Five for Friday

I apologize for my blogging absence! But Five for Friday is such a great way to let you in on what's been going on!

Since my title 1 tutoring position doesn't start until October, I have taken on a GT (gifted and talented) position until then and I am LOVING it! Hanging with small groups all week and getting to work across the grade levels! I haven't taught the older kids in a few years, but oh my goodness! I have missed them! I really do love the older ones!

#1 Here's a look in my new classroom! I had to decorate an entire class in 1 week! The room was bare! And apparently I had enough border to decorate an entire classroom without having to buy any. Can you say border hoarder?

 This is my favorite part of the entire room! And the kids LOVED seeing their names this week as they entered the classroom for the first time. I loved how they reacted when they walked in. They said the room was so fun and inviting! From the mouth of babes.

#2 I work with grades 1-5 and pull each of my grade levels once a week and this week was the 1st week for them to be pulled. We read the book "My Fantastic Elastic Brain". Such a fun book that talks about how the brain works and that it's ok to make mistakes because it's training your brain!

#3 We spent time talking about how this class would be a place to challenge ourselves. If we can't do something, we just can't do it "yet". Yet is a big word in our GT program! We want to have a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset! I introduced the word mindset and we talked about the M standing for motivation.

Then in the upper grades the students had to make up a skit showing what motivation was. The skits were hilarious! Then they had to come up with a symbol for motivation. Here are a few.

Then I took all of their symbols and displayed them on our mindset board. We will make our way through the whole word throughout the year.

Check out my "Change Your Mindset" unit in my TpT store if you'd like to implement to growth vs. fixed mindset in your classroom!

#4 And of course I've been working on some fun fall activities for all of you!

 My firsties LOVE doing this activity and it's a great way to teach or review ordinal numbers in word and number form! It is on sale this weekend for $2 AND if you head over to my facebook page, you have a chance to win a free copy!

#5 And last but not least, I finally got my silhouette portrait that I won from Hope's from Second Grade Shenangians giveaway! Now to learn how to use the darn thing!

And to leave you with a little humor... Are you ready for some football?!?!