First Linky Party! Five for Friday

Yay! My first linky party :) 

So this was my PDAS Observation window (oh goody!) and for the most part, we didn't have any major disruptions to our schedule this week (with the exception of "Kindness" parties today...) Here it goes: 

On Monday, my baby niece Lydia was born!! She is the very first girl grandbaby on my hubby's side of the fam. So now we have 4 babies under 2 1/2 years. We LOVE that Jackson has so many cousins to play with! 

I got observed on Wednesday, so now I don't have to have a minor panic attack every time someone opens my classroom door. (Ok, that's totally an exaggeration because it doesn't stress me out THAT much but it is nice to have it "done" with.) Since I teach 2 sets of reading, the afternoon group gets the "better" lesson because I have time to quickly re-evaluate what needed to be changed, worded differently, etc. Of course I got observed RIGHT at 8am...with my first class. Oh well. 

My baby is 5 months old now! I seriously can't get enough of him. He has starting laughing and its the cutest sound ever.

It seems like my kids really struggle with analyzing, drawing conclusions and evaluating nonfiction text. They love to read it but they don't necessarily read to learn...does that make sense? Well this week we were reading articles and editorials and they determined the author's opinion and the facts he/she used to support their opinion. My little darlings seemed to "get it" finally. We shall see if it transfers into the dreaded STAAR test. 

I used articles from readworks.org and adapted them to what I needed in my own classroom :) 

Today is Valentine's Day AND we had our "Transition to 6th Grade" meeting with our kids. I can't believe how fast this school year is flying by. This group of kids is so special since they are the first group I've ever looped with (plus they are some of the BEST 5th graders we've had in a while). Once STAAR season has made its way through like the tornado it is, the rest of the year is going to FLY.