Five for Friday

It has been a very unusal week for us. My peaches just couldn't keep it together. The bickering and tattle tailing was off the charts. We didn't get too much curriculum done due to special events and I blame it all on the full moon this past Monday. I'm hoping that next week will be WAY better!

Can I just say that I had the most awesome weekend last week! My sister had a birthday and my family, sister's boyfriends, my hubby and I went to Bodega Bay which is literally 35 minutes from my house. We stayed in a cute little trailer, by cute I mean it only slept 4 and there were 8 of us. I must say, three couples in a small space led to little beauty rest. Anyways, we spent Saturday exploring the bay and the little town of Bodega. That night my parents were so sweet and cooked us all dinner while we all napped (this camping thing is some hard work). All of it was delicious and for dessert we had s'mores. We spent Sunday packing up and cleaning the trailer. Then everyone came to our house and the women had a cleaning session while the men vegged out and watched football. All in all it was much needed family time and a nice break from all the hot weather we've been getting. 

Me, my sister and mom

me and my hubby

Me and my sissy

My dad

My room after all the cleaning (wish I had a before picture)

 Last Friday, I decided to start writer's workshop with my peaches and boy did they enjoy it. I took the suggestions from Sarah Jones from TGIF! I turned off the lights, played some calming music and they got right to work telling me about what they like to do at recess (all of course after brainstorming ideas together, modeling and going over my expectations for them as writers). This is the first year where I didn't have to convince one of them to write they all were willing participants (hooray!).

 

This week I tried to wear more professional clothing, I'm really a t-shirt/jeans/running shorts/mickey mouse tops kind of girl! I went shopping over the weekend with my mom and sister and found this cute top from Target (on CLEARANCE!) I loved it. It was perfect for this week since it doesn't seem like it's going to get cold here in Cali anytime soon.

Can I just say puppies make life so much sweeter! Last week my fifth grade student's dog had puppies they are Akbash mixed with some other kind of BIG dog but they are the sweetest, helpless, most adorable puppies EVER! We got to hold them when they were two weeks old and then again this week and they are just now opening their eyes. I've fallen in love with them and want to take every single one of them home with me! Alas my landlord doesn't want us to have dogs and these dogs get HUGE, like miniature horse HUGE! But all this puppy holding has confirmed that I want a puppy in the near future, fingers crossed!

"This is a good day, just like yesterday, yes yesterday was a good day too." I am so thankful for the community I live in. I put my Donors Choose project out there and in a week it was fully funded from people in my area. Ever since I checked out my first Piggie and Gerald book "Should I Share My Ice Cream?" there has been nothing but smiles, laughter and giggles in my classroom during read aloud time. Each student connects to the stories and can't help but laugh at the adventures of this elephant/pig duo. I find that soon after I'm done reading the students are already reciting the dialouge and taking the books to read on their own. I wanted to create this joy everyday in the classroom so I put together a list of all the Piggie and Gerald books I could find and asked for help. I didn't think much of it after I put it up. I put some statuses on Facebook but nothing came of it. I feel so grateful to the two people who donated to our classroom. They didn't know me or my school but saw the yearning for learning through my post. I'm excited to write them thank you notes to express our gratitude for helping out our little school.