Veterans Day

Veterans Day is a big deal at our school, as it should be. Each year we invite Veterans from the community to join us for an assembly where we honor them in different way. This year, my students created a large mural and they presented information on the history of the Star Spangled Banner.

Student-Led Portfolio Conferences

November is a time for Parent-Teacher conferences, which I must admit are not my favorite. I spend so much time trying to think of everything I need to say to a parent, organizing my ideas, gathering work samples and finding just the right way to phrase some of those difficult messages. And inevitably, the minute a parent leaves or an hour later it hits me... the one thing I forgot to tell them!

Spring is another conference, but this time around students are leading the way. Over the next few weeks I will spend time reflecting with my students, sharing in their joy of obstacles overcome and looking at what challenges still lie ahead. It is hard enough for me to organize my own thoughts, but to get students to do it and share it with their parents is even harder! The students have individualized short and long term goals, but that is just the start!

Last year, teaching third grade, there was one standard sheet that the students had to fill out for every subject area they reflected upon. While I think it was good to get the kids into the mindset of reflecting upon their own work with the same questions over and over, the drudgery of the same sheet of paper with each reflection wore some of them down. So, this year I decided to spice things up a bit and create a mix of forms for the kids to use. A few self-assessment sheets where they get to fill in smiley faces or number bubbles, some charts and lists, and then a few written responses and goal setting sheets.  We will spend the next few weeks reflecting, organizing, and preparing for conference day, when the students will take the lead and share their own assessment of their progress so far this year. I am looking forward to their thoughts, opinions and reflections!

I have tweaked a few of the sheets so that they are more generic for any other teachers who may be looking to do something similar with their own students, and I have placed them in my TpT store. Included is a long-term goal sheet, a short-term goal sheet, and a full set of printable sheets for students to use as a reflection tool for a student-led portfolio conference. Reflection sheets are a set of questions that a student can answer related to that area, and can be used in conjunction with work that they have pulled from the year. Sheets include:
*Cover Sheet
*Student Checklist
*Math Self Assessment (4th Grade Everyday Math topics up to Ch. 7)
*Math Reflection Sheet
*Reading Reflection Sheet
*Writing Reflection Sheet
*Spelling Scores Recording Sheet
*Science Reflection Sheet
*Social Studies Sheet
*Work Habits Self Assessment
*Growths and Goals Sheet
*Goal Setting (with parents) Sheet
*Special Area Reflection Sheet
*Generic Reflection Sheet

Graphic Organizers

Moving to third grade this year, I needed some different graphic organizers, and it was one of those projects I kept wanting to do, but never got around to... creating a new set of graphic organizers!  Now that school is out, it was an easy summer project to get started with! I'm sure I will add more as time goes on, but it's a good start! Click to view the file in my TpT store or in my Teachers Notebook store.

So here it is, a compilation of 22 graphic organizers, covering story writing, research, comparisons, timelines, the 5 W's and much more. Nothing fancy, but sometimes that is just what our students need to keep them from being distracted! Here are the pages included:
- 2 Story Webs
- Clock (sequencing time events)
- Story Star (5 W's)
- Character Traits (planning sheet)
- Character Planning
- Planning Sheet (audience)
- Conflict Planner
- Problem & Solution Chart
- Tic Tac Toe
- 2 Cluster Webs
- Fact & Opinion
- Timeline
- The 5 W's
- KWL
- Observation Chart
- Time and Order Chart
- Persuasion Map
- Step by Step
- Venn Diagram
- E-chart

Mapping Skills

As part of our unit on mapping, the students had to work with a partner to create a map of the first floor of our school.  They were given a rubric to help them with remembering all of the parts they needed to include on their map.  Once the maps were complete, they had to write out a specific set of directions to tell someone how to get from one location on the map to another.  We then collected and redistributed all of the maps and students got to follow their new directions using their new map.  Once they arrived at what they thought was the final destination, they wrote it on a sticky note.  Then they wrote out "A Wish and a Star" (something they are familiar with from peer editing in Writer's Workshop)... something they wish the other group had done better, and a star for something they really liked.  The groups then got their original map back, along with the feedback.  Only about half of the groups were able to find the correct destination, which the kids were shocked about!  Here are a few of the maps and directions, along with the rubric they used.

 

 

Me On A Map

We have been doing a mini unit to review maps and map skills.  The students created their own poster to show where they are on a map, including themselves, their street, town, state, country, continent and planet.  They also created a world map labeling the continents.  We took each child's picture with them pretending to hold up the world and added that to their posters.  The final products turned out nicely, and were something the kids said they wanted their parents to look at during Back to School Night.  I put the templates up as a freebie on TpT.