Five for Friday

Woooo hooo!  It's Friday!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching on this fabulous Friday.

1  A Shocking Realization

I have a FULL day of school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  Holy moly!  It has been on the calendar the entire school year but for whatever reason I didn't realize it.  It was shocking.  It was sad.  Most schools in our area have a half day on that Wednesday and some of you lucky ducks have the whole week off!

I'm trying not to grumble too much.  Unlike other schools in the area, my district was off Monday and Tuesday of this week for deer season.  :-)

2  It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Okay...maybe it is, but in music classrooms everywhere it has SOUNDED like Christmas since the first part of October.  I learned a long time ago that some songs will sour to my ears during concert rehearsals and that I will never ever again be able to enjoy them.  Songs that have made this list in the last 20 years include "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer", "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "Everlasting Fruitcake".  I am also irrationally annoyed by that barking dog version of "Jingle Bells".

3.  Shake Ya' Tailfeather

This week I've been dancing and frolicking with my classes using these Thanksgiving Creative Movement cards with my classes.  They are great for brain breaks and really show me how creative my kiddos are! I've used them with Kindergarten through Fourth grades and wow!  Such fun!

4.  The Bearytones ROCK!

I have a choir of 70 4th, 5th and 6th graders.  This is such a talented group of kiddos!  They are working on "Medieval Gloria", "Dona Nobis Pacem" and several other pieces that are challenging and they are doing a fabulous job!  So excited to hear their improvement every week.  I'm finding that on every choir day I spend every single free minute preparing for them.  Typing and copying reminder letters, prepping the music and planning the rehearsal are just a few of the things that take up that time.  I am amazed at the choral directors that deal with groups this size (and bigger) every single day.  Their organization skills must be superb!

5.  Thankful

A few things I'm thankful for:  my awesome family, my fabulous job, my fabulous other job, homemade beef jerky, great ideas, tubanos, PowerPoint, that funny woman at McDonalds that always acts like she knows me and you-my blog reader.