Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs to share a few random snapshots of my week.... On Saturday, of course! 

My girls are LOVING this warm weather. I am too!!!! We hatched chicks at school so my girls are having fun with them on the weekends and in the evenings!  They will go to a farm on Wednesday! Thank goodness... They're starting to stink!!!! This week we also planted a little garden... Our back yard is a work in progress, so my husband made me this garden on wheels. I hope it works!!!

My kiddos will be performing a few plays for their parents next week... They have been working hard to create their scenery!!!

I came to school on Wednesday and quickly remembered that we were going to be on a special testing schedule.  Our big kiddos are taking the KPREP!  Bad for us because we have a third grade class right beside us!  And... they can hear every word in our classroom.  That means we had to be silent!!  I had to be silent too! Apparently, I have a loud voice when I'm teaching/talking... ha.  I had panned for us to work in groups to practice our plays... That definitely wasn't going to work with testing going on!  So... Thankfully, I had planning the first hour of the day.  I decided that I wanted to spend the last few weeks of the school year reviewing the various reading strategies that my students have learned to implement throughout the year..

We read a Bad Case of Stripes and discussed character traits/change. 

Then... On Thursday, we read Alice the Fairy and reviewed creating visual images.  This story was perfect because within the first few pages my students realized that the pictures explained as much as the words in the story.  The pictures helped them come to the conclusion that the story was realistic fiction, and was not about a real fairy but a cute little girl with a wild imagination. When it got to the part that read... "Sometimes I use my wand to disappear. But that's scary." I didn't show them the pictures!! I made them go to their seats to draw their own mental image.  They also had to give evidence from the text to support their drawing.  They did an amazing job!  Some of their ideas included... she turned off the light to disappear, she covered her eyes, she hid under covers, she hid in the closet, etc. I was REALLY happy that no one drew a picture of her actually disappearing!!!

All of these activities will be posted in my store very soon!!!

Thankfully the second trimester has been MUCH better on me... but I'm still having a hard time getting back into the swing of creating! By the end of the day my brain is gone!!! And... it's still gone on the weekends!! Hopefully all of that energy and brain power will come back soon... Until then, well... I'm not really sure!!  So... I decided to do a little shopping for my house. I really need to stay away from Pier1.  I can go crazy in that store!  Especially when I have a coupon.  I buy NOTHING at full price... but when I think I'm getting a great deal I have a problem! 

I also bought some new rugs...

And this candle at Kohls...  It is seriously my favorite candle for spring/summer.  It just smells fresh, clean, and not too strong!!! I was so sad when I found out that it was discontinued at Yankee... but then, it just showed up at Kohls.  I might go back and buy them all!!! ha...

Last but not least..... I now have an embroidery machine!  I have not tried it out yet, but I am really excited!  I'm thinking that embroidery might be fun because I won't have to use too much brain power... we shall see... I'll keep you updated!!!

That's it for my week... until next time!!!
Hollie