What Teaching Means to Me

To me, teaching means making an impact. I wake up excited everyday (well, almost everyday!) to get to my classroom and learn with my students. For some of them, the encouragement they hear at school is the only encouragement they will hear all day. I want to provide an environment of safety and opportunities to grow. My job is to give my students the best third grade year possible, and I work hard to make that happen!

Simply put, To Teach Is To Touch A Life Forever!

Happy Birthday to America!

Happy Fourth of July: Treats!

Here are some delicious treats while you are wishing America a Happy Birthday...


Patriotic Blueberry, Watermelon, & Feta Flag: This is a fresh, healthy treat to have on the Fourth. Kids & adults alike are going to love this snack. Find the full recipe at wenderly.com


Patriotic Toast: Toast your bread, smear with cream cheese. Create your red stripes with a strawberry jam background and banana white stripes. Finish off with blueberry stars corner. Find the recipe at tasteandtellblog.com


Patriotic Spritzer: A light, refreshing drink with real fruit! Find the recipe at apronstringsblog.com

Strawberry Blueberry Mini-Cheesecake Trifle: Perfect dessert treat on America's birthday! Find this recipe at glorioustreats.com

Fourth of July Crafts

Holidays Equal Craft Time!

Here are some fun crafts to liven up your Fourth of July decorations:

Sponge Flag: Cut up a sponge to create this patriotic piece of art. All you need is white paper, a small blue rectangle, red & white paint, scissors, and glue. Simple way to jazz up any home!


Cupcake Liner Fireworks: Make your own fireworks! Materials needed are black background paper, white cupcake liners, markers to decorate fireworks, and glitter glue.


Fourth of July Wreath: Quick, easy, and provides a knot-tying practice for kiddos! Simply cut out the middle of a paper plate, cut 8-inch strips of red, white, and blue felt, then tie the felt around the paper plate wreath.

American Flag Placemat: This one is my favorite! You will need a piece of paper towel, some red, white and blue paper, a star paper punch, scissors, glue and contact paper. Follow directions to create a placemat on a paper towel, then cover with contact paper to make it durable!

And finish the Fourth of July Craft Day with Star Pizzas! Recipe found at wilton.com

Encourage Summer Reading

Just because school is out doesn't mean reading stops!

Here are some ways to encourage your child to read over the summer:

1. Take advantage of longer daylight hours and read your child’s bedtime story outside.
2. Try some twists on your regular read-aloud program. Read only a portion of a story to your child. Stop before revealing the plot. Then have your child predict the outcome and read the remainder of the book.
3. Set aside part of each day as “drop everything and read” time. They'll be practicing their reading, and you’ll be able to have some quiet time. Or, even better, you model for them good (quiet) reading skills.
4. Plan a book swap party. Ask your child to invite four or five friends to your house. Admission: two used books that they enjoyed reading. Kids can swap their opinions about favorite books and then trade the books.
5. Play word games when you’re riding in the car. Who can think of a word that rhymes with beauty? How many other words can you think of that start with the same sound as banana?
6. Books Before Movies: Many popular children's books have become or are becoming movies. Before your child sees the movie, have them read the book version of the story. Then, discuss with them the similarities/differences and likes/dislikes.
7. Bring on the technology! If you have a Nook, Kindle, iPad, etc., allow your child to read books on it. They will love the novelty of reading a book with no pages!
8. Bring books to life! Have your child (with friends!) act out their favorite parts of a book they are reading. Go crazy with costumes and find an audience (friends, parents, siblings) to watch the drama unfold!
9. Find a reading nook. Ask your child to find one place in your home that will be their private reading space. They can go there and read in peace, not to be bothered by others.
10. Go to the local library! Most library branches have many fun activities centered on children's literature occurring over the summer.

Do you have any other tips to encourage children to read over the summer?

Follow this link to a suggested summer reading list!

Pinterest Over Summer Break

Now that we're into summer, I need to get some school creations made!

Here's my plan:
*I love this door decoration for the beginning of school! It's from The Cole Train blogger. I have a fish theme going on in my room so this works wonderfully!


*The Proud Wall: As a grade level have decided to make Proud Walls instead of having a Star of the Week. Each month we will have a prompt for which the students can bring in a photo or write-up depicting them. For example, August will be "What I did over summer break", December will be "My favorite holiday memory". It will help the students get to know one another and be a fun way to share!


*Multiplication Jenga: I will be scouring garage sales for a Jenga game! This would be a very fun way for students to practice their multiplication facts. I have also seen writing/conversation prompts written on the sides of Jenga pieces. That being said, one could have a different subject prompt on each side of the Jenga piece.


*Daily 5 Resources:

Techy Teacher and F is For First Grade


One Extra Degree

*Election 2012: I'm excited to get materials and resources together for the upcoming election!
Welcome to Room 36!

*Student Journals: Our students have composition notebooks where they keep their quick-writes, brainstorming, writing tips, and robust vocabulary definitions. These are a couple fun ways to jazz up their notebooks:
Tape a large straw to the cover of notebook to hold pencil

What's the Buzz in First

*Writing Process Organization: Everyone starts out together in the writing process, but then moves forward individually. I like this quick view of knowing who is at what step in the process!
Sister Teachers

We'll see if I get these things done! Now, back to enjoying summer break!!

Money, Math, & Make-Believe

Holy Free Resources!

Monday and Tuesday of this week were filled with a professional development workshop called Money, Math, & Make-Believe put on by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank and the University of Kansas.

We were given so many fun ideas to teach the students economic standards and math concepts! Here are some of the resources we were given:
(and ALL of them have printable lesson plans for FREE!!)

Classroom Clues: A database of over 900 children's books! You can search by book title, keyword, and/or economic concept. The database provides a brief summary of the book, what concepts it teaches, what grade level is appropriate, and lessons that go along with the book.

Kid's Econ Posters: This website provides both free and paid for resources for the classroom as well as economic songs to help with concepts.

Federal Reserve Education: This site is AMAZING! You can search a money/economic topic by title. There are also lesson plans and readers' theaters. I can't tell you how many resources they just handed out at the workshop! We loaded up out bags and even took extras for other teachers at your school.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: The Fed in St. Louis has worked to create lessons. Some are stand alone lessons while others are paired with children's literature.

If you have a Federal Reserve Bank in your area, I HIGHLY recommend checking into their professional development opportunities. The Fed Banks also provide field trips for students. It's a place to check out!