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.

Blogging our First Year with 1:1 iPads Week Ten

This post could also be titled mix it up week. I mixed it up with parents and conferences, my brain is mixed up from exhaustion, and the kiddos mixed it up by combining more traditional work with work done on their iPads.

To start with we used counters in combination our Flash to Pass app to solidify our knowledge of facts. They really liked using the counters along side their iPads!

We also took the publishing plunge and spent a lot of time turning the rough drafts of our personal narratives into typed final copies on Primary Writer. About half have finished their final copies, and they were so excited and proud of their finished product. They look so grown up glancing between their iPads and writer's notebooks as they typed! We don't have an air printer or e-mail so they had to go through quite a process to get the job done...

1. Type their piece

2. Take a screen shot

3. Upload it to Google docs

4. Share it with me

5. Wait for me to print it

6. Add an illustrated border that matched their story

It may not seem like a lot, but when you're six or seven this is HUGE!! Here are some of my sweeties hard at work.

Stay tuned next week for the finished products ... and a really cool bulletin board if I do say so myself!

Yes it's a giant iPad, their writing will be displayed like apps!

P.S. First graders get very crabby when you teach their parents how to use guided access mwahaha!!

See ya next week!

Blogging our First Year with 1:1 iPads Week Nine

The big news this week is that we have finally conquered sharing in Google Docs!! I didn't think we could do it, but we did. My little first graders can share with me without e-mail. I taught my mini geek squad how to do it and set them loose to teach other people.
Here they are in the act...

Soon they will all be able to do it alone!!!

This week was also Halloween! Did you know that Spiderman loves to read books on his iPad with his Raz-kids app!?! Well he does...

We also found some fun Halloween literacy apps, but they are freebies, and we learned that they really are not blog worthy...just free, Haloweenish, and good for one day use. Next year we will do better! The kids did look really cute in their costumes using them though.

Super girl and Snow White enjoyed reading a book called Tilly Witch.

The butterfly fairy loved her hidden picture spelling game!

I have also been rocking Splashtop this week, Splashtop is a remote desktop app that lets you control your laptop with your iPad. I've been using it for shared reading! My kids do so much better when the text is NOT on the document camera, or in a big book, and I'm behind them "turning" the pages with my iPad!

They also get a kick out of me starting their brain breaks from random places in the room :)

On Fridays we always have a few guests join us for math. Several of the dual immersion students come to play math games. In the past they have just played card games like 10s go fish, make 10, and garbage. Recently however I decided to add our favorite slide math games, and they love them just as much as we do!

Yes they are sitting under the counter, but I'm not a very sit at your desk type teacher. This may be why I love the iPads so much... they can go anywhere.

For those of you that are not from my district the iPads really do go anywhere, they even go home with the kids. Some people don't like it, but I'm not one of them. I love that they have this resource at home as well as at school. Because of this I have two homework calendars, one for those who have internet, and one for those who don't. I made the decision to do this because I want my kids to beyond the use of apps. Apps are great, but I want them to be able do more than the apps allow. They can all still spend time on their regular apps if they choose, but the use of apps that are, in reality connected to really amazing online programs like Lexia, Raz-kids, and Spelling City provide so much more. This was a big revelation for me, and I have found some really great websites to use for literacy. Now on to math...