Five for Friday

I can't believe that another week has come to an end! I am really enjoying my new batch of second graders, and that makes it so easy to get up and go to work every day and even stay up late at night and create fun stuff for them to use. But, no matter how much I love them, I am still soooooo tired on Fridays. Whew! They do suck it out of me!

So...I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday  and giving you a quick peek into my week!

I made these expanded form self-checkers my very first year of teaching. I broke them out today for the first time after a 2-year hiatus from teaching math. I remember it taking me FOREVER to figure out how to make them, but they were sooooo useful. I'm going to try to update them for my teammates...and hopefully it will be a lot easier this time around!

We just started using CKLA after beginning the year with Treasures. It has definitely been hard for me to embrace it because it just doesn't fit my teaching style. So...I've been doing everything I can to make it more engaging for the kids and myself while also not straying from the curriculum itself. The kids seemed to LOVE the first domain, which was fairy tales and tall tales. The skills strand feels a little...well, bland. I've tried to turn comprehension questions into teamwork projects and make chants for the phonics pieces.

I might have even wore a cowboy hat one day. :)

I found this awesome book at Pottery Barn Kids in Denver last weekend. It takes kids through a story of a boy becoming a reader, finding a place to read, someone to read with, and how he should use voice. It is amazing. Definitely try to find it!

These A-Z bookends were another fabulous find at Pottery Barn Kids. They matched my classroom perfectly, and I am now just waiting to bring the Diary of a Wimpy Kid collection up to school to put between them.

I decided I wanted to make a fun shirt to wear to work today, so I whipped this one up last night. I seriously love my Silhouette Cameo and my heat press.

Click on the pic below to head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching for more Five for Friday link-ups!