Oh my! Look at the words my grade 3 decoding group came up with when given the letters AR! The goal of the game is to come up with a three syllable word containing that sound. Amazing!

First student to add their reading goals to the "Grow a Reader Tree." Looking forward to a tree full of fall foliage and goals to be better readers!

The goal tree is full! Students' reading goals for the year are complete! Looking forward to working on each and every one of them!

A student is doing some deep thinking about a new book we are reading. With only a few paragraphs he figured out something important about the character!

Students working in partners to find sentences in a readers theater that create mental images. They had fun creating a drawing demonstrating their thinking.

Third grade students are proud of their non-fiction reports about snakes. Each student became an expert about one of the the sub-topics and practiced their information writing skills. A creepy topic, but fun anyway.

Teaching with metaphor. Using the dream catcher to explain main idea and details to help students read unfamiliar non-fiction text. The important ideas flow through and the small details get trapped in the web.

Using visualizing in non-fiction to help us understand why a leaf-cutter ant is important in the rainforest. We went from muddy understanding to crystal clear! It was an ah-ha moment for my struggling readers.

What a wonderful presentation with author Dana Meachen Rau. The third graders got to see the whole writing process from beginning to end, and even got to dress up like Marie Antoinette, a King and a peasant.

Author Dana Meachen Rau shows students how long an intial draft is for one of her Who Was...Biography Series.

"Independence Day" for my grade 3 reading group. Students practicing reading a mystery chapter book on their own, looking for clues.

After finishing a unit on reaching the top of Mt. Everest, I had my students go on a learning tour to show them all the things we did to help them read the book. We then discussed the most interesting thing they learned. youtube.com/watch?v=NlzoXh…

I just entered to win the Prestwick House #BacktoSchool Giveaway! 🎁 You can #PlanAheadWithPrestwickHouse and enter at the link below. #TeacherResources prestwickhouse.com/blog/post/2019…

I just downloaded FREE printable planner sheets from Prestwick House! 📝 #PlanAheadWithPrestwickHouse and get your own at the link below! #TeacherResources prestwickhouse.com/blog/post/2019…

I love love this!

Encore...

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Creating a power thinking outline to determine main idea and supporting details. "It's difficult to walk in the jungle on the way to Mt. Everest for many reasons."

Questions and Categories. Wondering about being the first people to climb Mt. Everest and then sorting questions into main ideas. It makes unpacking an unfamiliar informational text so much easier to read and remember!