Five for Friday... on Saturday again

I'm later than normal with my Five for Friday Saturday, but I have a great excuse. Today, I spent the day with some fellow educators at the NCAEE Southwest District 6 Conference. Yes, I did go to PD on a Saturday. Yes, I did spend my own money to do it. Yes, I am a little crazy, but I'm so glad I went. I got some much needed inspiration.

Here are this week's five things.

I've wanted to share this one with you for awhile. These are the class buckets in my colleague's classroom. When a student does something kind and "fills someone's bucket," they get to drop pom-poms in their class bucket.  When they fill their bucket with pom-poms, they get to visit the treasure box. Then, they empty their bucket and start over. I think this is a great way to encourage and reward kindness in the classroom, don't you? I'm definitely trying it next year!

I saw these at Target this week in their Easter section. I'm thinking I could design some great math lessons that revolve around Goldfish. We could graph the different colors and analyze the graph. We could work on even and odd numbers. We could estimate and count the whole bag. We could work on place value. We could solve two-digit addition and subtraction problems. We could make up our own story problems. Hmmm.  The possibilities are endless. I'm thinking the weekend before Spring Break would be perfect for these. I'll let you know what I decide to do and how it goes.

Check out what I saw hanging in the teacher restroom at the school where the conference was held today. I think this is a great idea - both for teachers and for students. Sometimes, we just need a little reminder; something positive to let us know that we do matter, that there are people who care about us. So cool.

I won a door prize!  I chose this book by Ron Clark. I can't wait to read it. Visiting the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta is definitely on my bucket list.

I got to spend time with one of my teaching idols today. I started reading Jen Jones' Hello First Grade blog soon after I moved to North Carolina. I've found and used so many wonderful ideas and resources on her blog over the years. Now, of course, her blog is called Hello Literacy. She is a popular TpT Author and a literacy consultant in high demand across the country. She's also an inspiring presenter. Just listening to her today erased some of the stress I've been feeling lately. I'm feeling reenergized and ready to teach students to become better readers and writers.

I'm grateful to Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting Five for Friday each week. I enjoy sharing my week with you and finding out about what other educators are doing. Make sure you visit Doodle Bugs Teaching to check out the other great blog posts this week. I also welcome your comments on my blog. Make sure you follow me on BlogLovin' by clicking the link at the top of my page.

Until next time,