Five For Friday

Well hello there Friday!  You sure took your time getting here this week, didn’t you?  Ah well.  It is great to see you again.  And hello teacher friends!  Howzabout a little Five For Friday for your entertainment?  Thanks so much Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting!

Now….what does a teacher do when her husband has shoulder surgery?  You know it!  She sits in the waiting room and writes lesson plans for our new reading curriculum!  That’s how the week started off around here.

Then, it was back to work and hurry it up please!  Being a reading specialist, it takes a bit before my groups start, and I am so beyond ready to be back to teaching.  My team and I help with STAR testing and all sorts of things, while teachers get to know their students and get their classes off to a good start.  But now it’s time to get going.  So this week I spent time preparing differentiated close reading passages.  I love using these because they include levels A – I, so each student can read at his or her instructional (or independent) level, practice vocabulary, and respond to their reading with text evidence.  Plus, Fall topics are always lots of fun! (You can see lots of differentiated passages here if you are interested.)  Close reading passages prepared…..check!

And we can’t start groups without lots of brag tags and brag bracelets, right? Don’t you just love the jar with the chalkboard lid?  So cute!  Target dollar spot of course.  Brag tags and brag bracelets prepared…..check!

Hooray, hooray!  We finally have finished our first of many, extension packs.  We’ve had so many requests to add higher level passages (J – M) to our close reading leveled passages sets, so we just had to do it!  Now they will be available for levels A – M altogether.  We will be adding extension packs to as many sets as we can as the year goes along, and will eventually have them for all of our sets. If you are a fan, stay tuned for more extension packs to come.

How about a Friday chuckle?  Heard in a kinder class:

Teacher:  Joey, we’re sitting crisscross applesauce on the carpet right now.
Joey:  Oh, sorry Mrs. S.  It’s because I had a taco for lunch!
(Always blame it on the taco! Ha!)

Travis while taking a STAR test:   Oh, oh, oh….I know this one….I just can’t remember it.  Isn’t it so
                                                        annoying when you forget the answer, teacher?
(Yeah Travis.  We agree…. it is so annoying!  Ha!)

Teacher:  Mason, we don’t lick our pants!  

(Ha, ha, ha, ha!  Do you think that the teacher thought she’d ever say that to a student?  Oh my goodness those kinders are funny!)

There you go!  Life and doings from our school this week.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Smiles,
Kristin