Five for Friday January 10

I am linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. We sort of had a week back after break. We did get a "cold" day this week- with -29 degree wind chill.  I don't ever remember having a cold day before.  It was wonderful because I wasn't trapped inside because of a snowstorm- just bundled up with layers- and cocoa- and coffee.  Not too bad! This morning we have a 2 hour delay!

Thank you, Kacey, for hosting!

First, my parents got back from Florida! (Yay for me. Boo for them- just in time for the deep freeze!)

My mother comes in each day to work with some of the children for extra reading and writing help.  She brought everyone a special treat bag with special shells and real sharks' teeth from her trip, which they LOVED.  She met with each group and talked about the names of the shells and the sharks' teeth.  She also brought them a gummy shark to make it even more special! 

In honor of these fabulous shark treats, we later watched this Word World episode- Sh-Sh-Shark!

This is one of my FAVORITES!  Duck doesn't use the "sh" chunk , so he thinks Shark  is a "s-hark" and isn't afraid of him.  His friends know that "sh" chunk and are afraid of him.  They teach duck all about the "sh" sound.  It's a great way to help the children remember the "sh" blend. 

 

Second, I posted lots and lots and lots of winter activities on my blog.  Click on the pictures below if you want to see these posts for ideas about snow and snowmen. 

I also posted about some of the different activities that I do with the book The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel.



This week I reviewed fire safety with my class.  A four year old boy died in a house fire this week in a town right near mine.  It was just heartbreaking.  He hid underneath his bed. We have had three horrible fires this past week in the cold weather.  Our local fire station does a fabulous job in October teaching our Kindergarten students about fire safety.  The firefighters come, let the children try on their clothing, dress up and show the children how they sound breathing the oxygen in the mask so the children won't be scared of them, bring the fire safety house and discuss all the fire hazards, let the children tour the ambulance, and even let the children ride up and down on the bed in the ambulance.  I am so thankful for this exposure for the children.  You can just hope and pray that if a child ever experienced a fire, he/she would remember some of these lessons.  

I thought it was a great time to review (without being scary) some  of these fire safety rules. 

I found some great "What If" Fire Safety Cards from Elementary Matters.  These were really good conversations starters.  The children really loved talking - and felt proud that they would know what to do in case of a fire.  I also put a little reminder in my weekly parent note for families to talk about their own fire plan at home.  (It's the mother in me... I can't help it.)

I just really liked this little poster, so I thought I would share it. Click on it to make these 20 little happy things bigger.  :)  I think I love it so much because everything is a simple, realistic thing that I SHOULD do- and sounds so easy and sensible.  (Number 17 sounds like I need to go shopping, though...  to get a few more happy clothes, maybe.)

 

Number 5  seems silly, but it has helped so I just thought I would share it.  

I have several children who say "firty" for "thirty" when they count to 100- (like five of them). This really confuses them because they get to "firty nine" and feel like they have just said "forty nine" and skip the forties.  So, every day I have everyone stick out their tongue at me-(in a sweet and fun way- not a mean and nasty way) and practice saying "thirty" lots of times.   I have to see the tongues.  Every one of them.  Then we count.  "Thirty-three" is a favorite now.  If they do a fabulous job, they MAY get a skittle.  It's that important to me. :)

Next, they put their top teeth on their top lip and practice the "f" sound before we count our forties. 

It seems like such a simple thing but we have worked on this all week, and it has actually helped.

(For some reason, everytime I have written  an "s" word I want to write "th" SOOOO badly but I am restraining because it would be  THOOOO annoying.) 



Have a fabulous weekend!  (Were you proud of me that I didn't say "Have a "thuper" weekend!"??)