Woot! Woot! Five for Friday on a FRIDAY!

It's FRIDAY, yes, really FRIDAY and I am joining Doodle Bugs for her weekly linky party, Five for Friday, on a FRIDAY! WOOT! WOOT! I can not remember the last time I made it to the party on time!

First up, something none teaching... Check out this photo of my fur babies (Daisy, original cat, and Lulie, new kitty). If you've been following my blog you have read about my six week feline frenzy. This week, I am happy to say, the frenzy has fizzled a bit. The girls actually sat next to each other (sort of) in peace! AMEN (sung aloud). However, today the frenzy renewed a bit... sigh!

Next up, Ms. Murphy, my student teacher... I just LOVE her! She is so enthusiastic and wants so much to do well! She is bringing a new level of excitement to my classes, plus it is so nice to have an extra pair of hands in the room. We are getting sooooo many of those ho hum tasks (cutting out things, collecting necessary materials, grading papers, etc.) done in record time. She is spoiling me! And my kiddos!

It has been difficult, however, to sustain a schedule for her. We have missed five "cold" days since she began her student teaching time. It was this week she was to "pick-up" a second class to teach each day. She hadn't yet picked-up one to do all week and I was in the middle of developing some skills, particularly perfect tense verbs. Mother Nature has put a kink in our plans!

To help with our dilemma we got a bit creative... literally! I turned to my blogging buddy Deb Hanson of Crafting Connections and her AWESOME craftivities. I met Deb this past summer via a linky party and was intrigued by her products. She was offering a free craftivity for anyone willing to test it out in his/her classroom and the blog about it. I was in! I agreed to test-drive her genre craftivity (one of next week's posts provided Mother Nature cooperates) and she sent it to me pronto. Once I saw it, I was hooked and purchased NUMEROUS other craftivities, among them this one that I asked Ms. Murphy to share with my sixers as a review and practice for perfect tense verbs. The lesson was a success, my sixers loved it and worked hard on the skill portion. We were supposed to finish the craft portion today, but alas we are at home.

Ms. Murphy demonstrating the finished product.

Ms. Murphy modified the direction sheet for her purposes.

Students working on the craft portion.

This coming Monday, during Catholic Schools Week, we will hold our school Spelling Bee wherein we will select our representative for the County Spelling Bee. This is all part of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee competition, serious "stuff". My sixers will compete against the seventh and eighth graders... they are NERVOUS! So we practice, and practice, and practice. I am happy to say that we were able to select our sixth grade winner and five other representatives for the school bee. My eighth graders were not so fortunate; we were supposed to have done their class bee today... another casualty of the cold.

Ms. Murphy is conducting a practice round.

One of the lessons that has been interrupted repeatedly is our homophone lesson. We've gotten as far as discovering common English homophones, focusing on twenty of them, mastering their meaning and usage. I had a feeling we would be off of school today so I quickly whipped up this wordsearch for my kiddos to take home with them, hoping they would keep up with their practice and not lose more ground. If you'd like a copy, just click HERE or on the graphic.

Finally, in honor of all of my snow/cold days and the winter storm that is fast approaching (up to eight inches of snow is forecast by Sunday afternoon with more Sunday night... double sigh!), I am offering a frozen flash freebie! Just leave a WARM comment below and I'll send you a copy of my Snow Day ZAP!. If you are a "no reply blogger" don't forget to leave an email address to which I may send your freebie.

This freebie will end when the storm is over and we go back to school!

NOTE: The above FREEBIE has officially ended... We FINALLY went back to school on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2014. Our first make-up day for all these missed "cold" days is next week, Feb. 7th. We had an inservice scheduled but will opt to be "in school" instead!

Happy Teaching,

KEEP WARM,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6