It's that time again: Five for Friday!

Friday is here!! Whoohoo! I can't wait for tomorrow! I will be heading to a Southern California teacher blogger meet up. It will be awesome to get the chance to finally meet a lot of the amazingly talented teachers in my neck of the woods.

We had a busy week in the classroom! Linking up with Doodle Bug Teaching for Five for Friday!

We've been reading the historical fiction novel, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. My kids absolutely love it and I heart how it aligns with our social studies standards (American Revolution). It's a lengthy book, but so interesting. We've only got four chapters left. Today we finished reading a chapter and it was time for us to get ready to head home. I caught these two students reading ahead instead of getting their things together. They just didn't want to put the book down. Don't you love it when this happens! 

We finished our ABC's of the American Revolution posters! This idea came from Teaching with a Touch of Twang's blog. I'm planning on blogging about it (along with many other things we've been doing...). It was great to see them so engaged in their learning.

 

Today we finished up our unit on the digestive and circulatory systems with some science experiments/activities. The students made a stomach and observed what happens to food (cracker) when our stomach acid (OJ) mixes together. I heard quite a few "ewww" or "gross" as they were working. After that they participated in a circulatory system activity in which they graphed their heartbeat while resting, jogging slowly, jumping vigorously, and resting again.

I finally got around to having my students work on a fun project called One Word 2014 I found at A Full Classroom's blog. It should have been completed in January, but you know how it goes...better late than never. Instead of creating a list of new year's resolutions, they think of one word that will define how they want to live this new year by. A word they can reflect upon daily. My kids really enjoyed the activity and they came up with some great words.

 

I got a little cooking in this week! I made my favorite Brussels sprouts recipe, Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and aged balsamic vinegar. Delicious!