Five for Friday 4-10

Happy Friday! This seemed like a long week (maybe because it followed Spring Break), so I am glad it's time to relax and read some great Five for Friday posts at Doodle Bugs Teaching.

 We had our first married Easter this past Sunday. I am overly sentimental and so I tried to fully embrace every "first married holiday" in our first year of marriage. This was the last "first married holiday" in our first year of marriage but a first of many to come! We had a packed day of family, but we managed to make each other Easter baskets and hide them around the house for each other. He found his quite a bit faster than me! We can't get enough scripture in our house right now, so I got my husband a book with a verse and one of God's promises for each day. We have it out in our kitchen and share one when we make dinner. We've been too stressed for months with uncertainty and things have felt more stressful the past 2-3 weeks. The increase in stress started taking over health, emotions, and both of our personalities in day to day living... Fortunately, taking more time to read scripture has helped gain the strength God has for me and helped me keep my faith stronger than my fears. It's been the most eventful week of the year here, and thanks to His faithfulness I've been able to have peace!

We also wrote notes for various categories inside eggs and hid them around the house for each other (a special memory, something we are looking forward to doing together, something odd but cute each other does often, etc). This might make me sound like the cheesiest person ever, but things like this make us happy. Brian does not admit that he loves these things, but I know deep down he enjoys the festive fun.

We were working on Main Ideas/Details in reading this week. It is a challenging skill for second graders but so important! To introduce the concept of a main idea, I had a student bring out his lunch box. We looked at each detail in his lunch. The main idea was to make him feel full and have a healthy body. The most important supporting detail was his sandwich because he got carbohydrates and protein. We thought about he got vitamins from grapes and apple sauce and calcium from yogurt. He had two chocolates in his lunch and we related that to how authors sometimes put details in the text that are just for fun, even if they do not go with the main idea. This gave us a great foundation to go back to when we were discussing details and able to say is this an important detail like the sandwich or the grapes or just for fun like the chocolates.

I can't get my kids up and moving enough. I know how much the kids need to be up moving, talking, and discovering ideas, but I like to organize the chaos sometimes to help keep them focused. Kagan Structures have been helpful for me to do that. As we are studying place value in math, my students wrote number stories today and did a Quiz-Quiz-Trade with their partners. This is when they pair up, hold up their boards, solve each others' problems, trade boards, and walk to find a new friend. Quiz-Quiz-Trade is really good for when they are learning information and need to see it over and over again, but I think it helps them stay engaged to change the information they are sharing with their partner each time!

We are also working on comparing and contrasting ideas in non-fiction. A friend recently shared these two books with me that I plan to offer for my students to read during independent time. Are Trees Alive? will be a great challenge for them. The book compares people and trees. The challenge is for the students to find what the two have in common - For example, tree branches move in the wind and mothers' arms rock babies. They both sway side to side.

I took a whole evening off of school work from 5:00 on and spent the evening helping my mom pick out fabric for new window treatments and enjoying dinner with her. Rarely do I take a whole evening away from school work, but it was so wonderful to catch up with my beautiful mom. I lived at my parent's house last year before we got married and my mom and I loved talking every day and sharing in the details of each others' lives. We don't get to talk nearly as much now so evenings like this are so refreshing!

What did you do this week?