Five for Friday

It's Saturday morning, a time to sleep in, savor one's coffee, take a nice walk with the dog...sounds great, right?  Not for me- I'm heading off to grad class this morning.  When I tell my students I have to go to school on Saturdays, they can't believe it.  I also tell them I'm in 23rd grade...they love trying to figure that out!

Here's what went on this week:

We learned about the truths and misconceptions of Christopher Columbus.  First we wrote what we thought we knew, then we researched a little deeper to find out more.  We also read Encounter, by Jane Yolen to practice our visualizing and imagery skills.  

One extra special friend is having a really hard time remembering the names of the letters.  So we went back to basics with some one to one correspondance, sensory sand, whisper phones, and an incentive game.  I forsee lots of Jenga in our future. 

Three of my boys figured out that they were all reading the same Read to Self book.  They decided, completely on their own, to form their own little reading group.  I was busy with another group, and when I looked over, they were taking turns reading and discussing.  I was so proud of them.

Yesterday I received a call from the office that two boxes had arrived for me.  I sent two kids up to pick them up, and they practically danced back into the room. "What is it?" "Can we open it?" "Is it a new dress for you?" "Why are there so many stamps?"  I figured out that it was our Elf on the Shelf, but I didn't open it in front of them.  Instead, I had them write down their guesses- no one was even close! They are in for a big surprise in December...

Last night my husband and I went for dinner to one of our favorite places in town.  We've been there maybe 5 or 6 times in the last year.  As we drove up, I noticed this door to nowhere next to the adjacent gym.  I am positive I had never seen it before.  I grabbed my phone to take a picture, thinking, "What a great writing prompt!"  Then I couldn't focus on dinner (and it was lobster mac and cheese- my favorite), because I was lesson planning in my head. 

I hope you had a great week! Link up with Doodlebugs to share your five!