Five for Friday {October 10}

It's been a while since I've joined the Five for Friday fun, but tonight I'm watching last night's Project Runway and taking some time to reflect on my week.  Check out what we were up to this week!

1. We have been working on building our "writing muscles"!  Stamina, stamina, stamina!  This week we got up to 13 minutes!  I am so proud of my talented writers.  Everyone is working hard and many are implementing the things we're working on in our writing mini-lessons.  I just love writer's workshop!

2. We had a lot of fun with science this week.  We are still working through our Five Senses unit.  This week, I supplemented our curriculum with Caitlin Clabby's Five Senses pack.  This sheet came from her pack.  I used a sound CD that I have.  The kids loved this!!  

We also did a taste test, focusing on foods that are sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.  This is always such a blast.  The bitter taste of the cocoa powder always surprises the students, and the puckery lemon faces make everyone giggle!

3. I discovered an awesome new October read-aloud!  My class (and my own kids) loved this book!  The rhymes are so much fun.  I love love love finding great new books!

4. We added a Community Helpers poem to our Interactive Notebooks this week.  The Melonheadz clip art mixed with sweet 5-year-old coloring?  Precious.

5. I arrived home on Tuesday to a beautiful box from Lakeshore (love Lakeshore!!) on my front step.  I was so excited because I knew that the farm animal counters I have wanted for so long were inside!  They will be the perfect addition to the farm study we do each May.  But, we'll also get lots of use out of them the rest of the year.  My own kids enjoyed playing with them at home all week, and today I brought them to school and took them out during Choice Time.  We had to take turns because EVERYONE wanted to get their hands on the sweet little animals!

I am so looking forward to this lazy weekend!  Enjoy it, friends!! 

Five for Friday {October 25}

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

I have today off because of Parent-Teacher Conferences this week.  I'm so looking forward to some extra time with my kids after lots of time away.

Here's what went on at school this week!  

1. We are wrapping up our first science unit on the 5 senses.  We put our tastebuds to the test on Tuesday!  

The kids LOVED this fun activity!  

 We worked together to figure out the four tastes - salty, sweet, sour, and bitter.  The cocoa powder was so funny!  It smells great and the students were excited to taste it, but then.....it's SO bitter!  And, of course, lemon faces are pretty funny too!  I had my camera out during this activity to catch their expressions...priceless!!

 This sheet comes from Kindergarten Smiles' "Our Five Senses" unit found HERE.  I tweaked it a bit and turned the spicy taste into bitter.

Science is SO MUCH FUN in Kindergarten!!

2. We were all smiles on Wednesday when I read the students the notes that their parents left them at conferences.  Some parents ran out of time or missed the table, so I wrote a few myself.  Such a fun way to encourage these kiddos who are working so hard!  

 You can see the post I wrote about everything that was on the hallway table by clicking HERE.

3. We are so lucky to have two pen pals this year from two parts of the country!  We've had two letters waiting, and I had the best intentions of writing both classes back this week, but we only got one letter finished.  This is the sign that I post when a letter arrives in the mail.  It always brings LOTS of excitement!

Colorado friends.....your letter is on it's way!

 Texas friends..... your letter will be mailed out next week!

We LOVE our pen pals!!

4. Our reading curriculum story for this week was Life in an Ocean.

The class loved this non-fiction story.  I had some fun extensions planned, including a class book that we made using these ocean animals...

 BUT...I forgot to take pictures of the finished products!  Look for a post next week about our ocean extensions.

5. This one is not school related, but I had such a fun night with my kids last night with this activity!  We got "BOO'd" on Sunday night -- this is something new to our neighborhood this year and so much fun!  The rules are that once you get Boo'd, you are supposed to BOO two houses within 24 hours...but that just wasn't possible with my crazy schedule this week.  SO....last night we headed to the store, got all the treats we needed, and devised our BOO plan!  My son, Trey, got the job of ringing the doorbell and running away as fast as he could.  Both of our BOO's were successful!  Such a fun memory for the kids!

It got me thinking...this could be so fun at school!  Maybe next year???

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!!