Third Grade with Room Nine: Stepping out of the box...

Okay, well my last post was mostly about me, and my crazy thoughts.
But, here's what's been going on in our classroom. Besides, all the crazy test prep. :)

The title of this post is "stepping out of the box" because that's what I feel like I do.. every day. I am an innovative teacher. And, someday, as I continue to master MY craft of teaching, I will be supported in my "stepping out of the box", and truly, honestly, will find my place in the world of teaching, education, and learning. I will never be a "master" teacher, because there is always room for growth, reflection, learning, and improvement, but I can certainly continue my quest to "mastery" throughout my entire career.

So...
the last few weeks, wrapped up in a few pictures! :)

I LOVE these kiddos!!

Learning about transformations in Geometry by dancing the Cha-Cha Slide! It was so much fun to get up and move and the kids were able to really learn what a slide and turn were! :) Awesome learning!!

Making Tree Maps of 3D shapes and their attributes! :)

We reviewed facts and opinions and persuasive writing, by making an advertisement for third grade at Cartwright Elementary! :) So much fun, and we really like talking about positives!

Tree Maps classifying 2D and 3D shapes!!!

Observing seeds, and starting our sprouting seeds experiment! Will we be able to sprout seeds with only water?

Ms. Niehaus had an observation during review week- we were reviewing Multiplication properties, and facts with fact families. We had to be festive, and make fact families using properties with Pots O' Gold! :)

My Mentor, Mr. Bustamante, participated in Read Across America day, and came to read to us!

We were surprised to see how much our seeds started sprouting with just water!! Making observations throughout the process!

And.. we are really sprouting. Our bean seeds look awesome, but you can see we've got some Fungus on our other seeds. We have some questions for gardeners or scientists about the black specks on the fungus, and what causes that to happen. If there are any science people reading, help us out! :)

After observing the sprouting seeds, we were able to take a look at a bean seed, open it up and identify the three parts of a seed. It was so fun being able to see the parts instead of just naming them like we had been doing! :)

And now ... the exciting stuff. The next part of our science kit includes land snails, and beetles! WHOA! I was totally totally shocked when they showed up and completely grossed up. The beetles are still not my favorite, but the snails are growing on me. The kids love to get them out and play with them. So, even if they stink, and poop, and eat chalk, and leave slimy mucus everywhere, they have been a great distraction, and the kiddos LOVE them! :)