Five for {Snowy} Friday!

Happy Friday everyone!! =)

1. So apparently Jersey is in the middle of winter storm "Nemo" (how cute, right?!). I woke up at 5:30 this morning and awaited the best early morning call there is..... and it never came! So off to work I went.. atleast we had an early dismissal, but the roads were a mess! Thankfully, I got home safe & I am ready to be snowed in with sweatpants, snacks and The Big Bang Theory on DVD (I'm a newly obsessed fan.. anyone else??)

2. This week I assigned my third graders a Non-Fiction Book Report to go with our non-fiction units in Reader's & Writer's workshop. They all picked out their books, so I am looking forward to watching their presentations next Friday! You can check out the book report by clicking on the pic below! (It even includes a letter to parents with a sign and return form, directions, and a rubric! And CCSS aligned!)

3. Today we had a Reader's Workshop Workshop (yes, I said "workshop" twice). It was all about guided reading! (my new focus!) Needless to say, it was veryyyy informative and I loved it!! The woman giving the presentation really helped us understand what Guided Reading groups are vs. what Strategy Groups are.. big difference! Basically, she said that Guided Reading is for kids that are about ready to move up to the next reading level and Strategy Groups are for kids who are not yet confident in their current level and need to keep practicing their reading strategies at that level. Interesting!

4. In math, we're finishing up our unit on multiplication and division (finally.. it's been a whiiiile!). The last part of the unit was working on word problems (something that is super tough for my kids who struggle with reading). During the Superbowl Sale, I bought Farley's Pencil Strategy for Word Problems and I am SOO happy I did, because it has helped my students tremendously with word problems! I printed them out & laminated one for each student (I only have 7 in my math resource class). I introduced it on Wednesday and it went really well! Click on the pic to grab your own!

5. I've been thinking about what to do for my students for Valentine's Day. I'm not their homeroom teacher, so I don't need to have the party where everyone exchanges Valentine's (which is totally fine with me.. Sorry! I taught Pre-K/Kindergarten for 2 years and did the whole exchanging thing.. I think I did my time =P). But I still want to make it a fun, love-themed day while using our class time wisely! What are your plans for Valentine's Day learning??

Don't forget! Sunday is the third installment of Special Needs Sunday! So get your posts ready to link up! If you don't know what it is, click on the pic below to see our last post!

Alright, that is all for my Five for Friday. Head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to link up! I'm off to watch Sheldon sing "Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty.." =)