Third Grade Time Capsules

First of all, it has been a week and a half since I posted on my blog!
I have been out of town and blissfully ignoring all the things that I need to do for school!

However, I have started to dip my toes back in the water by surfing the internet for ideas for the first few days back, and I have stumbled upon an idea I love: Time Capsules! I saw this idea on ProTeacher, but I can't remember the exact person the idea came from. This is not an original idea, but I did make my pages myself!

The idea is that on the first days of school, the students make their own personal time capsule. In my class it is going to include a self portrait, a list of their favorites, a handwriting sample, and their hand print. I also might take a picture of them at open house or the first day of school and include it in the time capsule. We will roll up the pages and tie them together with twine that the length of their height. Then we will put the papers in a paper towel tube that they have decorated and close the paper towel tubes with cupcake holders and rubber bands. I am going to put these in a sterilite container and store them in a closet. At the end of the school year, we will fill out the sheets again for fun. Then we will pull out our time capsules and see how much we have changed over the school year! I also think this will be something that the parents love and it will be easy to get together at the end of the school year! I am going to upload the pages that I am going to use with my class!

After we do it, I will upload the process!

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I was going to upload my pages I made but I can't figure out how! I am going to do some google searching and I will update this post!

Any suggestions?

My Second Blog Post, My First Link Party

Instead of going to sleep tonight, I am up reading teacher blogs. It is incredible how many different resources you can find just reading other people's ideas. Just from reading blogs tonight I want to go shopping at Target and Dollar Tree tomorrow, I want to get involved with a post card exchange, and I am about to list all of my favorite books in a link party which is so exciting!

1. Childhood Favorite:

I was OBSESSED with reading as a child! I used to get in trouble for staying up late and reading under the covers. My childhood favorite for sure was The Boxcar Children! I also read loved the series Pony Pal and The Babysitters Club.

2. Classroom favorite

I love to read Todd Parr books as read alouds and Its Okay to Be Different  is a personal favorite. I think all of his books lend themselves to be great spring board discussions about accepting the differences in others. I consider them "guidance" books. I love to read books aloud though, and choosing one was tough. Also, I thought my Kindergartners really liked Todd Parr books, maybe I will have a different book or author with 3rd grade. I am currently reading Judy Moody to see if I want to read this book during the first few weeks of school.

3. Reading to my own children: I don't have any children so I am going to skip this one.

4.Professional Favorites:

This isn't professional development in the same way that The Daily 5 or The First 100 Days of School is professional development, but still it has to do with education. I read it in college and then I have re-read it this summer after I got my job teaching third grade! I love it. I am planning on reading The Book Whisper (because I have been reading my blogs!) and also The Leader In Me before school starts!

5. Guily Pleasures:

I choose this book simply because it is next on my "Reading To-Do" list. I love to read! This summer I have read a book by Emily Giffin, Something Borrowed. I have started a JF book series called The Confessions of Georgia Nicholson. I also am hoping to read some Chelsea Handler books. I love her, even though she is so mean! I am considering re-reading Harry Potter, and probably will after I watch the 7th movie. I just love to read and between reading children's books on random trips to Barnes and Noble, reading on my Kindle, reading the books my best friend and sister pass on to me, and my professional development books, I am reading all the time!

Hopefully soon, I will start uploading inspiring and useful posts like the rest of you! I am still trying to get this "blogger" thing worked out!

Here We Go...

I have actively read blogs for the past several years, all sorts of blogs: personal, family, teacher blogs. I have tried at various times to start a personal blog or I set up a student teaching blog, but nothing serious ever came out of the previous blogs.

But, I graduated from college in December 2010. I taught Kindergarten for a semester, and now I am going to a new school to teach third grade. I am BEYOND excited. In my excitement, I literally stalk all kinds of teacher blogs. I think I find a new one every day. I think that it is a FANTASTIC way to see what other people are doing in their classrooms, gather ideas, and share information. Its so encouraging and is keeping me energized as I am preparing my classroom for the new school year!

Another vision that I have for this blog is a place to communicate to parents and others about some of the learning that goes on in the classroom when the school year starts. I thought that I might have guest student bloggers that could blog about projects or units of study. I thought I might post pictures of learning, or even post spelling and vocabulary words on their own page. I am not sure how this aspect of the blog is going to work out, but I figured that I better get started on the first part of just teacher blogging.


I am really excited to start though! Tomorrow I am going to finish going through all of my Kindergarten things, and see what I can use for third grade. Maybe this will give me something exciting to post about!