I'm such an absentee blogger... =(

Am I the only one who's feeling overwhelmed this school year?  I feel like lately it's all I can do to stay caught up.  When I get finally get home, get a few things picked up around the house, get supper going, and have a few minutes to chill, I get completely caught up in blog surfing.  There are so many amazing teaching bloggers out there, I wonder what teaching today would be like if we didn't have the ability to communicate with so many amazing educators all over the globe.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who can look around their classroom and see inspiration from so many different teachers out there!  I'm going to set a new goal for myself to get back to blogging more regularly, and hopefully I will reach that goal.  We have definitely been busy in our classroom.  We've been working on finishing up our unit of study on the Puritans.  Man were my third graders amazed at some of the punishments they used back in colonial times!  I have a poster I always take out during this unit that is made to look like an old historic document that shows a lot of the different punishments that were used as well as how someone could get punished that way.  Each day that it's been up on the front board I've had multiple students that love to just stand there and examine it, it's so funny!
 I FINALLY got around to taking some pictures of the Wampanoag Daily Life books that they created at the end of our unit on the Wapanoag people of Massachusetts.  They really did a nice job.  I try to always fit in an assortment of assessments, and during my science and social studies block four of my students are inclusion with intense special needs children.  These types of activities make it possible for them to participate and get so much more out of the lesson than they would if we were just reading from the textbook and answering questions on paper.  They really worked hard on them, and they were very proud of themselves. =)  Here are some highlights:

 

The pictures in the last row of the photo are from one of my special needs students.  He really did a great job demonstrating what he learned, and it would have been so much more difficult for him if he just had to take a test.  For this project they were focusing on the Wampanoag people's winter and summer homes, clothing, tools, jobs of men, jobs of women, and jobs of children, as well as foods they ate.  They all did a great job!

We have also moved into our fractions unit recently.  They are really seeming to grasp the concepts which I love, especially since I wasn't a fan of fractions when I was a kid!  There are so many great resources out there for lessons, but I wanted a little something more to add to my math workstations.  I put together a March/St. Patrick's Day themed activity pack for my students to use during their math rotations.  We're still working hard on becoming fluent with our multiplication facts, so I had to include a bump style game for them to practice with.  I also really need to increase their stamina with multi-step problem solving, so I created a board game that has twenty-four different word problems for them to work on while playing with a partner.  I've also included two different practice activities with input/output tables.  The rules are focusing on multiplication and division facts, and I just print these and slide them into page protectors for them to practice with.  I have them pass in the sheet in the protector before they wipe it clean so that I can see their work and know if they made any mistakes or are not understanding the concepts.  I included a page that I also put into a page protector that has them working on ordering numbers in order from least to greatest.  We seem to slip in some of our skills from the beginning of the year, so I want to spiral whenever possible.  Finally, I made a fraction match up where they are sorting the picture, number, and word forms of fractions.  This could also be used as a memory game it's up to you.  Here's a peak at it:

You can check it out now in my TpT shop...and if you click on the preview you'll find a little goodie ;)  Have a great weekend! 

~Heather~