5 for Friday 5.6.16

We made it!!!!!!!!!!!!!  {*Almost*}  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another 5 for Friday!

For Teacher Appreciation Week, I was shocked to receive some flowers, a box of my favorite chocolates {local to where I live}, and some Reese Cups!  I teach in a high-poverty school and never get anything for Teacher Appreciation Week.  This was a wonderful surprise!!!!!!!

My on grade level group worked on homophones and homonyms last week.  Below are a few things that they worked on!  These things and many other things can be found for individual purchase in my Levels J/K guided reading pack or in my 1st Grade Guided Reading Bundle {which happens to be on sale through the weekend!!!!!!!!!!!}.

My struggling readers have been working on recognizing our Phonics chunks in the context of books, so I have been printing books from Reading A to Z for them.  I typically don't like to give my kids "photocopied" books because I believe in authentic text but for this purpose, they needed to have text they could mark on.  After we've worked on a book for 2 days, it goes in their "Book Bag."  Each day at the start of group, they choose 2 old books to read.  This really helps them become confident readers and helps build fluency!  The books are from Really Good Stuff.

Our copy mom volunteered to come in an extra day and run our copies for next fall.  I am a crazy person about getting organized before school lets out in the spring.  It makes me much less stressed come August when I'm setting up my room!  She copied our data binders, our handwriting books, reading logs, summer review packs {for the end of this year; not fall!}, and some other goodies!  Our copy mom is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

In my reading group with my struggling readers, we worked on blends and vowel teams {review} this past week.  I had the kids make the word, write it on their slate, and say the words aloud in sentences. The mats were a hit!  You can find them below.

For Cinco de Mayo, my hubby and I went out to our favorite Mexican place for dinner.  We love going there!  It was so fun to see so many people there.  We were hoping for a Mariachi band but they didn't have one.  The margaritas made up for the lack of a band!

Happy Weekend!  How many days do you have left?!?

xo
Megan