Five for Friday!

What a term! The past 9 weeks have gone so fast, I can't believe we've arrived at school holidays already. We (myself and my students) are most definitely ready for a break though. Term 1 is always very full on with setting up a routine, testing and getting to know each other.

I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Click here to check out what other bloggers have been up to this week.

I picked up these super cute Easter books from Aldi at $5 each, bargain! The kids loved reading them this week, and the Pepper Pig and Spot books were easy enough for my struggling readers.

These super cute Holy Week posters were in a pack I purchased from Anne Hoffman's 1st Grade TPT store. They feature clip art from the amazingly talented Kari Bolt. This is the second year I've put them up during Lent to help teach my little wonders about Holy Week. They were a great visual reminder of the days involved in Holy Week and what occurred on each day. 

The little wonders created these beautiful cross silhouettes this week in our art lesson. They used chalk pastels for the background, and we talked about using colours that are touching on the colour wheel or in the rainbow. They practised smudging and blending their pastels, which I will admit, ended up in chalky jumper and pants. I am so happy with how these turned out, I think they look fantastic! I got the idea for this from Mrs. Ehle's Kindergarten Connections.

We made these suuuuper cute Easter baskets out of paper plates as something a little different to the usual paper cut out ones. They have a pocket on the back made from another plate flipped around, as a space for their eggy goodies. They required a fair bit of help with stapling and hot gluing, but it was worth it.

 At the beginning of this Lenten season, we made a Lenten prayer chain. The little wonders wrote a prayer on a piece of paper and we linked them together to make a 40 link chain for every day leading up to Easter. They wrote prayers for animals, their classmates and for people who were sick, travelling or poor. We read one (or two depending on how many we had to catch up on) every morning during our daily prayer. The kids really enjoyed this.

Hope you've enjoyed a peek at my week.

Happy blogging!

Special Delivery from the US!!

I could not wait to get home today to tell you about my very special delivery that came all the way from the United States!

When I got to school this morning I noticed a parcel in my tub. Being an avid online shopper I had to think hard as to wether or not I was expecting anything. When I checked who the sender was I recognised the name right away...it was Deborah Diesen, the author of one of my favourite book series The Pout Pout Fish. 

I opened the package to find a signed copy of 'The Pout Put Fish Goes to School' and a handwritten letter. As I read the letter I began to tear up! Deborah wrote that she had seen my blog post about learning to learn, and how I used the Pout Pout Fish story to get students ready for the school year. 

I honestly cannot explain how amazing it felt to know that she had read my post, and had been so kind to send me my very own copy of this gorgeous book. 

 Inside the book was a beautiful message to me and my students. 

I shared it with them this morning and they were just about as blown away as I was!

 It's nice to finally have a book for our little Pout Pout Fish to sit by :)

 Today was most definitely the highlight of my blogging career.

 Thank you so much Deborah for reading my blog and taking the time to send me this amazing gift, it means so much to me.