Five for Friday {September 12}

This week seemed to last forever. It was just jammed packed with meetings, phone calls, e-mails, to-do lists, technology issues, etc. I’m so happy it’s the weekend!!

I’m so happy I could sing… about finally getting Daily 5 up and running! YEAH! BTW it is my fourth week of school. I finally have my kids quietly working independently. Amazing! Anyone with firsties knows this is a huge deal.

This is listening:

My kids are working on MyLexia a computer-reading program. They can login on their own now.

This is writing:

 

My kids labeled Pete the Cat and wrote in our class journals.

This is word work:

My kids are working on their spelling and sight words.

In reading this week we read Curious George at School. Our goal was to retell the story. I made this anchor chart to keep up in our room. As a class, we made this anchor charts. The kids all got the draw a part of the retelling. At the end of the week, we did an interactive notebook retelling. They had to sequence the events and the draw the pictures underneath the flap. These are from Teaching with Love and Laughter.

This part of my room makes me happy. It’s our birthday board and job chart. My kids love to look at their pictures under their birthday month and see their jobs for the week.

I got these wiggle tools from others recommendations. This is a wiggle seat that helps kids that can’t sit still. They can wiggle in their seat without distracting other kids. The kids enjoy sitting in the wiggle seat. They trade it around as needed. Some use it for writing, others for sitting at the computer, and others use it during independent math. No one fights over and it moves around the room. It has been interesting to see where it ends up at the end of the day. The other tools are for my students with ADD and ADHD that need something to touch while listening and working in class. They keep this inside their desks and use as needed. It doesn’t bother anyone and keeps the kids on task. I also place Velcro under these students’ desks. They touch it and stay focused. We read Pete the Cat this week and made up our own Pete the cat stories. I had one student finish his entire Pete the Cat final copy today. This is a huge deal for him to write around six sentences.

I needed a pick me up yesterday and also needed a notepad. I reached in my drawer and picked this up. This is a sweet note from a student from three years ago. He is now in 4^th grade! It was just what I needed! I love seeing my old students and remembering all the great times we had in class.

Hope you all have a nice weekend! I have Open House on Monday so look out for a blog post.