Five for Friday {February 7, 2014}

Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to bring you my very first "Five for Friday" post as part of her super cool weekly linky party. (Boy, that's a mouthful!) If you are blogging your education journey, please hop over to her blog and join us for lots of fun! 

Number One...
We started off our week with a quick trip to Epcot, and by quick, I mean all of two hours. Ah, the joys of living in Central Florida! While we were there, we ate Chinese food and went for a quick spin through The Seas with Nemo and Friends. You might be wondering why I'm bringing this up... and believe me... it's not just to share my Disney obsession! ;) There are a lot of really unique educational things to do in the parks.Think "field trip" for locals and "vacation homework" for those of you who live far away!  Look for some posts with ideas coming soon!
Number Two...

I started seriously working on a new lapbook product centered around United States symbols. I don't know about your kiddos, but all of "mine" love lapbooking! It's such a great tool for synthesizing information.
Number Three...
If you like the idea of a United States symbols lapbook, you might also like this George Washington Lapbook Kit that I (technically) uploaded last week, but I didn't share. So, can we just pretend that I uploaded it this week? Pretty, pretty please? :)

Number Four...
While the rest of the world had snow days, we did not... and no, it's not just because I work with homeschoolers! 
Check out forecast from the last few days... It actually got up to 87 degrees this week! (Which, if I were to be honest, is nothing. We live in Florida where 87 degrees is often considered a relatively nice, not-too-hot, day!) Haha. 
I guess we will just have to wait for hurricane season to see if we will get any hurricane days! :)
Number Five... Today, I learned of the motivational power of a gold star. (Sorry, no picture for this one!) I've always laughed with everybody else about earning a "gold star" for hard work, but today I found some gold star stickers in my teacher bag and decided to hand them out to my co-op students who completed their "adjective challenge." Holy moly! Even some of my middle school students who weren't so sure at first got out their pencils and started scribbling for a chance to get one of the coveted gold star stickers. So, if you're having a rough day, it might not hurt to pull out some gold star stickers and hold them over your students. You might be surprised!
There you have it. All things considered, it was a pretty good week over here! I hope that you all had a great week, too, and I hope that your weekend is even better!