I'm super excited to be a part of my first giveaway! So many people wanted to join, we had to split into two prizes. You can win a $250 gift card to Teachers Pay Teachers OR a $250 gift card to Amazon. Either one of these would get you off to a great start to your school year.

This giveaway opens today and closes Saturday at 12:00am EST. Good luck!


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This post has been marinating in my mind for a while. I use so many products from other sellers, so I'm here to spread a little love! Just so I'm perfectly clear, I have gotten nothing from any of these authors. I just love their stuff! Keep in mind that I teach third grade, so many of these items are pretty specific.

Getting them ready for August!

One last look before I turned off the lights and shut the door for the final time.

I'm not one for dramatic change, so this was particularly hard for me. I don't want to speak ill of my old district or school, but I came to realize it just wasn't a good fit for me anymore.

More than a few times I sat in my car trying to talk myself into walking into the building. I had near constant sleepless nights which made for long caffeine-fueled days.

Over Christmas break my husband gently recommended that I find a better balance. He missed his wife and our son missed his mom. But like the main character of one of those cheesy, uplifting teacher movies, all I could think of was how to reach my students. Even when I was at home I was reading/looking things up/trying to be better. I was always trying to find "the thing" that would work for my struggling students. I spent so much money and even more time trying to be my best.

My best ended up not being good enough for many of my kids. I had an over-crowded classroom, very little support (aside from most of my team, they were my rock), and a very high-needs group of students. I was also on a really new team and was mentoring a first and second year teacher. I felt like I was set up to fail. And while I didn't fail completely, I failed me.

I succumbed to the high-stakes testing mania like I promised myself I would never do. My classroom never really felt like that community that both my students and I need. I neglected myself and my family. I went into the summer feeling like a total screw up and even tearfully expressed that to my administrators at our last meeting.

This photo doesn't really have anything to do with this blog post. But it's an awesome mug that my coworker made me and I feel like people should see it.

By the time my sleep went back to normal and I had enough time to reflect on my year, I decided I wanted a change. I had to at least try. Plus, they always say the best time to look for a job was when you already have one, right? So I applied at four schools that I hand-selected at surrounding districts. I wasn't expecting anything, but I knew I'd kick myself if I didn't even make an attempt. I received interview requests from 3 out of the 4 schools. I was shocked and elated.

I walked into my first interview 25 minutes early and incredibly nervous. It went better than I expected. I guess 13 years of experience makes the answers come to you. My favorite question and the one I struggled with the hardest was the last one. They asked if everything was equal between me and another candidate, why should they choose me? I had a pretty long wait time. Not going to lie. Then an answer came out that I didn't even realize was still true until I said it. I am passionate about education. Teaching is so important and I am still excited to be doing what I do. I'm still eager to try new things, to meet new challenges, and to just be a teacher. Those were the things I was missing after my school year was over. I was so beat down and tired that I couldn't even remember why I was there anymore.

I got a call the next day with a job offer. I'm so excited to be starting a new chapter in my life.

I wrote this as a personal story that I just needed to get out of my head. I think that teachers (rightly) focus mostly on the positive and I wanted to focus on another reality that I experienced. Teaching isn't easy and sometimes we have to find another way to enjoy what we love again. 

I teach third grade and most of the time students have never done literature circles. I start literature circles after the first 9 weeks (or first quarter) of school. I focus on laying a really solid foundation with our standards before starting with literature circles.

I feel it is important that we take time to introduce each job. To do this, I start all my groups with everyone in each group doing the same job. I use little readers from outdated adoptions, but you could use any shorter story. Remember, our focus is understanding the job and creating independence, so this will take 5 different 30-45 minute sessions.

I like to start with illustrator, but it doesn't really matter which job you start with. I model using a short story and then show them how to fill out the sheet. Then break the kids into groups of 5 and explain that they will be working with over the next week. They take turns reading page by page (I allow my shy readers to skip their turn, they normally warm up after the first few times) and then each fill out their own page. They can talk about it while they do it, then they turn them all in together. I do this routine each day with a different job, so after a week I have modeled each job, and they have completed each sheet. Now we are ready to dive in!

I like to structure my literature circles around what my students are interested in reading. I lay out about 5 book choices and students fill out their top three on their choice sheet. I try and make the best fit for each kid from there. When we first begin, I do literature circle twice a week and the whole class is doing them at the same time. I walk around, monitor, and answer questions. After most of the groups are done with their first book, I start incorporating literature circles during reading rotations 2-3 times a week. Most groups can handle that level of independence, but those that can't have to sit right by me so I can monitor as I work with my small groups.

There are SO many FREE things for literature circles, but if you want them all in one check out my link below. I've used all of these with my class, so they are kid tested. (Side note: somehow everything in my store is $3 and it's a total accident, but kind of neat too!)

It's so weird to me that the focus between picture and chapter books seems to happen between second and third grade. In second picture books are the norm and totally accepted, then in third they are supposed to make that seamless transition and be instant chapter book readers. But maybe this is just my school culture? I would venture to guess that less than half have the stamina that it takes to read even a short chapter book.

The expectation and reality are very different. But as teachers we are pretty used to that.

Regardless, we work hard on building their stamina all year long. We read independently at least twenty minutes a day with a self-selected text. I also start my week with reading aloud a picture book that is about a third grade level. I use picture books to introduce vocabulary and reading skills. We work with that book for about 3 days and then switch over to book clubs/literature circles for the remainder of the week. It's pretty flexible depending on how difficult the concept we are learning.

Below are some of my favorite books to read in my class. All are non-affiliate links. :)





Island: Story of the Galápagos by Jason Chin
This beautifully illustrated nonfiction story captivated my students. We read this right after we talked about animal adaptations in science and it really brought their learning full circle. It is not only an interesting read, it is packed with good vocabulary! Last year I used this book to teach main idea and details.



Zathura, Two Bad Ants, pretty much anything by Chris VanAllsburg
VanAllsburg writes really captivating stories and then illustrates them beautifully. The vocabulary is top notch and you can teach so many concepts with his books. I used Zathura to review sequencing and Two Bad Ants to teach theme.





The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin
Another beautifully illustrated book with a nice lesson. We compared it with other traditional tales. I always thought this book was reminiscent of Cinderella, but I asked my kids to make connections with other stories and they had some great ideas! One thing I noticed with this book is that the author talks about wigwams but the illustrations show tepees. I used this as a learning opportunity and could hear the kids pointing out the inconsistency while partner reading to their classmates (such good little teachers)! Our favorite vocabulary word from this one? Haughtily. They were dropping that word like it was on fire.




The last one is The First Dog by Jan Brett
Jan Brett is known for her beautiful illustrations and her books for younger readers. This one is good for older readers though. We used this one to practice making predictions. There is a bit of foreshadowing in this one and the story is sweet. Even though we did this one in the very beginning of the year it remained a favorite of theirs.

Thanks for stopping in. I plan to add more to this as time goes on, so check back!

I'm super excited to be participating in my first link party from 4th Grade Frolics. I've been really busy this week and have so much to share!

That's my The Matrix puzzle in the background. Try not to be jealous.

Word problems.

Not my favorite. My kids really really struggled with them this year. This was totally our Herculean task. They kept looking for keywords (ugh) and I kept telling them over and over you can't rely on them. I told them that the people who write the questions and answers are trying to trick them and they had to think about it and try and figure out what they needed to do by imagining the story in their head.

It worked sometimes. Mostly not.

In an attempt to not let this become my white whale, I've been reading Children's Mathematics:Cognitively Guided Instruction in my free time. I'm lucky our Math Coach loaned hers out to me, so I have all her notes to look at as I read. She's a really smart lady.

I created a little interactive notebook template to sort the addition and subtraction problem types.

click on the picture to download!