Five For Friday

Long time no post! I think I will be posting less (probably only a few times a month) so that I can focus on putting some more stuff into my TeachersPayTeachers store. For now, here are some things that were going on in my classroom this week!

I'm super excited about this new development in my classroom. I have a student who struggles with unpacking in the morning and a few multi-step routines. I've tried a few different checklists for this student and still haven't gotten the results I wanted. I got this idea a few weeks back from watching one of Amy Harris' scopes. I am putting post-it notes on this checklist for my student when I have a task which involves many steps. I like this because it's practical and easy to use in a pinch.

I also made one for unpacking in the morning on the other side. That one is laminated since it will be the same each morning! I keep it on my clipboard each morning, give it to him, and then he returns it to me when I sign his homework each morning. So far this system has been working like a charm for me!

We also had a birthday in our class. I love our birthday celebrations. Every time we celebrate the birthday, our morning message becomes a giant birthday card. That child will get to take home the morning message along with our class mascot that day. The birthday kid also gets to choose the greeting and activity we do too! Here's the morning message before the kids arrived.

We've also been preparing for Thanksgiving in our room. We are having a turkey-decorating contest in our room. Well, there won't really be a winner, but we are trying to disguise our turkeys! Turkeys are due on Monday, but here's what's been returned to school so far.

Another thing I love about Thanksgiving is when I send these letters out to my students each year.

Erica Bohrer created these, and they are free!! Check them out by clicking here. I grab every chance I can to tell my students what they mean to me. :)

Finally, we've been working on improving our reading comprehension. In writing class, we're working on writing literary essays (a little mini-unit that lasts for 2 weeks), and in reading, we're doing lots of character work right now. These two units fit together so well, and I feel like they really help the kids to take off.

One of my favorite ways to get the kids to be able to identify themes is to use the prompt, "Sometimes in life." We read Be Good To Eddie Lee, which is an AMAZING book. Do you know it? If not, I highly recommend it. You can check it out here:

The kids came up with some AWESOME themes, like "Sometimes in life, people judge you by your outside instead of your inside," (that one led some incredible conversations), and "Sometimes in life, cruel people can change to be better." I love this book for all that it can do for social-emotional development in my classroom.

So, that's what has been going on in our classroom! I've also been working HARD on creating a conferring toolkit that I'd like to put onto TPT in the future. It will probably take me a long time before it's ready, but it's coming eventually!

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!