Hamburgers, Lysol, & Cute Faces

I have to say that this post is long overdue...I am constantly coming across things to blog about then I forget them before I can get to the computer!  Anyway, with the holiday season just around the corner, things in my classroom are in full swing.  I can't seem to keep up with the kids or their demand for treats and rewards!

That is one thing that has been bothering me lately.  Part of it is my fault for rewarding them so much, but I often turn my lessons into games for prizes (tickets or snacks) to motivate them and get them involved.  But, I don't like when they start asking for rewards for everything!  I don't remember getting many rewards when I was that age...I remember crying when I made a B due to my own internal motivation!  I am off my soapbox no, because I do have several students who care and those who don't care don't have a good example.  I guess I should be that example ;)

Getting to the hamburgers...we used hamburger writing to start creating paragraphs.  The new Common Core writing assessment demands that students be able to create 3 different kinds of writing (narrative, informative, and persuasive) in a 5-paragraph essay format!  What?  I know it will help them so much in the long run, but it is overwhelming to teach when they can't even write sentences yet.  That's why we decided to have a little fun with it and start small with paragraphs.  I cannot take credit for this idea!  I stole the recipe from my teacher pal, Marissa Summitt, and I stole the template from someone on TeachersPayTeachers.com.  

The Hamburger Method is a visual for the parts of a paragraph.  The top bun is the topic sentence.  The lettuce, tomatoes, and burger are all details.  The bottom bun is the conclusion.  To reinforce this idea, after writing, we made hamburger cookies using oreo halves, nilla wafers, and colored icing!  Yummy!

So, the Lysol reference is because both of my classes entered the Lysol story contest!  We had a great time creating stories about germs...ewww but fun! See pics below.  

Finally, for the cute faces...I am turning into a sucker!  My kiddos do one of two things to me...melt me or light me on fire...haha...it's not as bad as it sounds.  What I mean is that third graders are mischievous but still sweet and innocent.  I get irritated when they yell out or do silly things that make messes or hurt other kid's feelings but when they apologize or look down at the ground while I'm lecturing them, they are just so darn cute!  Grrr...oh well...I guess empathy is pretty important to teaching ;)