Rockin' Teacher Materials: Get Fluency Flowing in a Flash!

Rockin' Teacher Materials: Get Fluency Flowing in a Flash!: Help parents, help their kids with their reading fluency! Come see me to see how!

Brain Fitness

I'm a big fan of the brain

Here are some ways I teach the kids to keep their brains fit:

1. Exercise!  Get the oxygen to the brain!  We often do exercises in the classroom.
2. Eat Brain Food!  Sometimes I bring in some healthy snacks for the kids.  (probably not fish or spinach, but maybe some carrots and berries!)
3. Ease stress!  These kids certainly understand what stress it!  I often do some Yoga moves and breathing exercises with them.
4. Listen to Music!  I've got a wide variety of music to play in the classroom, from "party" music, to mellow music for concentration. 

I've listed more ideas on Brain Fitness on my blog at Elementary Matters.  Come on over and check them out!
 

How do you help your students keep their brains fit?

Updated Packs!

I did some updating this week!

Come check out what's new in these two packs!

Exemplar Read Aloud Texts for the Common Core

The Common Core breaks Literature into Three Categories:  Stories, Poems, and Informational Texts.  Here are some of the recommended Exemplar Texts for grades 2 and 3.  Click on the image to read more about each book at Amazon.

                                   

The rest of the Exemplar texts for this level can be found on my blog at Elementary Matters.

Rockin' Teacher Materials: Surprise! We are choosing THREE Winners!

Rockin' Teacher Materials: Surprise! We are choosing THREE Winners!: What a fabulous giveaway! Thanks so much to all of you who entered. Hopefully, you found some awesome blogs and TpT stores to follow.To say thanks, I've got an awesome freebie for you! Head on over to see who won and to snag your own freebie! Here's what you will get!  Hurry...TODAY ONLY!

See you there!

Election Day - Child Style

I have mixed feelings about teaching Election Day with my students.  Of course, Election Day is an important day in our country.  We are choosing our leaders.  My little second graders certainly won't "get" the Electoral College process, but they do need to understand how an election works.

However, I'm sure you'll agree, this year's election is out of control.  The ads on TV are nasty and misleading.  People are very passionate about this election, and most feel quite strongly for their own candidate and against the other candidate.  There is a lot of anger.  I just don't want to go there with the children. (I don't want to see a fight break out in my classroom!  Kids tend to be as passionate as their parents about presidential candidates!)

I have listed my plans and my freebie on my blog, Elementary Matters.  I've even found a way to connect Election Day to the Common Core!

Direction and Shape Freebie

Here's a couple of freebies I've added to my blog recently: 

The first is a poster with a little saying to remember to read the x-axis before the y.

The second is a simple game for students to name 2D shapes (a couple of my kidlets STILL have trouble with this!). 

Click on the picture to take you straight to my TpT store to download them for free. If you want to read the posts about them, here's the grid poster post and shape game post over at my blog. 

Laughter is Truly the Best Medicine

Did you realize that laughter is not only fun, but actually healthy for you?  Here are some of the benefits of laughter:

1. Laughter releases good hormones - the kind of hormones that fight the stress hormones.  We all know that children these days have a great deal of stress in their lives!  (Can we say TESTING?)
2. Laughter boosts the immune system - those same hormones that fight stress help your body fight germs!
3. It lowers the blood pressure.
4. It relaxes your muscles.
5. According to a study at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, laughter during instruction increases test stores. (I don't know anything about this study other than seeing this information in several different places including THIS link.  I want to learn more about this study!)
6. Humor can help erase negative emotions.  Seriously, how angry can you feel while laughing?

Come on over to Elementary Matters to see other reasons laughter is good for us, and see some ideas on bringing it into the classroom.

How do you bring laughter into the classroom?

Earthquakes and the Common Core

We had an earthquake here in New Hampshire last week!  I know we've had plenty of tremors in this part of the world, but this was a 4.5!  We don't typically experience this stuff!

I figured the kids would want to talk about it the next day, so I thought it would be a good excuse to use some of those "Speaking and Listening Skills" to make a plan for a Narrative.

Come on over to Elementary Matters to download this graphic organizer and see how I pulled this all together!

Spider Poetry... Halloween Time!

Looking for a quick and fun activity to fit in a little Halloweeny in your classroom?

I looove 3rd grade, but I just don't have extra time for fun crafties like I did in 1st and 2nd... so I'm sneaking them in!

You might have seen my pic on my blog last week of these:

And then we made these:

And the best part is that I'm sharing that with you for free!  You can get the directions and several pieces of spider writing paper if you want it!

Here's the link for more info... just click the picture below!  (Would you believe I actually typed "lick the picture" first?  Glad I proofread!)

Happy Tuesday!

:)
Christina