Five for Friday - March 3rd

It's Friday already and I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.  Our first week back from winter break and it flew by!  Here are some of the highlights from our week.   

ONE: Flexible Seating
Our first week with true flexible seating and I would not go back.  The kiddos we teach are changing and we as teachers need to adapt.  It's not what we want or are comfortable with... it's what's best for the kids.  Choice and different options to meet all their needs is what's best for kids.

  

The standing table and this short round table were probably the biggest hits this week, but I think more than anything the kids respond to choice.  Giving that responsibility and freedom in the classroom is so exciting and motivating for them!

TWO: Matter
We're about to wrap up a unit on solids, liquids, and gases.  I had a ton of left over candy hearts from Valentine's Day so we used them to model the atoms in all three states of matter.  The kids loved this idea and we had some great discussions around how the layout of the atoms impacts the shape and properties of each of the three states of matter.  Sometimes the best science lessons center around a short activity followed by some great discussion!

 

THREE: Break Apart to Subtract Strategy

I'm not gonna lie... when I first looked at this strategy I was confused!  But now that I've taught it and I've seen my kiddos flourish while using it, I love it!  This week we did some extensive practice on the break apart to subtract strategy, using this work mat primarily and manipulatives for some groups.  Some of my kiddos were struggling to count back to subtract and this strategy just changed the game for them.  They can quickly subtract using this and the best part is they can explain their math thinking to their peers!  

FOUR: Empty Bin

Most of the time an empty bin is an amazing thing.  It means I actually accomplished all I set out to accomplish in a given week.  This is a good thing!  It can also mean that all the papers I needed to grade have been graded.  This too is a good thing! 

However, this empty bin this morning was not a good thing!  Two weeks ago I copied assessments I'll be using for our March report cards.  I wanted to get ahead of the game and sprinkle in the assessments when I have a few free minutes here or there so I copied them early.  I gave a few this week, including a missing part assessment yesterday afternoon.  

All was well with the world until this morning.  I put away all the work I copied for next week, also housed in this bin, and I misplaced the pile of copied assessments.  I searched high and low this morning for AN HOUR... I did not find them! 

It's now Friday night and the assessments have not been located.  So Monday morning I will go in early to copy said assessments again.  I know the minute I finish copying will be the minute I find the previous assessments!  Perhaps I can save them for next year!!  Probably not! 

FIVE:  Weekly Instagram "Post"

I'm loving the chance my kiddos get each week to "post" something to our weekly Instagram page.  This week I had the kiddos highlight something they learned this week!  Here's small sampling of a few "posts".

Have a great weekend... Don't forget to check out Doodle Bugs Teaching for more Five for Friday posts! 

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Five for Friday- February 17th

Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.  We survived a five-day week now we are on winter break for a whole week!!   

ONE: Valentine's Day
As luck would have it Valentine's Day and the 100th day fell on the same day this year!  It's a catch 22... on the one hand, it's nice to get two big, exciting days over in one fell swoop.  However, on the other hand, it makes for one crazy fun day!!

This week we did a ton of Valentine and 100th day read alouds and we used various comprehension strategies including making predictions and retelling stories.  The best way to fit it all in is to overlap as many skills as possible.  We have been working hard on retelling and predicting during our reading workshop block and this week's read alouds were a great opportunity to review and use these skills.  

We graphed and discussed our favorite color candy heart... orange won this year!  We also used these candy hearts to build our sight words for the week.  During our literacy stations, we have been using play doh to build the words but we needed to spice up the task this week.  The candy hearts were a great way to add something to this task this week.  

Our Valentine monster bags came out so cute again this year! I love these Love Monster books and the kids do too!  I couldn't find any large white lunch bags but the brown worked just as well!  

With all the candy that came with the Valentines, I was happy that we only had some sparkling water and a small ice cream cup for our "party".  It was just enough to make the day special without the kiddos having too much sugar!!

TWO: 100th Day

To celebrate the 100th day I had my kiddos bring in 100 items to count during our math block.  Before sorting and counting, I had the kids share their items and explain why they picked their items.  This went perfectly with the opinion unit we are starting in writing workshop... another great way to fit it all in!  

After sharing their items and their reasons, we sorted by 10s, 5s, and 2s.  This took some time but I saw my kiddos helping their classmates if they were done early, and I loved seeing this!  After sorting we skip counted and the kiddos got a real world application for skip counting that I think they appreciated this!!  

THREE: Reading Strategies
I still have a few kiddos that need reminders to use strategies when reading.  I have these decoding strategies on the wall by our small group table and we also have them on sticks to grab when reading.  But I wanted another way to give my most reluctant readers a reminder of these important strategies.  

During our small group readings I give them this strategy "bookmark", we review the strategies, and then as they are reading independently they clip the clothespin onto the strategies they use.  This helps them recognize the strategies that they are using.  I have sent these "bookmarks" home to help the families and I have made sure to put them in reading book boxes as well!

FOUR: Swag Tags

I've been feeling like my swag tags needed a bit of a reset this week.  That being said I tried something a bit different.  I awarded a few swag tags in the morning and then I put it on those students that received the tags to hand out other tags to students that were caught doing something well or nice in the classroom.  

I modeled how this would work and then placed a sentence prompt by the swag tags to help the kids tell the student why they were awarding them a swag tag.  This worked so well as the kiddos recognized these great behaviors in others and were so happy to tell other students to get a tag.  In some cases if no tags were left, they gave up their tag to a friend caught doing something well in the classroom! So proud of my kiddos!!

FIVE:  Friday Instagram Feed

I'm in love with our weekly Instagram feed! It's a great way to wrap up the week and celebrate all the learning and hard work that took place throughout the week.  This week I had my kiddos select their favorite part of the week as this task goes along with our opinion writing unit!

Have a great weekend... Don't forget to check out Doodle Bugs Teaching for more Five for Friday posts! 

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