Five for Friday

 Let me start off by saying that I did not quite fit everything into the week before Halloween like I had planned, so this week we did our pumpkin science.  It may become tradition for two reasons: Everyone is getting rid of pumpkins on the cheap after Halloween, and the kids have had “hands on” experience with pumpkins and are bursting with schema!  I wasn’t sure how it would fly, but the kids were 100% into the whole experience.

 Because we have done apples and bats in this same format, students did most of this pumpkin book either collaboratively with their teams, or individually during workshop time. 

Let’s talk word wall for a second… I have finally found a system that is working! 

 I bought this little pink box at ikea during the summer.  I typed up the year’s worth of words one day, put them in teaching order in the little pink box and the rest is history.

Although this is roughly my 16th word wall, {why must they change the words every.single.year?} I still found that in years past, I just couldn’t keep up with the pacing of introducing.  I would skip a week here and there and then all of a sudden it was December so I would start throwing words everywhere in a spastic panic. #justbeingreal

 Last week we had what I thought was a red ribbon assembly.  At least that’s what I was told!  It turns out it was a surprise assembly for me!  I won the COLORIZE your classroom grand prize put on by Astrobrights Paper! I have so much to share but have been waiting for the release of production.  I can share some quick snapshots for now that I have been given by coworkers. I can’t wait to share the entire thing from start to finish.  It was such an incredible experience.

The pictures below were taken after a tear-jearking video of my students, colleagues, and administration.  They had even arranged to have my family there in the audience.  My coworkers had hidden them from me and when I saw my husband and children in the crowd it was such a special moment. 

 If you click on the picture below, you can read the write up from our school website. 

 

 If you are looking for new ways to incorporate honoring veterans into your standards based learning, I am super excited about my newest unit.  It’s still discounted!

 Every year we create a class banner for the Veterans Day Assembly.  The students color the pieces and we arrange them on a large piece of butcher paper to put up at the assembly.  There are also other activities to do with this as well.  You can check it out by clicking the picture.

And that’s a wrap for this week!