Teaching Heart Blog

My first summer post of hopefully many…  I want the next few posts to be super resources for you…  especially if you teach third grade.  I plan to share with you some of the things I learned and used successfully this year and will  continue to use in the new school year.  For this post, I wanted to start with how important sharing the love of reading with your students is and one wonderful resource that I used this year with great success to create readers that love to read.  I truly feel that as teachers (and parents too) that want good fluent readers, we have to help design... 

Hey…  Hope you are heading into the final quarter of the school year like I am!  I just finished state testing and I am so happy to be done with my first experience with that.  Now my fingers are crossed and prayers are going up in hopes my students scores rock! Anyhow, I wanted to share some very popular Teaching Heart resources for the end of the year… Let’s start with Mother’s Day!!!  I am making these again next year.  The cards are cute and the moms seemed to love them.  You just need some tea bags and you are set!!! This Mother’s Day card was so fun to make... 

Click here to download… 11 pages of resources to help you teach cause and effect, comparing and contrasting, and problem and solution. All in a snowman theme. Anchor charts and student themed sheets to use. (includes pictures of finished projects) Cause and Effect; Use with the story Sneezy the Snowman. Brainstorm reasons why a snowman might melt. Have students write and illustrate their own cause and effect sentences or stories on the organizer. Problem and Solution: Snowman graphic organizer can be used with any story. Snow Pals Compare and Contrast. Partner students up to interview... 

I am getting ready to take this fireplace below and make it festive and also make it go along with a George Washington Novel Study my grade level is starting when we return on Tuesday.  I created a few things to make the fireplace below come alive… It’s blank now, but hopefully I will share a finished picture soon…  I am sharing my FREE printables for you to use in the meantime. One is a multiplication wreath.  Directions are included.  My plan is to hang some of the finished ones on the fireplace and the rest somewhere else. Click here to download this multiplication wreath! Every... 

Long time no post…  I know.  Teaching the “big kids” now… well third grade seems big from my second graders!  I have been knee deep in learning yet another curriculum and another building. I have been busy…. Our team just finished a two week novel study of Frindle .  I created a packet to use during the week and it went over very well with my students and many of my team used some of the resources found in the set.  I tried to create the activities so that my students would need to go back into the text to find the answers to the questions.  Also, I created... 

A few weeks ago I blogged here about how I used a Super Improver Wall  all year in second grade last year.   Click here to read how I use the wall! This year I am teaching third and I changed my theme to frogs.  Frogs and the colors blue and green!  My Super Improver Walls and my WBT Frog Themed Rules are up in third grade and I wanted to share how they look in my classroom.  You can get both the rules and the wall here!  They are in PDF and Power Point (so you can change them to your liking). It’s hopping – right?  It’s no work for me all year.  The cards are up. ... 

Another item done on the check list…  Just printed out all the covers to my parent communication folders (take-home folders).  I am going with the FROG acronym!   Thought I would share a copy of the folder for you to use if you would like! Click here to download the free cover. I have lots of free back to school printables at this link!  Click and see!  

It has been a bit since I posted a free resource…  Actually, it has be a bit since I posted.  It has been a wild few weeks.  I am teaching third grade this year.  I wanted to send a get-to-know you type of activity home in my letters to the students.  Yes, homework before school starts… but fun homework.  I have asked them to fill in the T-shirt and either illustrate or glue a picture in the bottom section.  I also asked them to only color their illustration and not the shirt.  I also asked them not to cut the shirt.  It will be interesting to see who follows the directions. ... 

I fell in love with a classroom management system this year…  you may have heard of the Super Improver Wall?  LOVE IT and will never teach without it or Whole Brain Teaching Rules!!! Whole Brain Teaching in all is awesome and if you are looking for something to learn about this summer that will energize your classroom, Whole Brain Teaching is where it is at! I used many parts of the Whole Brain Teaching system in my classroom and the Super Improver Board is just one part of the system. I suggest you read the Whole Brain Teaching Books below. You can click on the books and go to Amazon to... 

  What a school year this was…  After this year, I think I can do anything…  I got a second grade position for the year, a day before school started. In to an elementary  classroom I went (after being out of my own second grade classroom for 12 years)…  A totally bare classroom with nothing except the district programs to use.   After about seven hours of non-stop work (luckily I have years of teacher goodies created and purchased – plus teaching second grade all those years ago came in handy as well…  my millions of boxes came out of storage) and I...