Five for Friday, Friday the 13th style

Oh. my. goodness. I have been waiting for Friday to post my five since, well, just about forever. I suppose I could have made a separate post about all the good this week, but I've struggled a little this year to find academic material to post since I don't have my own classroom and I am sometimes often embarrassed to post my Friday five. But I do it. Because it is good for me to stay in the practice. And to be in a blogging community.You all have no idea how much you helped me through my first year of teaching! So here are my five for the week! Don't forget to head over to Doodlebugs and read about everyone else's Five random things from today or from the week.

1. Kindergarten. My little Kinders are starting to learn sight words, getting familiar with concepts about print, learning about their color words, and more. This week we re-enforced those skills with a freebie from the Moffatt girls (check them out, they have a LOT of wonderful primary practice!)! We did this as a little bit of a guided coloring exercise. I set out the colors I wanted them to use (you know, the true colors), and then we read them on the paper, next we chose the crayon we thought was right and found the color word on the crayon.  If the color name on the crayon matched the color word on the paper, then we colored the ball with that crayon. We talked about colors, color words, and resources that help us check ourselves (like the word on the crayon paper).

2. I am currently working with a really high group in First grade. So I am trying to stretch them and help them work on Comprehension and still not go crazy myself since it IS December and if you have set foot in a school building in December you have some idea what I am talking about.  So... they read Froggy's Day with Dad and it is about Father's Day.  I am really sensitive to parental holidays, because I have a daughter who doesn't see her dad.  So they had to write a sentence about a special time with a family member (Dad, grandpa, uncle, Mom, grandma, aunt....).  They did great. They also had to illustrate their sentence.

This one might be my favorite. This little learner just bumped up from Kinder into
First grade. It's a huge step and she was not happy to have to write and draw, but she
did it! 

"Me and my Dad wint to arkanso."
When they were in Arkansas, they went to a cave, hence the steps. 

I wonder if it is just fun when she colors with her Dad? Or is it
VERY fun?! Love it! 

3. Look who came to our school?! Yes, I do believe in Santa Clause!

4. More bragging on First grade! We are studying snow this week in guided reading. We read Snow Bears by Martin Waddell.  Then we talked about snow, and playing in snow, and snowflakes. We learned some facts about snowflakes. Then they had to write a sentence about snow.  We also made snowflakes! I almost forgot to preserve this project in photos, so I went to the classroom and took a picture of the ones that were still out on desktops. The snowflake is on one sheet of construction paper and the sentence is on a different piece of paper.  We were going to attach them like a mobile with string or yarn. Guess what Ms. Horn forgot?  Yep. So we improvised. Paper clips DO work to make mobiles in school.

Snowflakes melt when its hot out.

Snowflakes melt in the spring.

5. Second grade! Whoot! These kiddos have are in the "beyond level" group. They need challenged. They need comprehension exercises. They need the reading/writing connection.  We researched some countries that they are not currently studying for "Christmas Around the World."  They read books, wrote facts, searched online, wrote facts, and then wrote a report. Next they revised. Then they rewrote, and continued research. Then they were edited again. Then they re-wrote again. They are all learning so much about how to research, how to put technical jargon into Second grade words, and how to write sentences. It's a little scary how their sentences look! But they are starting to catch on that they have to have uppercase letters at the beginning and proper punctuation. This young presenter has come SO FAR! (But then, so has her teacher... the best way to learn how to give clear directions.... give unclear directions and muddle through the results). Last time, one of our presenters was so nervous that the class had to close their eyes and I held her poster in front of her so she couldn't see her classmates. This time, students wrote reports on a separate piece of paper instead of trying to make it fit on their poster and their posters focus on pictures that correspond with their facts!

I said I would hold her poster so she could focus on her report.

BONUS!! The staff in our school were invited to "breakfast" by the principal and his family today. We were told that it would be up by 7:30 this morning. Then came the announcement... "and will be available all day." Well, I forgot my camera (aka phone) this morning, so I snapped a few photos of the "leftovers" at the end of the day. Seriously, this is what didn't get eaten after a full day of being under attack by a people who love food.  Can you imagine how much there was to begin with? And can I just say... "wow!" I felt appreciated, I enjoyed the food and felt so blessed to part of the school family that is Lincoln.  

This table was FULL of fruits and veggies.

At the front is a tray of cream cheese and raspberry pepper jam, and there was
another one of these left over, not to mention the mounds and mounds
of crackers that had already been put away or consumed. 

Coffeecake. Delicious.

 Thanks Rierson family for the wonderful treat! And thanks LES for being such a great community to teach in.

P.S. My Friday the 13th was not the superstitious unlucky kind today. If anything, it was full of good luck, but it looks a lot more like those unexplained things that I know happen on purpose and for a reason.

P.P.S. The jewel of the week might be that I told my second grade groups that I was going to blog about all the hard work they are doing and one of them said.... "Whoa! We are going to be famous!"