Currently, Five for Friday, and SALE!

Hey hey! It's the weekend! WOO HOO!!!

Linking up with the ever-fabulous Farley for this month's installment of Currently:

Listening: My 3 year old's favorite movie is Cars. He is OBSESSED! And I'm OK with that because I love seeing how giddy he gets during his favorite parts. KACHOW!!

Loving: It's FREEZING cold here in Wisconsin right now. I'm as snug as a bug in a rug here with my laptop, typing away to you, my bloggy friends!

Thinking: Indoor recess... ugh! So on Tuesday it was 55 degrees here. GLORIOUS! Wednesday it was a crazy sleet/hail/snow hot mess. Indoor Recess. Thursday and Friday: below zero wind chills. Indoor Recess. We have a SERIOUS case of cabin fever over here!

Wanting/Needing: We were supposed to go to the Dells this weekend. The Dells is a tourist community in WI about 2 hours from my house. Indoor water parks, theme parks, and my brother-in-law lives there too. We had the car all packed up tonight aannnddd... my car wouldn't start. BOO!! And it was even in the shop all day today! After trying to charge the battery and jump start it, it still won't start. So we had to cancel our trip and stay home this weekend. Maybe next weekend. My grandpa has a cottage there, so it's not that big of a deal, but still :(

Pet Peeve: We've been talking about the difference between real reading and fake reading. I get so disheartened when I see (or think I'm seeing) fake reading. We do Daily 5 in my classroom, and I think it's so empowering when the kiddos get to choose their own books. Except when I give them the option to choose their own books and they don't take advantage... it makes me sad.
I also despise the sound of velcro being pulled over and over. I know. It's weird. But it's like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Up next... Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday!
I'll try to be brief :)

1. WE FINISHED MAP TESTING!!  Shout it from the roof tops! I am so, so, SO proud of how my kiddos did too! I had several kids gain 30+ points (!!!!!!) from their Fall scores! For those of you who don't MAP test, I would say an average growth over the entire year is anywhere between 10-15 points. 30 points!?!?! YESSSS!!!!

2. We've been working on Cause & Effect this week. So. Tough. I made a Pinterest-inspired anchor chart with Angry Birds, and I think that REALLY helped! Sorry I forgot to snap a pic :(

3. Speaking of Cause & Effect, I've also been using Google Forms to do a little formative assessment. Here are a few of my kiddos taking their quiz:


LOVE how I can print out the spread sheet and figure out who "gets it" and who doesn't!

4. So I have a reading group with two very eager-to-participate readers and one quiet reader. The quiet one never gets a chance to talk. Enter Talking Tokens.
They each get three red/yellow counting chips. When they answer a question, they have to give me one. When they're out, sorry, no more talking for you until everyone uses their tokens. After everyone uses their tokens, I give them all back for Round 2. I've even done "Phone a Friend," where if you don't know the answer, you can pass your token to someone who's out, and they can help you. Except the person who passed the token has to answer the question. You're not off the hook that easily! The funny thing was, with the group I mentioned above, guess who was out of tokens first? Yep, my quiet reader! I guess the other two were planning how to use their tokens wisely LOL!

5. Science Interactive Notebooks! We've started our Solar System unit, and they are just LOVIN' writing in their notebooks again. Here we are completing a Venn Diagram.
What I love about this Venn Diagram is that it's actually a foldable. The kiddos aren't actually writing in the circles or the football shaped wedge in the middle. There are three flaps, and they write underneath the flaps! YAY for not having to cram lots of ideas in a teeny tiny space!


Last but not least, I'm participating in the SUPER SALE on SUNDAY (and Monday)!  WOO HOO!!! Check out my store HERE!

Thanks Ashley Hughes for the cute graphic!
Happy weekend! Not sure what we're going to do now that we're not getting away... Sometimes those end up being the best weekends though :)


Photobucket

5 comments

  1. Here from Currently, I have always wanted to go to the Dells! It will probably never happen, now that my family doesn't live in the midwest anymore, but it looks awesome! I love the idea of talking tokens! Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Angela,

    I feel your pain on inside recess. We had it 4 days in.a.row. last week. I used some adventure fitness videos for the last two days because I couldn't take it anymore! LOL! If you haven't checked them out before you should. It's free too, which is great. When I first read your Currently I thought it said "needing to get AWAY FROM the fam". Glad I re-read it....Bummer about your trip. Enjoy your weekend. Stay warm!
    Jean
    Diving Into 2nd Grade

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL sometimes I feel that I need to get away from them and have a little alone time... I fixed it :)

      Delete
  3. I love your talking token idea, so need this in first grade. Hope you figure out your car. I am your newest follower.

    Terri
    The First Grade Princess

    ReplyDelete
  4. Angela,
    I just seriously laughed out loud right now...LOVE your pet peeves. Why do the kids always pull on and off the velcro strap while sitting on the rug?!? SO irritating!!!! LOL
    Vicky
    Traditions, Laughter and Happily Ever After

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. I *love* reading comments!! Make sure you are a no reply blogger or leave your email address so we can stay in touch!

Back to Top