Five For Friday

I'm so excited to be linking up to Doodle Bugs' fabulous Five for Friday.  I've literally been thinking about it all week - what I would include, what pictures I would take ... and then I got sick.  I've spend the last two days at home.  Ridiculously wicked head cold - plugged ears, can't breathe, and a dozen other things I won't go into detail about.  So, enough of that ... here are my 5 random "shares" ...

No picture for this first one - nobody needs to see that.  But here's a mental image for you - for the past two nights I've been lying upside down off the edge of my bed with socks filled with hot rice held to my ears (yes, I'm trying all the googled home remedies I can).  I can't stand the feeling of my plugged ears.  Granted, with three little girls around here, muffling the noise can be a good thing ... but it's just too uncomfortable.  Anybody know of any other home remedies to try?

Moving on ... spent some quality time with my baby girl (not such a baby anymore) baking cookies while her older sisters were busy this week.  And the cookies were fabulous!  (So fabulous we had to bake a second batch later in the week).  ;) 

We've done a lot of free writing in my class this week.  Stay tuned next week for a blog post telling all about it.  My students are SO excited about this new addition to our class.  Here is a list they brainstormed about all the different forms of writing they could try - they came up with ALL the ideas.  Just underneath that is a little freebie I whipped up this week to get my students to do some revising and editing with their free writing.  You could try it for a minute or two after each writing block or piece, or go full out for a "Find It and Fix It Friday".  Just click on the image to grab this little freebie.

We had a little task card fun on Wednesday with these great division task cards I got from Teaching With a Mountain View. I set out all the cards in the common area outside my classroom, and the kids rotate through answering the questions.  They can use their whiteboards to work out the questions.  I sit at one of the stations with two different task cards, so each student eventually has to sit with me to work out a problem as they complete all the cards.  Great for some formative assessment.

I saved the best for last ... or the most embarrassing for last. ;)  Earlier this year, when my students were struggling with learning their multiplication facts, I made a promise to them that if they got a class average of over 80% on their skills quiz at the end of the week, I would turn cartwheels in the snow for them.  Well, it didn't quite happen with multiplication (we came awfully close), but last Friday, with their division quiz, they hit an 84% average.  YAY!!!!  And, since we still have snow in April (blech), early Monday morning I took my kiddos out to watch me do a cartwheel in the snow.  It's not a pretty cartwheel (it's been three children and two back injuries since I've last done a cartwheel).  In fact, my husband isn't convinced it's actually a cartwheel ... but my students LOVED that I tried, and my own kiddos belly-laughed at the video ... so, it's worth it, right???  Now I've got to figure out how to up the ante for our remaining skills quizzes.

And that's that ... how did you spend your week??