Five For Friday

Happy Friday!  It is the last day before spring break and I am P-U-M-P-E-D.   Before I leave on a jet plane I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching  to recap the week. 

We have been working hard to wrap up our ELA unit 3.  This unit was all about order makes sense.  We have been talking about the beginning, middle, end of stories as well as the story elements.  To finish our unit we chose a familiar story and wrote our own version.  The kiddos did a great job!  They were so creative and came up with ideas like The 3 Dolphins and the Big Bad Octopus or The Rock and the 3 Geckos.  After they brainstormed their story they made props and shared their stories with the class.  



As each student performed their story I chose five students to fill out a rubric.  This worked perfectly because it was an incentive to sit quietly and listen to their peers and they loved having the responsibility of holding the clipboard and filling out the sheet.  
I chose five students to fill out a rubric at a time.  After the student performed we gave two positives and then I stapled the rubrics together and the student who performed took their rubrics home with their props.

Spring fever has hit my class hard!  We have been doing lots of movement breaks and hands on activities.  This week I read Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein.  If you have never read this story check it out!  It is a great story about a little chicken who constantly interrupts his Papa as he is trying to tell him a bedtime story.  We had a good conversation about what the word “interrupting” means and the kids have been trying hard to not interrupt each other and ME ;).  



I love this time of year because I feel like things start to click.  They have a solid understanding of letters and sounds and really start to see how letters make words and words make sentences.  They can identify sight words and decode text and they are beginning to put it all together.  The “a-ha” moments are inspiring!  During literacy centers this week we worked on making sentences.  



This week we started our new math unit.  It is all about decomposing teen numbers.  For our April bulletin board we made rain clouds and umbrellas.  The kiddos that made a rain cloud decomposed one teen number into tens and ones.  The kiddos that made the umbrellas chose one teen number and then thought of six ways to break it apart. 


Did I mention that spring break starts after today?  Have you ever heard that teachers are more excited about Spring Break than the students are?!  True Story! The Hubby and I are flying to Arizona to catch the tail end of the White Sox Spring Training.  I’m so excited. We did this two years ago and it was a blast.  I am so ready for sunshine, baseball, and relaxation.  
I hope everyone has a Fantastic Friday!