Five for Friday

I'm linking up this week with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly Five for Friday linky.

I haven't linked up in a couple of weeks because this is actually the first full week of school we have had in two weeks. Let me just tell you, it.was.exhausting. I think I may have forgotten a little bit what it was like to go to school five days in a row. I know many of y'all can relate! 

It may not look like much, but we actually got about two inches before it was all said and done. Here in Georgia, two inches is kind of a big deal!

Every Monday morning I like to post a little "Monday Motivation" on Instagram. If you're not following me on Insta yet, head on over and find me! My name is teachdreaminspire!

We did manage to squeeze in a little Oreo moon phases activity. My kiddos had so much fun! This is probably one of my favorite activities to do with my second graders! What's even better is my room mom graciously provided us with the Oreos!!

I saw this idea on Reagan's blog {Love her ideas!}, Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits a couple of years ago and have been incorporating it into my revising and editing lesson ever since. The big glasses are to get students thinking about how to revise their writing by "looking closer" at their piece and finding words/sentences that they can make better. The scrubby pad {I can't think of the actual word at this very moment, #pregancyproblems, ha!} is used to demonstrate how we "clean up" our writing during the editing process. My kids always get a kick out of props!

Speaking of props... We have FINALLY moved into writing our final drafts this week! To celebrate, I made my kids these fancy final draft pencils to use as they write their final draft. I found this original idea here. I also broke out the "good silver" to serve the pencils on. That was another fabulous idea from Reagan! I told them since we were using fancy pencils served on silver platters, we had to make sure we did our best work and used our neatest handwriting. Worked like a charm!

Well that's it for me this week. Do you have five random things to share? Link up! I'd love to read them!

Five for Friday {Valentine's Day}

I'm linking up on this very cold Valentine's Day with Doodle Bugs to share five random things from my week.

In Science this week we have been busy learning about stars. I projected a constellation map on my SMARTBoard and had my kids choose their favorite constellation to draw. Then, I helped them look up the meaning of each of their constellations. This quick little writing project made a cute hallway display. Here is my example...

We also began talking about our star, the sun. My kiddos made these shadow sticks at our school STEM Lab. I thought it was such a great idea! 

It was either too cold or too cloudy this week to use them outside, so we just used the projector instead to make our shadows. 

Who doesn't love getting food delivered to school?! This was what was delivered Friday for lunch...

My favorite!

In Math we have been learning how to add up to four two-digit numbers. I used this free app with my Guided Math groups this week. They loved it!

It's called Base Ten Blocks Math.

Of course who could forget celebrating Valentine's Day... on a Friday... on Friday the 13th... without having outdoor recess in a couple of days... Gah! I did manage to get some snaps in of our V-Day fun though!

I made these Valentines for my kiddos. 

Thank you to Rachelle Smith from What the Teacher Wants for sharing these for free in her TPT Shop!! They were a hit!! The Crayola smelly markers came from Michaels. 

My kids wrote one thing they love about their family on a whiteboard and stood in front of this background for a little photo shoot. I uploaded our pictures to our class Shutterfly account.

Take a look at these Valentine boxes and Valentines! They got so creative!

There you have it, a whole buncha randomness to kick off your Saturday! I'd love for you to join me tomorrow as I share our Three Little Pigs fairy tale study! Happy Valentine's Day! 

Five for Friday

Happy, happy Friday y'all! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for her weekly Five for Friday linky.

Since this was the last school day of the month, I announced our February leaders of the month.

Starting Monday, my new leaders get to sit at the "leader" table at the center of the room.

You can only imagine the excitement of getting to sit at our special table!

I've had the biggest problem with incomplete work lately. Originally this shoe pocket was going to be  used for students to keep their water bottles in. Well, that lasted for about a week because the dang thing wouldn't stay hanging. Since it was already labeled with student numbers, I decided to use it as a way to remind students, and myself, when they have incomplete work. They will place a red piece of construction paper in their pocket if they do not finish an assignment during the allotted class time. I chose red paper because it matches the color of their work in progress folder. They know to check their folder if they have a red square in their pocket and once they complete the missing assignment, they can take the square out of their pocket.

With all of the baby doctor's appointments I've had to miss school for lately, I've really relied on my substitute teacher tub. This tub contains extra work in case students are finished early and emergency sub plans just in case I have to be out unexpectedly. 

I've also had to do a lot of multitasking. I've been grading papers while I wait for the doctor! Why have an appointment time if you still have to wait to see the doctor?! That I'll never understand. Sigh.

I had my final formal observation for the school year and it was fantastic! My kiddos loved being doctors and performing surgery on their contraction patients. They even got to wear gloves and masks and use Band-Aids so their patients could "heal". My county has placed an emphasis on student engagement this year and this lesson sure did fit the bill. You can grab a copy of the contraction surgery I used here from First Grade Fever.

I came across a picture that Katie from Queen of the First Grade Jungle posted to her Instagram of a writing lesson her kiddos were doing and I knew that I had to incorporate it into my opinion writing unit.

I had my kids bring in a collection of toys and choose their favorite toy from their collection. Then, they wrote an opinion writing piece about why they chose that toy. Having their toys actually sitting in front of them worked really well for those kiddos that have trouble adding details to their writing.

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for a little Five for Friday fun!

Last Friday we had our second trimester ultrasound and were able to find out the gender of our baby! We are over the moon about welcoming a sweet baby boy into the world this May! We had a gender reveal brunch last Saturday with family and friends to share the news. You can read more about that here on our personal blog.

Our district's Literacy Coach has been popping by my school once a month for Writer's Workshop training. She shared this A-MAZING way to collect data on student strengths and weaknesses in writing. The components for each standard are broken down into a checklist format to quickly see student strengths and weaknesses related to the standard. I gave my students a pre-assessment for opinion writing and checked off the components that they had and what were missing from their piece. I then was able to see the areas in which I needed to focus my instruction, and develop whole class writing goals to develop my mini lessons around. I also developed individual writing goals for students based on their areas of strengths and weaknesses. For example, I only had one student who did not supply reasons that supported her opinion, so I know that I need to work with that one individual on that component during writing conferences. 

We started a new morning routine since our return from Winter Break. I toss this ball to two to three students each morning and ask them a question. Sometimes I may ask for them to tell me one thing they learned the day before that really stuck with them, or I may ask for them to tell me one thing they are most excited about learning today. I also may ask questions like, tell us about your favorite TV show or tell us one thing you did last weekend. My kiddos have really gotten into it and are so excited when it's their turn to have the ball! It's also increased our sense of classroom community! I love when they feel connected with one another!

We have been working on fairy tales these past couple of weeks. The first fairy tale we started with was Little Red Riding Hood. To get the kiddos excited, I brought out the book in this picnic basket. After we talked about what we already know about fairy tales and brainstormed several examples, I had them guess what fairy tale they thought we would be reading today. After several incorrect guesses, one of my sweeties shouted out "Little Red Riding Hood because she uses a basket to take cookies to her Grandma!". That was followed by an "OOOOOHHHH YEEEAHHH!" from the rest of the class. Ha!

This was out first full week working in Literature Circles. My class has really picked up on the routines and procedures of Literature Circles and it has quickly become one of their favorite times of the day. Not only do I love seeing what they are able to do independently, it also makes me one happy teacher to walk around and listen to them talk so in depth about their books with their Literature Circle group. If you want to hear more about my Literature Circles, you can find my blog post here. I also have a Literature Circle for Primary packet that is posted in my shop. You can find that here.