Can I Get a "Five for Friday!"

Yup, it's Friday!  (Begin excited dance session now!)  All of this excitement means that it is time for Doodle Bug's Five for Friday linky.

 

 

 

5 random things from this week....HMMMMMMM???  Where do I begin????

 

 

1. This week was only a three day week for us.  We had off for MLK Jr on Monday and today was Records day so no kiddos!!!!  I finished up entering our PALS test results, putting together their interim reports, organizing some classroom stuff, and attempted to get a good start on my lesson plans.  Let me tell you, it was wonderful not having a room full of little owls today.  The quiet was so relaxing.  I needed that!

 

2. I finished up a cohort about Rigor in the classroom.  I got a lot out of this professional development/cohort.  The faciliator was Wonderful (yes with a capital W.)  Bonus was we got the book that the pd was developed around for FREE!

 



3. From the above mentioned cohort/pd, I have been putting more of an emphasis on my vocabulary station.  I have been making it a point to introduce and give meaning to each lesson's vocabulary in our literacy curriculum.  The kids have been doing beyond amazing with it.  Some words we give a verbal meaning to and others we give a movement to.  After we have worked with and reviewed the words for an entire week, I put them into a literacy station.  The little owls then pick one of words, write it on a vocabulary page, and draw a picture to show what it means.  I have them tell me all of these things orally later.

 

These are some of the vocabulary mats that go into the workstation and the vocabulary cards I display.  A teacher in the district made them and was kind enough to share them with those of us taking the cohort.

 

4. I have also been "beefing" up my calendar time by incoporating some much needed math skills review.  This week I used the below activity to work on the concepts of more/less and long/short.  I had the page enlarged and laminated so we can do this whole group right now.  We are using our names at this time.  I'm going to jump into sight words next to hit our other area of weakness.

 

 

 

If you would like a copy to try this with your group, just leave your e-mail in a comment.  I can send it right to you.

 

5. Last thing and not school related, I am getting the house to myself tomorrow.  I cannot express just how excited I am to be able to clean and do school stuff without my little man running around asking, "What's this, Momma?"  Love him to death but sometimes I just need a bit of space.  :)

 

Thanks for reading.  If you would like to check out some more randomness, head over to Doodle Bug's blog and see what others are posting.

 

~Erin