Five for Friday {A Little Late!}

I don't know who has enough energy on Friday to actually post their five for Friday! :) Not me, that's for sure!!! I'm linking up with Kacey to share my Five for Friday.

1. One of my student's parents bought me a brand new color printer! HAPPY DANCE!! I am beyond excited. No more printing ten pages and having to refill the cartridges or having to print everything from home!

2. I am trying to implement more journals in my classroom this year. I didn't think that my students needed a entire journal for each subject- reading, math and science. So I took the journals to Staples and got the journals cut in half! By doing this I didn't have to buy extra notebooks and the storage space needed is so much less! They are perfect for my little learners! 

3. This past week we have been working on establishing learning goals in class. The students have goals for reading, math and writing. In my class my students record their learning in a goal book. We update this book 4 times throughout the year. The students love the book- they love seeing how much they have learned and how much their work has improved! I use this book during parent conferences to display specific learning goals and where the student is at. (This book is an awesome keepsake for the parents too!!)

 

 

As students master a standard, they get to sign our learning goal posters that are displayed in the room. These posters are motivation for the students to keep working hard- and it gives them a clear target to work towards!

Get your copy of the goal book and posters HERE!

4. You know the beginning of the year is SUPER busy, I have been wanting to post these for the past two weeks but haven't had a chance. We have been making lots of picture graphs in class. Get your {FREE} copy of these graphing materials HERE!

5. Last night my best friend made me dinner- vegetable lasagna! Oh so delicious! She's the best...and it was the best thing I had eaten all week long. I'm one lucky girl!

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday! Enjoy your long weekend!

Five for Friday

It's Friday! :) Yay! Time to link up with Doodle Bugs & *Teaching Maddeness* and share 5 things from my week...

We have been having all kinds of dino-fun this week! It's kind of sad that the kids have more schema about dinosaurs than I do. Pitiful! I butcher dino-names like no one's business, the kids cheer for me when I get the names right! Oh my! They don't care though, they are having too much fun and I'm learning SO much! Today we were measuring dinosaurs using cubes. This was  a hit for sure. The kids talked and recorded the dino's height, weight and length.

There are dinosaurs all over our room, even in our ELA centers!

This week my grade level had "In Awe of Authors". The kindergarten classes rotated among all the kindergarten teachers to learn about different authors. It was awesome! The author that I shared was Audrey Wood. I read Silly Sally and The Napping House. The kids had fun acting out the story The Napping House.

The teacher next door did Jan Brett. She was so cute- she read the Armadillo Rodeo. She was dressed up as a cowgirl and had these fun displays. I loved it! I have to remember that a tablecloth works decorating magic!!!

With 12 days of school left I am looking forward to getting familiar with Fountas & Pinnell Prompting Guide over the break. Have you used this Prompting Guide? I am hoping to get the language, vocabulary and questions from this tool in hopes of being even more effective during guided reading and read alouds. I have had it for a while, and I won't lie...it's been collecting dust. (shame)

Lastly, today we were working on updating our goal book, it is almost time to send it home! Just can't believe it! I snapped some pictures while the students were working. It is such an encouragement to see all the learning gains the students have made! How can I be discouraged when I see how much the kids have grown- either through reading, writing or even drawing! The best part though was listening to the kids reflect on how much they have grown and changed. They were proud of themselves!

I'm half asleep, it's time for cuddling in bed! I hope you had a great week! Head on over to Doodle Bugs & *Teaching Maddeness* and link up! 

Happy Weekend! :)

Do I Smell Tacos?!?! Five for Friday & Friday Flashback

It is Friday, which means that my momma arrives today! Yay! :) She will be here in just a bit, so I wanted to share my week with you...take a peek!

1. After we read Jack & the Beanstalk we planted our own beanstalks. Our seeds had been in our greenhouses so we could observe them starting to come out of the seed coat and sprout. On Wednesday we took the seed and placed it in a clear cup with soil. Then we recreated the setting of Jack & the Beanstalk by placing a castle and clouds on a skewer. The castle says "___________ & the Beanstalk". The kids went BANANAS for this activity. Fe Fi Fo Fum. I found this idea from this great blogpost by Lessons from a Teacher. The plan is for the beanstalk to grow up the skewer. When it does, I will add the kids picture "climbing" up the beanstalk!

2. Not that I am counting...but... :)

29 was on Thursday when I took that picture, so really only 28 more days! I am running out of energy, I don't know about you!

3. If you know me at all, then you know that I LOVE me some tacos! Seriously folks!!! I get excited every year when May starts to roll around...yup...Cinco de Mayo!! It's the little things in life, right?!?! Well in honor of the great taco holiday my class always does some fun Cinco de Mayo activities. I get my class a piñata and we do piñata predictions. We make tacos, eat some spicy food and of course we wear some fabulous sombreros! It is a blast. The kids think it is so much fun to "speak" spanish (we learn a few words throughout the week). I love seeing my students excited about diversity. Cinco de Mayo is also a fun way to tie in a social studies lesson about geography and our continent of North America! 

I just finished up this unit and posted it to TPT. If you are celebrating Cinco de Mayo this coming week, check it out! HERE

4. So if you read my blog post last Friday, then you know that last week my little friends were not so kind and in rare form last week. This week I was on a mission to put a stop to that, because I wouldn't be able to survive 28 more days with craziness...no sir-ee! So this week I implemented "I Got My Eye On You". Here is how it works...

I had this little treasure box, and I put all my kids' numbers inside (each student has their own number- I do this for ease on my behalf for filing and bookkeeping but also for the students to have privacy for goal setting and behavior, etc) So before centers, walking in line, or anytime really- I pull out a number. The students don't know what number I have. I tell them that I will be watching the person whose number that I pulled very closely and if that person was appropriate and made good choices for the specific activity he/she earns a treat. Sometimes the treat is a skittle and sometimes it is a sticker. Other times I let them choose from things like sitting at my desk for the day, lunch with me outside at the picnic tables, no homework passes etc. All that really matters folks is that--- AHHHH! Life is so much better this week! 

5. This week I took time to relax and enjoy "the moment". I stopped by the beach this week to unwind and enjoy God's beautiful creation! It was beautiful. I have so much to be thankful for! 

If you made it all the way to the end of this long post, then I will give my Cinco de Mayo Unit away to one person. Just leave a comment below and I will choose a winner some time this weekend!

I hope you have a fantastic weekend! Go link up with Doodle Bugs and *Teaching Maddeness*!

 

Five for Friday!

So I am just unwinding from my day...and I can take a deep breath...it is Friday! Yay! It has been one of those weeks! My little darlings showed new colors this week, and well- this afternoon we had to have  a mini "pep talk" about coming back a new person on Monday! NO FUN! :( Can anyone say "Spring Fever"?!?!

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs to share 5 random things from my week...

1.

That is the number of days till I see my mom! :) Love her...and can't wait! It is also the number of Friday's left in this school year! Can I get a whoop whoop!?! :)

2. This week we made our Earth Day Pledges. I love all the kid's ideas and how they are taking care of the Earth so seriously. What I am not loving is how they are picking up trash on the way to lunch right after we got our hands clean to eat! Oh geez! 

3. We learned all about trees this week. We went for a tree walk and did a leaf rubbing. The kids thought the leaf rubbing was crazy magic and LOVED it! We also did an super easy, super fast tree painting and writing activity!

4. I treated myself to something special this week...a laminator! And folks, I don't know why it took me sooooo long! Seriously, I wish I had made this purchase long ago!

5. This morning I woke up to an email from my student loan holder informing me that my Teacher Loan Forgiveness Application has been finally processed and a portion of my loan has been forgiven! Yes, you read that correctly! Happy DaNCinG!!!!! I applied 9 months ago and have been waiting patiently. If you have a loan, check out the link so that you can read about Teacher Loan Forgiveness, the requirements and how to apply! 

So I know I am WAY behind...last week I said that I was going to be posting fairy tale craftivities and I have had a few people ask about them. I am sorry I have not been so productive the past week. I promise I will have them posted tomorrow! Have a great night folks...thanks for taking time to read about my 5 random things----go link up too!!

Don't forget about Kinder Krazy's Giveaway!