Five for Friday!

Well... I'm giving the whole Five for FRIDAY linky party a try (On Saturday)! It's my first time linking up... Let's hope I do it right! 

So... Here are a few random things from my week!!!!

Coffee!  I'm addicted to Starbucks!  It's a really expensive addiction! But... I've been following Food Babe on Facebook! She says that non organic coffee is BAD.  She says that Starbucks is BAD. Insert sad face HERE. So.... I'm trying to go to Starbucks once a week instead of Every.Single.Morning. This is my new coffee setup!!!

The Rain Forest!!!!

We have been learning all about the rain forest in my classroom!!! That means we have been reading a TON of fiction and nonfiction rain forest books!

After reading The Umbrella by Jan Brett, we discussed fact and fiction.  This cute book really sparked their interest about the rain forest.  They also learned that although the book was fiction, they could still learn some interesting facts about the rain forest. 

  We completed this fact/fiction page.

We also read The Great Kapok Tree. 

After discussing characters, setting, and plot... my kiddos made these super cute BME Kapok Trees.  I whipped this activity together at the last minute when I decided that I didn't want to use a worksheet.  That would be too boring!  AND... I am always looking for a way to use construction paper!  

(I just cut construction paper in half for the trunk and let my kids create their own leaves.  You can download the BME printable HERE for FREE!)

We also made these super cute rain forest layers books! 

And now my bulletin board is all kinds of colorful!!!

These activities came from my Rain Forest Extravaganza Unit.  HERE

A.R.

I have a love/hate relationship with accelerated reader!!!  I LOVE that my new firsties are so excited to take AR tests!  I hate that there is one of me and they all need to LEARN how to log on and take tests themselves!  This year our fifth grade buddies came to our classroom twice!  Each fifth grader was in charge TEACHING their buddy how to take tests.  BEST.THING.EVER!!!!!!!

WORD WORK

Many of my word work stations are ready to go!  Thanks to THIS!!!! 

I love that many of the phonics printables meet the needs of my students at various levels, are interactive, and all kinds of FUN!!!

 I really love that they get to find books at their level to search for words with the phonics pattern! Words ranged from him to pilgrim depending on the level of my students!

And... I am so excited that I put the bundle on SALE this weekend!  You can grab it for 20% off today and tomorrow!!! HERE

I'm about to begin working on a frog literacy unit! In the next few weeks, our rain forest exploration will teach us all about frogs!  I thought it would be fun to incorporate the famous Frog and Toad!  Especially  because I have a class set!! I'm not sure exactly what the unit will look like... but this is all I have so far...

Until next time....