Third Grade Math Sorting Activity

This sorting activity is a fun way to practice math skills towards mastery.  The students are able to work alone or with other students to practice math standards.

Click on the product  below to get access to this resource.

Number Operations: Algebraic Thinking

Number Operations: Base Ten

Number Operations: Fractions

Measurement and Data

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Calendar Math

In third grade there are so many standards that needs to be met by the end of the school year particularly in Math.

I have found that daily review of the math standards has been beneficial to my students in mastering 3rd Grade Math Standards.

This is how I have displayed the cards that I chose to review in my classroom.

This resource can be used as a daily review on specific standards.

Each poster can be printed on card stock and placed in a page protector, or it can be laminated for use with expo markers . These posters can also be used with the other standards posters as spiral review of all the standards during morning meeting.

Click on the link below if you would like to use these in your classroom.

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Organize students in cooperative learning teams 

I organize my students heterogeneously.  The teams are grouped according to achievement levels. 

Place headers over each group

I printed a copy of an owl on card stock paper and cut it out. Next, I punched a hole on top of the card stock and placed yarn through it and hung it from the ceiling over each group.  

You can download headers for free here:

Place clothespins onto group headers 

I purchased clothespins from the dollar store and jazzed it up a little with paint and glitter.  I chose two different colors for different rewards.  The green pin is given for working cooperatively together.  The yellow pin is given when students do exceptionally well on a specific task.  

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Bat Themed Activity:

This activity incorporates sequencing, vocabulary and Main Idea and Details.
After reading Bat Loves the Night, I gave my students a list of words to include in their writing activity.  They had to use transition words to tell what happens to a bat when it wakes up.  This was a lot of fun as they sat with other students to come up with ideas to include the vocabulary words properly in their writing.  When they were all finished, they highlighted their vocabulary words and I hung them up on the bulletin board.

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Have you struggled with teaching RL 3.7 or RL 2.7?   I recently taught this skill.  I used a mentor text to assist my students in understanding this standard.  I chose the story Dear Mrs. LaRue.  This is a great story with wonderful illustrations that are easy to understand.  I made large copies of the pages in the story for my students.  I had students work in pairs.    The students also used post its to write down their thoughts of each illustration.  Later they talked about their thoughts on each illustration and shared it with the class.  Finally, I posted it under the anchor chart that was introduced to them earlier in the week.

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How many of you are currently teaching elapsed time to your students and are getting blank faces as you pour your heart out to teach this standard?  Well, my students were struggling with elapsed time tremendously.  I had my students make their own clocks, work with a partner to place the correct numbers on their clocks and even introduced counting by fives while jumping like a frog to learn the elapsed time.  None of those strategies worked.  

I introduced finding the elapsed time on a number line and chart and my students faces began to light up as these strategies worked for them.  I worked on using a number line and chart for a few days. They practiced after I modeled the two strategies for them on their own practice pages. 

Then, I had them find the elapsed time with a partner on a partner sheet.  They absolutely lit up when they had to work with a partner.  The rule was that they can only use one paper and one pencil. 
While the other student was working they had to look on and either cheer on or provide assistance to their partner.  When they were all done they had to give a cheer to let me know that they were finished.  This was a great lesson.  I felt really proud of my students because they put forth a lot of effort on this lesson and finally got it!  You can click here for the activities I used with my students.

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This is a copy of my Lesson Plan.  We did some great activities this week.  We concentrated on Main Idea/Details and Sequencing.    
My lesson plan sections:
Standards:  I place the standards that we are working on for the week 
Assess:  I show the different ways that I will assess students as they complete the activities.  This part is usually the same every week.
Read Aloud:  I include the story of the week and activities that will go along with the story of the week.
Kagan Structure:  I have my students participate in cooperative learning groups daily.  This just states what structure they will participate in for the day.
Small Group Instruction:  Activities that will be done with my small groups.  I meet with three different groups- my lowest group meets with me daily, medium group three times for the week and my highest group twice per week.
On the second page, I include math, Language arts, social studies and science.
Last, I incorporate some sort of clip art on my lesson plans to add a little style.
DISCLOSURE:  This is just my personal idea of how lesson plans are done. 

You can click on the links below:

Kagan Mats

                                                                         Fan and Pick

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My Owl and Polka Dot theme!!!  I absolutely love it.

I used yarn to create a clothesline for my students work.  I numbered each clothespin and will assign each student a number.  I will then attach their work to their number throughout the school year.

This is where I will post my essential questions. I made posters of all the essential questions for each subject. I will place each poster on the branches.

This will be my I Can wall.  It will be be somewhat of a focus wall.  Focus Wall Cards can be seen HERE: I will post a photo of this wall when it is all done.  I am so excited.

This is the stages of how I created my grass and attached the borders to it.

 Are you doing an Owl Theme this year ?  Please share your ideas....

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These anchor charts are placed in the front of the classroom to introduce weekly standards and skills.

These charts are also used to go along with student activities.  After introducing a common core standard.  Students use an I DO, WE DO, YOU DO form that is placed in their ELA Notebooks.   Digging deep into each standard has definitely showed a tremendous amount of growth in my students ability to grasp and understand each standard based comprehension questions. 

The forms for 3rd Grade can be seen HERE: I also have 2nd Grade HERE

  

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To make my lesson a little bit more interesting I am incorporating art and more interaction into my whole group lessons.  We read the story selection of the week.  My students wrote on their post its the character trait exhibited by the main character and an example from the story of how or when they exhibited that trait.  They walked up to my rolling cart and posted their traits next to the character.

This is an example of a students work.

I then displayed their work around the classroom.                                                                                 

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Teaching how to identify the central message or the lesson in a folk tale can be difficult for many students.
 I used an anchor chart to introduce the story of the week and to identify the central message.  For the rest of the week I continued adding to the chart based on read alouds.

I  also had my students practice this skill with other books in a center. 



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Another activity using are and interaction.  Students sat on the carpet and as we read the story we completed the chart together. 

When the students went back to their seats. They chose either a locust or a whale and used their text to find details about that animal under the flip of their papers.  They then decorated the animal in its habit.  The kids had lots of fun !!

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Open House was a lot of fun.  Parents loved searching for their child's sillhouette.  I made these using a black construction paper and chalk.  The students stood in the front of my doc cam light and I traced their silhouettes.  I actually got this idea from somewhere on the web and it was enjoyed by my students.
These were placed on my windows inside my classroom.  The parents had to guess based on a biopoem who they were.

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Here's another example of making a lesson more interactive utilizing a little art.  We made the steps to making popcorn and focused on the clue words that organizes the story or steps.  Afterwards we followed the steps and made and enjoyed popcorn together.

I then read The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash.
We paid attention to the story order on the carpet and talked a little about it. 

The students  were then given a boa to sort their sequencing cards on based on the story. The students worked in pairs.  When they saw their boa they were shocked and filled with excitement to figure out the order of the story.

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