Five for Friday - May 9th

O-M-G! I am linking up with Doodle Bugs' Five for Friday on a FRIDAY!

This has been a pretty exciting week and I am looking forward to sharing...before I head out to our town-wide 4th, 5th, and 6th grade spelling bee. 

First I want to share my teacher appreciation goodies. Between our wonderful PTO and my sweet kiddos, they took very good care of me this week. Here are some pictures of the ways we were honored this week:

This signed greeted us each and every morning on the outside. On Monday, there was a fabulous sidewalk-chalk red carpet leading up to the door with Hollywood stars for each and every one of us - of course I forgot to take a picture of that. 

This is what we saw as soon as we entered the building. Such a special quote. :o)

These were the sweetest little notes of appreciation from our kiddos. This poster was hanging in our classrooms on Tuesday morning. They all wrote the sweetest things! 

And finally, these are some of the sweet treats I received from my kiddos. They all know me so well - so much owl loot! The bottom left photo is a picture that one my little darlings made using oil pastels on leather in her art class - it will be framed, for sure! 

I started my read aloud of Tuck Everlasting to teach theme (based on the CCSS model unit plan) on Monday. At first, the kiddos were complaining because they found the book confusing. We are nearly halfway through the book now and they are LOVING it! I never imagined that they would enjoy the book as much as they are, or that our conversations/their understanding would be as thoughtful and extensive as it is. I am so impressed! I will continue to share these lessons in a separate post though. 

We finished our Mother's Day books. The kiddos got a kick out of the pictures we took with mustaches. It seems like Mother's Day snuck up on me this year...this project was a bit more rushed than usual, but we also plan on taking time to honor all of the moms at our upcoming poetry night with poems and tissue paper flowers. 

We also finished our Student Treasures packets this week! Here they are, all bundled up and ready to go. One of my amazing teams will be mailing them all out this weekend. I cannot wait for the published books to come in! :o)

Finally, last night was the Excellence in Teaching banquet for all of the Teachers of the Year in our area. It was such a wonderful event and I am so glad that my amazing team was able to attend, along with my family. The neatest part was sharing this night with so many of my former teachers. Now that I am teaching in my hometown, it is like one great, big reunion! It was so special to share this night with the people who helped me to get to where I am today and to receive this award. I am so grateful to my family, former teachers, and especially my incredible 4th grade team! 

Our 4th grade team - I love these girls! :o)

As always, thanks for reading! 

Currently - A Peek at my Week

Today's post will be a linky 2-for-1! I am linking up with Farley's Currently *yay* and Jennifer's A Peek at my Week! 

I am LISTENING to Army Wives on Netflix. This used to be one of my favorite shows, then when they changed the cast, I decided I wouldn't watch it. I caved and watched season 7 the other day, so now I had to start over from the beginning again. 

I am LOVING our 10-day forecast! It finally looks and feels like spring here in Western Massachusetts! :o) My allergies are not thrilled, but I will deal; I love the springtime! Those are finally 60s and 70s that I see! 

I am THINKING about the 39 days that we have left of school. Yes, you read that correctly...THIRTY-NINE days! We start school after Labor Day...teachers begin on Tuesday and students begin on that Thursday, therefore, we still have 39 days to go. Our last day is June 26th. 

I am WANTING a day at the beach. I am pretty sure that if I were to look back at all of the currently's that I have posted in the last year, they would all have something about the beach in them. Hopefully Memorial Day weekend! 

I am NEEDING to get organized for Mother's Day. I have shopping to do for Mom and Grandma...and with the test-prep, Poetry Night preparations, and Student Treasures publishing that we have been working on, I haven't started my Mother's Day project with my kiddos yet. I have lots to do this week. 

SURPRISE, Theresa and Robyn! I adore Pinkadots Elementary. These two ladies have outstanding ideas and are lots of fun to follow. If you don't know them, head over and check out their amazing blog. During this teacher appreciation week, I would like to thank you, Theresa and Robyn, for inspiring me to be a better teacher with your incredible ideas. :o)

Now, for a quick, peek at my week! Jennifer at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings hosts the weekly A Peek at my Week. This is going to be a pretty exciting teacher appreciation week! 

Our state department of education has some new CCSS resources. One of these resources is a model unit for determining literary themes using Tuck Everlasting. I want to try out this unit, but I know that the majority of my kiddos will not be reading this text independently, so I am tweaking the lessons to use as Tuck Everlasting as a read aloud. We will begin this unit this week. You can find the link to the model unit here. 

This our last week before our math MCAS. That means that this week we will be finessing up our final topic, which happens to be geometry and prepping for THE TEST! I cannot wait until testing is over for the year! 

So much to do. I will be using my writing time this week to complete our Student Treasures book publishing work, the kiddos' Poetry Night presentation boards, and our Mother's Day projects. I completed these Mother's Day projects with my kiddos last year and they came out very cute. You can check them out in my itty-bitty TPT store that is on sale for the teacher appreciation event! 

Tomorrow is my final college class. That means I have lots of grading and grade inputting this week. I cannot believe how fast this class by, but I am looking forward to having the opportunity to teach another class in the future! 

If you follow me on Instagram, I posted this little gem this weekend:

My family, 2 amazing teamies and I will be attending a reception on Thursday to celebrate all of the winners of the Excellence in Teaching Award! :o) 

Thanks for sticking with me through this rather lengthy post. Happy Sunday and have a wonderful teacher appreciation week!