Five for Fraturday and Funny Kids too!

Is anyone else having a hard time with this whole time change thing?  Usually getting an extra hour of sleep is a good thing right?  However, now that it is dark at 5 o’clock I feel like I am totally ready for bed by 8pm EVERYNIGHT.  Crazy, I know.  I am hoping this passes soon…lol.

 

So I am here to link up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs for her fabulous Five for Friday, on Saturday once again.  Plus, as a double whammy, I am also linking up with Kathleen at Kidpeople Classroom for her Funny Kid Friday.

I just can’t seem to pull it together on Friday night.  By the time I leave school, take care of my hubby’s business banking, yes I am the bookkeeper for his business too, play taxi for my boys activities, I am just wiped out.  The sad part is I know exactly what I am going to post about, by Tuesday/Wednesday of each week I usually have my list, but we are still doing the activities in class that I need to take pics of.  Kudos to all those teachers that have it together and post so early on Friday.  I digress, on to the happenings of our week.

Our alphabet countdown is winding to a close.  Here is our focus wall for the week.  We studied Xx, and Yy. Yes, we did not have a shape again this week.  I had to conduct benchmark testing all week and felt it would be too rushed with everything else we are doing.

I realize the Yak and Fox are a little goofy, but we make these during class as the kids are giving me their suggestions, so it is what it is…lol.

Here is also a picture of our weekly objectives.  Do you have to post these in your room? It is required by our admin, but truth be told it is a great way for the kids to see what goals we are working toward. I have all of my “I can” statements, in sheet protectors, from each standard in a binder organized by category.  Then I just go through and find what we are going to work on for the week, pull them out and hang them with magnets on our white board for the coming week. Done.  How do you display objectives/goals?

We use a lot of videos during our morning meeting and calendar time. I feel that anytime you incorporate more of the senses into the learning the better retention you have.  So when they can see it, hear it, do motions with it, make it fun to activate the limbic system, they have faster and longer lasting learning.  This week I found a new alphabet video that Mrs. Wills shared on her facebook page.  It is “Like an Alphabet” all about the letters and sounds with fun music.

It was put together by some teachers from LA Unified, it is super cute and engaging.  It uses quite a few of Madonna's songs in unexpected ways.  It is 12 minutes long, so I used it as a reward for my students, rather than an everyday learning opportunity and they loved it.  Each day after they kept asking to see it again. You should really check it out.

This week we started our study about bats. We started off by making a chart of our schema about bats.  Then we read several books so that we could start adding in our new learning to our anchor chart. 

We also had to have a fiction bat story too.  Stellaluna is one of my favorites.  To mix it up a bit instead of me reading it we listened to it on Storylineonline.

Have you used this site before?  The kiddos really think it is a treat to hear a story on the smartboard.

We also watched these informational videos and songs about bats from Youtube.

Next we started working on our bat book from DeannaJump’s unit, Bats Math and Literacy Fun.  We completed the first 3 pages this week and we will be finishing the book next week.

They are doing such a fantastic job learning new vocabulary and practicing their writing skills too. We come up with the definitions together and then write them into our book.

We also completed some great activities about Veteran’s Day. We are lucky enough to have Monday and Tuesday off for the holiday so I wanted to be sure and learn about it before our mini break.  These Veteran's Day activities are from my friend Kelly at Lattes and Lunchrooms.  She even has a fantastic video showing how to prep this activity.  

First up was a Flip Book explaining the Who, What When, Why and How about Veteran’s day. 

We also looked up images of the different branches of the military from our favorite source, google, so that we could color the uniforms correctly.  The kiddos got so excited to see the pictures of our military.  It provided a fun way to really teach the basics of this holiday in kid friendly language. They can now go home and share what they have learned with their families. 

Next we made an anchor chart graph about whether they knew any veteran’s.

As you can see most of my students do not know anyone.  I teach in a very rural school and most of my kiddos are first generation Americans, or if they are second generation they live on the dairy their parents grew up on and now work at.  Kelly also has a great graphing sheet to go with the anchor chart.  We just ran out of time…as usual.  There are a few other activities in the mini unit as well. 

I am also posting a wonderful video about Veteran's day. It is probably better suited to children a little older and adults.  So even if you don't use it in your classroom, be sure to watch it. 

This is a wonderful reminder to us all just how lucky we are to live in this great nation and I truly am thankful for those who have served for us to have that privilege.

Now to link up with Kathleen for her Funny Kid Fridays.  This was the convo at my guided reading table a few days ago…

I was at my kidney table with a group of 5 little boys that are always saying the funniest things and this week was no exception.

K-I’m hungry what are we having for lunch

Me-I am not sure, I wasn’t listening to the menu today I am having a protein bar.

K-Again!

Me-Yes, Mrs. D needs to go on a diet.

K-Well who is going to be with us when you go!!

Hahaha!  After I finished laughing I let them know I would not be going anywhere. Mrs. D just needs to get back to healthy eating.

Funny Kid #2-  We often ask Siri questions when we are studying during our science time.

Example…What is the biggest pumpkin ever? …What is the temperature today? …How many different spiders are there in the United States?  So you get the picture.

Well I was looking for one of my books this past week that I knew I had taken out of my theme bin, but just couldn’t seem to find.  I always have all my books for the week in one stack on my counter next to my computer, but this one was missing.  So one of my sweeties says...

K-Mrs. D why don't you ask the crazy lady?

Me-What crazy lady?

K-You know the one in your phone!

  

Then everyone started laughing! One of the many joys of kindergarten, you never know what a 5 year old is going to say.  You can’t make this stuff up.

Hope that you had a great week.  What were you up to?  I would love to read your comments. Be sure to check out the linkys above to see what everyone was up to and the other Funny Kids.  Now I am off to enjoy my 4 day weekend!

~Laura