A Day in the Life of a 3rd Grade Classroom!

Often times people ask me how my schedule looks in 3rd grade, today I am going to share it with you!

A quick note: Our day does not go perfect everyday, but we work hard to keep this schedule each day!

• Enter the classroom, empty folder, check in, use the restroom
• Start morning tubs
• When the bell rings, clean up quickly and get out your writing notebook
• Write on the days prompt while the teacher finishes up last minute items
• After announcements, the teacher comes around checking writing and sending kids to morning meeting
• Morning meeting

If you want to read more about how the mornings run in my classroom head to this post!

For my reading block I always have a focus of the week. The focus is either New Skill, Review, or Novel Study. Then, I plan around that focus.

You can read all about how I plan for reading instruction in this post! 

I try to be super organized during planning time, so that I don’t have to stay outside of contracted hours. My doors are always closed and I always have a purpose of the day.

Everyday during planning I have a plan on what I will be doing that day.

Monday– I sit down and plan all of my reading plans for the following week. Sometimes I will be a few weeks ahead, but no matter where I am at I plan for a whole week on Monday. If I get extra time I will copy as well!
Tuesday– I sit down and plan all of my math plans just like I did my reading!
Wednesday– On Wednesday I plan all of my interventions, this includes small group and individual. I copy and prepare everything that I need for these interventions and I update all the files for the kiddos that I have on intervention. If I need to do anything for parent volunteers I do that here too!
Thursday– On Thursday I copy anything that needs copied and I grade anything that needs graded.
Friday– I prepare everything for the following week. This includes changing center rotations, creating anchor charts, and changing decor.

We do one 30 minute rotation a day. I have found in my third grade classroom my students worked better doing each rotation once a week, but for an extended time. This is just what works for my classroom!

My students also do Listening to Reading, Word Work, Close Reading Station, and Google Drive station!

During Teacher Time we are typically reading a novel. We will typically spend 10 minutes reading, 10 minutes working on the comprehension skill, and 10 minutes working on word work or other skills needed. Then, I assign them reading and sometimes an assignment for the next week!

I have TONS of blog posts about guided reading. Check them out here! 

12:40-1:00- Reading & Individual RTI
I have found that after recess my students love settling down and reading a book! Each day my students come in from recess, grab the book they are reading, and cuddle up in a comfy place in the room! I grab one student at a time during this time for a quick intervention! You can see how I structure my one on one interventions here! My students really do love this time and it is a perfect time for them to get calm after recess while reading any book that they love!
1:00-1:20- RTI small group/Enrichment
I pull my RTI group at this time. (we switch between math and reading)! This is also the time that groups would be pulled with other teachers around the school. Any student who is not being pulled at this time will work on enrichment projects!

We do math rotations for the rest of the day. I have found that my students are never at the same place when it comes to math, so I teach everything in small group. I typically will teach 20 minute rotations, but some of my lower groups will use up more time! We all will end up testing on the same unit at the same time, but my higher groups get done faster and get to move onto enrichment lessons during this time! My rotations stand for:
M- Math Facts– This is where my students get on the computer. They use Splash Math, Prodigy, or Xtra Math to practice their facts and old skills.
A- At Your Seat– This is where your typical worksheet or workbook activity would go!
T- Teacher Time– This is where the group is at my table getting their lesson for the day.
H- Hands-On– This is where students play games or work with manipulatives.
S- Spiral– I put games or activities from old chapters during this time so they continually practice skills!

For writing, I will do a whole group lesson and then why students are working on their writing I am going around and work one on one or with a small group on a strategy or skill.

We do not do math on Friday, instead we do content rotations. There are five teachers on our team, so we can each teach a new standard every five weeks. Then, we mix up all our kids and they stay in a group for five weeks. During that time, they go through all five teachers and get a lesson on five different standards. Then, on the sixth week they take an assessment on all those standards. We do six week rotations all year long and get every standard done! It simply is the best!

If you have any more questions on how I structure my day please feel free to comment below or email me at [email protected]!