Five Things I Accomplished Yesterday

Yesterday, my school was a Professional Development day, but they gave us the whole day to work in our classrooms.  At first, I thought I wouldn't be able to fill my time up with things to do, but I ended up still not finishing everything on my list!  Teaching is truly a never ending job!  So I am linking up with Doodle Bugs's Five For Friday linky to share five of the things I accomplished yesterday.

1. I got these Abraham Lincoln projects graded, so they are ready to be passed back and sent home Monday.  They turned out so cute, but they took a lot of time!  The kids really enjoyed making them and learning about our 16th president.  It was a real lesson for them in following directions to get these little guys made!  I bought this craftivity from the Glyph Girls.

2. I got a new bulletin board put up in the hallway.  The kids made shape monsters using various 2-D shapes and then had to write about them.  It makes for a super-bright and inviting board!  Some of them got so creative with pop-ups and adding things like purses or lollipops to their monsters.  I got this project from Amy Lemons's shape unit.  

3. I printed out Reading A-Z books and worksheets for my small groups and got most of the books put together.  This is the last thing I was working on, so I didn't quite get it all finished.  I love using Reading A-Z for my small groups because the worksheets that go with the books are so great for covering comprehension, phonics, and grammar!  I'm focusing on nonfiction for the next couple weeks because that is what the kids need the most practice with.

4. I got all of my students' graded papers filed for the week.  I file all their graded papers every week, then staple them into packets and send them home Tuesdays for parents to sign.  This way, I am constantly communicating with parents about their child's grades.  I found this idea in The Mailbox magazine a couple of years ago, and I love it.  It really doesn't take too much extra time either.

5. I put some new papers up on the bulletin board in my classroom that shows good student work.  These were some Symme-"trees" the students made, also from Amy Lemons's shape unit (highly recommended product)!  The kids had to draw a tree and then sort shapes either on the tree (if they were symmetrical) or off the tree (if they were not symmetrical).  They had a lot of fun with this one!

I sure got a lot done yesterday, and this isn't even all of it!  It makes me wish we had a whole day to work in our classrooms more like once a month than once a year!  Happy weekend everyone - I get to meet my fellow Houston bloggers tomorrow at the Cheesecake Factory AND it's Oscars night tomorrow!! :)