Five for Friday {Oct 24, 2014}

This week was another busy one (but are there even any non-busy weeks for a first year teacher?). 

I have had to remind myself a number of times the past few weeks that it is ok to not be perfect. It can be super intimidating sometimes reading the posts of all these wonderful bloggers and the great things that are going on in their classrooms. Besides getting settled into my own teaching style and attempting to keep my head organized, I am still getting used to the unique challenges of working at a Title I school with such great needs. It is hard to accept I am not the best but I am doing my best.

But I digress, let's get back on track and talk about this past week....

My kiddos are becoming math rockstars! I love to watch how well they do in partners during our math stations. It makes me so happy to see their little faces light up when we start our math block. These are two of our favorite activities from this past week. 

"Eye" Can Count

I upload this one to my TPT this week after my kids told me how much they liked it. It was really intended for my lower kiddos who are still having trouble with connecting numerals to their quantities but the review it great for all of them (not to mention the added practice with fine motor skills).

Spooky Count & Clip

I love Halloween and it is killing me being so restricted on holiday celebrations but I am trying to sneak in some Halloween fun themes.

I have been trying to incorporate some more engaging ideas for practicing sight words in our class. This week we got really good at a few fun ideas.

Push Pin Sight Words

 I could not believe how silently my little kinders worked on this activity! Monday we practiced using our push pins on a pumpkin picture. As soon as they had those push pins in hand, their faces were glued to their papers and the room was completely silent.

Sight Words Popsicle Puzzle

Thank you Pinterests once again for being awesome! This idea came from this pin. How incredibly easy is this activity? I have the kids say the word and then write it every time they unscramble one. The kids love it and I love how simple it was to make and how simple it will be to update it. 

(Ok this one is kind of a cheat because these photos are from the last 3 weeks. But oh well.)

I have enjoyed pulling in the beautiful fall leaves and their colors into our classroom. I am blessed to live in a state that has amazing variety of plants and fall is gorgeous around here. 

The leaves in our sensory table have added a great nature smell to out classroom, especially during choice time when they are being crunched by little fingers. 

This is another great idea from Pinterest. I laminated some of the great shaped leaves I found to make crayon rubbings. I was a little sad that the colors changed pretty significantly from the heat of the laminator. 

I don't know about your school, but at ours, tunics are huge. And of course all of us are avid Target addicts  shoppers and a number of my fellow teachers and I are obsessed with this particular tunic. If you don't own it, go to Target now. So comfy and such a great fit. Love.

I don't often share about my weekend teaching, but I had to share this awesome wall that my Sunday School co-teacher and I painted this week. Our church is expanding and we just got a new building for our classes and decided to go super bright and exciting with the design.

Well, after this week, I am completely ready for the weekend. Bring on the yoga pants.