Reference Sources and More Snow {Five for Friday}

It's time for Five for Friday!! I did go to school a few more days than last week, so I can actually link up this week and share a few things! 

It snowed and once again wreaked havoc on our schedule. We had two 2 hour delays, an early dismissal, 2 snow days, and a 12-4 delayed schedule today. Reading back over that it doesn't even seem like it's possible to fit all that in one week! 

Our super photogenic Aussie out having some fun in the snow. He always enjoy my picture taking adventures! 

We are still working on reference sources, so we broke out the Thesaurus and worked on finding some synonyms for commonly overused words. You can find the snowflake sheet by Michaela Almeida here on TPT for free! 

We also tried out the Dictionary Roll-A-Word by Common Core and So Much More. Again, another fantastic freebie! This one was a big hit with my kids! 

I used the snow day time to do a little decorating for Valentine's Day. I've also been working on some cards for all my Valentines, but I'll have to wait until Monday Made It to post pics of those...I don't wanna give away the surprise! 

This mess was my desk today around 2:30. I can't handle a messy desk, so needless to say I was at school until it was all cleaned up! With all the snow days and delays I've been sending home more practice for my kiddos to do and that means more grading for me. 

Do you have any time saving tricks for delays and snow days? It seems like there are not enough hours in the few days we are at school each week! 

Dictionary Skills and a Sweet Freebie {Five for Friday}

What a whirlwind week it has been! We had a snow day on Wednesday and a 2 hour delay yesterday and today. We've also been trying to use 22 or so computers to give all 64 of our students a math benchmark test, so needless to say it has been a cRaZy week!! Like always, I didn't get to everything I planned this week, so our schedule is looking pretty packed next week. 

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share some randomness from the week. 

Hello my name is Courtney and I'm addicted to Instagram!!! This little bit of inspirational goodness came from Holly Switzer at just the right time this week. I love getting glimpses into classrooms and seeing fantastic work from students! It has really been very motivating for me and I can't get enough. If you've caught the bug too you can follow me at polkadotlessonplans.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman has become a  favorite little brain break in my class. Confession: I want to listen just as much as the kids! The songs from this movie were just incredible! 

As part of our word reference study we labeled this dictionary entry in our notebooks. I'll be honest here, I'm up in the air about this activity. On one hand I'm thinking it may have been a little too time intensive, but on the other it was a great way to sneak in a lesson on diagrams and labels! 

In all the dictionary talk, we've been working on guide words and determining which words would belong on a page with certain guide words. We needed more practice, a lot more practice, so I made this little worksheet. You can click on the picture to pick this up this FREEBIE with an answer key! Woot woot! 

On Wednesday I took some time to work on lesson plans and I had a little Ladybug helper. I just love this picture of her. At the rate we are going with snow and scheduling I'll be doing those plans in two weeks....haha!! Anyone else over plan? 

Guide Word Sandwiches, Goodies, and Keep Calm {Five for Friday}

Happy Friday! Only 20 more days to go until summer break!!! woo hoo Its time to link up with Doodlebugs Teaching for another great Five for Friday! Here are 5 random things from my week.

1. We had a cute little treat in our mailboxes every day this week - adorable! Our principal also got lunch for us today...yummy! 

2. This week in Social Studies the kids worked together to come up with skits to review important Virginians from the 20th century. I couldn't really get a picture of them in action, but them pretending to play tennis like Arthur Ashe was adorable!  

3. We've been making sandwiches in reading class - guide word sandwiches! When it comes time to answer standardized questions about which entry word belongs on which dictionary page I teach my kiddos to make a sandwich. The first guide word is the top piece of bread, the entry word is the cheese, and the last guide word is the bottom piece of bread. Then we work on ABC order. The word that is first in ABC order gets a 1 beside of it and so on. A good sandwich stacks up to be 1,2,3 and anything else is rotten and gets thrown out! A teaching buddy of mine showed me this trick and it has been such a big help to my kiddos! 

4. I finally finished the clipboard tub!! I love it and we've already been putting it to use the classroom. Its so much nicer than the big thing I had them all stacked thrown in before.

5. A few weeks back Tanga had a big sale on teacher t-shirts and I ordered one that said Keep Calm and Teach On. When I wore it this week the kids loved it and were coming up with their own "Keep Calm" sayings. Here is the sign one of my students made for me because we have been doing test prep and I say reread a 1,000,000 times a day!!! Made my day....LOL 

Click on over and join me on Facebook! I'm loving all the little "extras" that everyone is sharing on there!