Critical Crumbs Packet 2

Wendie and I just finished our Critical Crumb Packet 2. Woo hoo! Both packet 1 and packet 2 focus on the four critical areas in math for third grade. These four areas are the "Big Ideas" taught in our grade level. These include the critical skills that need to be taught and help provide meaningful learning opportunities.

Click on the pic to try some out with your students. They are also great for high achieving second graders and fourth graders who might need some scaffolding.

Critical Thinking- What Does it Look Like?

What is critical thinking? Before I had a discussion with my students I wanted to make sure I was clear on what being a critical thinker looks like. I have to be honest -I needed to research the current expectations on being a critical thinker. After reading several articles, I found several commonalities and chose to include them in a poster to share with my students. The poster describes attributes of a critical thinker and has helped my students understand what being a critical thinker looks like and skills they need to develop. Following the poster, I shared a  T-Chart (project GLAD) to further solidify what should be seen and heard in a critically thinking classroom.

Here is one of my kiddos brainstorming during a district assessment. Amazing!

Click on the pic to download poster and T-Chart. Hope you find it useful too.

Happy New Year! Currently...

I am feeling quite pensive when writing my Currently for January. Classical music does stimulate the brain :)

 

 

This quote from Robert Brault sums up how I'm feel about creating memories and having meaningful traditions.

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

Reading To Learn Freebie

The holidays are upon us and our students are very aware of that. So instead of fighting all the talk of presents, parties, and vacation we decided to use it to our teaching advantage. Wendie and I want to share two of the activities we created for the final week of school before winter break and hope it will help you. Please visit our TPT store and download the two freebies.

Here is a sneak peek... Just click on the pic and it will direct you to our teacher store.

 and

for the Christmas Shopping Budget activity you will need some store ads" Toys R Us, Target, Walmart, and such. We wanted to create a "real world" experience.

Happy Holidays!

Indian Corn Freebie

We are in the middle of district assessments and report cards. Poor kids - what a burn out, so... we thought a nice break was in order.

Of course we connected it to learning :)  I do enjoy taking a step back and watching how my students put concepts together and find joy in our activities. If you are in need of some fall fun we wanted to share this activity with you.

There is an Indian corn nonfiction passage, art, and math.










Then, comes creating our own Indian corn.

We are not quite finished, but I though you might like to get started too.
Just click on the pic to download.

Currently in November

We made it through October, Woo Hoo! Now, I just need to start preparing for report cards and parent conferences.

I love Farley's November currently. You can get the template from Oh' Boy Fourth Grade and start posting your very own currently.

How to choose from all the yummy treats. I am a BIG sucker for anything peanut butter and chocolate. I know, who isn't? Just looking at the pic makes my mouth water. Yummo!

Pumpkin Carving

It's that time of year when teachers brave it and have their students carve pumpkins. Their are lots of educational, creative, and fun ways to make carving pumpkins meaningful to our students learning.

We thought one way is to give our students some background about pumpkins. We have included information about the history of pumpkins, pumpkin varieties, pumpkin science, and more in our Reading to Learn Pumpkins booklet.

Reading about pumpkins will hopefully allow our students to appreciate and marvel at how truly amazing pumpkins are.

You can check it out at our TPT store.