How About Five for Saturday??

I am linking up again with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday (a day late!) I had all intentions of linking up last night but my little guy had other plans... more on that below!

1. We changed the way we are "doing" spelling this week. We (my team) really want to switch to a a system like the one Beth Newingham talks about here but were feeling too overwhelmed to switch up everything we were doing in the middle of the year. Our compromise? Send home 15 words within a pattern and study the patten all week during word work time. Then, on Friday, give an additional 5 words on the test that fit the pattern to assess if kids are really learning the pattern or just memorizing the words. Next fall we will dive in with the new system! I created a Smart Board file for us to use in class this week and the kids LOVED doing all the activities. More on that below.

2.  We had Keith Graves come visit our school this week. He is an author/illustrator and his books are really funny. He read Chicken Big and Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted To Dance to us and the kids loved them. He spoke a lot about using details in the illustrations to tell the story. Great lesson for beginner writers to encourage more details in their pictures. 

My husband with a former player, Jimmy Buttler (now a Chicago Bulls player)

3. My husband became a head basketball coach this year after being the head assistant for the last 8 years. He was having a rough start to the season, but understood he was getting the team to buy into his system and way of doing things. On Tuesday he had a BIG win against a team that was undefeated in the district at their place. Needless to say, the kids were pumped and the school was excited for them. Lots of fans turned out for the home game last night which they also won, beating their rival, a team they hadn't beat in quite some time! Wish I could have been there to see it, read #5!

4. Extra Recess! My class earned enough compliments to earn extra recess on Friday. I had lots of fun watching them play together as a class without the other 100 third graders being out there at the same time! One of my friends made me giggle. He yelled, "Hey, that was pass inter-furnace!" to another friend who had blocked the pass... um, football vocabulary mini lesson anyone?? (Boo, forgot my camera at school so there is no picture of this one!)

not looking too sick here! 

5. When I went to pick up my little man last night from school, they told me he had not been acting himself and had a yucky looking throat. I called the doctor who said we could come in at 8:10 (kids are normally in bed by 8:15) So, exhausted as I was, we went to the doctor and I am glad we did. He has strep, again. This is his 4th time in 2 months. Planning on calling an ENT on Monday :( 

Here is a preview of some of the activities my kids worked on this week during word work time

This is a smart board file and it was a great to use during daily 5 - I plan to make another one for this week's pattern. We did a think, pair, share together to introduce the pattern and then the word sort as a whole class. All the other activities were completed independently during their rotation. The kids really enjoyed using the smart board for word work! My team loved the poems... a great way to "triple dip" fluency, poetry and word work all in one activity! If you would like a copy, please leave a comment with your email below. I will choose 1 comment randomly and send it your way. If you just can't wait, click here to get in my TpT store!

Head on over to Doodle Bugs to see what everyone else has been up to :) Happy Weekend!!