Five for Friday, late again, but I have a freebie!

I'm late again. I know! I almost didn't even link up this week because it was literally the most boring week of teaching I may have ever had. Pretty much all I did was test for our third nine week benchmarks. And then in about 4 weeks, I will do it all over again for the actual SOL tests - for three weeks. Then I'm done (except for helping with running records) for the last two weeks of school.

Anyway, I may not be able to come up with five things, but here was my week (without picture because Steven had my camera all week, and what pictures could I have taken from testing, anyway?):

Monday feels SO long ago, but I did actually get to pull groups and push into classes! With most of my groups, I reviewed making a brain plop since they were preparing for tests. Do you do these with your kids? I try to get them to the point where they know EXACTLY what to do with the scrap paper on the day of the test since I can't tell them what to write. I've done one for math for years (make a multiplication chart, place value chart, and list ANY measurement conversions that you can remember), but last year was the first time I had them start making one for reading. I even posted it as my first freebie on my TPT store last year. You can still get it for free here. I know a lot of you are beginning state testing, so please feel free to pass it around to whoever you can think of!

I have been trying to read this book since before spring break and just never had the time.

I even took it with me on spring break thinking I would surely have some time to read it, but I didn't even read in the car. So I decided to bring it with me to school this week since I would be bored to tears while testing small groups and individuals. I was able to finish it Wednesday night. Such a good book! Now I'm about to start one my mother-in-law passed on to me.

Have any of you ever heard of this book? It's been compared to The Help, so my interest was piqued! I'll have to let you know how it goes. Love that I'm able to read at least a little more for myself with this new job. Usually I have to wait until summer to start ANY books for me. I still have tons of books waiting on my shelf to read, but at least I'm making some headway before summer gets here!

The weather has been PERFECT all week, and I'm so excited that we've been able to grill outside and let Keagan play in our yard some (although the yard needs a lot of work, and we're in search of a playhouse to buy for him). I actually did take a few pictures on my phone while he was playing. The boy could stay out there all day and be perfectly content!

We had small group again Wednesday night, and I was so happy to start back up! I've probably mentioned my group on here before, but I really enjoy the time we spend together. There are four couples (although we actually had another couple come visit the group this week), and we've been together for about 2 years now. All of us have kids 5 and under who enjoy playing together (actually, three of us were pregnant at the same time and had our kids within 6 months of each other).

Here's a picture a month or two after Emmy was born when we got together to hang out

And here they are last Saturday at a little birthday party for Maggie's older brother. Too bad I couldn't get one of all of them looking at the camera!

I always look forward to Wednesday nights with the group! The girls are actually going to have another night out this Tuesday. We're doing one of those painting classes. I'm so excited, and I'll have to make sure I get pictures to share!

Oh, one more thing to add. My sweet bloggy friend, Jivey has reached 300 followers and is having a giveaway! There are prizes for K-1, 2-3, and 4-6, so go enter!

Enjoy your weekend!