Five for Friday: October 24th

We made observations of our pumpkin over the course of the week after carving him last Thursday. It resembled the cover of our "Pumpkin Jack" book. I love this story as it brings the life cycle of a pumpkin into a full circle.  Next, we will put our own Jack into the school garden and watch as he decomposes over the winter. I love these hands on learning experiences!

So, my kiddos really have had a hard time keeping it together during our Read to Self time. Lots of distractions and talking with one another when they should be looking through their books. I need this time to meet with individual kiddos as well as conduct my small groups. I have quickly realized that I needed to tweak this area of my instruction. I made an activity for them to use with any book they would pick out of our library. In a word bank, I listed some of the high frequency words we have been working on. They must find a word in their story, write the word, and then the sentence it is in. I have to say....you could have heard a pin drop in the room. Woohoo!

These next three weeks are going to be very busy as we have just finished report cards and will be preparing for three conference nights. I really enjoy meeting the parents and hearing about the kids from their standpoints. However, the days are so loooonnnggg.

I try to give each parent a little summary that they can take home of our meeting. Even though report cards just went home, this little token is a quick assessment key for them to keep in helping their child succeed in areas they find challenging. 

Ahh....in the mix of the school chaos, we are also getting ready for Halloween in our house. You know the frenzy the kids go through in deciding possible costumes?! We happen to be going through Kohl's and my son saw this sweatshirt with matching socks. We thought the Adidas pants brought the costume all together as the side stripes look like bones too. He was psyched to find this and I was relieved =) LOL!

Enjoy the weekend!