Five for Friday

I don't think I can begin to express how glad I am that it's Friday... and I can sit on my couch blog-stalking while listening to Lilly give commands to the dogs and sing along to Gabba. Man, it's been a long week! A very good week--just exhausting. My husband is finishing up his training for Special Forces (Army) so he was/still is out in the field all week. That left me alone with 2 kids and 2 dogs, which equals to 4 kids, basically. Long days at school turn into long nights at home when you're the only one cooking/cleaning/tending to dogs. Again, hello FrIdAy! :)

I'm linking up with the lovely Doodle Bugs Teaching for some Five for Friday. Click on the picture to link up, too! 

1. AR Success

If we're being honest, half of my class likes to read the other half... well... just doesn't I have to FORCE any kind of reading EVEN IF it's a topic that interests them. Crazy junk! These students are low (read: really really low), so I had to think of something to encourage these struggling readers. I then made a very simple clip chart so students could show off their progress towards their AR goals. Each Monday students begin at the bottom on, "I still need to take a test." With each test they take they get to move up one spot IF they scored an 85% or higher. The picture is of the first chart I made, but then went back and added 2 more spaces--I've taken 4 of more quizzes and I've made my AR goal. Today we counted 11 out of 17 students who have made their goal.. and 3 more trailing close behind! I haven't quite yet figured out how to upload documents that aren't on TpT.. but if you'd like a copy of the chart, just comment with your email address and I'd by happy to email it to ya! ;) 

2. Hollywood Star Points

"Stop. Talking. Just. Stop." How many times have I repeated that lately? I even slowed down the sentence for emphasis, to no avail! So, last Sunday I spent way too much time cutting out Hollywood Star Points. Every time a table is doing the right thing, they earn a point. At the end of each day we note how many points each table/island has, and today we tallied up all the points and the table with the most got a small prize. Now, typically I'm not one to give rewards for doing what I expect you to do, besides our school-wide PBIS tickets, but the week before Spring Break? Hecks yah I am. And I did.. and my island friends were almost at the top of the charts! 

My tables do have group names that correspond with my Holly theme,  such as Paramount and MGM, but I thought table #s worked just fine! :)

3. Science lab fun

This week in science lab we used stream tables to teach about erosion. Students created mountains and had it "rain" on them, made plateaus and saw how deltas are formed. Pretty cool stuff! They even had to decide where to build their "houses" and do a risk assessment based on what they know about erosion. They loved it!

4. Date night... with the kids!

Since Daddy is gone, the kids and I had a date night/Mom doesn't feel like cooking night at Chick-Fil-A. Love that joint!

5. On My Honor lap books

We are almost done reading On My Honor and so the creation of the lap books has started. We have been doing word studies all along, as well as character analysis and various other activities. In the pictures the students are in the beginning processes of creating their books, starting with their vocab folders, name poems and character sketches. Much more to do!

Enjoy your weekends... you deserve it! And don't forget to link up!!