Five for Friday... on a Saturday of course!

Hello Friends!

I can't believe that it almost Halloween! I wait ALL year for Fall time and when it comes, Halloween just sneaks up on me and then everything else right after Halloween seems to FLY right by! I might as well be ringing in the new year on Nov. 1 because I will blink and it will be 2014.

This is always a funny time of year for me. My hubby always says that I never get to truly enjoy the holidays because I'm always so worried that it'll be over soon.  It's sad but true. It's like that feeling when you wake up really early before your alarm and try to go back to sleep because you only have "1 more hour before your alarm rings" then you toss and turn and now you think you only have "45 mins left before the alarm goes off" and then the mental countdown begins until your time runs out. THIS is how I feel every year because I feel like I want to do so much. BUT not this year. This year 2013 will NOT get away from me because I used my awesome teacher skills (haha!) to backwards map everything that I want to accomplish as far as things to do with my family and friends and parties that I want to throw. My calendar looks a bit busy, but it's a fun busy! :) I will let y'all know how it all turns out and if I indeed stuck to my calendar. :)

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs for her Five for Friday linky party.

1.

This is our infamous swamp juice. Kids LOVE it!

1. One of the parties that I backwards mapped into this fall season was my annual pumpkin carving party. I am bummed that I didn't take more pictures of the night since I was partly running around making sure everything was fine and party just enjoying the night. We carve pumpkins, do crafts, sometimes watch a kid friendly Halloween movie outside projected on a bed sheet, and just have plain ol' fun! It was a very fun and successful night! Kids were on all sorts of sugar high then we sent them home. Ha!

Silly Sock day to "Sock it to Drugs"

This little guy was siting at my elmo projector being my "teacher" for the lesson. 

Teaching the class with a little help from the chair

Brain break: gummy bear dance! They LOVED it!!

2. I've mentioned before that I have a pretty tough class this year. I come home EXHAUSTED every day that I work. I am so glad that I am job sharing this year or I think I would just be so useless when I get home everyday. This week though was different. The students were GREAT! I mean, we had fun AND I was able to teach everything that I had on my lesson plans this week... which NEVER happens with this class.

3. I posted this Question Starter freebie that you can get here. It comes with 4 different choices and it's poster size... 25" x 33"!!  I needed this in my classroom and hope that you can use it, too. I would love for you to leave a quick feedback if you do grab it. :) Thanks!

4. This year a couple of us were trained in Thinking Maps and then trained the teachers at our site. I REALLY love thinking maps and the kids have really caught on. I even write notes to myself now using a thinking map. LOL. Anyways, this was just an example of something that we did in class. What I love about these maps is that you don't have to teach something new because, you know... it's not like you have unlimited time to implement all new things into your daily schedule. You can use thinking maps with what you already teach. I love that my students are really starting to see things organized in this way.

5. This didn't happen this week but when I came across this picture, it just made me smile. I love that my little 6 yr old boy can read now and he loves to read to his little sister. This is my little Joshua reading a bedtime story to his 3 yr old sister, Karis. He is ALL boy but she sure has softened some parts of his heart. :) *sigh*


That's all Friends! Thanks for reading!