Five For Friday!

This first week back felt a little long, but we were busy, busy, busy and it was lovely to see my littles again.

Time to Five it up with Five for Friday!

Started by week off at a 4 year old's dinosaur birthday party at a pizza place.  My friend (another "grown up") and I had fun playing "Land Before Time."  In actuality, I had fun taking pictures of the dinosaurs and recalling the movie.... I guess that is basically the same thing.

Right at the end of my break, I spent more hours than I care to admit organizing and rearranging a bit in my classroom.  My stamps are *finally* in order and not just in a basket.  It is so much more efficient this way.  I also bought Deedee Will's Writing Work Station for January and found a place to put it. (I got creative and am loving strong velcro right now!).

My colleague one door down across the hall has a class pet.  She forgot briefly about him and one day when I was in she asked if I was able to smell the scent of death coming from here room.  Well after lunch with a teammate I went in to check... Didn't smell anything. I got close to the cage and his cute little head popped out of his fluff to great me.  He was so cute.  I noticed he was out of water so I filled it up and he was so cute sitting there drinking.  I mean just look at those sweet little paws.

I got to order some things for my classroom.  I don't know how your school does it, but I have a little free choice at the end of each day, and on our early out days in the morning so that my half day kiddos get a chance to work on social skills and enjoy some of the awesome learning toys we have.  I didn't get a picture of everything, but they are loving the new toys.  The big picture are toys called Geo Builders. In the top right corner the kids had taken out the ocean/sea life counters and were sorting (and telling me how they sorted...it was too cute!) and I was excited to get my multicultural baby dolls.  We also got a cool bamboo villiage that they are going nuts over.  I ordered some other counters and double dice as well in addition to some other things.  It was an exciting time. :)

My tootsies were tired by the end of today.  I do not have a plan period on Friday and we were just go go go.  I hope to update more about my week this weekend...but at the end of the day today I needed to sit for a few minutes.  I have my small group table low to the ground to better utilize our file crate seats and it is perfect for propping up my feet.  I also just love my boots.  I have gotten compliments from kids and adults alike (even in public)... makes my day.

Happy Friday!

You can go link up too! :)

Five For Friday (a little late)

Linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a Linky Party, just on Saturday.  I don't know about you all, but there is something about the end of the week, that I am wiped out! :)

What a week it has been learning about BATS!  My kiddos LOVE learning about them.

[1]

We started our week out by creating a "Do You Think Bats Are Creepy or Cute?" graph from Cara Carroll over at The First Grade Parade.  It was an exact split in our room.  12 of my kiddos think bats are creepy and 12 cute.  We then analyzed the data.  I love hearing the kids use math talk to describe the graph.

[2]

We read our scholastic reader about bats, focusing on finding sight words, using the pictures and beginning sounds to help with words we don't know.  We read the book together and then students buddy read.  We also did some EEKK reading/blending with our bat word slide.  Oh my word, the kids LOVED this.

[3] 

Right in the middle of the week, I got to have a super tasty dinner with my favorite little guy and his mommy from To Second Grade, With Love.  Could that face be any more adorable!?!

[4] 

I pulled out the tree map and the first words out of my of my kinder's mouths was, "There are two sight words!" and then proceeded to read them. Love this!  Another kinder said, "I think we write bats in the top box."  We have done this one other time with Apples, so I LOVE that they are understanding putting the topic at the top.

[5] 

After our graphing, and tree mapping, and reading so many books about bats, we of course had to create bats!  I gave each child a small brown square, a brown rectangle, and two white rectangles.  We first cut the bats body out of the small square.  Then we folded the rectangle in half (either direction) and drew one wing.  I taught them that when they keep it folded and cut once, they will have symmetrical wings.  Then we did the same with the two white rectangles (folding them in half).  One was used to create the eyes, the other the teeth.  With the scrap brown.  They had a blast, and they all turned out differently.  They make me smile as I walk by our room.

Have a wonderful and relaxing weekend!  I'm off to lunch with a friend.