Five for Friday: Spring Break is here!!!

Yes, oh yes, it has finally arrived... SPRING BREAK!!! So excited! Before my mind goes on relaxation mode, here was our week in pics....

I had to get the room prepped for our Spring arrival. We made these cute umbrellas using our wallpaper books and added raindrops with things that we love about Spring. I decorated one wall in our room with all of them. They came out great!

I have to say that we all love our sticker writing. Sometimes, I let them choose their stickers but I passed them out this time. I love when they get super excited and ask if they can add details to their backgrounds after they finish their writing. I must find some fun stickers over break for more writing prompts when we return.

It was time to finish up with Dr. Seuss this month. We were talking about oviparous animals this week which was a good intro to "Yertle the Turtle". The kids created their turtles using tissue paper and paper plates. We then did a writing piece of how we would rule as kings unlike the turtle in the story. 

This was a very busy week at our school. Our awesome art teacher has a special show every year and the theme was "Dr. Seuss" this year. Every nook and cranny is adorned with something special the kids made in grades K-5. We are very lucky to have her talent and to share them with our kiddos!

We also had Mother-Son Fun Night at a local gym. Lots of activities and food set up for the boys and their mamas. I wasn't feeling hot over the weekend but my lil guy wanted to go so badly. I'm glad to have these special moments and keepsakes =)

In ending our week, we read some Easter and bunny stories. I absolutely love "Bently and Egg". If you have never read it, you must! The kids did a writing prompt if they were an Easter Bunny and constructed their own animal to add some fun to their assignment. I am pleased with their writing progress. My favorite time of the year!

        

Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the time off if it is your Spring Break too!

Five for Friday: Spring is here!

Spring is here this week and I can hardly wait! We are starting to warm up a teeny bit here in Ohio and Spring Break is a week away! Woohoo! Here is our week in pics (for the second time since I lost my original post =( ).......

With the weather changing and the winds picking up lately, we had a great opportunity to start our weather unit. Our Scholastic magazines were about wind so my little kiddos made some kites out of construction and tissue paper. I also thought this was prime time to review the long 'i' sound we hear in kite. The kids generated some words while I typed them out. We put them on our tails of the kites and hung them from the ceiling in our room. It is so colorful. I love it....especially after this long and dreary winter!

I felt like we celebrated St. Pat's Day for the past two weeks. LOL! This was definitely a fan favorite though. The kids took various words on thematic paper (verbs on hats, adjectives on pots, nouns on rainbows, etc.) and had to put them in order to match the pics on the paper. They came out to be silly sentences which brought about lots of giggling. Music to my ears =)

 

Another monthly thematic unit that has continued on and on is all of our Dr. Seuss books in celebrating Read Across America. I have so many that I love that it does take me the entire month to get through them all. Today we read "Oh the Places You'll Go!". I bought this book for each of my sons when they began Kindergarten. As they have gone through school, their teacher each year writes them a message in it. It is so cool to go back and read each one. This will be a wonderful keepsake for them when they graduate. After I read it to my class today, I made a little book report for them to tell about their favorite part of the story and to give it their star rating. We shared them with the class upon completion and I was really pleased with how well they did on it. 

I have been working very hard on finishing up my next project: "Text It! Differentiated Text Evidence Passages for the Spring!". I made these originally to help guide me in knowing how much my kids were understanding in the material they were reading in class. I have gotten requests for more and it makes me so happy because my kids love them too. I should be done with these in the next week. If you are curious as to how they look, please grab the 'Text It' FREEBIE in my shop. I have a few very high readers so I made them differentiated to challenge those kiddos as well!

Text It: Differentiated Text Evidence

We made it! Our house was finally completed last week and we gave my parents their peace and quiet back =) They were absolutely wonderful to stay with and my kids made memories of a lifetime with them during our stay. We were tickled to move into our own space though as we unpack and settle in. 

My lil guy and hubby sharing their first breakfast together in the house. They are Cheerio buds =)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Five for Friday: Lucky Leprechaun activities on Friday the 13th!

It may be Friday the 13th but we did an entire week of St. Patrick activities with leprechauns and gold! I read several stories and did writing prompts to go along with them. I'm so proud of my kids and how far they have come in their writing this year. 

"I feel lucky when I'm with my Aunt because she takes me to the spa."

~I love this one! She would be my favorite aunt too. LOL!

"I feel lucky when I get to go to McDonald's and my dad lets me have a milkshake. I feel lucky when my Grandma comes up."

This was a cute activity by The Teacher Wife that I found. The kids did an awesome job!

"My dad because I like his hugs."

"My grandpa because he gives lots of hugs."

"I love my Mama more than a pot of gold because she is nice to me."

"I like Daniel because he is special to me."

We have been working on story structures.  I read a leprechaun story called "If I Had a Green Nose". After discussing the characters in the story, place, and plot, we talked about the beginning, middle, and ending of the story. The kids had to write and make an illustration for each one. 

My kiddos absolutely love this game! I started making the game with our high frequency words that we have been working in our Wonders program. It was such a success that I moved onto Numbers to 100. They kept begging for more! I added CVC words to the bunch and posted them for FREE in my shop. I hope you check it out and find it useful for your kids!

I Have, Who Has Games: CVC, Numbers, & High Frequency

My son joined a Rube Goldberg club this winter. He is the founder of making complicated gadgets that perform simple tasks. This group was told that they needed to make something that could zip a zipper. They called themselves the magicians and used a deck of cards, dominoes and more to make their gadget work. They came in second place! I was so happy for them!!

This is a cute story called "Clever Tom and the Leprechaun". It prompted us to discuss leprechauns and wishes. Each kiddo made a rainbow into a cloud and had to write a wish on each strip. There were lots of animals =)

We are finally moving into our home this weekend! We are so excited!! 

Have a great weekend!