Five for Friday.... January 24.

I considered boycotting this week, or defecting, or whatever rebellious language you might conjure up for me if I didn't take part in Five for Friday. It's still my favorite linky, but I don't have all the photos I want and I find that I share about almost the same thing every week. Here's the thing.... I get so darned excited about these kids' successes that I have to shout it a little bit. Even if I posted about similar success last week. So some photos are AWOL and I might be repetitive but it's still Friday and I am still really proud of these kiddos.

So read up about Ms. Horn's week with students and family and then hop over to Doodlebugs and read about everyone else's week as well.

1. Presentations for guided reading in second grade.  I probably typed about this last week. I have a small group this time, just two students in my group. It is wonderful. Sometimes we get sidetracked, but we get a lot done. These two are just starting to take off into the dimension of "reading opens all the doors..." and really READ. But the higher levels have been researching and developing some kind of presentations for awhile now and these little learners have not done so before this week. They were "almost" there last Friday. They had all their facts.  They just needed to print and paste their pictures. This week there was no school on Monday, then Ms. Horn was absent on Tuesday (sore throat and headache.... and from I see all around me, I will rejoice in my short-lived illness, this stuff going around can really hold on), and then it didn't work with classroom teachers to present until today. So we finally presented our research on Coyotes. We made a mobile. They had to have three facts each, and they had 4 and 5 facts. They used their best hand-writing. They spoke to their audience. I was one proud teacher.

They held each other's mobiles while the presenter read the facts.

We worked hard to take "technical" or scientific language and put it in our own words, in second grade language. One fact was that coyotes mate for life, which means that they marry and don't divorce.

2. This is my Punky. She worked hard to put her hair in pig tails for Mrs. Stockman. Her P.E. teacher suffered a brain injury when she was in a car accident on December 20th and has not woke up yet. The entire community to uniting to show support for her. Mrs. Stockman wore pig-tails a lot, no matter how short her hair was, she could get piggy tails in it. So my daughter wore pig-tails yesterday to show her support. Way to go Kiddo. And blessings and prayers to Mrs. Stockman and her family.

3. First grade is studying Kansas symbols. They are learning how to research. We scanned codes on the iPads and then gathered information about the Ornate Box Turtle. We took the information we found and we filled out the sheets shown below. We will continue our research on Monday. 

4. Mystery Reader!! It breaks my heart that I have no photo. And that's probably the funniest thing I have heard in a very long time.  But I was the mystery reader in First Grade today and I wish I had a picture of it! I had so much fun! It's no surprise that I love to read. And I think that children's books should be interactive. So I had a wonderful time reading my favorite book in the world, Kevin Henkes' Chrysanthemum. When I finished reading I asked the students why it might be my favorite book. I got a lot of good answers. But one little girl has been paying attention when her teachers have been talking to her about the 8 keys of Excellence and the C3 incentive in our district. She said that the teacher in the book WAS speaking with good purpose, even when the children weren't. Some students pointed out that names are important. But I loved that they could point out that they can stand up for their friend when friends are picked on or made to feel miserable in their school. 

5. This beloved pain in the rear is cuddled up behind me right now and making it difficult to sit comfortably. But I love him and how he talks to me and tells me when it's time to sit in the chair so he can settle in on my lap, or he tells me that it's time to go to bed.  He is my cuddly cat and his name is Sam. Okay... he's not my cat, he is my daughter's cat, but I call him "mine." I love him, he makes my life better. 

P.S. This really is bragging about second grade again. See? I am telling you, this might just be my new, best love. One of my second grade readers struggles with sounding out and decoding and sometimes the sounding out is painfully slow. But I feel like he's been on the verge of breaking through, taking off, stepping out... whatever phraseology you might use. Today he took a timed fluency test. His score improved from the first cold read to now by 31 words per minute!