Great things!

I'm not one of those teachers that misses school on the weekends. Yes, I go home and do a lot of school-related work, but I really do enjoy having those couple days off. Since tomorrow is Thursday and the last day of our school week here, I find myself feeling a little worried. I'm worried because I actually have such a fantastic class this year that I may (may!) end up missing them just a little this weekend. Don't judge me. They are seriously fantastic.

I am loving the Daily 5. We are three days into Work on Writing, two days into building stamina, and my class has gone from four minutes to fifteen minutes of writing. In a day! Whaaaaa? My mind was literally blowing up for the whole quiet, focused fifteen minutes of actual writing I saw today. Maybe not literally, but you know what I mean. I can't believe I didn't disturb them with my mental mania.

That's right, he's already underlining words he's unsure of. Did they catch on quick, or what?

We glued our heart maps onto the front cover of our journals.

Here's one of my artists. I definitely told them that the picture is last, but I guess he was fresh out of ideas. I am certainly not about to be upset, since our stamina chart says 15 minutes! (Wait, did I mention that?!?) This kid wrote tons about zombies. He has a serious infatuation and it cracks me up.

A robot lover.

Here's our clip chart after a Social Studies lesson about smart and poor choices and how these can have a direct affect on each person in the class. These awesome little monsters come from Kathleen at Growing Kinders. They are so bright and colourful and my group got a kick out of the sad monsters. I will definitely work this lesson into beginning of the year plans for next year. Loved it! 

PS - See all those kids on Amazing? I'm not kidding about this being a pretty fantastic class.

And finally - I could hardly believe it but I won my first giveaway! Yay! Many thanks to Kristen at I Do, We Do, You Do for hosting a giveaway and for choosing me. (Electronically and randomly choosing me, that is - anyway, feeling good!)

I won a few great products that I'm pretty darn excited to use this year. More about that later. Now, to tend to my poor sick husband. Back to school busy-ness, I'm sure. (He must be really sick, though, because he agreed to have KD for dinner tonight. The man hates pasta and loves to cook, so for me to throw a box of pasta into boiling water and call it dinner, well... I'll just call myself a lucky lady and thank my stars.) 

Good night, all!

- Amanda