Pitbull, Earth Day, & Zumba...What a combo!

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity! I recently started selling some of my lessons and activities on TeachersPayTeachers.com and am excited to say that I have made a bit of money! You can check out my store here! I feel blessed knowing that some of the activities that truly helped my kids are being used to benefit other students around the United States. My current creation is a pack of close reading passages about the four layers of a tropical rainforest. I will be testing it out on my students next week and posting it shortly after. Be on the look out! Here is a little sneak peak!

This week our 3-5th graders started FCAT testing. Each year, we begin FCAT week with a pep rally to relax the students (and make the teachers look crazy!). This year, K & 1st grade teams did an FCAT country version of Timber by Pitbull. We all dressed with bandanas and cowboy hats, but our wonderful Kindergarten team leader made a special appearance as Pitbull. He had the kids swoooooooning!

What more can I say? This is hilarious!

Today is Earth Day, and I was determined to find an effective activity that reviewed necessary skills with my firsties. Cue the key detail sort! I found a wonderful main idea and key detail craftivity for Earth Day that was a challenging, yet fun cooperative learning activity for the kids (Click here to check it out!). Each page had a main idea listed with an illustration. The kids had to look through the details and decide which detail described which main idea. It was tricky at first, but after a few minutes they got the hang of it. I enjoyed hearing them debate amongst each other, and use key words to find the correct main ideas. Tomorrow I will make them cute with some construction paper and display them. Can't wait!

Because of FCAT, we cannot take recess at our normal time as it would distract the upper grades who are testing. So, I decided we needed a little fun in our lives! After lunch, the kids thought I was getting ready to start math. Little did they know...

ZUMBA KIDS TIME! Thank you, YouTube!

They LOVED it! A few of the kids even told me that they got cramps! Ha! Work it.

Have a great rest of the week!