Five for Friday - May 1, 2015

Hey friends! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday to share 5 fun things from this week.

This week is all about the OO sound! So naturally everything this week had the OO sound in it - isn't that cOOl?

Fun ways to practice OO:

- Snack time: Give O shaped cereal and a scratch piece of paper and have students use the cereal as their OOs to write words :)

You can increase the rigor (yuck I dislike that word ;)) by having them write OO words with the OO sound in boot on one side and OO as in book on the other side like we did here. You can have them fold their paper in half to separate the sides if it makes it easier.... or they can just write all the OO words they can think of while secretly munching on their OOs

- Write spOOky stories

- Make your own cOOKbOOks by including a few HOW TO writings to make simple meals like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

- Do some of the fun pages from my OO Worksheets & Activities Pack obviously ;)

- Learn about the mOOn - I love studying space and I'm pretty sure just about every 5 or 6 year old does too!

What do you learn about during OO week?

So I shared in my last Five for Friday post that I was going to give myself a 100 Miles to Vegas challenge. It's been going okay so far - I am hoping to be better at it this week! I am only counting cardio I do on the elliptical so it's been a challenge to color in the chart! I usually do some sort of light-ish physical activity for at least 30 minutes to an hour each day but I've been doing that for a long time with no results so I am trying to push myself to do that daily cardio on the elliptical! My chart's looking pretty sad but at least it's getting a little bit more colorful :)

I was excited to finally hit 2 miles during my last workout so at least it's progress! It's pretty much always 1.75 each time so my goal was 2 miles. I can't figure out how to get the elliptical to not shut off automatically after 30 minutes of cardio or it'd be more haha. I guess I could just turn it back on and keep going but it would reset the 30 minute countdown and I think I'd do a whole 30 minutes more because I don't like leaving things with time still left on them and I really don't want to do an hour - is that crazy? I think it'd feel like writing something on your to do list but not crossing it off.. or like when someone leaves time on the microwave with nothing in it. Yeah, I guess that's a little crazy. :) So anyway I asked Mr. Giraffe to help me change the countdown time and he told me to read the manual. The manual? Things still come with manuals?? It's HUGE and you can't google within it soo needless to say, it still shuts off after 30 minutes. :) Gosh, technology has made me lazy!



Okay so this is something I am suuuuuuuper excited about! You know my Secret Words cards that I do for sight words and spelling patterns??

Well I am now offering them for NAMES! Personalized sets for the kids' names in YOUR classroom! Woohoo!

I'm really excited to offer this because it combines so much fun learning in one activity. Students have to look at the colorful picture to figure out its beginning sound to figure out the letter. Once they have all the letters, they've built their name. It's great name recognition AND beginning sounds practice all in one. Plus, they can build all their friends' names which kiddos love to do.

Get it here: {CUSTOMIZED FOR YOUR CLASS LIST} Secret Names

I also have the sign language version included for each name so that is a whole other fun activity. It comes with a sign language alphabet reference chart so students can do it independently. I do it with my sight words and words for the sound we're learning already and it's SUCH a fun way to practice word building and learn sign language which is always a high interest option.

You get 30 personalized names that I'll make in both the beginning sound pictures and sign language for each of your students. Plus you get all of the names I've made for other custom orders (I'll just keep adding to the file) so you might not have to use up all of your names if they've already been made or you can use those for the kids you have next year if I've made any of those names and add as you need them :) Don't worry, I provide a clickable table of contents of the names in ABC order so you can easily click on the name you want to get to it and print it.

You have a year to use all 30 names and you can order as many or as few at a time as you want. So let's say you order 18 now for your class and then you get a new student and need to request 1 more - you can request 1 (or 2, or 5, whatever) more at a time as you get new students.. or order some for this year and then some more in August for next year's class. If you need more than the 30, you just buy an additional license ($4 for 5 extra names) so it's easy. :) Like I said, you have a whole year to get in all 30 of your orders. It'll probably be a lot of work for me, not gonna lie, but I'm excited to be able to offer it. Kids in kindergarten and first grade love their names and their friends' names so I know it'll create a lot of smiles! :)

We've been so busy this week! We've had a lot of random appointments recently like to get our sprinklers fixed, get our cable fixed, had a few things delivered, met with our accountant (makes me feel so grown up to say that, ha), vet appointments, the DMV (gah!), etc. so every spare second has been spent running around... AND we had family in town this week so we've been really busy prepping for that and spending time with them. So phewwww we are TIRED at the Giraffe house! Just ask this guy...

It's finally SPRING!! I love studying butterflies in the springtime. A super easy activity I like to do is Find & Write. It's super simple - just put cards around the room for students to look at, read, and write on their recording sheet.

I also love doing this place value puzzle activity where students look at each card to see what number the base 10 blocks are representing and color it in on their 120 chart to reveal a picture. This one reveals a colorful butterfly so it's perfect for butterfly week!!

I also have this butterfly puzzle in Spanish!

Also - I have surprise for you! Here are some Short O CVC fluency puzzles for you for free!

Gah it's been a busy week! I hope everyone had a wonderful week!! 

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