Five for Friday

It's time to link up for Five for Friday. Hop on over to Doodle Bugs and join the party! The rules are: Post any five things from the day or the week. School or not school. Randomosity (that's a word, right?).

1. This is sort of a recurring theme among teachers this week, but I am celebrating survival of the first week back. Of course, the term "celebrating" is used very loosely here since I have been on the verge of losing my supper and various other contents of my stomach off and on all day. I thought it was nausea do to dehydration this morning, but it came and went all day, something I've never experienced before. Report cards went home today, students learned this week, we re-established routines, and it was good to be back.

2. I am working on something for the 100th day. We are celebrating on Friday the 25th. There are conflicting counts in our district as to when the 100th day really is, but the count that landed on Friday is what we are going with.  I am responsible for a center or station in a rotation with 4 other teachers and students will be K-2nd grade. So I want to find something that goes together relatively fast, is easy enough for Kinders but engaging enough that 2nd graders will enjoy it too. I have a lot of ideas for my classroom celebration.

3. We started a bulletin board in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. We also read Scholastic's "Let's Find Out" and watched the short excerpt of that oh-so-famous "I Have a Dream" speech that was linked in the digital "Let's Find Out" magazine. We've talked a little bit about how we would not have been able to be a school family if we were still segregated. This made my students sad, which made me happy. Yes, I see segregation happening again in America, but oh how far we've come.  We are a school family and we could not imagine not being allowed to learn together, or for some of us to be expected to learn in substandard environments while others of us were not held to that same expectation. I love how their little minds can wrap around this.

4. We are reading Junie B. in our classroom now. We are reading Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business. The student's burst out laughing when Junie B. says something inappropriate, and sometimes they gasp in shock. Which reminds me what a great and wonderful class I have and that even though they have their moments, they are respectful and responsible and I am blessed to be their teacher. I students like it when Junie B. is always talking about some "dumb bunny" this, or "dumb bunny" that...."My dumb bunny teacher...(insert snickers and out right laughter)."

5. I have great kids. I have great students, that much is true, but I am referring to the biological ones that I trudged out here to the panhandle to a place so far from their friends and family.  I am lucky and blessed to have them help me in my classroom. Here's a picture of one of my favorite helpers!