Elf on the Shelf Weeks Two and three

I sure am glad that there were only three weeks of our dear little elf friend. I had a hard time keeping up with him. Here he is ...up to his normal tricks!

Creating a zip line across the room.

Making copies of himself and posting them all over the room with messages written on them...

Sitting on top of the flag...

Ordering pizza...

Using my border box to make a slide...

Playing slide math...

And eating the candy from our gingerbread trees.

He also built a fort out of blocks, and left a note about being good for the sub, but those somehow escaped the camera...

Happy elfing...

Making Memories

I have a ton of testing to do before we head off for break, but this week I took a little time just to make memories. In twenty years my kiddos won't remember their DIBELS scores, or what DRA level they read on in first grade, but they just might remember one frigidly cold and snowy day when they arrived at school to a find a fun breakfast of snowballs (powered sugar doughnut holes) hot chocolate, and tiny candy-canes!

P.S The coloring sheets are actually math solve the problem, then color by number...

Blogging our First Year with 1:1 iPads Week Thirteen

Well week thirteen has come and gone, here is a look at what we've been up to...

My math resource wanted us drawing  what they call quick images of various 2D shapes on whiteboards with dry erase markers. I don't have enough of either, and they're messy! What's a teacher to do!?!? Easy, whip out the iPads, and open doodle buddy (our white board app). Engaging, fun, not messy, and I didn't have to hunt up boards and markers!

P.S I also didn't use the OVERHEAD TRANSPARENCIES provided by the resource!! I just used images I found in SMART thank you very much. Seriously?!?!? Transparencies!?!?! 1985 called they want their technology back!!! 

 As you can see we're learning about shapes, so I found several free tangram apps (our math calls them pattern blocks) to supplement what they do with the actual manipulatives in their workbooks.

I had them download

My First Tangrams Lite

 Pocket Tangrams

and TriZen Free

These apps are all very different, and each offers a different level of play. I have some kids who are better at these than I am, and several of them have moved on to harder versions they found on their own. I love when they can take what I give them and run with it. These iPads provide that in an amazing way.

To finish up the week I gave them some free explore time with a new app we are going to use during writing next week. They need a little more free explore time before we start, but then they will be ready to rock.

Little Story Creator

This app lets them draw and type, not just add pictures, which is what I like about it. We start drafting circle stories (like If you Give a Mouse a Cookie) on Monday! They each get to make their own book!

Oh, I forgot!! Elfie loves the iPads too, Silly Elfie iPads are for people!

See you next week!

Elf on the Shelf Week One

Since this is my first Christmas in my OWN classroom I just had to get a class elf for my kiddos. They named him Elfie... yes creative I know, but that's what they picked! He arrived in a bag along with his book when we came back from Thanksgiving break. The kids were so excited, when he moved during lunch and ended up riding our class pet, Harry Hippo, like a horse.
The next day he moved to the top of our projector...

That one kept the kids spinning, because from up there it really does look like he's watching everybody!

After that he hijacked some leftover snack, a pillow, and an iPad (left at school by mistake). He played candy crush all night long...

They were fascinated!!

Next he decided to play school with our reading buddies...

To round out his first week he had some fun with our interlocking cubes!

Stay tuned for more of Elfie's antics, and happy Elfing!

Thanksgiving Fun

Sometimes I feel like we get so caught up in data, and standards, and testing that we forget to make memories with our students. With that in mind I try to do fun things during the week before we go on any break. For Thanksgiving we reinacted A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving complete with a readers theater and fun feast. We started off the week by reading a fun e- book version of the story. Then I created a readers theater version with parts at various reading levels so all my kiddos could participate. We practiced each day during guided reading so we would be prepared for our big day. The kids also created invitations for various staff members inviting them to our "brunch theater". Friday morning we worked hard to create our feast. Everyone had a blast, and we made memories to last a lifetime!

Check it out...

Who could ask for a better feast than...

Jelly beans

Pretzels

 

Popcorn

And toast with butter!

The big performance

Some of our honered guests

 

Here we are feasting, and making memories!

 

Blogging our First Year with 1:1 iPads Weeks Eleven and Twelve

Long time no blog...sorry this time of year is crazy, crazy, crazy, but here we go. During week ten I finished my bulletin board with our writing from primary writer.In this picture we were still missing a few pieces, but it will do.

During week ten I also got smart during Daily 5! I pick one or two Pipgeeks each day to be tech support, and they handle all the iPad issues so I can teach guided reading uninterrupted.

That week was also conferences...let's just say the kids were not so happy when I taught their parents about guided access mwahaha.

Week eleven was tons of fun! We've been studying solids and liquids so the kids made picture collages of each.

They loved going around the room shooting pictures of liquids and solids.

Their collages turned out really great!

We have really been working at mixing up work on the iPads with more traditional work. One day we did rainbow writing during Daily 5 with Doodle buddy.

They had to write each spelling word in five different colors, the motion of writing with their finger on the screen has a really different feel to it that helps many of my more tactile learners.

They also had to sort words they read or heard in their Raz-Kids books by syllables(we're still working on syllables forgive our mistakes) and write them on a class chart.

I also tried blogging on the iPad... it has it's pros and cons!

See you soon for a non iPad Thanksgiving post.