Five for Friday

I'm linking up today with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for five random things for Friday.

1. We are in our "American Contributions" unit for LA Common Core so last week we studied George Washington and this week we studied Abraham Lincoln. 

They made a lot of CONNECTIONS (as the standard insists) between the two presidents, but I did still have a few confused souls.

"No, George and Abe were not friends. George died before Abe was born....yes, I'm sure they would've liked each other."

"No, Abe was not the 61st president."

"No, George's wife was not named Michelle."

But overall, they really got it and I was just happy that by the end of the two weeks, I don't think anyone thinks either one is our current president. That's saying something for seven year olds you know.

By far, the most well received assignment this week was done after we read the story, Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers by Karen Whinnick. 

Since the girl in the story, Grace, wrote to then Mr. Lincoln, I let my students write to our current president.

They LOVED this!

2.Where's the stinkin snow?!?!

I keep reading about all these snow days my midwestern blogging friends are having. I must say, I'm quite jealous. This is us....

Looks snowy enough, right?!?! Notice the grayish black asphalt? It stays that color. No matter how much snow we seem to get. I'm getting sick of it. Time's running out!!!!

3. Awesome treasure box idea, if I do say so myself. I was getting sick of collecting the junk lovely tidbits and happy meal toys to put into my treasure box and I'm also always trying to think of ways to get the students to use more technology in the classroom. I put these two ideas together and thought of these...

I made four of each card and put them in my treasure box AND when they "cash in" their cards, they have to give me the card back, so I don't have to make any new ones. And believe me, these cards don't seem to get lost. ;)

4. iPad Apps

Now that my school is starting to purchase more and more iPads, I'm constantly looking for more and more that are good AND will sustain the students' interest. I came across Cimo's Spelling. This little app is great practice for phonetic spelling and sight word practice. I also noticed it can keep track of the student's progress if you take the time to enter their info. Great stuff!!!

5. Why is it that I think of something I think my two year olds will love and it bombs and something else is the most fun?!?!

I bought easter eggs thinking those would be fun for hours, then they searched for the eggs once and wouldn't give them back to me because they were now Theirs. Done. Game over.

Then, I'm loading the garage fridge full of Dr. Pepper and Diet Coke and they come up dying to unload the boxes of drinks for me. I mean, yeah, one or two cans shouldn't be opened for a couple of months but other than that, they did a great job.

Oh well.

Link up and have fun!!!