A Peek at My Week

Hello sweet friends! Is it just me, or was this the longest. week. EVER?!?! Here's a peek as to what we've been up to this week!

Today started off on a positive note for me. We had a staff meeting and the superintendent came to pass out the monthly "You Rock" awards. One of my teammies nominated me for the award! It was a little embarrassing because I don't like everyone staring at me, but it still made me feel all warm and fuzzy :) Then the TAG (Talented and Gifted) teacher gave me a hippo cookie cutter!!! I think everyone will be getting hippo cookies next week!

1. It Weighs a Ton!

To wrap up our Measurement unit, we have been learning about weight. I have a hard time teaching this skill in the past because it's difficult to help kids to realize how much is an ounce, pound, gram, kilogram... And then it dawned on me:

DUHHH!!! I had this HUGE bag of rice in my closet (because doesn't everyone have rice in their closets at school?), so I weighed out an ounce, pound, and kilogram, put them into Ziplock bags and passed them around the circle. Last year I ordered a set of gram weights with my budget money, so I passed those around as well.

I love this food scale I ordered. Sorry, I don't know where it's from, but it works like a dream. Much better than that stupid spring scale! And yes, we're weighing one of my hippo figurines as well as a Brewers Racing Sausage Bobble Head... among other things not seen in this pic :)

2. Poetry! Fun for You and Fun for Me!

Unless you've been under a rock for the past few weeks (or years...), you know that April is the primo month for poetry. We've spent this week learning what all poems have and what some poems have. I seriously LOVE my anchor chart!

We've spent this week learning about the elements of poetry, including rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. Next week we will learn about all the kinds of figurative language. SO FUN! If you want to read more about how I teach my students to write poetry, click HERE!

3. DIY Whisper Phones!

We also talked about how poems are meant to be read aloud. The hubs made these whisper phones for me a few years ago, which came in very handy during Read to Self this week:

It only took him an hour to whip up 6 of these little guys, and the total cost was less than $10! All you need are a few elbow PVC pipe (found in the plumbing section of a home improvement store), and the purple glue.  Then I cute-ed them up with some pattered duct tape :)

4. Progress Reports? Check!

My school grades on trimesters. Yay for me that I only have to do report cards 3 times a year! But that also means I have to do progress reports 3 times a year as well. So I don't know it's a positive or negative, as I went from 4 grading sessions to 6... Progress reports are easier than report cards though because I can either give an S (satisfactory) or an N (needs improvement) for each subject area plus social development and work habits. I usually write 1-2 sentences (or more for those Ns) in each box.

While it is extra work, I do like that every six weeks parents get a report about how their children are doing. I think it keeps the lines of communication open between families and me, and there are very few surprises as to how their kids are doing in school. Progress reports went out yesterday, and I was able to crank them out in one night :)

5. Adventure to Fitness!

My BBB Jean at Diving into 2nd Grade has been whispering in my ear for months about this. After almost 2 straight weeks of indoor recess due to massive amounts of rain, I finally signed up for a FREE account for Adventure to Fitness. WHAT WAS I WAITING FOR??? Seriously, they LOVE it!!!

Not only do the bunnies get in a  work out, but they also learn educational facts about the topic. This week we did the Greek, Egyptian, and the Volcano videos. I even had kiddos from other classes asking to join us. I think at one point there were 40+ kids in my room. My teammie said that her kids were coming back sweating LOL! And to prove that it really works, check out this little love's face after running in "Mega Mode!"

LOL she was cracking me up!!!

Happy Weekend!!