Ya Can't Forget the Birthdays!

I have to admit that I did a HUGE disservice to my kids last year when it came to their birthdays. I didn't really do anything for them other than have the class sing the Happy Birthday song to them during Morning Meeting. I was in a lot of pain last year and a lot of things went to the way side. Things I hope to improve on this year!

I remember one of my teamies last year having something like this -- maybe exactly like this and thought that's really cool and it's finished. I found the idea on  Tunstall's Teaching. She got her Happy Birthday balloon templates at the What the Teacher Wants blog site. I love her, she has some AWESOME fonts!

Well, I didn't order or buy the large pixie sticks, but used the smaller ones that I bought from the candy isle. I'm sure the parents will thank me for this. I decided on these smaller ones, because the kids are also going to get a card, a Happy Birthday sticker, and a Happy Birthday cootie catcher. They are on sale right now! 30 catchers for $1.50. Wowza!! I thought the cootie catcher would be great fun for them to take home and play with family.

Since I used the smaller ones, I printed them smaller. If you have an Apple computer and use Preview, I'm going to teach you a helpful tech tip where you can print 6 to a page (even the tho the graphic says 9--I used 6) and then they fit perfectly on the pixie sticks. Once the template is open and you are ready to print on the dialogue menu, choose how many to print per page. It's that simple...but it's a wonderful timesaver.

I used SOOKWANG tape to affix the balloons to the pixie sticks. It works better, much better, than tape. I covered the little plastic container with paper and then stamped some Happy Birthday stuff from my Stampin' UP collection. 

Another project done before school starts, but one that will make each one of my students feel special during the year! :)  LOVE THAT - Jessica

Glue Bottles!!

What they don't teach you in college is A LOT! :)

I despise liquid glue. The kids don't close them all the way, glue leaks, they use too much, and the clogging!!!  Well, I'm talking to my BFF (who teaches 1st grade) and she says she put petroleum jelly in her glue tops and had NO clogging all year.  Wow! That's something worth trying.

At the TEKS Conference, I took a foldable class. It was taught by one of Dinah Zike's trainers, Nancy Wisker. She was AMAZING. She had a tip of using the tiny bottles for primary learners because they are easier to grip and easier to control the flow of glue. She had also used one of those silicon holders for the antibacterial lotion on her lanyard and stuffed one of these glue bottles in it instead. GENIUS! She taught me a cute phrase to use with the kids as well: "Yaba Daba Doo, too much glue!"  Cute, right?

So there are all these great tips out there and I'm going to share them with you!

I bought 24 1.25 oz bottles from Dick Blick Art Supplies.  They cost me about .82¢ each. Another great tip from Nancy Wisker.

Materials

Gather your materials:

Glue Bottles
Pliers
Petroleum Jelly
Cotton Swabs
Duct Tape (optional)

The first thing I did was cover my glue bottles with the fun duct tape. I love duct tape. It helps identify which bottles are mine. :)  I also cover my computer accessories in duct tape as well.

Next, you open the orange glue bottle top as far as it goes and use the pliers to help you pull straight up. They just pop off! It's amazing. 

I have heard that some are able to just pull them straight up; I am not that talented so I used the pliers. You'll be thankful for the pliers when parts of your hands and fingers are all slippery from the petroleum. 

I used cotton swabs to rub a thin layer first on the inside of the tops and then put in a glob of jelly in each top. After, I popped the tops back on the bottle. This was fairly easy and then turned and closed them shut.

I also add a healthy amount to the inside cap threads since I will be opening and refilling these bottles periodically.  I twisted the tops back on tightly and kept on rolling until they were all done.

I am hoping for smooth gluing at least half the year. Actually, I'm secretly wishing that they last the whole year, but if I only have to redo this at break...I will be in heaven.  

I'm so happy to find these solutions/experiments so that we can do foldables, interactive notebooks, and art experiments with little heartache and headache.  I made glue sponges last year (read all about it on Kinder Smorgasboard) and they worked like a dream, but they have to share with someone else and I might still use those in my writing center or for larger art projects.

Here's the finished products. :) Excited and pumped to get the creativity flowing. I hope some of you consider doing these fun and easy project yourselves and we'll all have less sticky years of gluing to come!

Love, Jessica

Comic Life 3

Hello and good evening! I am presenting Comic Life 3 tomorrow...showing the application and really talking about how 1st - 5th can use the application to create original products, collect, analyze, and represent data, draft, edit, & publish digital products...and SO MUCH MORE!!

Here is a brainstorm I had about uses for ComicLife in the primary 1st & 2nd grade classroom:
Timelines
Alliteration
Historical Figures
How - To
Sentence Types
Character Analysis

I have this idea swimming in my brain that you could do these whole class, modify using BlockPosters, then print and hang as anchor charts. I will let you know how that goes!

Here's my handout for tomorrow. It's nothing to call home about, but it's something. I'm exhausted and feel like I'm already back at work. Time to eat and recharge.   Keep thinking and learning! Jessica

REKENREKS

If you haven't heard about rekenreks...check out the Math Learning Center's complete getting started guide that's FREE! It's called Using the Rekenrek as a Visual Model for Strategic Reasoning in Mathematics.  Anyway, last year I made these bendy ones like bracelets (see photo below). They were awful.

       

Then, I was on Facebook, and I saw a post from the Math Coach's Corner about her rekenreks. (She has more detailed instructions on her blog post.) I thought that looked WAY easier than what I had done last year. I used foam board because I had it lying around and was going to be one less thing I had to purchase.  However, the foam board is sturdier than the foam sheets so if you have the extra time and elbow grease I say go for it. I also like the contrast the black foam provides.

 After measuring (4"x6" rectangles), cutting, and sanding all the crazy edges I hole punched through them with the Crop-a-Dile.  I disassembled the poorly made ones from last year and rethreaded these.     I even added a star with silver Sharpie in the top corner as an easy reference for the kiddos when we start to use them.  My husband helped too! He's the best. I think they turned out great and I'm excited to use them this year.

First day 2015

Welcome to another new year, 2015! They greeted me with big smiles and hugs, saying sweet things like "I missed you!" I welcomed the students back telling them that this year they would end the year as 3rd graders. That really got me excited. I was excited to come back today and see their shining faces.

Our first goal of the year is to improve our transitions. I wrote this on the board in all of the new space when I took my subject learning target space down. I added to our goal quickly and quietly. We succeeded today with the quickly part. They still need a little work on the quietly. Haha.

You read that right earlier, I took down all my subject learning target space.  Instead I made a space with no frills. A small space that says "Learning Target" at the top. Here I wrote our learning targets for the day as we did them instead of ahead of time. This really helps me and I don't think there is any sense in having them up all day because you know as teachers our schedules rarely come together the way we think they will.  I definitely see the value in giving students a learning target and talking about what they should be doing and learning. It helps keep them focused and me too. They like talking about it at the end. I need to freshen it up though...another something to add to the never-ending teacher list.

A really cool lesson we did today was equal and unequal. We're starting our Fractions unit. I created an anchor chart similar to the one linked here Yes, I forgot to take a photo of it! I also used the following sheet with students. They cut out the pictures and glued them in their math journals under Equal and Unequal. Once they finished they had to define those two terms: equal and unequal. I was really impressed with their thinking and their definitions. They used words like same amount, same size, one even used our new vocabulary word partition. Partition also went up on our board in all that lovely space that used to house subject learning targets.

Equal and Unequal Foodie Sheet is now 50¢. Since it is a PDF and this resource comes with 2 pages, I printed it with both pages on one sheet. Then students just got one or the other sheet so I only had to make half the copies. I also went over the lines with a sharpie just to make sure they copied correctly. To print 2 pages on one in Mac Preview you simple open the print menu and change the drop down from preview to layout and "pages per sheet" from 1 to 2. See screen shot.

We also read Smelly Socks, by Robert Munsch today. The kids absolutely loved it and I loved reading it to them. We are doing an author study with Munsch this week. We are using tumble books and all sorts of cool QR codes too. More on that tomorrow.  After we read, we revisited character traits. In their reading response journals, I had the students make a stick figure and write traits around and then they could decorate the stick figure to look like Tina (the main character). We verbally shared their traits (stubborn, selfish, spoiled, crazy, weird, disgusting, gross, lazy, etc.). Then we verbally discussed the story elements (setting, characters, problem and solution). Well done class! 

We are starting a new book The Chocolate Touch. This is one of my favorites and I can't wait to see their reactions.

Overall a great day! Outfit choice today (also forgot a picture) red pants, yellow mustardy top with a blue jean jacket and a great black and grey chevron infinity scarf. Yep I was rocking it first day back! 

Talk to you more tomorrow or as we used to say in middle school - ttyl! :)

Jessica

Meet the Teacher Night

Hey everyone, so it's my first "official" meet the teacher in 7 years! What a thrill. I met some wonderful students and parents tonight. I know this is going to be a great year. We'll learn a lot and have a lot of fun.

I haven't posted in awhile, been busy getting everything ready for tonight.  I thought what can I share?! As I was talking to my parents some were unfamiliar with the Remind service that I use which is FREE. I thought maybe there are teachers out there who still haven't been exposed to Remind.

Remind, formerly known as Remind 101, is an amazing application that allows teachers to communicate with parents via text message. Before you panic, they don't get your cell number and they can't reply to text messages (you know those annoying group texts that go wrong, very, very wrong). However, some wacky teachers (like me) do give families, in time, my cell number.  However, Remind gives me a way to send one big group text to parents to TA-DA Remind them of things. You can even write up the messages and schedule them to send out. This is great for upcoming events!

There are two ways to sign up: online or with the app. Yep, there's an app for that.  Just sign up for an account, all you need is an email address.  Once you sign up, you'll name your class and Remind sets up the code for you.  You can either print the PDF they supply or take a screen shot of the visual directions to put in your welcome back letters! This is very much like when you sign up for Payless Shoe discount or Redbox deals to come straight to your phone.

Parents will text the unique code Remind gives you to a phone number (not your cell) and they are added to the group. Once added, any message you send they will receive. I mainly use the app to send messages; however, you can do it online at Remind.com too.

Here are some ways to use the Remind in your class:

• remind parents of upcoming tests
• remind parents of upcoming events like field trips
• remind parents of holidays or early release days
• send links to your spelling lists or newsletters
• send probing questions to ask their students (ex: Ask your student to tell you what they remember about Thurgood Marshall tonight.)
• send a math problem for them to solve together
• send a string of letters for a boggle type challenge

Communication is so very important between home and the classroom and this is an easy way to make that happen. Also, it's FREE so what are you waiting for?! 

Okay, so I know you had a question like 4 paragraphs back that was HOW DO YOU TAKE A SCREEN SHOT?! Well, on a PC you can just press the screen shot button. It will take a picture of your entire screen.  It goes directly to the clipboard.  Open the document you want to insert the Remind information. Paste it in your document and then crop the picture to the important information.  On a Mac, press both the command + shift keys and tap on the #4 key. Your cursor turns into a target looking symbol. You can let go of the keys and then drag the target symbol to the area you want to capture.  This will create a file on your desktop called ScreenshotXXXX (the X's are the date and time of the screen shot). Insert this file into your document and resize to fit.

I'll share more soon! Get pumped up and enjoy the last few days of summer vacation!

StoryBots

Of course you've seen StoryBots! This isn't anything new to you, or is it? If it is I won't tell.  Read more about how you can integrate this amazing tool in your classroom.

What's great about StoryBots for the teacher is that it works online and it has apps for the iPad. StoryBots also does FREE educator accounts. Click the Educator link on their site and fill out the form to qualify to get free access to their StoryBots Educator Network of stories and apps.

What's great about StoryBots for kids, especially the littles, is that they can add themselves as a StoryBot in their very own story. How awesome is that? You can add characters as the teacher and they can choose who will "star" in their story or video. There are multiple stories and videos to choose from online like: The Alphabet Wrangler, Monster Mayhem, A Princess Perfect Day, Shapes, and Animal Songs.

The fun doesn't end there though. StoryBots also has engaging learning videos, ABC videos, and activity sheets.

Now let's get to the FREE apps!

These first few apps are available also on their web service.

StoryBots Starring You Books: There are 42 Premium books (that means you need that Educator login) otherwise you can only create the one free book.  Click Login. The library pops up just like online and you have access to these books where students can be the "star".  Click the green down arrow to download the book onto your device.  TIP: Download the book before you want the students to use it; otherwise, they could spend their entire station time waiting for the book to download. Under the settings > books there is a button to download all the books.

StoryBots Starring You Videos: This works the same way as Starring You Books. Simply login and you will have access to all the videos in three categories: Shapes, Animal Songs, and Classic Songs. Click the purple arrow to download the video and put your character in the video. There is no setting to download all the videos so make sure you have the videos downloaded before placing it in a station. However, I can see myself using these for brain breaks in my 2nd grade classrooms.

Learning Videos: This app takes awhile for my iPad mini to load. However, like ABC they are the learning videos on their website. Some are free and you have to login with your educator account to unlock all the videos at once. The videos are engaging with catchy tunes in different styles of music.


ABC Videos: Tap on the beginning screen to make this app go. It will start with the first letter and move you right through. You will get a video for A, B, and C free. Use your educator account to unlock all the other letters at once. There is a pause and share button at the bottom. Just tap the screen and these appear at the bottom. This is something fun to use whole group at first with your video adapter. At first glance, you think this is only appropriate for PK and Kinder. However, how great would it be to have 1st and 2nd graders listen and see how many "A" words they can identify and write in the "A" video!


The following apps are app only and not on their web service.

Math Racer: Students go through tracks in multiple levels practice their addition facts. Each level has about 4 facts and they must complete a level before unlocking the next ones. Students earn trophies and can choose their medals when they finish a track or level. The game has settings like color and difficulty level. The settings are for each character so this is a great way to differentiate.  The Beginner level has kids completing the most basic facts (ex: 2+2). The Intermediate levels moves them up to larger numbers (ex: 10 + 10). The advanced level had them regrouping in the teens (ex: 17+18) and finally the Smarty Pants level is also regrouping with larger numbers (ex: 28+26).

Share Timer: This is an iPhone app, but will work on your iPads. This is truly awesome. First you login of course. Then you choose which characters you want to add to your share timer. The share timer puts all the characters on screen. Choose the time each person gets to share. The app chooses who starts, who goes next, and then counts their share time down as a colored bar goes up as a visual indicator as well! Where has this been all my life? Tapping on the screen will let students go to the next turn, restart a turn, resume a turn, or end.

Memory Match: First, you guessed it - login with your educator account. Choose which level you want, 8, 12, or 24 cards. Start matching. The game randomly puts your characters into different hats or costumes and you try to make a memory match. Easy enough!

Coin Flip: This is an iPhone only app, but will install on an iPad.  Here only two kids can flip at a time, but the winner of that flip can then flip with another student (character). The coin is cute because it has their faces on the sides.

Tap and Sing for iPad: This is a cute app where you don't need to log in unless you want more songs! This works like a piano except the keys are bots and you can change what they "sing". You can select songs at the bottom and hit the bots that light up to play the tune. Very cute.

StoryBots Christmas:

StoryBots Halloween:

Beep & Boop:

Kids Radio for iPhone:

Kid Quoter:






Now for the good news!! Want to get started now and not wait around for your educator account to go through? Sign up to get 30 free days with Premium access! Visit the site http://www.storybots.com/summer and use the promo code summer14