Highlights of my Week

I had a super Friday with my class! I just wanted to share some highlights of my week:

My students had good behavior for the most of the week and lots of lost teeth (3) in one week! My students are loving Erica Boher's Lost Tooth Club. One of my students even asked me where the club meets lol she was pretty excited. We are now reading Junie. B. Jones, Toothless Wonder as our chapter book during snack time. 

My students are loving Pete the Cat of course so if it gets them excited it is a highlight for me! They are really liking the listening center and doing well even though this is the first week we've started them. We have practiced for 2 1/2 weeks and this Thursday actually started rotating a little. I did 2 centers yesterday and 3 today. Usually we do all 5 in one day but I wanted to ease them into it and they are doing really well. We have stamina for about 12 minutes and then I usually get interrupted. I know with continued practice they will do fine with centers though. They are a quiet group for the most part but really love my attention sometimes at any cost. 

I saw this in a friend's classroom and knew I had to get it! What a wonderful tools for students! My students now don't have to ask me what to do when they are done. They can just choose on the the options.

I love using these awesome frames from Lakeshore! It is so easy to slide work in and out and the brighten up the room too! I just wanted to show you how they looked with writing actually in them.

 Another thing I love using in my class this year are poetry notebooks and reading response journals. I used poetry notebooks last year but I just love how my kids are taking their time with it this year and really doing an awesome job with highlighting, reading, and crafting a bit. I haven't used reading response journals before but I really like using them with first grade. Right now we are doing a shared reading response together on the board and then they copy it into their response journal. Later in the year I will have them response on their own after we've discussed the book. This is from a nonfiction book we read about Big Cats and Pet Cats today. This student is showing the similarities between pet cats and big cats.

Finally I am super happy to announce there were no fits thrown on Friday! Which has now made me day. I have one student who has crying/screaming/dangerous fits almost every day sometimes more than once a day. Thursday of last week he didn't have a fit and got extra computer time as a reward and today he got a trip to the treasure box because he didn't have a fit today! It makes everything better when the class doesn't have to listen to one of his fits. P.S. I have made a calming box with a special spot. He throws the items around and once it is finally worn out of crying (15-30 mins) will use the tools. Any other suggestions for calming down would be wonderful!

Well friends have an awesome weekend! Hope you can reflect on the highlights of your week with a smile.