Five For Friday!

Greetings!  It's finally Friday Saturday!  I always love a weekend to refresh myself before another fun week at school.  I'm linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for their weekly Five For Friday.  Here's what happened this week in Miss Woodward's class!

1.  New followers
I recently linked up with I {Heart} Recess for her link party "Budding Blog".  It's for new(er) blogs with less than 200 followers.  You tell readers a little bit about your blog, and hopefully gain more views and followers.  I am happy to say that through that one post, I gained five new followers, and eight new comments!  I'm so excited!  (Hey, new followers!)

2.  Buddy Reading
We started the "Read to Someone" part of the Daily 5 this week.  I decided to call it "Buddy Reading" and my kids LOVED it!  Our ELL teacher is in my room during that time to help out, so she paired the kids up, and I chose a spot for them.  While they were reading, I couldn't help but have an ear-to-ear grin on my face because it was such a successful moment!

3.  Target Clearance Section

Stopped by Target today.  You know how it goes:  you go in for one item, and think to yourself, "Oh, I'll just take a walk through this section..." and an hour later you're leaving with a cart full of things you (thought) didn't need.  I went to where the school supplies were, and of course, it was already filled with Halloween stuff.  BUT, there were some school supplies on clearance.  Here's what I scored:

Packs of lined paper for $0.57 each, packs of skinny markers for $0.57 each, small silver pails (perfect for organizing!) for $1.00 each, and.....

These cool Dry Erase Crayons for $1.98!  I've used these before, and they are pretty neat!  You use them on white boards, but they don't wipe off as easily as markers.  They are perfect for messages/notes that you don't want kids to "accidentally" erase.  To erase, you just use the cloth provided, or an old cloth.  It just takes a teeny bit of extra wiping.

4.  New Student Bags

Last year, I think I gained four new students throughout the year.  And it's always the days when you are busiest in the morning and the office lets you know, "Hey, you have a new student today!"  .........    I hate that.  SO... to ease some of the tension of last-minute new students, I decided to prepare myself.  I saw this post on Pinterest about new student bags, so I tried it out.

In a gallon-sized baggie, I put everything I'll need for a new student.  I made two of these to use through the year.  They only took a few minutes to pull together!

I put in folders and notebooks with blank labels (for the students' name), and my welcome letters.

I also put in the spelling dictionary my students have, a star for their name on the hallway display, a candle for the birthday board, a binder clip for their mailbox tag, a few blank labels, and a birthday certificate/sticker.  There were a few things that wouldn't fit in the bag (like a book bin and math binder), so I put a sticky note in the bag to remind me to pull those things out when the new student arrives.

5.  Team Bonding

After school on Friday, I went out for dinner and drinks with the other 3rd grade teachers.  We added another 3rd grade class this year, and it's been really fun to get to know our new team-mate!

Me, Ms. Tarah (our new 3rd grade teacher!), and Ms. Meredith, our ELL teacher.

Ms. Meredith, our ELL teacher, and Ms. Eichhorn, another 3rd grade teacher.

How was your week?  I'd love to hear about it!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward