This is my first year teaching grade 3. I have always taught upper elementary prior to this year, with the exception of substitute work. Ultimately I want to work with the Pre-K/Kindergarten crowd so I thought I would start moving down in grades. So far it has been absolutely wonderful!
Don't get me wrong... I loved upper elementary, and there are definitely fun things about teaching them. Certainly there is more of an emphasis on critical thinking skills which is interesting to watch children develop. Plus, you can say things with sarcasm and they get it.
That said, I have had an absolutely fabulous week! The children seem to be happy to try new things and take risks, which I hope I can continue to encourage. We did many activities and the weather has been fantastic so we went outside for gym and played Dead Ants (always a hit, but much easier to convince grade 3 children to do rather than grade 6!), and Drip, Drip, Drop.
I need to get my FOIP forms out because you have to see their faces to truly appreciate this photograph... During their free time during gym I turned around and there they were! I just had to grab a photo!
Don't get me wrong... I loved upper elementary, and there are definitely fun things about teaching them. Certainly there is more of an emphasis on critical thinking skills which is interesting to watch children develop. Plus, you can say things with sarcasm and they get it.
That said, I have had an absolutely fabulous week! The children seem to be happy to try new things and take risks, which I hope I can continue to encourage. We did many activities and the weather has been fantastic so we went outside for gym and played Dead Ants (always a hit, but much easier to convince grade 3 children to do rather than grade 6!), and Drip, Drip, Drop.
I need to get my FOIP forms out because you have to see their faces to truly appreciate this photograph... During their free time during gym I turned around and there they were! I just had to grab a photo!
We haven't gone too much academic work yet (at least not beyond the pre-assessments). We did start our patterns unit with some review of basic pattern ideas, and we started with looking at patterns as being everywhere, including music and dance like in this lovely video which we rocked out to:
They watched a video on patterns afterwards from Discovery Education, and then I let them have a free for all with the unifix blocks, saying that they had to build any pattern they wanted and once we shared it with the class, they were free to build robots or whatever (no guns allowed!).
Most students went with basic ABABAB patterns (although this lovely one matched her shirt!) but some students challenged themselves to go farther with their patterns.
From what I saw I am confident that the students are ready to be introduced to numerical patterns as well as increasing/decreasing patterns.
Another indication of this was our Math Pattern Mystery we do in the morning on the SmartBoard. The mystery was a 3, 5, 7, ?. Students recognized that it went by twos and that they were all odd numbers without any guidance.
Another indication of this was our Math Pattern Mystery we do in the morning on the SmartBoard. The mystery was a 3, 5, 7, ?. Students recognized that it went by twos and that they were all odd numbers without any guidance.
We also did an activity to prep the kids for the lunchroom. It was a craftivity pack from D Conway for $4 on Teachers Pay Teachers. I highly recommend it! The kids found it to be a lot of fun.