five for friday

Happy Friday, friends! So glad you stopped by! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday today! Here's a random list things from this past week (and today!)

This week I did so many running records and comprehension conversations with kids about books to determine their spring levels. The best conversation:

Me: Did you like the end of the book?

R: Well, I'm kinda on the fence about it...

Made me laugh :-)

Same kid came up to me at recess yesterday to show me this:

Him: I'm going Bruce Lee style.

Me: Ohhh yeah....?

Him: For the record, these are clean socks.

I seriously love kids!

My trip to Europe with my best friend is *one month* away! (and it's my BFFs bday today - hbd, Heather!) I can't wait to see her when we meet in London! We'll spend 10 days in Europe and see Paris, Venice, and Rome, too. We are planning on getting a picture by the Eiffel Tower like this one:

Okay well maybe we won't jump that high, but you get the idea! Perhaps this one would be better:

Anyways, Europe: 1 month! Can't wait bff! :-)

The parents at our school have been asking for summer reading lists and summer reading assignments. I will *not* give kids reports, or worksheets, or dioramas (oh no!), but I will set up a collaborative blog to use with the families at our school! So that's what we're doing - setting up a blog, outfitting it with recommended reading for all grade levels, sharing teachers' favorite picture and chapter books, and asking parents, teachers, and studens to send in their stories from their summer reading and writing adventures!

You can find us at emersonliteracy.blogspot.com - but it's still a work in progress. I'm hoping to add the 'How to Submit' page and the 'Summer Slump' research this weekend. When we send home the reading reports for spring instructional levels, parents will get this link. I'm hoping to have enough stories sent in to post every day! Will report back and let you know how it goes!

On Wednesday, our Writing Core Facilitator presented to the staff about Writing Workshop. (Fabulous presentation, JB!) It was a follow-up conversation from two weeks ago when teachers were asked to plan and deliver a mini-lesson in the editing state of the writing process. Teachers brought their plans back and shared.

I ended up sitting with our amazing Bilingual teachers. They are learning about Workshop and Lucy Calkins and so they were asking me questions about it and we were just having the best conversation. This actually is prompting a new post that is coming soon about Lucy's curriculum being "scripted," as I've heard some teachers refer to it. I will be posting more on that soon. Thanks to J and G for stimulating the idea for my upcoming post! and PS - It's not scripted! 

I'm still so happy about my blog - I seriously just go on my computer just to look at it all the time! Do you also like my buttons for the countdown? Kassie made everything just to my specifications! Love the countdown numbers just as much as the new design!

Hope you have the best weekend!