Breathe deeply. Testing is over.

The difference between the week before testing and the week after is really only a few days.  So why does it feel like months have gone by since last week?  Something about the pressure off my shoulders makes me relax a little and enjoy my students a little more.

You know I started using CAFE this January.  And today....well, today was one of those days when things went so smoothly that I actually thought to take pictures.  Me!  Remembering to take pictures!

Here are some pictures of groups of students discussing some of the best books they've read this year and convincing other students to try them.  This was part of the independent reading station, and the other kids wrote down books that sounded good.  We still have a marking period to go, and some of my voracious readers need to hear about more good books!

I loved watching this student gesturing as he spoke.

These students were totally caught up in this boy talking about the Charlie Bone series.

These students were working together to preview some difficult vocabulary before they starting reading a nonfiction story about building the Great Wall of China.  They created word webs to teach each other the fairly complicated words they'd encounter in their reading.

I also had small groups of students working on a Cause and Effect scavenger hunt around the school building.  I created this last year to help some of my students see real-world causes and their effects before they looked for them in text.  The kids had a ton of fun quietly walking around the school.  And they started to look at things like pencil sharpeners and water fountains differently, now that they realized how much cause and effect there is in real life.  Tomorrow, they transition to text!  Here's the link to the scavenger hunt in my store, if you're interested.

Tomorrow is Friday!  And spring is in the air (even though it's raining right now.)  Have a great day and a wonderful weekend!