Five For Friday- April 25th

I am linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching  for Five for Friday! Thank you, Kacey!

Well, before I even start, let me tell you that TONIGHT I will be having dinner with Dr. Jean.  YES. I. WILL.  She is coming to our little town for our 3rd Annual Kids' Bookfest, and because she wanted to have dinner with me I am on the Family Reading Partnership committee, I am going to dinner with her tonight.  I am PRETTY SURE this will be one of my favorite five next week.  Pretty sure.  It may be all five.  You just never know.  

We had a great week!  Here are some of my favorite parts...

The Vet Center made its appearance for Free Choice Centers. We have Free Choice (the activity formerly known as PLAYTIME) for about half and hour each day.   I put away the Grocery Store for a bit and switched it up with everything a good vet needs.  This week the cat and dog beanie babies had check ups.  Next week, it will be something different.  I found some great vet scrubs at the Salvation Army and bought lots of 20 cent pads at Walmart for writing prescriptions, appointments, notes...  

I love how he was just waiting for calls for appointments. 

Happy Earth Day!

We finally went on our Earth Day Nature Walk on Thursday. It rained on Tuesday and Wednesday.  It was only in the 50's and windy, but our adventure was described as the "best thing EVER" so I think it was a complete success. 

I used this fabulous Nature Scavenger Hunt from  No Wooden Spoons.

This is a great hunt, because it has some common things on it that the kids can easily find and feel successful right away. If fact, we BARELY got outside the doors before the kids started finding things and sticking on stickers! They would have had some of it done before we left the room, but I told them that the morning glory flowers, their green leaves, and any dirt, spiderwebs and/or ants in our classroom would not count since it was an OUTDOOR HUNT.  But it is that easy- you can even find some of this nature inside... It's a wonderful activity for spring- anytime you feel like you the kids need some time outside-  not just Earth Day!

 

I stapled a little strip of stickers to each paper so the children didn't have to use a pencil to mark off what they saw.  They only had to stick on a sticker.  We found everything except a fern and a butterfly. I think it was too early for those.  OH wait... we also did not find a CLOUD.  Can you believe it?  If you ever want to schedule an outside event, just have me schedule something for that day where I am trying to have clouds in the sky for the children to look at- then you are guaranteed a perfect blue sky with not a cloud in sight!  This was the exactly same beautiful, perfect sky we had on White Day when we were supposed to see shapes in clouds.  But... I am NOT complaining. I'll take it!

This week we read Birds written by Kevin Henkes and illustrated by his wife Laura . I just discovered that she was his wife, and it made me love the book even more.

 We had so much fun painting with feathers.  I had the children make two different kinds of pictures. 

I wrote a post about it here if you would like to see more or if you would like a copy of the paper I made for the children to use for their feather painting.  We had a ball!

We looked at different birds on my Bird Nest Prezi to decide just what bird may make which designs in the sky.

We also  colored this  Types of Birds Easy Reader from Debi Forsyth.  It is free at her TPT store.  

 

The kids are fascinated looking at different birds.  I have seen lots of birds with their mouths full of twigs and grass for nests. It's a great time to make a bird nest kit!

I also posted about my Mother's Day gifts for this year.  I am so excited for the moms to get their special books and candy bars!  If you would like the links to the free downloads for the Hershey MOTHERS bars or the M&M MOMS packages, you can get them here. 

Finished Product

The children are writing stories about why their mom is the sweetest to go along with the candy bars.  Here are just two of my many favorites to share...

This little guy is SO sincere and sweet.  He took such a long time with his mom's hair, and then told me that is exactly how it looks when she blow dries it. I think it hit home because  I can totally relate. Thank goodness for straighteners...

She said, "I can't live without you mommy because you are so special."  I have a feeling this may be her mom's favorite gift that she may keep forEVER!

Finally, I was the winner of these wonderful Good Karma Art Jars from Casey Jane at Wiggling Scholars.  They are so pretty- hand painted and personalized. 

 Thank you so much, Casey!   I will be putting some Hershey hugs and kisses in the big jar for me  the kids at school.  I can't decide what fabulous things I will put in the smaller jar for home.  She is such a sweetheart.  Casey put in some extra fun chevron goodies for me that just made my day!  Stop over and follow her blog!

Here are a couple other fun pictures that made me smile this week-

AHHHH!

 This little guy's dad took the time to send me a picture of his first "haircut."  SO SWEET!

Have a FABULOUS weekend!