Five for Friday 12.4.15

Hi, friends!  I am back today for another Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching.  The week flew by!  Just 2 short weeks until winter break!  Holla!

I posted about this last Five for Friday, but thought I would post again today-I had the week of Thanksgiving off for the first time in my 13 year teaching career at my district.  Typically we just have Wednesday-Friday off.  I wasn’t too pumped about the extra two days because other than Pilgrim Days, we don’t do a whole lot of curriculum.  But when my family suggested a trip to Florida, I was all about it!  We left after school on Friday and drove down.  We met my parents, brother, sister-in-law, niece, and pup down there.  It was a great week full of beautiful weather and fun.  We celebrated Thanksgiving and my husband’s birthday while in Florida.  We took a side trip to our other favorite city, Nashville, on the way home. 

Since I’m on the topic of Thanksgiving, below are a few photos from our learning that were taken prior to break.  My team and I love doing Pilgrim Days every year!  We were a little crunched for time this year {since we had the whole week off} but I made it work.  We enjoyed learning about life in the past with Colleen Patton’s free Then/Now activities as a pre-curser to PilgrimDays.  We also took our annual field trip to a local historic site where the kids learned about life long ago.  For Pilgrim Days, we made butter, hunted/gathered, did some writing, read and discussed many books, and played Pilgrim games.  It was a lot of fun, as always!  The craft shown below is from Kindergarten Smiles.  

Here we are working on our Thanksgiving Literacy Centers:

This free Math game is from TGIF:

Grab the thankful notes shown below HERE.

Book & sort  from my Pilgrim Days pack:

Writing Workshop has been going really well, despite the kids being off school for a week.  We wrapped up narrative writing and began a new unit of study: Persuasive/Opinion writing.  This unit is always a fun change for the kids.  Our first few pieces are always done together with lots of modeling to ensure the kids get the concept of using a graphic organizer for pre-writing and then transferring information to writing paper.  Below are a few photos of the opinion pieces we worked on this past week.  To see my Opinion Writing pack, you can click the cover below!  All of my Writing units are bundled to save you some $$!  

Switching from Thanksgiving to Christmas-I always get so overwhelmed this time of year because I LIVE for Christmas and want to do anything and everything holiday-related.  That includes every activity I have/find on the internet, attending every holiday-themed concert/spectacle, shopping every day, watching every holiday movie, etc…you get the drift.  This year I am going to *try* to enjoy the season by relaxing some!  Instead of finding all new things for school {which is what I usually do}, I am going to use what I have and then supplement a little.  This past week, we did a book study with some gingerbread man books.  You can grab a few gingerbread activities for free by clicking below. 

I have been compiling a wish list on Amazon and noticed that it’s mostly makeup/skincare products and stuff for my classroom {and possibly a Kitchen Aid Mixer!}.  Below are a few things I am hoping for this year.   My family decided last year to skip gifts/excessive spending and do a stocking exchange.  There are 6 of us and we each draw a name.  Whomever you get is who you fill a stocking for with a $50.00 limit.  It’s fun trying to find neat things to put into the stockings!  We still shop for my husband’s family so they are the ones who will receive my wish list.  They live in California so they always want ideas from us.  What’s on your wish list this year?  Do you have many people to buy for? 

Have a great weekend!

Xo

Megan