Hi Everyone, I am a new teacher and was recently hired to teach 3rd grade! All of my experience is with kindergarten and first grade. Does anyone have any great ideas for 3rd grade? Decorating, classroom management, lesson/unit plans, classroom layout, etc. I am sure I am not the only one who is asking this question, so please share your great ideas! Thanks! :thumb:
Welcome to third grade! THis will be my second year teaching third but last year I looped up, so this will be a fresh start for me. One thing I liked last year was that I used "book boxes" from ikea that were like $2.50 to store journals, individual readers (20min a day), and weekly checklists. I also had a mailbox for each student for papers that need to go home, we had weekly homework, the students turned in their work to an individual folder inside of their group box.Hope this helps
Oh gosh, welcome to third grade! I've taught this grade for 9 years, with 3 years in 4th grade. I am going to use the behavior clipchart for management this year. Our school is going to a binder system to help students become more responsible for themselves. It will have behavior sheet, assignment planner, AR tests, they will graph AR test results, mid-quarter grades with reflections, lots of goal setting opportunities for the students....and more. I am in search of some read alouds myself, because that is one thing they need but I always run out of time for. I am GOING to make it a priority this year. I am also looking for something for book boxes so that they can keep AR books and leveled readers organized. I am working on getting better math centers since I'm not very good with those, either! I am finally this year making the break from fluffy, cutesy bulletin boards to those that only pertain to content. I will probably make a CAFE board this year, since I am going to try to incorporate a modified daily 5 into my day. I am prepared to make lots of anchor charts, those are great for the kids to remember what you've done in class.
Do you have a Smart Board? My 3rd graders looooooved Brainpopjr.com. If you can afford a membership, it really livened up the year for me. When I have more time I'll add more tips, but I gotta hit the road right now.
I too am a new teacher and was hired to teach 3rd grade this fall! My experience has been with first and fifth grade, so this is right in the middle of the road for me! I have a couple of questions too! 1. Has anyone used The Daily 5 with this grade? How successful has it been? 2. What kinds of classroom themes aren't too babyish? (I am thinking of doing a board games theme...I saw a cool pin on Pinterest with a Homeworkopoly bulletin board).
I'm new to 3rd, I have been teaching 6th for the past 3 years. So far, I have small display next to the clock with other clocks that says "what time is...lunch, recess, etc." I'm also making a job chart and other than that anything else on the walls will be content related. Oh, and as another poster advised, I bought those "book boxes" from Ikea last week. I got 5 for $2.99, they are plain so I thought I'd have the students personalize them the first week of school. Again, new to 3rd...open to suggestions.
Welcome to 3rd! It's such fun. I have tons of ideas and pictures from my classroom on my blog, www.CFClassroom.com. This will be my 6th year in 3rd.
Thanks!! Here is what I have come up with so far... (PS- I am a Disney fan, so some of my ideas incorporate Disney) 1. Job Chart Bulletin Board: I am going to do a Tomorrowland, Space theme. I bought some Planets on card stock and those will be the individual jobs. I found a rocketship printable (similar to the Space Mountain Ride Vehicle) for each student's name. 2. Outside bulletin board by my door: I bought some hot air balloon cut outs for each student. It will say "Soarin' to tower: We are ready for 3rd Grade!" 3. I will have a calendar area with a weather station 4. I plan on having a reading corner in my classroom. There is a bulletin board in that corner. I thought about doing a book review board in the back with Cinderella's Castle in the middle. I will write book reviews and I can have the students do that as well. 5. Star of the Week- I will choose one student a week to be the Star of the Week. They can bring in photos and write descriptions about them, and answer questions. Please share opinions or any other ideas! Thanks!
I'm new to 3rd as well. Here are some things I'm doing: Our schedule is created for us, and there is no time for a morning meeting, which I was really disappointed about. However, I'm stealing an idea from another teacher I met an orientation: When doing attendance, she asks a question each day that the students respond to rather than just saying "here." So for example, she might say, "Tell me your favorite food" or something like that. I thought it was a great idea to incorporate at least some ideas of the morning meeting in a very short time period. I'm also going to do the "bathroom sticks" for restroom breaks so that students aren't constantly asking to go. They get two sticks a day to use whenever they need to go, so they need to plan to only use two. I heard an idea from another teacher about having a green/red sign for "good time to use the bathroom" and "emergencies only" which I thought about doing as well, but I might just go over this with them instead as I think it's pretty straight forward (if I'm talking to the whole group, not a good time, if you're working on something on your own, good time). For homework, I'm doing reward charts where they can add a sticker each day that they bring it back. As I wrote in another thread, I'm still working on what/if there will be a consequence for not doing it, and I suspect my school will have a policy anyway. I'm going to have a job chart with tasks for each student to do- some of them might be during the day (pass out papers, pass out mail, etc.) while some might be end of the day clean up jobs. My rules are going to be "respect others, respect yourself, and respect property." On the first day we'll talk about what this means as a class more specifically. As I also posted in another thread, I am still working on the behavior system part. I almost don't really want to have a specific system (flip cards, stoplight, etc.) but I know every teacher in my building has one. I'm also not sure what the schoolwide policy is yet. We start meeting as a school with our principal next week, so I'm sure I'll find out more information about the school policies then. She's a new P, so even the current employees weren't able to really tell me anything. I would suggest that before you really solidify things like hw, behavior policies, or schedule, you find out what the requirements of your building are.
One thing that really helps me with paper management is to number my students. When they put their names on their papers, they must also put the number on there. It really helps if one is missing, and I find it faster to record grades when they are in the correct sequence. Another tip - the custodial staff and secretarial staff can make your life so much smoother - make friends, be respectful of their time and demands placed on them, and they will do the same for you.
I am trying the Daily 5 this year; board games would be a great theme! I have always wanted to use the 6-piece Trivial Pursuit pie for 6 Traits of Writing.
I found a great pin on Pinterest for attendance. I'll post pictures when I get mine done. It's titled, "How Do We Go Home?" The person took paper plates and decorated them. At our school, you can be a car rider, walker or bus rider, so I used a paper plate for each "category" and the "How Do We Go Home?" title. I'm going to have each student move their clip from the "How Do We Go Home?" paper plate to their proper plate. Also, they have to put their clip on either the right side for hot lunch, and left side for cold lunch. I'll have an attendance helper to remind everyone in the morning. Those clips that are left, are absent for the day! Hopefully this works!
