Five for Friday

Friday…the best day of the week!  This week I am joining in on Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs where you post about 5 random things from your week….so, here you go.

1.  Monday was almost as good as a snow day…I only had half of my students in class!  And it was awesome.  All of the kids got so much more accomplished and focused so much better with less kids in the classroom.  It was also a great time to have my assistants help my put together my new matching file folders!   

2.  We received some new figurines from a DonorsChoose project this week.  My kids were beyond thrilled.  However, I had one MAJOR surprise.  One of my students, who ALWAYS has a straw in his hand and usually only shows interest in bouncing on our big therapy balls, came running over to the table with all the figurines on it.  Without a second of hesitation, he grabbed all of the giraffes and ran back over to the break area.  Not only did he play with them all day, he THREW AWAY his straw, and he even put the giraffes in his backpack at the end of the day so that he could bring them home.  We have let him bring one giraffe home each day, and he hasn't really shown any interest in straws at all.  I was blown away and super excited.  Here is a picture of him playing with the giraffes!

3.  One of my assistants has been "in charge" of my science station for a few years now.  If you have read my blog before, you know I LOVE my science units.  We have a different theme each month…and this month is the Solar System.  Earlier this month, my assistant told me,

 "I'm sorry, but you are going to have to be ok with us messing up your classroom for a week this month….I want to make a model of the solar system."

Haha…she knows me so well.  I'm pleased to say that our classroom has not been a total mess all week, and our solar system model is almost finished…here is what it looks like so far!  

4.  If you follow me on Facebook, you may already know this…but yesterday, we went on a community trip to a local diner.  It is one of our favorite field trips of the year!  As we were eating, we noticed a couple sitting in the booth next to us looking over at us in a kind way.  They also spoke to one of our speech therapists and complimented how well behaved our kids were.  Flash forward to getting ready to leave….the waitress comes over and tells us we don't have a bill because the nice couple decided to pay for our lunch.  They had already left, so we couldn't thank them personally, but we were all blown away by their kindness. Not only was this incredibly nice of them, but the staff at the restaurant were amazing with our kids too.  They were extremely patient, letting each kid order on their own (many of them using PECS or Communication Devices) which can take some time.  It was by no means an easy trip (as it was the first community trip for a majority of my students), but all these amazing people made it a very enjoyable one!

5.  And last, but not least is something that has nothing to do with school.  Since my husband and I were gone over Christmas for our honeymoon to Australia/New Zealand, we are celebrating a belated Christmas this weekend.  I'm looking forward to a weekend of good food, family, and relaxing!  Just finished wrapping all the presents last night even though we have had them all purchased since Black Friday!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!