Five for Friday: Busy, Productive Week

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

Here are some highlights from a very busy, productive week from our classroom!

One: Reading Workshop

Last week in my Five for Friday post I talked about the new Lucy Calkins Reading Workshop units.  I'm so in love with the units and this week before moving on to the second bend in the unit we're currently working on, we took some time to reflect on what we've learned as well as areas we would like to work on during our independent reading.  

To help my kiddos remember what we've been working on I took the large anchor chart post its that came with the program, scaled them down, and gave the kids their own "suitcases" to take with them on their reading adventures.  Credit goes to the unit of study... the idea of the suitcases and reading adventure was all theirs.  I laminated each suitcase so they'll last in their book boxes from week to week.

After reviewing what we've been working on I asked the kids to select one area they'd like to work on in the coming weeks.  I feel like I don't do enough reflecting in my classroom and I thought this was a great addition to our workshop time.

  Two: Problem Solving

We begin and end each math workshop session with problem solving.  To begin each session we work on an application word problem with a buddy.  I like to see my kiddos talking math with one another and I like that buddies can help one another.  But I also want to see where each of my students is in terms of problem solving ability.  

That being said I've created a bunch of problem solving printables that I use each day in my classroom.  This week we worked on some winter themed word problems.  I always include result unknown, change unknown, and start unknown word problems and my kiddos are getting good at solving each kind. I've seen what practice can do and I'm so proud of my kiddos!

Three: Groundhogs

We read these two great books about groundhogs this week to celebrate Groundhogs Day on Tuesday.  My kiddos loved the Groundhogs Get a Say book... actually I really loved it too!  Tons of facts in it but done in a really fun way.  

After reading these books I had my kiddos write about something they learned from these books.  Many of my kiddos couldn't get over the fact that groundhogs breathe once every 5 or 6 minutes when they hibernate... they thought this was THE coolest thing ever!!

Four: Valentine's Day Math Journals

I wish Valentin's Day fell at the end of the month... I feel so rushed to fit everything Valentine's Day into just two weeks!  Here's a sampling of our Valentine's Day math journals we completed this week!

Five: Horrible Harry

I randomly selected a Horrible Harry book for a read aloud a few weeks ago and my kids are HOOKED!  They cannot get enough.  Last week we finished a book about Harry's teacher getting engaged and the story continued into a book our school library or the public library did not have!  The kids begged me to get the book somehow... Amazon Prime to the rescue.  The book arrived this afternoon and the kids are so excited to start it Monday!

He is not wielding a knife... I promise!

Have a great weekend... Happy Super Bowl!!

Let's Go Broncos... I prefer the other Manning Brother (Eli) since I'm a Giants fan but no such luck this year so I'll take the next best thing, his older brother!!