Thank God It's Friday!

What a week it has been! I feel like it's been crazy non-stop alllll week long... probably because it has been! Before I go and enjoy my weekend, I wanted to share a glimpse of what my week has looked like.

 

1. Next week we are finally beginning our math rotations, and I couldn't be more excited! I am so over having whole group/independent for the entire math block, and am so glad we're ready for some movement in our lives! Since I have a Hollywood theme in my class, I named my 4 groups after concessions candy. Next to their group name is the rotation they will go in. My lowest group comes to small group first, seat work next, then math facts, followed by hands-on. Underneath the group names are the individual student names, with a cute male/female clip art picture. Loving it!  I am so excited to see how smoothly this works next week!

 

2. Speaking of small group, do we you see these red boxes? Holy moly (guacamole) I'm excited about these, too! I JUST got my small group table YESTERDAY so I went LAST NIGHT to Wal-Mart and bought all 6 of these bad boys! They are originally $17, but yours truly paid $9 a piece. Gotta love roll back prices. :) As an added bonus, the lids come off for extra storage. Go ahead and drool now. :)

 

3. I have been trying to instill the basics of story structure, so adapted this popular pinterest idea and made it work in my room.

 

I made up a quick, simple story structure map, labeling characters, setting and plot. The students used sticky notes to fill in these areas, and then elaborate setting with the mini sticky notes, adding time and place, and then elaborating on plot by adding the beginning, middle and end, and then finally problem and solution. Every kid was hard at work... even those who never are! We displayed some of these beauties in the hallway! The glorious thing about this activity is you can adapt it to almost any fictional story!

 

4. Documentation is so important these days, and I think I have finally found a system that works for me. I create a notebook (as seen below) where I have a tab for each student. Behind each tab is a parent contact form where I record all interactions I have with parents, whether face to face or via email. I usually print all the emails and just stick those in there. In the pink box I put letters from home, anything that needs to be signed and returned, and forms that invite parents to conference. Sometimes documents are important where parents simply decline a conference. :)

 

 

 

5. I have a two year old! This chick NEVER stays still long enough to take a picture, but here is my Lilly Love (holding Paco) in her new birthday outfit. Where has the time gone?!

 

 

I'm off to enjoy my weekend now, but be sure to link up!