Fall/Halloween Treat Bags

So I've gathered all my materials for my treat bags for Halloween.
-Candy Corn Hand Sanitizer from Bath and Body Works
-Free Jr. Frosty Coupon from Wendys
-Monster Stickers from Carson Dellosa
-Boo Mallows from Kraft Foods
-Halloween Rice Krispy Treats and Fruit Roll Ups
-Candy Assortment

I made the cute pumpkin card with my Mini Monsters Cricut Cartridge and I stamped the inside to say Trick or Treat.

Teratoma

Teratoma... something I saw on the Discovery Health Channel once... something that is now living in my body! About two weeks ago I had been having some abdominal pain. I thought of many things that it could be... ovulation pain(do you get that? I know I do!), maybe a bladder infection(never had one), possibly even really bad gas...LOL. I went to my doctor who ran my urine and blood, all they told me was that I was still anemic, which was odd because I take two iron pills a day. After poking around in my stomach, the doctor suggested that I might have an ovarian cyst and sent me to the local ER.

Get to the ER, they run the same tests all over again and don't find anything. So they prep me for a CT scan. An hour later the doctor comes in and tells me I have a 4 inch Teratoma on my right ovary and I've had it for months! It's also one of the reasons why I still slightly anemic, I guess it's absorbing some of my blood... yikes!

They refered me to the Center for Gynecologic Oncology and I have an appointment this Monday. So I am definitely standing in the need of some prayer... I know my God is a healer! But I must admit that this is all very scary for me, I've never had any major health complications other than Hypertension and I've never had surgery before.

I'm at a new school and a new grade level and if you're anything like me, you hate missing days of school! I emailed the parents of my students and they have all been very supportive, one even offered to run errands for me and cook for me so that I can have a speedy recovery (cried when I read that one).

So that's where I've been... adjusting to my 3rd graders(who I love), bonding with my teammates (who are super and keep me laughing) and carrying around a tumor that is named Sha'Qwan Tyrone Watkins (my teammates name him)!

Teaching Map Skills

So I made these posters to post in my room to go along with my map skills unit.
Parts of a Map Posters
I also used the Community Map bulletin board set from Creative Teaching Press. I don't see it on the site but I did see the upper grades one which I will probably get for next year.

I also look forward to using the Lakeshore World Molding Kit this year. I attached a picture of the completed project from years ago.

Nonfiction File Folder Project

So this is NOT my original idea! I got this from a 4th grade teacher are my last school. After I review nonfiction text features with my third graders they will each get a file folder (I have already premade 25 file folders and divided them into 8 sections) a sheet of directions and a nonfiction book. I love the Scholastic Vocabulary Readers! I have them for all the topics and they are perfect for my lower readers. After modeling the project the students will be left alone to complete it. Here's a sample of a completed folder.

Here are the directions along with a rubric. Do you think you'll use this project with your students? I'd love to hear your feedback!

 

Apparently the project has been archived on Scribd, I have uploaded it on GoogleDocs as I cannot keep up with the requests to email the document.



Teaching Nonfiction Text Features

So this week I'm teaching my third graders about nonfiction text features. Beth Newinghams blog has been very helpful (http://blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching/2011/03/my-march-top-ten-list-nonfiction-reading-resources.html) she has a set of nonfiction text feature posters that are awesome and free!

I'm also using a flip chart from Scholastic to introduce each feature.


At the end of the week my students will begin a Nonfiction Text Feature project that I can't wait to share with you guys.

How do you go about teaching nonfiction to your students?