Positive Fridays - Week of November 18th, 2013

Happy Friday to everyone!  I hope each and everyone of you had a great week. :-)

I am so happy to be back teaching and with the little ones.  Holidays are just so much fun.  It takes a ton of prep work, but the end result is so well worth it!  I wouldn't trade it for the world.

• This week we worked hard on completing our things for the Thanksgiving play.  We placed necklaces, vests, and headbands for Native Americans (Indians) and cuffs, vest, and hats for the Pilgrims.  We also made turkey headbands and I planned to use the vests without coloring them that were used for the Native Americans for my two turkeys, but neither one showed up.  Hopefully, they will wear them around the house!
• I am thrilled that I had 9 parents show up for the program out of my 16 students.  3 children were absent so only 4 who were there didn't have a parent, grandparent, or someone there for them.  I felt bad for those 4, but grateful that most had someone there for them.  Sometimes work gets in the way.
• The performance went so well, they sang a few songs and did a Thanksgiving Day skit where all the Indians had a line, Pilgrim Ministers, Pilgrim Men, Pilgrim Women, etc.  They looked so cute and did a super job on stage!  Hats off to the music teacher!
• I finished testing my students for the interim and it was terrific to see that my students made major gains with their letter and number recognition and letter sounds.  So many are so close to knowing all of their letters.  I am hopeful that they will know them all by winter break!  It's a big goal, but I truly think most will do it!
• I am also thankful that I now have 3rd graders who come visit my classroom before school starts each day.  They help me sharpen pencils, put chairs out for the children, hand back papers, worked on a couple of my vests for kids who were absent, etc.  They were superstars!  I look forward to their help every day.  Their teacher told me they were so excited and wanted to keep coming back throughout the day.  If only, but they have to learn too!
• I am looking forward to the party next Tuesday and a few other fun activities.
• I also reached a big milestone on TPT, well two, I'm over $5,000 sold in just less than 2 years and sold over $500 in products this month and the month isn't over.  This is the best I've done yet so I'm so excited!  Thank you to everyone who has purchased or even downloaded a freebie from me.  I love that my materials are being used in classrooms all over the world!  I hope to find time to make some new stuff soon.

I hope everyone else is seeing some big gains from your students.  Feel free to share in the comments.

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on smiling!