Five for Friday

I am way behind on adding posts so I thought I'd at least hit some highlights from our week. I hope to come back and fill in more details over the weekend. A great way to hit highlights is to join
 Doodle Bugs Teaching for the

#1

Monday was International Dot Day. We joined with over 1.8 million(ish) people to celebrate the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds. We created our own dots and then used an app to make them come to life. It was pretty amazing!

#2

Also to celebrate #DotDay we Skyped with two classrooms. One in Wisconsin and the other in Texas. We had a book talk and shared our dots! Great to connect globally. I am very excited we will be taking part in the Global Read Aloud project soon!

#3

We celebrated our 30th day of school this week. We have been celebrating each time a zero shows up. Zero the Hero makes a visit to the classroom. This time the treat was Onion Rings!

#4

My students are blogging this year! I can't tell you how much I love it. We are using KidBlogs. This week they blogged about #DotDay!

#5

Every Friday we wear our school colors and have a contest in the school. We tied for first today! Can you guess our school colors? Showing our Panther Pride! 

A busy week....but oh so rewarding!

Five for Friday

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching  to share 5 random things from my week! It was a short week, and I forgot to take enough pictures...but here's what I have.

On Monday I had a work day....had to get out those 2nd quarter report card grades and comments. I was thankful to come off of break to a work day. Every Monday I pick up my grandson E and give his mom some extra time in her classroom. It was good to be back to routine. He really was happy to see me, even if this picture doesn't show it. He loves his grandma!

 

 

On Tuesday we had a professional development day. In the morning we filled each other's buckets with postive comments, and talked about writing. In the afternoon the whole district got together for lunch and a great motivational speaker, Dave Weber. He kept us laughing, made us think and we took away some awesome food for thought.

 

I also used this time to clean up and put away all things Christmas....well almost all things. I couldn't say goodbye to the Rootbeer Reindeer just yet. They worked so hard, and they are so cute!

 

 

The students came back Wednesday and I was so excited to tell them.....

 

our pen pal letters arrived! We began a writing project with my grandson's class in Nebraska. They were so excited to read their letters and also ready to write back. What a motivational and wonderful thing to do!

 

I am always concerned how much they will forget while they are gone for over two weeks. On Thursday during Reader's Workshop at share time I was anxious to hear them share their strategies. My principal walked through about that time and I invited her to stay and listen in. ( Admittedly, I was a little concerned that might not have been the BEST idea) However...this is a note I received from her later that day...

What an exciting opportunity for me to see/hear first graders share exactly what strategies the students used while reading independently. It was clear they have a variety of strategies to choose from, that they were engaged in their independent reading knowing that they were going to have to share out. I loved that they used their books to refer to. Most of all the excitement about their love for reading was so evident!

Awesome!


I am one proud teacher!

Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday Link Up

I never seem to make it on Friday...then Saturday rolls in, well you know the deal. I am pushing myself to post tonight. I really want to have an active blog! Tell me please, how do you do it???
I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Five for Friday

Monday night was our Parent Tech Night. We were asked to have our students share how they use technology in the classroom. We had the Think Pads for a week in our room. We explored and tried it out. I shared this video for parents on Monday night, while the students shared how they used the Think Pads in our room during the week.

One of the beauties of sharing our campus with the middle and high school is getting involved in school spirit to the max! We enjoyed cheering them on during our homecoming parade.

There is always time for some fun relay races. This was a day we wanted to get some energy out. Our first grade team stirred up some fun competition!

Several critters have been introduced in our first grade class. I loved hearing them introduced and explained so well during our Parent Technology Night. Sometimes a good ole' fashioned stuff toy and a story can teach as well as technology, if not better!

All my weeks must have some time for this little man. My grandson E...right after he sent the cat running with his antics! All boy!

 

Have a great weekend, may God bless those who have served and are serving, and your families. We appreciate your sacrifice!

Linking Up for My First Time

This will be my first time linking up with

 I am a day late...of course! Still working on how to be a blogger! But here is my Five For Friday

1. Time with E

Every week has some time spent with E...my only grandchild who lives near by. He keeps me on my toes...getting close to the 2 year old mark!

 

2. Remembering....

Of course my first graders have no memory. I was so happy to see that last week's lesson inspired a first grader to do this in writing. The details are amazing! YES! We are working on the trait of ideas!

 

 

3. Parent Night at the Book Fair..

Glad I have a willing intern to dress up and read the book Glamsters to all our guests! She did an amazing job, and not just that night, but all the time. I am blessed to have her in my room. I love her excitement and enthusiasm. It is refreshing to be around.

4. Freedom Week...teaching first graders about the Constitution was a bit difficult at times, but I think they did get what is important! This was an activity we did as a team. The students shared what they could do as citizens that would contribute to America being a better nation. We also did Reader's Theaters that were about our nation's history and put the Consitution into kid friendly language.

5. Panther Pride

We won the weekly competition 2 weeks in a row. 100% of my students wore their green and gold, showing off their pride. We won ribbons and the BIG ribbon they are holding. Love those smiles!

 

Enjoy your weekend! I'll aim for a real Friday post next week!