Five for Friday {May 23}

Hey hey!  Happy Friday!  This week was my last full week of school, and we're still going strong.  We enjoyed some awesome weather this week, and we fit in lots of great learning and lots of fun too.  Let's get started on today's Five for Friday!

1. Tuesday was our Boys Only Lunch.  OH MY were my boys excited!!  They cheered and cheered when I passed out their invitations last week and couldn't wait for Tuesday's lunch to arrive!  

I invited parents and several were able to make it.  They ate lunch and the boys showed their parents all the fun things they do during choice time.  We all had a great time!!

 2. I pulled out some clay for science this week and the students made animals out of clay.  Snails, pigs, camels, and more!  We spent some time discussing similarities and differences between types of animals and this was a fun, hands-on way to explore those things.

3. We always color self-portraits in the first week of school and I display them in the classroom all year.  I took them down this week to pack into the bags I am preparing to send home on the last day of school.  Precious little babies from the beginning of the year!

4. Today marked 10 more days of school for us, so I got to school early to hang our balloons!  

 We popped our first balloon this morning and enjoyed a sidewalk chalk party with our 4th grade reading buddies this afternoon.

5. We completed our "When I grow up..." page for our memory books this week and this little guy just melted me!  When he grows up he wants to be a "teacher like Mrs. Sloothaak".  Love him.

Also BIG news from this week....my daugther graduated from pre-school!  This girl is SO ready for Kindergarten!  So proud of her!!

Enjoy your long weekend, friends!

Five for Friday, on Saturday {May 17}

Well, hi!  My life has been c-r-a-z-y this week.  My to-do list at home is as long as my to-do list at school....'tis the season of living off little sleep as we prepare for the end of the school year!  BUT.... we're down to 14 more wake-ups.  Can't believe how close we're getting!

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for Five for Friday, even though I'm a day late...  

1. Wednesday was field trip day!  We spent the beginning of the week completing this Farm Animal Facts book as a class during our writing block.  

 We used non-fiction books to research each animal and worked together to decide which facts to add to our books.

2. The Critter Barn is such a great field trip.  It lasts all day and the kids have the best time getting up-close with the animals on the farm.  Goats, chicks, sheep, ducks, cows, chickens, bunnies, and more!  

 My teaching partner and I were EXHAUSTED at the end of the day.....but we made it!  And we love doing these fun things together!

3. We've had a sweet girl come from the high school all year to help in our classroom and Thursday was her last day.  We had a small good-bye party for her and we gave her a class book full of advice the students thought of for being a good teacher.  

First, we brainstormed some ideas.  I used different colors to make it easier for the students to transfer the idea they chose to their own paper.

 This little guy wrote that good teachers don't break the rules.  And, in his illustration box, he wrote The rule is don't touch spiders.  Ha!

4.   I spent all day on Friday with this guy.  I had a day for individual year-end assessments, and I was able to complete running records on each student.  This is my district's first year using Fountas and Pinnell and I really liked it.  I'm so proud of how far my kiddos have come this year!  Such a fun day to get to listen to each of them read to me!!

5. AND......My boys could not contain their excitement on Thursday afternoon when I was passing these out at the end of the day.  They have been asking and asking....it's FINALLY their turn!  Next Tuesday is Boys Only Lunch day!!  All 18 of them....and I invited parents!  We'll have a great time. :)