One Hour of Code - Coding with Anna and Elsa

Friday my class joined the nationwide event - One Hour of Code. Things like this are a little scary for me, outside my realm of knowledge. I learned right along with them and felt just as captivated as they were. 

In this program/game/tutorial you write the code to make Anna and Elsa move, making snowflakes, passing levels as you go. http://code.org/learn 

This 1 hour trial gave me the confidence to attempt a little more in depth coding with students on scratch Ed. 

If you're on the fence with this new craze, you have to try it!!  I believe things like this are the future of education. It's important to keep up with the ever changing technology and generation. 

Try it!!

Rachel - Thrilled in Third

CHRISTMAS FREEBIE

I just LOVE the holidays!  Not just because we get some time off, but because of all the hope, excitement, anticipation that leads up to Christmas.  In the spirit of the season, I am posting this changing the price of this item to be FREE!!  It won't be free forever, so get it while you can!!  

Check out this Freebie for the Holiday season.  Students practice their math and writing skills by looking through store ads and picking out somethings for Christmas.  They list the item and price of the item.  After they have listed some items they add up the total.  Then they write a letter to Santa asking him for all or some of the items they found in the ad.   

Get it HERE!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Rachel - Thrilled in Third

Kahoot! It's a HOOT!

I have begun to check off the list of things I want to use in my classroom that I got from the TIES (technology) conference.  One of those things is Kahoot!  I have set up a couple of Kahoot! quizzes.  It is like the trivia games you might play at places like Buffalo Wild Wings.  

Students have their own device and answer a question.  They get more points for being the first ones to answer and points for getting it correct.  There is that element of competition that make for a fun quiz, exit slip, or review game.

Check it out and set up your free account today!  

Click here to set up your account.

I hope you find this useful for your room too!

Rachel

TIES Technology Conference

I always love the opportunity to learn and grow in my profession.  I had the privilege of attending a technology conference the last couple of days. I have learned SO much!

I am so excited to take back the things I have learned and use them in my classroom!  I thought I'd share with you what I have learned and hopefully you might find it useful as well.:)

Things I plan to do this month:
1.  Set up remind - https://www.remind.com. This is a way to stay in touch with your parents via text. 

2.  Add using a whiteboard app to my Christmas wish list activity. Check out these apps. How might you incorporate into your current lessons?  Educreations, explain everything, screen chomp, doodle buddy, doceri

3.  Tweeter of the day on a teacher/class twitter account

4.  Set up biblionasium for our class have students go on and set up bookshelves. Then read a book and post a review. Then they must respond to one kid in class. https://www.biblionasium.com 

4.  Put a timer on my white board for EVERYTHING!!

5.  App of the day for in class free/down time

6.  Audioboom on iPad. Have students record. Put into a QR code, place on back of book and students can scan for a listen to reading time. 

7.  Use Kahoot! for our next math review lesson. 

8.  Not technology, but a good idea, have a couple kids wear "ask me" badges. They are where student questions go while I'm with a small group. 

Before the end of the year I plan to:
1.  Teach digital citizenship using this site:  http://csedweek.org/files/CSEDrobotics.pdf 

2.  Teach my kids coding using http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu
Then do a book club project with it

3.  I movie trailers as book reviews

4.  QR code board with links to our class sites

5.  Kid Rex site for student research

6.  Tour builder for a social project...need to think more on this. 

7.  Minecraftedu. Costs some $ but is a great way for me to cover our ancient civilization standard. It puts kids in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. They have challenges or quests they work in while learning. SO COOL!


Before next school year I am going to get things prepared for:
1.  Flippity.ney
2.  Flubaroo


There's so much, it can be overwhelming sometimes, I try to start with one thing and work from there.


Good luck, if you should try any of these ideas! Some great ideas came from @mrsdelz #TIES2014

Thrilled in Third

Pop Bottle Biography Reports

I am so excited about this project!  Here is a great idea I found online and adapted to fit my 3rd graders ability.  I think they turned out AWESOME!!

You can find a link to this FREEBIE Here.

With the long winter, a project like this is something that sure takes the edge off and makes learning fun and interesting!  Hope it's useful to you!

Make it a great day!

Rachel

Multiply Multiples of 10

March has come!!  And hopefully with it, WARM weather!  I'm in the Midwest and am VERY tired of the COLD days!!  Here is something I threw together to help my students with Multiplying Multiples of 10.  Since we definitely have cabin fever, I added in some movement with this activity.  Students do things like crab walk to the next task card, or do 5 squats before moving on.

Go HERE to check this FREEBIE out!  It won't be free for long!

I hope your staying warm in this weather and let's hope with a little Irish Luck, warm weather will be soon approaching!  :)

Check out some other great ideas at - https://www.facebook.com/ThrilledtobeinThird  

Make today a GREAT day!

Rachel

Daily 5 accountability

If you are like me, you love the concept behind Daily 5.  And although they lay it out really well, and in theory it should work, I still have those students who do not remained focused during Daily 5 times.  I decided I needed to keep them accountable for that time. 

Here is my sample schedule: 

8:25-8:50 - Small Group (1st D5 session) 

8:50 - 9:10 - Whole Group - Reading Mini lesson 

9:10-9:30 - Writing mini lesson  

9:30-9:50 - Small Group (2nd D5 session) 

9:50-10:10 - Spelling (word work) mini lesson 

10:10-10:30 - Small Group (3rd D5 session)

I came up with a packet that lays out our schedule for each day of the week, what I want each group to do (I choose for them - I've done it where I let them choose as well), and "artifact" sheets for the various D5 options.  Check it out here!

Hope you found this helpful!

Rachel

5-point scale FREEBIE!!

Have you heard of the 5-point scale?  This is a great system to have in place for not only your special ed students, but all students.  This is a way for students to self check through out the day, or for teachers to remind students of behavior without having to say anything.  The following freebie is a way for students and teachers to track color changes throughout the week.  You can download this freebie HERE!

Rachel

Olympics are Coming!!

I love the Olympic Games!  I love watching the ice skating, bobsled, luge, and skiing.  As I was thinking about how excited I am to watch the games, I thought I would love to include my students in that fun!!  Students can learn about other countries, the history of the games, sportsmanship, etc.

Here is a great pack that gets students engaged in their own Olympic challenges as well as being aware of what happens this year in Sochi!  :)

Have students work at earning their own Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals during the Olympics by completing, reading, math, writing, and other challenges.  You can find this pack HERE.

If you use this pack, let me know what you think!

Rachel

Thrilled in Third

Not a Snow Day, but a COLD DAY!!

You know it's cold when the Gov. shuts down schools across your state!  I am sitting here with 2 shirts, jeans, 2 socks, slippers and a blanket on and I am still chilly in this -50 degree weather.  It makes for a good day to get some school work done though!

I start working on our multiplication facts right after Christmas.  Each day we take a test.  I give them 3 minutes for 40 problems.  It gets to feel a little tedious, and the students start to lose motivation.  When my husband taught 3rd grade he did the banana split incentive with his class.  I started doing it and added a few details, such as the poster and my own tests.  Today I worked at compiling it all.

I finished a multiplication incentive pack that I have posted on TPT.  For the next 24 hours it will be 20% off!!  

It includes timed tests for 0-12 facts and an incentive program to use through out the process.  Students are working toward earning all the fixin's for a banana split sundae.  On the last day of school we celebrate and they get their banana split with whatever toppings they have earned.

I guess the cold weather, prompted a chilly treat thought!  :)  I hope you are staying warm this winter, and now we have something to look forward to at the end of the year.  A CHILLY treat!!  :)

Rachel

Thrilled in Third