Five for Friday- June 26

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting, Kacey! It was FINALLY our last week of school!  

Since the kids were getting really picky with each other and my room was 900 percent humidity, Trying to fill the last moments of kindergarten with some fun memories, my friend Leslie and I decided to have garbage pick up day!  What's more fun than that?  Each child had one gloved hand and a small plastic grocery bag on the other.  

We review the rules:  The "3G's"- Gloved hands Get Garbage,  always be able to see the teacher, do not pick up glass or sharp garbage, stay with your buddy, stay out of puddles (which were everywhere), and HAVE FUN!

We headed off down the trails with a buddy and found a lot of garbage!  Before we start, I am always worried that we won't find enough garbage for everyone.  How Pollyanna is that- that there won't be garbage?  Unfortunately/Fortunately, everyone was able to find enough garbage to make them happy.  

We put all of our garbage together in big bags when we were done. The big garbage bag is hiding behind the beautiful pink skirt in the middle.

And... we found a huge puddle with 4 frogs in it.  Score!  The kids could have stayed there all day. As soon as a frog saw someone, it darted to the other side of the puddle and came up.  They were so much fun.



I shared all of my FAVORITE summertime books that I loved to use with my children HERE at PreK and K Sharing.  I wrote about nine different books.  Here is one of them.

This is one of my favorite parts of this book- the Pizza Garden! What a fun idea and way to plant a garden.

I love to use A Visitor for Bear as a read aloud and writing prompt.  We had great discussions about friendships- why we need friends and what makes a good friend.

After I read the book, the children turned and talked about why it is important to have friends and to be a friend.  Then, we drew and wrote about it.

I was sad and I found a new friend.

 Because they cheer you up.

Because they always can help you.

 If a bully came to you, a friend would save you.



If you would like a copy of these writing prompts, just click the picture below!

This prompt is part of my Writing about Books packet that has 170 writing prompts for 102 different books.

Here are pictures of the books that I have included.



They are all different books than the ones I have in my  Author Studies Writing Prompt Packet.

This packet features 8 authors: Eric Carle, Donald Crews, Kevin Henkes, Laura Numeroff, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, David Shannon, Mo Willems, and Karma Wilson, 160 writing prompts, and 100 books! I listed each author packet separately, and then the big packet all together. Here are the links to the individual authors:

We read Hey, Little Ant this week.  This book is great for persuasive or opinion writing.  We had to write whether or not we would squish the ant, and tell why or why not.   Our vote was 9 to 7 - squish, even after the sweet story from the ant's perspective.   Oh well- 

They had some really good reasons for both.  These writers were all about leaving them alone, they will just go home, and they have lives, too...

These writers must have had some bad experiences with ants.  They take your food, they're mean, and they bite.

Here are a couple videos of the story.

After all is said and done, it's a good thing nobody saw the root beer barrel COVERED with ants, that someone had lost underneath my rolling cart in the classroom. (Who has a root beer barrel in school anyway?!) Those ants didn't stand a chance rolling that root beer barrel back to their home. They may be squished now because they were EVERYWHERE.  On my behalf, I did this the day before we read this book, and afterward, I did feel a little bit bad...

Click, Clack, Moo is another great book to use for a writing prompt! 

I want 2 things. I want an electric blanket and a pillow. 



We're tired of eating hay.  We would like a refrigerator with human food. 

We shared our letters after we wrote them.  The kids got in a circle on the rug, and one at a time stood up to read their letter.  This little one was so proud of his letter, and he ended it with, "Sinseriously, The Ducks."  I LOVED it.  I am pretty much going to use that from now on when I really mean something, I have decided.

I want a motorcycle and a diving board and a monster truck.  Sinseriously, The Ducks. 

And finally, I want to share one of my favorite gifts that I got for the end of the year.  I asked the sweet mother who made it for me if I could share it, because it's such a wonderful reminder of what is really important to and for children, to and for their parents, and to and for teachers! What people who make educational decisions about curriculum but don't actually teach sometimes forget is that the biggest successes most often aren't what the students can read or write, but who they become on the inside as they grow in the classroom.  Sometimes those successes may not seem like a big thing to the outside world, but we know that they are huge.  

If I were writing a page in The Important Book, it would go something like this... This little sweetheart can read and write anything he wants to, read the highest level book we are allowed to test in kindergarten with 100% accuracy and comprehension, and scored perfect scores on his end of the year evaluations.  But the important thing about this little sweetheart is that he learned to feel safe speaking to adults, gained confidence in himself and his abilities, and learned to love school and learning.  (AND he loves Minecraft with all his heart! )

Happy Weekend!  Happy Summer! Thank you for stopping by!

Sinseriously,