Reading Refresher

I have decided to revamp the way I am doing reading with my class.  I have been all over the internet searching for things that work, good practices, and activities to try.  I saw where the fabulous Ms. Durbin has been using keyboards in her classroom as a way for her kids to 'type' their words.  I LOVED that idea and of course had to steal it :)  I went to the school's computer teacher yesterday and told her that if she happened to come across any keyboards that were broken or unusable, to send them my way.  She looked at me kind of funny and then pulled out a huge tub of keyboards she was loading up for the dump!!!  So, I am now the proud owner of several keyboards that will be used in my class to help with word work.  I have decided to use this weekend as a sort of reading pinterest party where I am making all kinds of fun things that I will use in my room.  Hopefully I can get several things made.  I'll post pics when i'm done. 

What kinds of things do you do for reading, phonics, spelling, and writing in your classroom?  I'd LOVE to hear about them!!

SALE!!!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am having a sale in my Teacher Pay Teachers Store to celebrate Valentine's Day The sale runs from February 12 - February 15th. EVERYTHING is 20% off. Please feel free to check it out by clicking the link below
Miss Kristie's Store

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine's Day

My name is Kristie Arrowood.  I teach third grade at a year round school in Marion, NC. This is my second year as a third grade teacher, after having taught 2nd for three years, and I really do love it. I would be lying if I said that it is an easy year. I would also be lying if I said it wasn't worth it. Third graders are awesome. They are loving, caring, hard working (most of the time) and just downright funny. They T-totally get my sarcasm, which is extremely useful.

We have been doing Valentine's Day rotations in my class as a way to keep the sugar rush to a minimum. I was trying to think of a way to 'engage' them while still recognizing the fact that we are on the cusp of a major chocolate invasion. So I came up with a Valentine's word sort as one of my rotations. I took a chocolate assortment heart thing (the little $1 ones) and glued the sort topic inside it. Then I cut up a bunch of hearts and wrote words on them for the kids to sort. And Voila! Instant rotation! I am so in love with how it turned out, and how much my kids loved it, that i'm thinking about using my leftover boxes from my third grade presents to make a collection of them. Think of the possibilities!!! This could be a math sort for odd/even numbers! Science sort for living/nonliving things! Ah, the joys of recycling.