The Final Count Down

Wow! It is hard to believe the last week of school is finally here. The students have been working so incredibly hard to get everything finished before the end of the year. It took some doing but we are done, report cards are finished, and now it is time for some year end fun!

I am really excited about a couple of our year end projects. I recently discovered lap books and decided to try one out for our final Social Studies unit. There are a ton of great resources for lap books on the Home School Share website. The students had a blast creating and filling out all the little tabs, flaps, and pockets. As with most first time projects there is room for improvement but I am happy with how they turned out. Unfortunately we literally finished these in the last days of school and with all the craziness I didn't get any pictures. Stay tuned and I will be sure to take some pics of the next lap books that are created in grade 3.

Our other big year end project has been creating an ABC book entitled Welcome to Grade Three! A big thanks to Christi over at Ms. Fultz's Corner for the idea. I purchased the template from her Teacher Pay Teacher store and the students have had a blast. I had each student complete a letter of the alphabet informing new students of the important things to know about being in grade three. Before students could colour their alphabet page however I photocopied it so it had a black and white picture. Now I have a Welcome to Grade Three colouring book for each student at the beginning of the school year. My plan is to have it waiting on their desk when they arrive.

Pictures arriving soon!

It always amazes me how quickly the end of the year comes. I am sure this last week will fly by and before I know it I will be saying farewell to my current students and getting ready to start preparations for my new students. Bring on the summer!

Butterfly Life Cycles

I have been looking forward to the grade three life cycle unit all year. I got the chance to raise butterflies with my students! I am a little bit of a nature nut and love anything that has to do with being outside or learning about the world around us. Most of the students hadn't really been up close and personal with any insects (other than mosquitoes and flies) which made that much more exciting.

 It was a lot of fun to watch as they grew from caterpillar, to chrysalis, and finally to butterflies. The whole class was excited to see the changes taking place. I had never done this before and couldn't believe how much the caterpillars grew in the first week! Best of all, it was so easy to take care of them which means my students got an awesome learning experience and I didn't have to do a lot of extra work each day.

When the caterpillars arrived the students all got a butterfly journal so they could keep track of the caterpillars progress through pictures and journal entries.

Here are some examples of entries the students completed. It was a lot of fun to have the kids come into class each day and head straight for the caterpillars or butterflies to check for any changes.

 As we watched them grow we read books and did some research to make sure we understood what was happening and to help us predict what might happen next.

I love, love, love using hands on learning whenever I can and our butterfly release party was definitely hands on. The sun was shining today so we headed outside to set our butterflies free. Of course we couldn't let them go without some pictures first.

Doing this was so simple and I am so grateful to have experienced teachers around who can give me the heads up with stuff like this. I had all the kids stick their hands in a bucket of sugar water and then put their hand into the butterfly habitat.

 If they hold still it doesn't take long for one of the butterflies to come looking for a sip of the sweetness. The kids had a blast and we got some awesome pictures!

Thankfully I had some help from another teacher who knows how to handle a camera. For most of the kids this is one of the closest experiences they have had with nature and it made for a great and memorable way to say farewell to our little buddies!

Trying Something New

Welcome to Mrs. V's Grade 3s!

Recently I have been finding myself on more and more teaching blogs. I am loving the chance to explore what other teachers have been doing and learn a little bit more about how they organize and run their classrooms. The more I explored the more I wanted to be a part of sharing my experiences in teaching.

As I sit here trying to write my first post (I've been told the first is the hardest, I certainly hope so) I am sorting through what I want to include on this blog. Here's what I'm thinking:

~ All things classroom related including organization and management strategies.
~ Fun classroom ideas for activities and learning
~ Tips and strategies for new teachers
~ Book suggestions (I love anything to do with children's literature)
~ Math games and activities

I realize that starting a teaching blog in June may seem a bit odd. It is my hope that as I work on some of my summer projects I can get myself into the habit of updating my blog. Being a new teacher my list of classroom projects for the summer is pretty lengthy and includes items like reorganizing my classroom library, developing a system for tracking and assessing learning outcomes, and working on numerous Pinterest-inspired projects. I definitely work best with lists and goals so I hope to put up another post soon with some blog-related goals related to how often I want to try and add new posts. I'm excited to see how it all turns out!