It's Friday.... Friday! (whoot!)

Time for my Friday five. Five "random" things from my week. I am linking up with Doodlebugs.  Hop over and read about everyone's week! Or add a link! This linky party is to post five random things from your week or from your day. I love to post from my week with an eclectic hodge-podge of home and school.

1. Starting off with my ugly tale of the week. I am a big baby and I am also not very good at living life by the directions. So.... I knew that taking sudafed (and like kinds of drugs) was bad for me, I can feel that it brings my heart rate up. But I will not be beat by a cold! Ha! Well, as far as we can tell, the decongestant is what drove my heart rate up to a dangerous place. But Monday morning as I am walking Kindergarten down the hall I feel a pain just left of center in my chest, kind of a squeeze, then it spread out and even goes down my arm. So it kind of bothers me, I talk to the support teachers who are with me and tell them about it. Not a severe pain, but concerning. I start my Kinders on their reading work and let the support staff help them, step into the hall and call the doctor. We decide it is better to be safe than sorry. So I finish up my group (what?! Yeah, I am stubborn like that), and then drive to the Emergency Room to get it all checked out. Long story long.... they tell me that my ekg looks really good. The ER nurses are getting me ready to discharge. The ER doc comes in and says, "your ekg looks great. However, given the risk factors (heart disease in the fam...and lots of it) and your high blood pressure, we would like you to stay for observation. Is that okay?" I say, "sure." Seriously, what am I supposed to say. It crosses my mind (repeatedly) that I am over-reacting to a minor pain by even being there, let alone the complications that staying overnight will bring. But the part about how if I leave and go home and if something is wrong, they will have less chance of taking care of it, and a better chance that I could fall over dead, I guess it is the best answer. The next day when I am released, I discover between 5 and 7 inches of snow on my car!  Not to mention that no one had been to our house since the snow started, so when I did get home, I couldn't find the driveway, no track marks in the snow to guide me, no bare patch on the drive where the car sat. Everything looks good they said. Give her some more tests they said. So I'll be walking the treadmill again next week.

Here is what I came out to.

 2. Here is what I came up with snowfall on Wednesday morning. It might not be accurate because it had blown quite a bit already.  I tried to find a nice smooth, flat-looking spot in the yard that maybe didn't encounter too much wind, and stuck the ruler in. It said we got 10 1/2 inches from some time in the middle of the night Monday night until it stopped sometime Tuesday night.

3. I made sure to spend a little snow-day time with my Punky. We braided her hair. It took forever! She managed to keep it in until morning so her hair would be krimped. Too cute.

4. Second grade guided reading! I have a group that needs stretched again. Here is where we started. I am easing them back into being in my group... heh heh. Yesterday we read a book called: Better than a Birthday. It is about traditions in South Korea and how they celebrate everyone's birthday at New Year's. Yesterday we read, made a Venn Diagram of what South Korean's do to celebrate birthday, what American's do, and what ways they are alike. They re-read the book at home and today they had to write about the following: A tradition they have at home either for birthdays or for New Year's. No one picked their birthday! All six of them chose New Year's celebrations. This simplified it for me a little bit. We wrote about a New Year's celebration tradition that they do every year. They had to write a 3-4 sentence paragraph. Then they had to write one thing they would like to try for their celebration. I usually give off-the-wall examples here. Today was no different. For example, I said "I would like to try eating chocolate all night long." Then they had to make prediction of what might happen if they tried this thing. My prediction was that even after eating chocolate all night long I did not feel sick. They laughed and told me that I would indeed feel sick. We had a lot of fun coming up with things they would like to try for their celebrations. Then they had to write about the best New Year's celebration they have ever had and why. Again it had to total 3-4 sentences. One kiddo was confused about length. He apparently thought I meant it had to take up 3-4 lines in his writing journal. He inserted about 20 verys into a sentence stating how much fun it was to visit New Orleans over New Year's holiday. (It was very fun). It was delightful to spend time with these smarty-pants again and I can't wait to see what the next three weeks will bring.

One newbie to our group cannot stop blurting. She just can't help it. But I decided to try something new. When they come to class, they will each have one minute (or less) to tell me about whatever they want me and the group to know about. Whatever precious gem of information they are dying to divulge, they have a minute to do so. I am hoping against all hope that a) my blurter will feel heard and cared about and that b) this will help her practice control when it is not her minute of fame. What do you do to maintain control when there is that one blurter that is going to blurt. all. the. time. every. single. day.?

5.  I am so excited about what these smarties are going to tackle next week that I can't wait for Monday! We are going to research Kansas "pioneers." They are studying pioneers in the classroom. We are going to study Kansas pioneers or early settlers. We are going to gather information and facts and find pictures. We are going to write and re-write sloppy copies in our journals. We are going to edit, revise and re-write until we conquer their atrocious spelling and questionable grammar. For being the best readers in our second grade and at the same reading level as my "above level" third grade group, these poor darlings need to practice some spelling! Yikes! Then we are going to find a classroom newspaper template, organize their research onto the newspaper template and print it. They will have to be a newsboy or newsgirl and sell their information! "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" They are nervous and excited.  I think that is a good mix...