5 For Friday - March 14

Another week down - and this marks the last day of our 3rd quarter - this year is flying by!  Time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday for a look back at our week.

This week started out with baseball tryouts for Tyler.  This year he has moved up a division in Little League and will be on the Juniors (a step above Majors).  If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you know that Tyler LIVES for baseball.  Luke will be playing this year too, but he is on Farm, so he didn't need to try out yet.

We celebrated reading week this week and every day had 30 minutes of Stop, Drop, and Read.  The weird thing about it was that my kids normally do Daily 5 and have incredible stamina - a sub once commented that they read non-stop for 50 minutes. So, you would think they could handle this. No... They groaned every single time the announcement came over the loud speaker and I had to bribe them with extra recess just to get them to read the whole time.  GRRR!! Amazing what semantics can do.  Nevertheless, some of them did enjoy their books.

We have been working on Close Reading and Response to text this week.  We independently read an article about the dangers of soda.

Then we worked in groups to carefully read and discuss the article.  One group noted that companies paid schools to sell soda.  They labeled it "bribery" - I was impressed with their astuteness! 

I have been working at Cody's school directing the Drama Club.  While we were there he decided to tape Luke to a chair.  Ahh .. the perils of being a younger brother!  Luke was laughing the whole time, so I couldn't really be mad.  I just did what any other mother would do and snapped a pic - blog fodder right? Don't judge!

And finally, I have a little St. Patrick's freebie for you! I am linking up with Teaching Blog Addict for Freebie Friday!

These task cards are perfect for reviewing for state tests, or just general instruction.  You can get them from my TpT store here.  While you are there, don't forget to like my store so you can be notified of new freebies and updates.  Also, you will be qualified to win a $25 TpT gift certificate in my monthly giveaway!  I will be picking March's winner soon!

Have a great weekend!

5 For Friday January 24 2014 With A Freebie!

Ah!  The end of another week!  That means time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

My week started out amazing with this gift from one of my students and his grandma.

It's not even my birthday yet, but they just wanted to thank me for my work this year.  This particular kiddo has not been super successful in school prior to this year and had a really bad self-esteem.  The first day of school he told me no less than 20 times how "stupid" he was.  Fast forward to the middle of the year, and he is on honor roll and leadership team and making tremendous strides.  He grew almost 30 points on his MAPS tests as well!  Woo hoo!  I cried when they brought this in!

But, speaking of birthdays - today IS my youngest son's 8th birthday!  Where does the time go?  I had to share this adorable pic of him playing around with a mustache he got from the treasure box.

I almost died when I confiscated these from one of my kiddos this week - At first I thought they were the real thing!

I was thankful they weren't, but, I didn't even know they made these anymore did you?  I thought with the tobacco legislation in the 1990's they banned them.  I guess not.  They look a lot more realistic than the ones I had as a kid.

I spent some time this week printing and laminating these guys..

My kiddos have been mastering their multiplication facts and some are heading into division with my Kicking It Math Multiplication and Kicking It Math Division products.  They love earning their new belts!

And last but not least, a fun little freebie for you!  We have been learning about equivalent fractions, and have been having fun with this What Does the Fox Say? About Equivalent Fractions Match-Up Game. They love the song and sing it as they are playing.  That can be a bit grating, I'm not going to lie, but knowing that they are practicing equivalent fractions, makes it a whole lot easier to swallow! 

I am also linking up with Freebie Friday from Teaching Blog Addict to share this freebie!  You can download the freebie at my TpT store here.