Goodbye August...

Where in the world has the first month of school gone? It has been flying by already. 
Room nine has been very busy learning, engaging, and getting to know each other and our classroom procedures. We are starting to get into a good groove and routine with each other, and we are having so much fun! 

We have already learned so many things about place value. Last week we focused on all the ways that we can write a number. We learned that "form" and "notation" mean the same thing in math, and that we can write a number in 4 different ways. We focused on standard form, expanded form, base ten blocks, and word form. This week, we have been focusing on comparing and ordering numbers on a number line, with base 10 blocks, and using a place value chart. We enjoyed bring back our friends, "The alligators" to help us compare numbers. (<,>) 

In reading, we have been very busy! Last week, we focused on text features of fiction stories. We talked about illustrations, and characters, and how every fiction story has a plot, or an action that the characters are doing. This week, we are learning about non-fiction text features. This has been super fun, because we are making Animal projects. We have spent some time researching an animal with nonfiction text, writing paragraphs, and now we are finishing our projects which must include headings, bold and italic print, photographs, and captions. :) 

I have started using a little bit of whole-brain teaching strategies, and the kiddos seem to be responding well. They are having fun with it. Here are some pictures of our week, and a video of our favorite math rap! :)

Don't forget to follow us on twitter: @MsNiehaus and @Thirdgraderoom9

 Trying a new classroom set-up! The kiddos are excited, so we will see how it works out! :) 

 Home-made anchor chart to help us remember those text features for non-fiction!

Kagan structure- Rally Coach 

And... the video! :) 

Our first week in Room 9

Happy Sunday!
I made it through my first three days in the classroom! :) 

I wanted to share a few of the things we created this week. The first three days were spent just getting to know each other, our expectations, and procedures, and getting to know the new school campus. We introduced some place value review and I was very pleased with how well the kiddos did. We will take our place value pre-test on Friday of this coming week. I have confidence that the kiddos will do well.

This week is our first full week of school! Monday and Tuesday are testing days for the Galileo pre-test. We also will be doing some BRI testing instead of the DRA so we can level and group our students for guided reading next week. 

I spent some time introducing Daily five to the kiddos this week. We focused mostly on "Read to Self" and they LOVED it! I am so thrilled to have a group of kiddos so interested in reading!

Our first day of tweeting! :) The kiddos LOVED It. My management of it was not very controlled and it took us WAY too long. This is going to be an on-going trial and error experiment until we get it just right. HOWEVER, I was touched to see their tweets, and hope they still love me after a few weeks! :) 

Our class declaration. I really wanted to focus on teaching the students that learning and third grade are going to be fun! We are going to try our best and that's all that I can ever ask of them! 

We read Agate as a class read aloud, and discusses adjectives that describe who we are. This was VERY difficult but I loved seeing how they described themselves. I want to keep these in a file for them, and possibly re-do the activity at the end of the year to see how their perspective changes. 

We broke down the four classroom rules together and talked about what they meant, and added words and phrases to remind us how to be responsible, respectful, safe, and how to do our best! 

My personal favorites!!! :) I can't wait to see how much they change for the last day of third grade! :) 

Happy second week of school! Have a great week!

~Sammy 

Room Nine is ready for Kiddos

It has been such a busy few days in room 9 at Cartwright Elementary School. I wanted to share a few pictures of our learning space! I think we are finally ready for some kiddos -- which is good, because they're coming tomorrow morning and they're ready for me! :) 

This is what I first walked into when I stepped foot on campus...

As you can see... I had a lot of work ahead of me...

Sorting through my personal belongings ... as well as the things that were left for me (which really wasn't much, outside of curriculum) 

And here is what we have ready for tomorrow.... FINALLY! 

Welcome to Third Grade!! :) 

Our Behavior chart is taking a new spin off the traditional red, yellow, and green clip up chart. I am a little nervous about this, but hopefully it will go smoothly! :) 

I LOVED this idea of using dry erase markers on the student desks to write personal messages to students! I wanted to try it out, and wrote motivational phrases for each of the tables for tomorrow! :) 

Guided Reading table! :) 

Teacher Corner --- I don't anticipate spending much time there. 

I sure do love those penguins! :) 

Our Helping Hands Job Chart. Not quite what I had imagined in my head when I was planning the job chart. BUT, I wanted to make sure that there were enough jobs for every student each week. This could also be an interesting aspect to our classroom. 

Back wall! The green bulletin board will be used to describe the steps of our Daily Five program. Hopefully! 

Back corner and sink. 

When you first walk in --- normally, the table bins will be on the two other shelves and students will be responsible for grabbing them every morning and putting them away at night. 

Students will check in for attendance with Popsicle sticks in a cup each morning. 

Our personally designed Kagan mats. :) 

I am so ready for this school year to start, I think.... I hope! 

Ready or not, here comes 2013-2014! Let's do this!

Oh, don't forget to follow our journey on twitter too... @ThirdGradeRoom9

Welcome to Third Grade

Happy Saturday! 
I have been busy preparing the brand NEW classroom for kiddos this week. 
I can't believe school starts on Wednesday.
Last Thursday, we had our "Meet the Teacher" curriculum night. I was so excited to meet so many happy smiling faces, and it was great to meet such great and supportive parents as well. 

I am now busy spending my last weekend before school officially starts, preparing for our first three day week. I am overwhelmed by the lesson plan requirements here in Arizona. I am so thankful for an amazing team of excellent third grade teachers to work with, and honestly feel very confident that we will work well together all school year. 

I wanted to take this time to introduce myself...
My name is Sammy Niehaus. I am 25 years old, and this is my first real classroom year. I landed a third grade position in Phoenix, Arizona. I grew up in Michigan, graduated from Eastern Michigan with a bachelors in Education and a major in Reading. I LOVE teaching. I have always known that teaching was my passion, and my calling. I just LOVE having conversations with kiddos, and watching them grow and learn in the classroom. I accepted the position the first week of June, flew out at the end of June to find an apartment, and then on July 17th, my best friend, Ashley and I took off in my completely packed Nissan Sentra and drove 2,000 miles across the country to my new home in Glendale, Arizona. We had so much fun on our adventure, and I am so lucky to have a friend who would ride with me all the way across the country. She helped me move in, celebrated the move with our first night out in downtown Phoenix, and then flew home back to Michigan that Sunday. The next day, I started new teacher orientation. It was all week long, and there are about 100 new teachers in the district this year. WHOA! Lots of people from all over the country, and even one from Canada, and I think one from Germany. There is one other new teacher at my campus, and he is also from Michigan. It was great to connect with new teachers who are in the same boat as I am, far from home and most of them all alone, like me. It is still so very weird to be here alone. My family is very close, and I miss them all so much, but I am very confident in my decision to move here and grow as a teacher, and an individual. I met my team this past week, and finally got to spend some time in my classroom Tuesday night. The school is brand new after undergoing complete renovations this summer, and the campus is beautiful.
I am so excited to decorate my classroom with a purple and blue with penguins theme! :)
I can't wait to have kiddos this week, and to kick the school year off! 

This is my first experience with blogging, and I hope to use this to keep my parents up to date throughout the school year as well. 
Comments, advice, and questions are always welcome!

Happy blogging!

~ Sammy