ROLL OUT THE CARPET FOR REALISTIC FICTION

My thirdies finally, finally finished personal narrative writing....and I have to say I am really proud of those buggers.  They produced some great stuff!!  We are celebrating on Monday by sharing our stories while we sip cider and nibble cookies. 

The kids cannot wait to begin our next unit....Fiction!!  I know they are picturing aliens, spaceships, dragons and other creations from their imaginations....but we will be going with the flow and writing REALISTIC FICTION.  My lessons will be based upon the Lucy Calkin's units, and we will be reading Amelia's Road by Linda Jacobs Altman as a mentor text (along with a few other morsels of reading goodness....such as Polacco's Junkyard Wonders).

We use a writing folder to collect our drafts and revisions as we progress through the unit (rather than a writer's notebook).  I just find this easier, especially when I have to lug them home over the weekend.  I also find that my kiddos need a little more than just paper...sometimes they need the extra support of a visual worksheet or a graphic organzier to work on a writing strategy.  I have put together a collection of writing worksheets and graphic organizers to go along with this unit and I am so excited to start using them during this unit!!

 

 

 

If you are interested in seeing more....check out my TpT store!! 

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THE Best Read-Alouds

I LOVE reading to kids.  It is the highlight of my day, every day!!  The bonus of reading aloud to my class is that they really benefit from it.  It is the number one way to get kids excited about reading.  Many kids don't "get" how awesome reading is....until you read them that one, really great book that "hooks" them!! 

When I was in third grade, I had an amazing teacher, Mrs. Stubie.  I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Mrs. Stubie.  She was one of the great ones.  The best thing about Mrs. Stubie was that she read to us...every day.  It was the first teacher that I ever had that read to her students.  She read us the best, best books too....The Mouse and the Motorcycle, James and the Giant Peach, Ramona, and the list goes on.  It was because of Mrs. Stubie that I fell in love with reading.  I was hooked forever.

In addition to getting kids to love reading, reading to them shows my fledgling readers "HOW" to do it right.  It's the best modeling you can do for your kids.  Thinking outloud as you read outloud demonstrates to them exactly what readers do.

Finally, when you read a great book to your whole class, it generates the most amazing conversations and creates the most wonderful sense of excitement among your community of learners.  We get to know the characters together, laugh with them, cry with them and we get to know each other better too, through our conversations and we grow closer as a group. 

Here are a few of my favorite read alouds:


I love Kate DiCamillo....she knows how to draw the reader in and weave a great story.

Roald Dahl....he knows kids and what they like!!







I love Beverly Cleary...fond memories from my younger reading life.  Socks is such a heartwarming story.





If you haven't yet discovered Goony Bird Greene....you're in for a treat!



This is a very funny and heartwarming story.

This week we started the book Shiloh in my classroom.  I know it will spark some interesting dialogue among my students.  I found an amazing resource on TpT by Rachael Parletton (fellow blogger from The Classroom Game Nook) and I am looking forward to using it with my kiddos.  Click the link if you are interested:

What are your favorite, most beloved stories that you read to your students?  Please, please leave a comment to share....I am always on the lookout for "book candy."

Love and Peace,





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GOOSIES

Well, this is the very first post of my very first professional blog.  I don't think I have been this excited about anything for a really long time!  I am hoping that I have enough to "doodle" about to make my blog interesting to other teachers.  Now stop that!! Where is my confidence?  Did you notice how adorably cute my blog design is?  I mean, who wouldn't want to at least pop in here for a minute, right?  (BTW...thanks to the girls at Honey Bunches Blog Designs...they are awesome).

I've been teaching for awhile and I know that the key to any successful teacher is effective collaboration with other passionate educators.  That is why I am so intrigued by professional teaching blogs.  It is an exciting time in education....there has never been more communication and sharing among teachers and that is such a wonderful and amazing thing.  Yes, it creates the possibility for all of us to land "on the same page" which can only benefit our students, but when teachers reach out to other teachers, it illustrates all of the different routes we can take to make learning accessible to all of our kiddos.

I am so inspired by the Jessica Meachams and the Beth Newinghams of the teaching world and their willingness to take a risk and share what they do so the rest of us can benefit.  I pale in comparison to those "superheros" but am hoping to give back a little bit to a profession that has given me so much over the years (yeah, yeah...it's sucked a bit out of me at times too!).  So, welcome to Third Grade Doodles!!  Let's do this....(ooooh, I just got goosies)!!

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