Five for Friday

I feel like I'm late to the party... over 80 people have already linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly Five for Friday linky party!

Here's my week in review....

1. It might seem simple, but I got one of my new TPT purchases all printed, filed in page protectors, and neatly in my binder with cute little tabs.  I get really excited about these things.

This is the unit if you're interested.  It's amazing!

2. I squeezed in some DRA reading assessments today and I am beyond excited about my kiddos' progress.  I had one little gem go from a Level 1 in February to a Level 10 today!  Woot woot!

3.  I got my registration confirmation for the 'I Teach K' conference in Las Vegas.  I cannot even express my full excitement for this.  July cannot come quick enough.  I am so thankful for my awesome principal who is sending us!  It'll be a fun week!  Three names I'm most excited about: Deanna Jump, Kim Adsit, and Shari Sloane.  Anyone else attending this conference?  {We could have a mini-blog meet up!}

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4.  I got to meet up with a blogger from my area.  It was nice to chat with a fellow educator.  You should check out her blog.  She's loves technology-- I could learn a lesson or two from her!  :)

5.  32 days left of school-- need I say more?!

Five for Friday... on Sunday

I'm a little late to the party, but here's my Five for Friday!

1. I was lucky enough to attend a full day training with Dr. Jean!  I've had her songs and cheers in my head since I left the conference.  {It's true-- just ask my husband!}  There are so many amazing ideas I plan to implement into my classroom.

2. We started learning about plants this week.  We began by generating a flower full of our plant schema.  {Check out this post from The First Grade Parade for some cute plant ideas.}  We also graphed which type of plant we liked best.  I was amazed that fruit won out over flowers!

3.  We also started watching the life cycle of a butterfly on Friday.  Unfortunately, the company didn't get the memo to ship the little critters at a later date so there they were freezing in my mailbox on Thursday.  Regardless, the kids are super excited about watching them grow and change.  I told them they have to remember everything that is happening so they're ready for our study of insects in a few weeks!

4.  I got a super cute necklace that I ordered in the mail.  You absolutely have to check out this girl's store.  Such cute stuff!  If you follow her on Facebook she has promos all the time.

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5. I already have my lesson plans ready for next week so I've got the weekend off!  AMAZING feeling!  :)

Be sure to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party every Friday!

Science Fair Fun

In my class we've been studying weather.  Last week, we made water cycle bracelets.  My kiddos said I was the best teacher ever!  {They're so easy!}

Water Cycle Bracelet Materials {per child}:
1 white pipe cleaner
1 yellow bead
1 clear bead
1 white bead
1 blue bead
1 green bead

On my Smart Board I displayed an image of the water cycle with each step labeled.  I used the Whimsical Weather unit from A Cupcake for the Teacher.  As we discussed each process of the water cycle we added the appropriate bead to our pipe cleaner.  To finish, I rushed around and twisted the ends of the pipe cleaner to make a bracelet.  It's a good hands-on visual for the little ones.

This week we watched the water cycle video on Brain Pop Jr. and checked out all of the information on our science fair display.  {Again, I used elements from the Whimsical Weather unit.}  We also completed our rain in a cup experiment.

Rain in a Cup Materials {per group}:
1 clear plastic cup
water
Barbasol shaving cream
food coloring
straw
*In my test experiment at home I first used a Dollar Tree brand shaving cream... let's just say it didn't work so well.  The Barbasol brand worked much better.

Directions:  Add water to each cup {about 3/4 full}.  Next, add shaving cream to the top.  {To help move the process along, use a straw to make a thin spot in the shaving cream.}  Last, add food coloring to the shaving cream.  Within a few minutes, the food coloring will break through from the shaving cream and fall into the water.  {Like when clouds get so heavy they have to release the weight as rain.}

Our weather study experiment will be on display at our school's science night.  Along with all of the displays from other classes, there will be hands-on science activities for the students to do with their families.  It should be a fun night!

Next up, plants!  Here is my latest little kindergarten unit available in my TPT store.

Tomorrow I get to attend a professional development with Dr. Jean!  So excited!  :)

Five for Friday

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party.  This week was my Spring Break and while I didn't go on a tropical trip I sure did enjoy all of my free time.

1. I went to eye doctor.  I hate going to the eye doctor.  My left eye is so awful I always feel like a dummy when I can't read their dang letter chart!  On the upside, I ordered some super cute new Kate Spade glasses.  I don't wear my glasses on the regular, but I love throwing them in once in awhile.

2. My hubby and I decided to jump on the spaghetti squash train and have a super healthy spaghetti dinner. I've been seeing different recipes on Pinterest using spaghetti squash, but I've been scared to try them.  I'm a real stickler for weird textures in my food and I thought for sure it'd make for a traumatic experience.  After seeing Jackson rave about it on The Biggest Loser, however, we decided to give it a go.  The verdict... It has very little taste and is a little crunchier than noodles (that could be because of our prep though), but not too bad overall.  We haven't decided if we'll do it again or just stick to our whole grain pasta.

3. I got my creative on and added some leather elbow patches to a cardigan!  I really wanted elbow patches on a black and white striped cardigan, but I went with something I already had in the closet.

{In case you haven't tried, getting a picture of elbow patches is a little awkward.}

4. I got a mailer advertisement for The Limited.  I usually put this type of mail directly in the garbage, but attached to this mailer was a gift card for $20!  I carefully read the fine print and made my husband read the fine print... it was really just $20 to spend in their store.  A.W.E.S.O.M.E.  This is what I got:

5. My mom and step dad are coming for a visit tomorrow!  I just love being closer to family.  :)

Happy weekend y'all!

Classes 4 Classes

So, I'm just sitting here on my spring break watching ABC World News.  {I know, it doesn't sound too exciting, but it's nice to not have anything that must be done.}  Anyways, a teacher from Sandy Hook Elementary was featured tonight for a new website that she just started up called Classes 4 Classes.  It's all about kids paying if forward.  She came up with the idea after people from around the world showered her students with gifts after the December tragedy.  I think it'd be a great classroom project and a wonderful life lesson.  Has anyone else heard of this website?

Get cracking... comparing numbers

Today we worked on comparing numbers.  Each table of students got a basket full of plastic Easter eggs.  Inside the eggs were numbers.  They also each had a supply of connecting cubes.  The directions were to pull two eggs out of the basket, open one, write the number, build it with cubes, and repeat for the second egg.  Then, they compared the two numbers by looking at their cube towers.  I was amazed at how well the lesson went.  Kiddos who normally struggle with math skills were rocking it out!

Here's a quick freebie for you to get cracking with your kids!

Directions:  Write the first number in the first egg and the second number in the second egg.

Then, make your symbol in the circle between the eggs.

Apologies for the blurry pictures.  I didn't have either of my cameras or my iPod with me so I used my old school phone to snap a few pictures.

Only 2 more days until Spring Break!  WOOHOO!  How about you?  When's your break?

Five for Friday... on Saturday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for today's Five for Friday. It was a busy week at school celebrating Read Across America week and Dr. Seuss' birthday.

1. On Tuesday we had hockey players from our local team come read to our students.  The kiddos loved it!

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2. On Thursday we dropped everything to read.  After the reading fairy floated into our room we dropped what we were doing and headed out into the hall with the rest of the school to read.  The local news even showed up to feature our event on the evening news!

(Yes, my school is only one hallway and this is the entire student body!)

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3. I did my 'Where do readers read?' lesson that I've blogged about before.  It went really well and my students were engaged throughout the entire lesson.  I did this activity this week since we're studying Dr. Seuss, but I think I'm going to move this lesson to the beginning of the year in the future.

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4. On Friday we read Dr. Seuss' 'Green Eggs and Ham' and had ourselves a little green breakfast!  Aside from the 3 kids who absolutely refused to even try it they all loved it... they always do.  We graphed our results after eating.  Since it was also pajama/stuffed animal today we cozied up all around the room to read for awhile.

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5. We've got our data boards up and running!  One board is for DRA Reading Levels.  The other board is for results from our state's diagnostic assessments.  It's a great visual for seeing where our students are academically and will be a useful discussion tool during our meetings.

That was my week.  Next week I'm looking forward to putting a few new TPT purchases to use in my classroom.  I'll let you know how it goes!