Day in Third Grade!  Our day was all about the number 3.  We read stories, played math games, and did writing all based on that wonderful number.

 Of course we had to have some time on the playground too!  Playing basketball is taken very seriously in third grade.

Feel free to leave us a comment.  Be on the lookout for a guest blogger and photographer this week.  Happy Learning!

Bookmarks!

My students worked on bookmarks to present to first graders.  We are so proud of our first grade panthers who are working so hard to become better readers.  My third graders love seeing their first grade friends travel to the library carrying along their treasured bookmark.  It's the gift that keeps on giving!

Flowers of Kindness: RAK #s 15, 16, and 17

While we used the same idea, we completed 3 Random Acts of Kindness. Students were given 6 flower petals where they wrote 6 compliments for several different important people in our school.

The flowers turned out so cute and bright! 

Miss Heather is our Student Support Monitor.  She is a vital part of our school community.  My students love her and they wanted her to get some flowers.  Miss Heather was given 20 flowers for a total of 120 reasons she's awesome.  We love her!  Miss Heather put her flowers in a vase and my kids love seeing their RAK on display.

For RAK #16, students presented compliment flowers to our school nurse.  She of course was grinning from ear to ear, but I think my students might have loved giving them more!

RAK #17, students worked on flowers for our marvelous secretaries.  These flowers will be presented to them later for Secretaries Day.  It's not completely random, but we're going to count it :)

You've Been RAKed #14

Students created tickets to put on the cars in the parking lot.  Several students wrote, "You've been issued a ticket...for being AWESOME!"

I heard from several staff members that it made their trip home a little more exciting.  Always remember that small things can make a huge impact!

Lucky #13!

We are officially half way to our goal of 26 Random Acts of Kindness... not done by Spring Break, but we get points for trying right?

State testing got kicked off for us today.  On Friday though, students worked to create "lifesaver" signs for teachers and staff who are directly involved with helping us Rock this Test!

On one side, students made a decorated sign with the adult's name on it.  On the other, they wrote a note describing why that person was a lifesaver.  We of course threw in some lifesaver candies too :)  Something quick to show our school how thankful we are.  It wasn't completely random, but it was super easy, yet meaningful.

My kids always end up having the best time when we go on our "RAK" missions.  Share with us about your Random Acts of Kindness!

You've Been R.A.K.ed #12!

Each week at my school, we have a Friday Celebration.  During this time, our students are celebrated in front of the entire school.  It's a great to time to see all the great things that our kids are up to.  I definitely leave each week being proud to be a panther!  ROAR!!

This week, my students decided to bring their R.A.K. project to the celebration and help give the assembly a kick start.  They made two lines and welcomed  all (well almost) the students and staff into the gathering.  I loved seeing how excited everyone was as they came in.  One student even said, "Hey, thanks for cheering me up!"  The project is working and making an impact.  Have you started doing Random Acts of Kindness?  If not, I challenge you to do so!

Sorry the picture's so blurry!  I had to get in on the high five action too :)

You've Been R.A.K.ed #9, 10, & 11!

Sorry that I haven't been keeping up with the blog.  We have had several busy weeks in third grade!  State testing is swiftly approaching and we have been working so hard to get ready.  One thing that we've done is take a few reading tests.  My students take these tests each quarter.  This time we graphed our growth between 2nd and 3rd quarters.  Then, we brainstormed "rewards" for meeting different benchmarks of growth.  This is quite a proud moment for me.  For two of the benchmarks, my students wanted extra R.A.K time! Check out the awesome growth!!

 

R.A.K. #9

Parent Teacher Conferences were held recently and my kiddos decided it was time that we prepared a RAK for our favorite people!  Students prepared S'More kits for both of their parents.  They even included a sweet note thanking them for coming and being so awesome!

R.A.K. #10

Students decided that we needed to share how awesome we thought our school support staff is. They do so much to help teachers and students be the best they can be.  We are very blessed!!

R.A.K. #11

At our school, we have three ladies who work very hard to help support reading growth.  Several of my students work with them daily in tutoring.  Their classrooms are in the modular, and with it being winter, running in and out of the school is very cold!  To show them how much we appreciate them, we made them homemade hot cocoa mix and cookies to warm them up!

 Be on the lookout for more R.A.Ks!!!  We're loving it!