Five for Friday…on a Friday!

Happy Friday all!!  I have finally done it!  Since starting school this year I have been completely unable to post my Five for Friday on an actual Friday.  But, that all changes starting today!  I have felt swamped under the back to school transition, constant assessments, and new curriculum adjustments.  Maybe this is a sign that things are starting to turn around?  I really hope so!  We had a short but great week in first grade, so here are a few highlights from the past few days.

Wednesday marked the first official day of Fall.  Need I say more?  Bring on the pumpkin spiced lattes, football Sundays, crisp mornings with sweaters and leggings, and the weekends I beg my husband to take me pumpkin picking.  It is my absolute favorite!  So, I had to celebrate with my first PSL of the season…I had been holding off ALL month!

It was a long day on Wednesday and I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect treat!  PSL, you are always there when I need you!

It feels like ages ago already, but this Monday night was our  back to school night.  I have to say it was a big success and the parents were so supportive and encouraging!  On my kid’s desks we had a letter waiting for the parents written by the kids, a water bottle that said, “Parents like you are refreshing.” from the wonderful Ashley over at Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd.  We also had the kids decorate picture frames for their parents and we put their first day of school pictures inside them.  I always like to send the parents home with a keepsake.  I was really proud of how the room looked after it was all set up.

I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but yesterday was my very first time using interactive notebooks with my students!  I saw that possessive nouns was on the docket for this week and I panicked about how I would approach that to my very sweet but struggling first grade readers.  I found Teaching with Love and Laughter’s amazing grammar interactive notebook pack and knew this was the best way to approach it.  I can’t wait to dive into INB’s this year and teach my kids how to use them as a reference throughout the year.  I hope I can keep up with it!  

We have been diving into word study as a whole group for the last three weeks now.  The spelling inventories have been given and analyzed and I finally have my students set into word study groups.  This means, word study rotations are in full swing starting Monday!  I finally organized my spiral folder to include each group’s materials for the week.  I will be using my schedules from my word study packet on TpT along with my planning pages to keep me organized.  Each folder has my group’s weekly schedule, my planning notes, their sort for the week that we will do together on Meet the Teacher day, and a follow-up assessment that I’ll use with them the next time I meet with them.  I can’t wait to get this structure fully up and running.  I will be back to blog about this more when things are in full operation mode!

I feel like my world fell back on its’ axis last night as TGIT returned.  The Scandal premiere was so good but I just don’t know if I’ll be able to hold on with all this back and forth.  Shonda Rhimes, you’re just too good!  I haven’t started How To Get Away With Murder Yet but I’m confident that will be my next Netflix marathon.  Is it worth it?  I hope so!

Alright, that about sums up my week so far!  Today we have training from TCRWP for writing workshop with our staff developer and those are my favorite kinds of days.  I hope to report back to you some of the strategies I pick up soon!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Thanks so much for stopping by!