new decor

On the first day I had each students decorate a strip of paper with their name. Then I took a "mug shot" picture of them holding their name under their chin. Afterwards we put them on the lockers.

Killed 4 birds with one stone! -- I could look at the pictures the first night and learn the names I hadnt quite gotten during the day. --It took up a bit of time on a long, non-academic first day. --They made locker tags and saved me the trouble. --We have pictures for a sweet class display. -->

I made black "film strips" that join end to end and this heading.

Then I put the kids pictures on the "film strip" and ran it across the front of the room under the white board. Oh yeah! :-)

On Friday afternoons, provided we have gotten all our work done, we have Fabulous Friday. It might be an art project, games outside, or other fun stuff. Just something to end the week on a fun note.

Last Friday we plated games outside with the other two 5th grades as part of our spirit day.

But the week before we got crafty with pictures made of tiny squares of paper.

Some were quite creative, others were just.... random!

After they dried over the weekend, I put them up in our room. Nice to have decor the kids were in on producing!

I let them work in groups and K________ didn't have anyone to work with. So he and I worked together, I let him pick what we were going to make. He chose minerals, which we had just been learning about in science.

He is one of my kids that needs some extra time and care, it is sometimes hard to get past the frustrating outside and see that inside he mostly just needs someone.

Have to admit, my amethyst and emerald were more time consuming, but still not nearly as cool as his "Ninja Exploring Amethysts" was! There's that creativity he keeps trying to hide away! :-)