Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

 It is essential to establish and warm and caring classroom environment these first few weeks of school. I try do that in several different ways, one of which includes Bucket-Filling. The idea of this comes from the Bucket Fillers website and this book that explains it all in the simplest of words and illustrations:

The concept is simple: we all carry invisible buckets with us everywhere we go. When people are kind to us, our buckets get filled, and it makes us happy. When people are unkind, they have dipped into our buckets, which makes us feel sad or upset. To make this idea more tangible, each student has decorated their own individual bucket. In the blue bucket (below), I keep little slips of paper that read "I would like to fill ________'s bucket by saying __________________. From _______"

I have noticed students slipping these little papers into other students' buckets during transition times or if they have a moment after completing their work. It never interferes with instruction or other academic times, as student understand what the appropriate times are for filling the actual buckets. On Friday afternoons, I allow students to check their buckets and read their slips. They can't wait for this moment! I saw many smiles today as students read the kind words from their fellow classmates. I encourage students to fill not only the buckets of their best friends, but of students they don't know that well. What better way to make a friend?

I reinforce bucket-filling by incorporating a number of books into my shared reading time during Reader's Workshop. We discuss themes common to the books - kindness, courage, perseverance, and acceptance. Many of the characters in these books share these traits and are bucket-fillers because of the good choices they make. On the flip side, we also get to see what happens when people make poor choices and dip into other people's buckets. These books include:

 

I think using the concept of bucket-filling has really helped my students see themselves as part of a family or team, rather than individuals functioning alone in the classroom. The key is to make sure bucket-filling endures, and is not a beginning of the year thing or one of those ideas that fizzles out after the first month. I hope to do this by continuing to discuss kindness and teamwork and bucket-filling language within the context of the literature that I read to my students. In addition, I plan to fill my students' buckets from time to time, especially if I notice students who have empty buckets.

Check out Marygold College's blog to find out how other teachers across the country have implemented this fabulous program!

Welcome to Third Grade!

WELCOME TO THE THIRD GRADE TEAM!

The first week of third grade has come and gone quickly!  I hope your child enjoyed their week as much I did.  

FIRST DAY PACKETS

Your child brought home a colored file folder and a red and white First Day Packet (if you did not pick this up at Meet the Teacher) inside their red folder today.  It is filled with a plethora of items requiring your attention.  

Please sign and return:

* the emergency dismissal card

*the paper-clipped items in the colored file folder

* any PTA forms - membership, purchasing T-shirts, etc.

* SERVE forms - if you plan to volunteer or chaperone any field trips

* Supply donations

* Free/reduced lunch forms - if applicable

* the detention letter

* the Internet/video/picture permission form

* the lunchroom rules

* the attendance policy

Thanks for your prompt attention to these matters.  Thank you to most families who've turned in ALL papers!

SNACK

I feel certain that many of the children will be hungry before lunchtime in the coming days.  It takes a while to readjust to a school schedule.  Our lunch time is from 12:08-12:38, and I imagine that I will need to nibble on a small, healthy snack myself mid-morning. Please tuck a small, healthy snack in your child's backpack if you'd like. Thanks!

HOMEWORK

• Parents: :) Please turn in completed forms as soon as possible.  We've asked that you take some time to write to us about your child--be sure it's "In a Million Words or Less"...check the assignment for more details.  (It came home in a manila folder and is due on August 31st. Thank you to those parents who have already completed this assignment!)
  
  

BOXTOPS FOR EDUCATION

Please send in Boxtops for Education anytime.  Hopefully, you've been saving them all summer long.  We have a Box Tops collection box in the room for them.

SUPPLY LIST

Thank you to all of those who've sent in all their supplies! We have plenty of paper towels, baggies and hand sanitizer! You guys rock! :)

Here is a suggested supply list for third grade:

• Scissors

• Plastic pocket folders with center clasp (one of each: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, and purple)

• 24 pencils (no mechanical)

• 24 pencil top erasers
• Box of markers, colored pencils, crayons

• Highlighter

• Glue sticks – 3 total

• Four composition books

• Pencil box or pouch

• Wide-ruled notebook paper

COMMUNICATIONS FOLDER

Each night your child will bring home their "Communications Folder." which contains everything to help keep them stay organized. This red 3-pronged folder houses our weekly newsletter, homework, and other important information that assists with communication between home and school. They should be taken home and returned to school DAILY. We will begin using our Communications Folders as soon as possible.

EARLY RELEASE DAYS

This year Early Release Days will take place EVERY Monday. On Early Release Mondays, students eat lunch at school and are dismissed at 1:15pm, instead of 2:15pm. 

MYSTERY READERS
Third graders love when their parents come in to read! I have plenty of Fridays available for you to come in as a Mystery Reader. Please email me with dates that you would like to read, and I will check the schedule and confirm with you.  

PICTURES

I love documenting our "practices" and events throughout the year and because I want you to see what goes on in Room 123 (and around Gorrie), I post photographs weekly on our classroom blog, and I sent home a form last week requesting your permission to post these photo on-line. I encourage you to check often to see new pictures! You can even share with relatives that may not live here in Tampa, but still want to keep up-to-date on the happenings of your little super star! :)

COMMUNICATION

Communication is important. Feel free to contact me when you have a question, comment, or concern. You can reach me by email at heather.robinson@sdhc.k12.fl.us or write me a note on the Communications Log in the Communications Folder.

SUGGESTIONS??

Would you like to see something on the class site?  Email me at heather.robinson@sdhc.k12.fl.us with your suggestions.  I love suggestions!

Mrs. Robinson 

Meaningful First Week Activities

The first week of school generally consists of getting to know one another, in addition to discussion and practice of classroom procedures and routines. We also got our creative juices flowing by creating summer reflection writing pieces, squiggle stories, and "All About Me" mini-posters. Students are getting to know one another and me, and we are learning to work together to build a successful and positive classroom environment.

On Wednesday, I wrote out six questions, all having to do with how to make our classroom and ourselves function to the highest level, on six pieces of chart paper. Students, in groups of three, spent two minutes at each chart, collaborating and responding to each question on a sticky note. After all groups visited each chart paper station, I hung all of the charts up and we discussed each answer and noticed some very interesting trends. Here's the finished product, which you can click on to enlarge:

Inspired by Life in 4B

To tie into the previous activity, I was inspired by my wonderful teammates, Mrs. Fadden and Ms. Mattox, to develop at class pledge with my students. We reviewed our responses to the above questions, and then we put all of the ideas together to form a cohesive paragraph that we have all agreed will help us to remember why we are here at school and what our common goal is. Below is the rough draft of our class pledge (which I will type up, make pretty, and have all of my students sign):

Since we were able to develop a class goal (to achieve success in third grade), I also had each student determine an individual goal after reading the story Matthew's Dream by Leo Lionni. I displayed our "Hopes and Dreams" for third grade near the classroom door, so that we can refer to, and revisit, them throughout the year. Lots of students are interested in learning how to sharpen their cursive skills, multiplication and division skills. I was very impressed by the number of students ready to take on our 40 book challenge! More on that later! Here's our class display of our hopes and dreams for third grade:

Lastly, I read a book called Have You Filled a Bucket Today? The premise is that everyone carries an invisible bucket everywhere they go. When your bucket is "filled" you feel happy.When your bucket is "empty" you feel sad or upset. People can fill buckets by lending a helping hand, smiling, being kind, including others in games, and more. People can empty buckets by teasing, being ungrateful, acting disrespectfully, and more. I encourage my students to recognize the actions of bucket-fillers by writing them quick note and sticking it in their bucket display. This helps make everyone feel good. When we feel good, we want others to feel good. Therefore, kindess is passed from person to person. This is our bucket-filling display, complete with ways we can fill buckets and ways we can empty buckets:

I look forward to more of these types of meaningful activities that promote teamwork, kindness, and achievement with your child!

Meet the Teacher Day: Success!

It was so wonderful meeting my new third grade students and parents today. I was also happy to see so many of my former students and their parents stopping by for a quick hello! I hope my students enjoyed picking out their seats for the first day of school. Since some students have a little bit of anxiety about being in a new grade with a new teacher and new classmates, I thought giving them a little ownership over where they sit would help ease those nervous feelings. Now, whether those new seats will last beyond the first day may be another story once I see the group dynamics!  : )

On every student's desk was the Gorrie First Day Packet (folder). I gave it out in advance so that parents aren't swamped on the actual first day of school, as I plan to send home my own little packet of parent paperwork on Tuesday. I promise that the papers will ease up after the first week! Oh, and there's a little friendly competition between the teachers to have all emergency cards completed, signed, and returned to school first, so please get that emergency card to me as soon as possible! Thank you for your cooperation!

Enjoy the last weekend of summer vacation!

Countdown to the First Day!

Thanks so much for stopping by our classroom blog! Only a few more days until the official start to the 2011-2012 school year! I have been working very hard to get the classroom ready for my new third graders! I hope to use this blog as a tool to communicate our studies, achievements, homework assignments, important dates, etc. to students, family, and friends. I plan to update this site on a regular basis by posting pictures of what the students are working on (with parent permission, of course) and what is going on in our classroom. I look forward to meeting my new friends on Meet The Teacher Day, which is this Friday, August 19th, 2011 immediately following the Info Fair from 12:30-2:00pm. If you would like to bring your school supplies on Meet the Teacher Day, please feel free. It might help to alleviate that first day of school stress. Please take a look around our class blog to learn a little bit more about me and the things we'll be doing this year. You can subscribe to this blog via Google Reader (one of my new favorite tools!), or you can even get new posts sent directly to your email. Hope to see you on Friday!

How I'm Spending Summer Vacation

Another fabulous third grade teacher, Jodi from Clutter-Free Classroom, is doing a fun little writing "assignment" this week, in which bloggers are responding to a topic she posts (kind of like those 45 minute timed writes we give monthly to our students!). Hope this gives you a tiny peek into my world! I'm going to include photos, just because I like to add a little flair.

Before summer vacation started, I made a list, with Ben's help (he's my almost six year old son), of a bunch of places to go and things to do. Otherwise, we would spend way too much time watching TV in our PJs. So, the first thing we ended up doing was making dino eggs. Ben loved it!

We've visited our local parks (but ugh....it's sooo hot!):

We've spent time at the beach with buddies:

Ben has started tennis lessons, and he is actually getting pretty good!

We've had fun at the Children's Museum with friends:

My husband and I went to the NASCAR Coke Zero 400 in Daytona:

We set off fireworks for July 4th:

Ben and Eva both took swimming lessons:

We went to the "Twilight Swim" at our local pool and Ben was not afraid of the high dive:

We've done "science experiments":

We went to the aquarium:

And we went to the zoo:

This week is going to be pretty low-key, and I have a couple trainings next week (I try not to do too many out of the house trainings - three this summer, but I do a TON of professional reading over the summer). I am hoping to get into my classroom next week to get a little head start on getting things ready for the new year. The week before teachers go back to school, we are taking a mini-vacation over to Disney. We're only planning to do one theme park and then hang out at the hotel for a day to relax and enjoy the last little bit of summer.

Hope everyone else is having a fabulous vacation!

Parent Involvement

I am very fortunate to teach at a school in which parent involvement is high, teachers are respected and supported, and education is valued. Home-school communication is one aspect of management that I pride myself on, as I make myself quite accessible to my parents. My parents, students, and myself are (usually) all on the same page, and I think that has a lot to do with the routines I establish early in the school year. Here are some of the things I do to make sure we're all "in the know":

1. Monday Planners - On Monday mornings, I have my students fill in their weekly planner. They copy down the skills/strategies we'll be working on, homework, spelling/vocabulary words, upcoming tests and events. They take their planners home every Monday to get signed by a parent (due Tuesday).

2. Weekly Newsletters - Last year, all my parents had internet access, so I was able to email my weekly newsletter. On the newsletter, I explicitly report what students should be learning in every subject area, and often give suggestions on how parents can assist their children at home. Of course, the normal stuff, like important dates, weekly words, thank yous, etc are also found on the newsletter. Only very rarely did I have parents say they didn't know about this or that. My reply was usually, "Yes, it was indicated on the newsletter dated ..." Check out some examples of my Weekly Newsletters on the, um, Weekly Newsletters page.

3. BEE Books - I put together BEE (Bring Everything Everyday) Books last year for all of my students, which contained a ton of much needed information in plastic page protectors. Let's see...there was a class contact list, money pouch, ABCs of 3rd grade, Homework Directions Sheet, Frequently Misspelled Word list, and a bunch of other resources. It also contained the...

4. Monthly Behavior Calendar -  It looks like a regular old calendar, but in every Friday box, there's a spot for Parent Initials. I would jot a note when a student didn't turn in HW, didn't complete class work, had a behavior issue, etc.The behavior calendar was expected to be signed and returned to school every Monday. Click HERE to see the Monthly Behavior Calendars for 2010-2011. I'll post the ones for 2011-2012 when I get around to making them!  : )

5. This Blog - I started this blog last year, and I was good about updating it at the beginning of the year, but not so much towards the middle. Part of the problem was that I wasn't able to access blogger at school. I would like to do better this year!

6. Mystery Readers -  It is very rare that we don't have a parent come in to read to the class every Friday. The kids love it, the parents love it, and hey, so do I! It's fun to hear a voice other than mine doing read alouds.

7. Open House - I work on a fabulous team, and we put on an awesome open house presentation in September. I think parents walk away feeling confident that their child is in our capable hands! Heehee.

I also email my parents frequently as things come up, send home study guides for tests, and generally do my best to be proactive, instead of being reactive. I hate being behind the 8-ball!