5 for Friday

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If you caught my post yesterday, you know it has been one heck of a week, actually I'm going to go with month.   I'm exhausted and finally hitting the acceptance stage when it comes to realizing that it is almost summer break!  Not that I am not ready for it.... I just have SO much left to teach and do before the school year is over.  With that said, I'm going to start my five for Friday so you can see what I checked off our list this week!  Thank you Kasey for hosting the linky! :)

1.  The most exciting news about this week... I officially finished ALL of my end of the year assessments!! MClass (math), TPRI (state reading), and Fountus and Pinnell (our district reading assessment) are D-O-N-E!  I don't have to listen to the story about the firefighters, sharks, or Nathan for well .... a good 3ish months at least!!   My favorite part of the assessments.... wait the only think I enjoyed about the assessments was when my kids would read one of the assessment books for our F&P assessment... The book was called The Thing About Nathan.... in the first line it uses the word "crazy".... and if you've read my blog enough times, you know that CRAZY is NOT a word that is allowed in my classroom.  (Confused click here to read more on it.)  EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. one of my kids got to that word... their eyes got big and they looked to me with hesitation before saying it... I had to reassure them that it was "ok" to say it just this time! haha I think that they loved that part the most too!

It is literally in the first line of the first page!

2. I've hit my spring cleaning mode in my classroom.  I have managed to be the last one to leave multiple times this week on my team.... which is usually not the case.  Gwen and Diana ALWAYS stay later than me, but this week I outlasted them twice due to my spring cleaning freak out!  Eventually, maybe one day, I will have my room so nice and organized that I will not have this freak out EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR!  I have a feeling that I will be waiting quite a while too... Especially since Gwen, my co-worker who has lived next to me for 3 years, supported me, and taken me under her wing is moving to another position and leaving me a TON of her awesome stuff!! While I'm still bitter she is leaving our team, I'm happy for her!  This will leave only 2 of the original 8 that were on the team when I began 3 years ago.  So sad.

The mess. 

The organization.  My tracer templates have doubled thanks to Gwen! I am now super organized too! I labeled the boxes with the templates inside, then inside of the boxes they are in JUMBO ziploc bags organized by seasons or subject!  Makes me happy! :)

3.  With all the stress of this week has brought on... I've successfully, please don't confuse that with proudly, managed to empty this once full jar of peanut m&m's and down a pepsi.... everyday this week.  Thankfully I haven't gained any weight due to the fact that my room is like a sauna and I seem to have sweat out all the extra calories I consumed this week.

4. Once I finally made it home on the evenings, I've savored every moment.  We've spent a lot of time outside this week.  Her favorite thing this week has been the park though, this little girl would stay out there all day if she could!!

5. I was contacted the other day by a reader.  Her name is Heather Von St. James. Heather had a very touching story, she was diagnosed with Mesothelioma when her daughter was was just three and a half weeks home.   Heather's story hit me hard, one because I think about how devastating it would be to be told I only have a little over a year to live when my sweet baby has just been born.  I couldn't imagine, even now having to deal with the fact that I wouldn't be able to see my little angel grow up.  When I learned that it was Mesothelioma though, it hit me even harder.  My grandfather died almost 10 years ago.  I still have very vivid memories of him.  My grandfather worked for a company called Alcoa for about 40 years after he got out of the Navy.  Alcoa was a company that used products with Asbestos, even though they were aware of the harmful side effects.  While I don't have memories of my grandfather working there, my mom explained to me that workers had to change clothes when they arrived, shower after they were done working, and change back into their normal clothing.  My grandfather died due to a heart condition, however it was a condition that he could have had surgery for to fix, except for the fact that his lungs were too weak due to the exposure and effects of the Asbestos.  It is believed that is health declined so rapidly and his lungs were so week due to Mesothelioma, however it was never officially confirmed.  The purpose of sharing all of this is because Heather has asked me to share her video on my blog.  Not for donations, not for any other reason, but to make people aware.  If you have a moment, it is a very touching story.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!! For some of you, I am super JEALOUS... you have less days than me... Only 12 more school days!! :)

Oh & one more thing... I don't know about you, but when I get my book order boxes from Scholastic, I'm in what I like to call Book Heaven!  My kids are hilarious and now say it when we get boxes in!! My new favorite thing from Scholastic are their Knowledge Quest sets that are a mix of fiction and non-fiction books within a specific category!  Love.  I ordered almost $300 worth of Knowledge Quest sets with grant money!! Yippee, I'm obviously a little bit excited!! :) 

Five for ..... Saturday

As I mentioned last week... On Fridays I am so stinking exhausted,  even though I have every intention of writing, I can't gather the energy to do it!  I mean seriously, our Friday night staple for dinner this past month has been pizza, because I literally don't even have the energy to think about cooking!!  B doesn't complain though, she loves it!! She devours at least two pieces and sometimes three!!

 
So here I am, on Saturday night, sharing my Five for Friday and can't wait to because even though it was a stressful week back, it was a great week! :)

1.  Well I know I posted this picture on Monday, but last Friday my best friend came to visit.  The main purpose of this visit was for our race that we completed on Saturday... WARRIOR DASH!  It is a 5k with 12 obstacles... INSANE!  Seriously, the first third of the race was all up hill on a rock trail... We were about 2/3 of the way through and I began thinking to myself...."SERIOUSLY... not only did I sign myself up for this, but I PAID for it too?!?!?!?"  I was beyond excited to be done and honestly am contemplating doing it again!! Next time though, I will NOT forget my inhaler in the bag I checked... had I of had it, the race would have been much more enjoyable and quicker!! :)

2. On Monday, not only was I SORE and SUN BURNT from the race, but most excitingly we began CHARLOTTE'S WEB!!!!!! :)  I know, I know... I've shared this photo, too... but SERIOUSLY, how can you not be excited about Wilbur, Charlotte, Fern, and Templeton!!  I just LOVE reading and working through Charlotte's Web!  My kids are LOVING the new unit that I made, it is making my life teaching different elements of the story SUPER easy as well! :) 

3.  Tuesday was our field trip, the first one of two for my kiddos this year!! We went as a grade level to H-E-B (a large grocery store in Texas) and our county Museum.  The kids and parents were quite skeptical of our choice of a field trip, and well you may be too as you're reading this, but seriously it was a blast!  We did the same field trip last year and it was fun, this year it was even more enjoyable!  At the grocery store they talk about eating healthy, what a portion size is, the different parts of a grocery store and the kids even got several samples... bananas, freshly made tortillas,  as well as yummy salmon and pork!  I think know their favorite part of it though was when they got to "pet" the crab and lobster!  :) The museum was also really cool, I love learning about the history of our area and even though it is the third year we've gone, I learn something new every year because they are constantly changing out some of their displays!  My favorite part was the little old lady in character like she lived during the 1800's!  My kids were glued and completely drawn into her presentation as well! :)

4.  However, Thursday was probably one of the BEST days!  My mom was on spring break this week, it's wild that even though we are neighboring communities that we have different spring breaks!  Anyway..... She planned to pick up B early from her baby sitters and came to meet me for lunch!! I don't know who was more excited, my kids or me!! :)  My kids have been DYING to meet B for MONTHS!!!  The pictures and almost daily stories are NOT enough for them!  They were in complete awe of her and well she was in heaven being with so many "BIG" kids!  The best part of the whole thing though was the sweetest compliment I received from my team mate on Friday though. As we were talking after school she said that it was so sweet to see me with B and that when I was holding her that I was just glowing!!  Sweetest. Compliment. EVER!  Thanks, Kristin! :) So even though I didn't get a picture of her in my room, I did get a picture of her before the day started, the only way I was able to get her to pose for the picture was by telling her she was going to see her Gama!! She is definitely a Grandma's Girl!!

5.  I'm going to start this one with a picture and then explain.....

So... I am definitely that teacher that has crazy silly rules in her classroom.  One of them being we DON'T say the "c" word.... you know the one that starts with "craaa" and ends with "eee" .... That is how one of my kids described it to me last year and I cracked up laughing.  Yes, I do not allow my kids to say crazy.....  WHY?!??!? I'm sure that is what you're thinking.  Well, let me explain.  As a child that word was a NO, NO!  It was disrespectful to call someone that and inappropriate to say that something was crazy.  Plus, I admit that even myself now as an adult use the word too openly.  When I began my first year, I vowed that would be one of my rules.  It takes the kids a week, maybe two max to really be able to control themselves from saying it.  On top of the fact that I don't really like the meaning of the word and how loosely we use it in todays society, it makes the kids practice self control over the things they say and THINK before they think.  Something that TOO many kids today lack. :-/  Ok, so now let me explain the picture..... My first two years of teaching, I was NEVER caught saying the "c" word in my class.  This year, in the last two months though, this phrase above has slipped out of my mouth TWICE!! You should see my kids faces too when they realize what I've said!! Their eyes become bugged out, their mouth drops open, and they are in complete shock.  Thankfully, my first two times of slipping up, they have been easy on me and given me "warnings!" haha...

I hope you all have a great weekend!  Mine is going well, minus the fact that I think my little miss may just be getting sick :(  I am going to get back to watching my trashy tv reruns of old school Real World and my glass of wine! :)

Oh & a just because sale is now going on in my TPT Store! :)