Five for Friday: Thank Goodness for Long Weekends!

It's Friday again! It's been another interesting week! I am thankful for a work day today and a chance to get everything set for our 3rd quarter! Its hard to believe we are half way done with the year!

Here is what has been doing on this week!

1.  We had to get new bulletin boards up so I decided to do one based around the Oliver Jeffers' books we had been reading! He is a favorite author! You can check out some of the ways we have used his books in our room here!

2. We have had so many rainy days, so I decided to bring some puzzles from home! We ended up doing them during our math block one day... Some kids got through several puzzles, other groups 2-3, this group... they finished 99 pieces of a 100 piece puzzle! Wish we knew where that missing piece is!! Puzzles are wonderful tools to help teach problem solving and logic skills! I am going to be keeping several at school so we can keep practicing!

3. Last night we had a school family night... We decided to show our parents how they could use games to help their kids practice sight words and math facts at home! 

We had three stations: board games, top it (with a deck of cards), and bang! With Popsicles sticks! It was a huge hit and so many parents commented on how they felt like they could do this at home, which was the goal, so overall it was a great success!

4. Thank goodness for work days! I needed one so badly to get us ready for the second half of school. Every year it seems like I end up changing our organizational systems based on my kids' needs! To help manage papers we are going back to workshop folders, we are pulling out journals to help with our Daily 5 writing station, and I am switching out their writing folders to include some writing tools (you can find them here). I got so much more done too! But, not report cards....that will be a task for the weekend. Thankfully most of my list got checked off...

...and then it grew with new ideas and things I wanted to do!

5. It was a difficult week... lots of things going on. I am trying to have a good attitude about life, but it is SO hard sometimes. A couple weeks ago one of the elders in my church preached a sermon from Isaiah 9:6 and it was such an encouragement to remember some of these beautiful attributes of who Jesus is! Even in the midst of disappointment, it is nice to hold on to His truths!

Have a restful weekend! I am so thankful that we have Monday off! I look forward to enjoying the weekend after all the work I got done today!

Be sure to check out what other teachers have been up to at Doodle Bugs Teaching!