Five for Friday {May 17}

It's Friday again!  Only two Fridays left in the school year for me.  I can hardly believe that my sweet littles are so close to first grade!

Here are my five randoms from the week:

1. This....

...and this....

...have been my best friends lately!  I spent all day Wednesday completing running records for my students (that was SUCH a fun day!  Love to see them reading!!), and every spare moment in the classroom this week completing year-end assessments.

We had LOTS of celebrations as my students realized that they have become READERS this year!  The sight word assessment had them all wearing big smiles!!

(You can grab these STAR awards from my TPT shop for free if you'd like!) 

2. We needed something fresh for our afternoon choice time.  I'm not sure why I had forgotten all about my easel, but I pulled it out and the kids LOVED it!  And, of course, I loved that it was a quiet, calm activity...at least for four at a time!

3. We've been following the growth of pea seeds planted in sand, soil, and pebbles.  The three sand plants were looking awesome until this week when they finally decided that sand just isn't a good place for them to grow!  Still keeping an eye on what will happen with our pebbles plant.  So far, it looks pretty good.  And, of course, our soil plant is thriving.  The kids love checking these every day.

4. Have you heard of this book?  Our staff read it during March is Reading Month, and I was inspired to implement a daily DEAR time in my classroom.  I have grown to LOVE that time!!  We spend ten minutes each afternoon just reading silently (that includes me!), and then the students take five minutes or so to share about their books with each other...like a partner "book review" time.  This is definitely something I will continue in the future, and I would recommend this book as a good summer read.  It is geared more for upper el/middle school classrooms, but I had some good take-away even for K.

 5. Instead of being Mrs. Sloothaak today, I got to be "Trey's mom" on a field trip with his class to the zoo.  He has had such a wonderful Kindergarten experience.  I almost don't want to see the school year end because it means his year is over!  I had the best time hanging out with my guy and his school buddies today.