Five for Friday {We had a Lot of Fun this Week!}

Friday, February 26, 2016 / 8 comments

I'm so excited for Five for Friday this week!  
Thanks for hosting this weekly linky, Doodle Bugs Teaching!!!  

After a TON of testing and SNOW DAYS, I feel like we are finally back in the swing of things!!!



I am really excited about the writing goals we established this week!  I bought this awesome writing goal pack from The Teacher Talk.  This week in writing I have seen such growth, just from setting specific goals and targeting instruction.  



When I taught third grade (four years ago....), I loved doing jigsaw activities with my class.  I would divide them into color groups.   Once they were in their color groups, I would assign each group member a letter.  Then all of the kids with the the same letter would get together and read a passage to become an expert on a topic.  After everyone was an expert, they went back to their color groups and shared their learning with their team members.  This was a fun way to teach a lesson!

I've been wanting to try something similar in kindergarten and I finally found something that worked!  I divided students into four mixed ability groups.  Each group sat at a table together.  Then I assigned each table a topic that they would have to write a fact about.  I read two pages from a  nonfiction book and signaled the groups when I was going to read information pertaining to their particular topic.  When I was done reading (about two minutes of oral reading), the students talked and wrote a rough draft of a sentence about their topic.  Once I checked their sentence for accuracy, they wrote a final copy sentence with a magic marker (score!).  Finally each group shared their sentence with the whole group and we posted the sentences on a graphic organizer on the front board.  We did this three different days this week and broke our nonfiction book (about Dental Health) into three different parts.  It was amazing how good they got at this by the end of the week!



This summer I decided I needed to get in shape before I left for the beach (in 18 days-procrastinator).  So, I drew a 100's chart and made a goal to run 100 miles before we left.  I tracked my running by coloring in the boxes for each mile I ran.  The good news...I made my goal and felt great on vacation.  The bad news...I've fallen off the wagon with only little spurts of great exercise and terrible eating habits.  SO, I've decided to try it again!  My goal is to run 100 miles before my son's 3rd birthday, April 2nd.  
I think I can...I think I can....I think I can....

I do my best thinking in the shower and this week was no exception!  A new sight word game came out of nowhere!!

1-Students choose 5 random sight words and write them on whiteboards (one in each corner and one in the middle).
2- Randomly pick sight words.  
3-If a student has the sight words on their whiteboard, they get to erase it.  (I have them raise their hands before they erase so I can check to make sure they really have it).
4-Whoever is first to erase all their words, wins!!!

-I write a list of the sight words that were chosen so students who don't have their sight words memorized can check the list and see if they have a match on their whiteboard.  

This is a total hit in my K class!!



This is my new WOW WALL!  I wanted a place to celebrate my students' successes!  A little WAKE ME UP KGFonts and POOF.....my wall was created!!  
At first, I was writing specific successes (-student- mastered all 47 kindergarten sight words), then I decided that I didn't want students comparing their awards so I decided to go with....(student) met her sight word goal OR (student) met his letter sounds goal.  This went up yesterday and I am excited to see all their smiling faces on the wall!!


Well, I actually felt productive this week.  I hope I can continue this streak next week!!

Cheers!







8 comments:

  1. So many great ideas here, Lindsay! I loved your jigsaw idea. That has my wheels turning.

    I'm super impressed with your 100 miles goal! That is awesome! You must be a really good runner! I would love to do that, too, but it may take me a lot longer than you. I wrote a little bit about the same thing on my 5 for Friday. I was doing so well for all of January and half of Feb, and then I went off the deep end. Yikes! I'm promising myself a trip back to my gym tomorrow and no chips!LOL. Have a great weekend!

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    1. Thanks, Lauren!! I'm not that great of a runner, but it works for my body so I go with it. Haha. I do so much worse with eating snacks (raiding the snack cupboard) when I'm at school!!!! What's with that, right??? I wish I could believe that food is for fuel, not for enjoyment! Good luck! I'm trying to make it to my gym tomorrow too! No chips on the weekend is hard but you can do it! I'm cutting out all drinks except water until his birthday too. I'm a sucker for sweet tea and hot chocolate!!! Gym tomorrow/no chips....you can do it!!! :)

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  3. Thinking in the shower...it is where all the best ideas come from. Great ideas!
    Simplyteachsewgrow

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    1. Thanks! It's amazing what good ideas come from shower time!! :)

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  4. Love the WOW Wall! So cute and great to celebrate successes!

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    1. Thanks! I loved your "appointment cards" idea! I'm totally trying that in my class! :)

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  5. I loved reading about your jigsaw activity in kindergarten. Thank you!

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