What a week!

 Hello there!  I am writing this on Sunday night and I am just finishing up lessons for the upcoming week.  I don't know about you, but I am all kinds of shuffling things around to make it ALL fit.  Sigh.  We haven't even started out RTI or ELD pull-outs.  But, I have a new plan this week, and I hope that it works:)  Well, at least if it is better:)

  I am proud of my littles.  We made it to 8 minutes of stamina!  Wooohooo!  The problem is, fitting in the Daily 5, well, Daily! LOL!  We do it, but not in its formal setting, and the kids are asking for it, so I moved some things around that will hopefully help us.

I know, we've only written down 3 days, but that's my fault.  They are doing really well.

Since I had to change things up quite a bit, our time to choose books daily has gone out the door.  Insert this idea I got from Instagram.  I am not even sure whom it was, but I quickly took a photo of it and recreated it to fit my classroom.  We started our shopping days this past week, and it has worked so well.  The kiddos remember more than I do, so that is even better.

I have to tell you, this next thing, I have been meaning to put together since the start of school.  I really just never got around to it.  My kiddos needed somewhere to put their reading bags.  Their desks just weren't working.  So I headed to Wal*Mart and purchased these crates, I had wanted black, but there weren't 8 of them, so since pink matches, I went with it.  I bought the baskets at the Dollar Tree.  I put a label for each table and now their bags fit perfectly inside.  It is also much easier to have my 5th grade helpers change their books (with my guidance of course).  

Another big change was my direction board.  I had my purchased ones that I loved, but were just too small for my kiddos to see, and just didn't have the right photos for my class.  So I made my own.  Not sure if you can see (if you click on the photo you will be able to see better), Morning work has a girl with a sun behind her.  Then, I added a photo of myself for the kiddos to see me next.  I used photos that were similar to what we have in our class, and it has made all the difference, they know exactly what to do.  I even put a the work that they are supposed to be working on, for those that are not sure what activity they should be doing.  I have quite a few more to add, but so far, I love this change.

Our stamp center is working so much nicer since I bought these ice cube trays and placed the alphas inside.  I added the letters in sharpie at the botton of each cube, and that helps the kiddos know where they go.  I will be honest, this center is ALWAYS picked up, but the stamps are not always where they are supposed to go, and that's okay.  I have a helper put them back, or even my 5th grade helpers do it.  It works.

One of the first class activities we did was our name activity.  They have been sitting in a nice neat pile waiting for me to put them up, and I finally did.  This is only one side of the class and they are back to back with more.  I have 29 kiddos, so space is limited.

Last weekend I put together a non-fiction newsletter/reading about 9/11.  My kiddos love the real photos of these newsletters and I thought we could use something that was appropriate for their age.  That is how this little product came about.  My kiddos had so many questions and we learned about Patriotism.  I think that even though it is a tragedy that happened, we need to inform our kiddos of how we coped, and what we are doing to keep them safe.  We made the Patriot Day watches and showed our USA pride.

If you would like to see the product, click on the photo and it will take you to my store.

 My daughter and I have a tradition of taking a photo every Friday before school. They can range from happy, exhausted, silly, to all at the same time.  We did this every Friday last year and I made a collage that I LOVE!  So here is our picture.

And I didn't get a great picture, like last year, but it was crazy sock day!  Wooohoo!  We ended the day with a sock hop and I was laughing so hard at these crazy socks!  Check out the toes!  It was our own personal, K & 1, GONoodle time:)

Whew!  What a week!  I am not sure I am ready for this one, but morning is coming up fast, so I am off to bed!  Have a great week!