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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