Brain Break Mania or...How Save Your Sanity

The first few weeks of school are a little rough. None of us are quite ready to be cooped up all day, or  to sit and focus especially the kids! We do brain breaks all year long throughout the day, but at the beginning of the year we tend to do/need more of them more often. These are some of our favorites!

First the high tech ones... I have these all set up and linked on a slide in SMART notebook so all we have to do is click and go!

Just Dance Kids 2 - Despicable Me

We love that even the skeleton dances!

The Jungle Jive

 



 Our favorite part is the hedgehog part at the end, the kids yell "HEDGEHOGS"!

Just Dance Kids 2 - The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Can you find the hidden lion!?

Just Dance Kids 2 The Hokey Pokey

One of my kiddos is flat out obsessed with song!

Just Dance Kids 2 - The Gummy Bear Song

 



What can I say... even the bears like to bop!

Children's Zumba-Waka Waka

Even the older girls ( fifth and sixth graders) I have in afterschool clubs LOVE this one!

Children's Zumba-BoroBoro

Another favorite of my older girls!

Just Dance Kids 2 - Jump Up

I love this one because the kid in front cracks me up!

 Bop Until You Drop

 

A great old Steve and Greg song live and in action!

Ready Set Dance

More fun with Steve and Greg!

Going on a Bear Hunt

This year's number one kid favorite!

Just Dance Kids - Monkey Dance

My wild animals love this one!

 Dance Kids 2 - I'm Gonna Catch You

Another favorite for this year's bunch!

Just Dance Kids 2 - Five Little Monkeys

Great for a classroom full of monkeys!

Just Dance Kids - Kung Fu Fighting

Guess who loves this one... yep let's hear it for the boys!





 Here are some low tech ones, they are just as fun as the ones listed above, and fast to do!

Gotcha
This game gives their brain a real workout, but they will never know. It is best played with a little music, but it can be played without if nothing is available. For this game everyone stands around the circle. Have everyone put their left hand out to their side with the palm up and flat.  They then rest the tip of their right pointer finger in their neighbor’s palm. When every gets set up (this takes a while the first several times you play it with a new group of kids) the music starts to play. When the music stops (if there is no music just yell gotcha) each player tries to pull their finger up before their neighbor grabs it, and at the same time tries to grab their neighbor’s finger. If you get caught you’re out and you get to dance in the middle. (You can also get two circles going and those that are out switch circles)

Wonder ball

I love games that can be played everywhere and anywhere.  All you need for this game is a small ball or stuffed toy (like a beanie baby). The item is passed around the circle as everyone sings this song:

The wonder ball goes round and round

To touch it you are surely bound

So hold it not

If you’re the one to touch it last

The game for you has surely passed

And you are out

Whoever is left holding the ball is out and they must sit and watch. Like Gotcha you can get two circles going and students can switch circles when they get out.

 

Silent Ball

The rules of this game are simple, and it can be played anywhere. All you need is something small and soft to toss. I normally use a small Koosh ball, but if one is not available any small soft ball or beanie baby style stuffed animal will work.  To remain “in” this game you must be silent. If you talk you are out, and you sit down! You can also get out by throwing the ball to far/hard, and failing to make eye contact with the receiver (depending on the group you can also have those who drop the ball be out). The teacher starts out with the ball, and makes eye contact with one student who is close by before softly tossing the ball to them. The student does the same, and the game continues on until the teacher says “mine” then the ball is thrown back to them and the game is over.

 

 

Have fun brain breaking!

 

P.S. Be on the lookout for my Halloween brain breaks coming at the end of September!

 

 

* Please note I do not own these videos, they are posted here strictly for entertainment purposes and no copyright infringement in intended.

A Piece of Cake

Our first day was a piece of cake... well sort of, there were the normal tears, and fears that come with the first day of school. Particularly the first day of first grade, but my new little sweethearts were such troopers (I knew they would be) that I wanted to make sure to end things on a "sweet" note. I have no allergies this year (gotta love low income schools) so I whipped up ( buy whipped up I mean raided the Safe*ay bakery section) these little goodies.

This little project was ridiculously easy! Who would ever have know that some brownies, baggies, ribbon and a few labels would be such a huge hit. I gave them out right before we went out the door, and everybody thought they were super cute!
Enjoy!

Marvelous Monogramed Back to School Gifts for Teammates

Well school is about to start, and everyone is a little stressed so I decided to whip up these cute little monogramed Sharpie mugs as gifts for my teammates. I had seen similar ones on pinterest, and wanted to give it a try. I read up on the best way to do it, and here is what I came up with. I started with cheap Dollar Tree mugs.

I gave them a quick wash, and added a letter sticker, also from Dollar Tree (the whole project cost four dollars).

The next step was to cover the entire area around the letter with a Sharpie dots.

When I had the amount of coverage I wanted I waited for several minutes to allow the marker to dry before peeling off the sticker.

I did the same with each mug and then placed them in the oven at 425 for 30 minutes. Do not preheat the oven, the gradual heating helps the glaze on the mugs to melt and bond with the marker. After thirty minutes turn off the oven, but do not take the mugs out until they are fairly cool. This also helps make the designs permanent.

 

The finished product turned out great! The blue and the green faded a little, but they look fine, and the red (which many sites claim turns yellow) and purple look amazing!

I also made up little cards to go with them, which you can find here.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bx0PTexS6R5aUHJkangyQU9IS2c/edit?usp=sharing

 

Have fun creating your own!

 

 

On the Road to Retelling

I'm always looking for new and interesting ways for my students to retell stories they have read. One day I saw an idea on Pinterest one day where students walked a retell road  drawn on a huge piece of butcher paper. I thought it was a neat idea for one or two kids in a large space, but for my class it just didn't work so I modified it to work for us. I drew an curvy road on a piece of chart paper and wrote the title of our shared reading book at the top. As a "we-do" the class retold the story as I drew picture clues along the road. When we finished I talked about how giving a retell is like telling someone about a walk you went on... "You wouldn't tell about each and every little rock and piece of grass you saw, you would tell about the big important things". After that several children took a turn using the chart to retell the story. I have never seen kids so eager to retell, and their retells were amazing!

 After we have done this a few times the kids will draw the pictures for our group retells and create their own retell roads for books they have read during guided reading or read to self.
Happy Retelling!

Now who forgot to bring back their guided reading book????

In the past I had the HARDEST time keeping track of who forgot to bring back their guided reading books. I tried everything... keeping lists, giving kids numbers and writing their numbers on the books, and even trusting them to tell me if they still had one at home. None of this worked, but then I had one of those Aha moments, and I felt like an idiot because it's so easy! All of the books in our book room come in plastic baggies, so whenever I send a book home with a student I simply write their name on the back of the baggie using Visa-Vis marker.

When they return the book I just wipe their name off with one of my ever present Clorox wipes.

  Now I always know who is missing which book! I can't believe I never thought of this before!

Happy Teaching!

 

 



Top Ten Terrific Teacher Apps

I don't know about you, but I'm addicted to technology in the classroom, particularly our iPad. The whole iPad thing can be a double edged sword because there are so many apps to sort through. To give you a little help in this area I give you my

 

Top Ten Terrific Teacher Apps

1.

 ALL the Math Adventures Math Slide games, even the free versions have tons of levels (the upgrades have even more, enough to differentiate for EVERY kid in your class) the biggest perk is that four kids can play at once FOUR... as in a whole math group... or four kids at a math center.
Go to iTunes to download https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/math-slide-tens-ones/id586366338?mt=8

2.

Running Record Toolbox which was created by the much loved and admired Teacher Tipster of YouTube fame is the most amazing companion for the pencil and paper running record ever. It calculates everything!! The creator says it best in his YouTube video so I'll let him speak for himself!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNOBAXA5Jik

3.

Bits Board is an amazing literacy/vocabulary/language learning app. It has boards that teach almost any subject. I even use it to practice my Spanish. My struggling kiddos love the success they find with this app. Go to iTunes to download https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bitsboard-education-games/id516842210?mt=8






4. Montessori Crossword is a great literacy app for pre-k and primary kiddos!

It helps kids learn to read and spell decodable words in a extremely engaging way. When they get a word right they're rewarded with an almost mesmerizing visual feature.
Go to iTunes to download https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/montessori-crosswords-spelling/id384334005?mt=8

5. Number five is Face Talker, not to be confused with Face Talk. This is the app we use to create and upload and upload videos of our writing to YouTube. It does have a creepy moving mouth feature, but we just move the mouth out of the way to make it work for us!

Follow the link to check it out https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facetalker/id451871237?mt=8

6.  Qrafter

is my QR code app, every teacher needs a QR code app, I use mine to create codes that link to our YouTube channel, and create self checking task cards for Daily Five, and Math Workshop. You can also create codes that link to safe private pages where you can post pictures of kids for parents only access. To begin "Qrafting" download the app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qrafter-qr-code-barcode-reader/id416098700?mt=8

7. Spelling city is an amazing website, and now it's an amazing app where students can practice

spelling and vocabulary in fun and engaging ways. There are tons of lists for offline use, but you can also create an account and login to access even more great features.  To start the fun download now https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spellingcity/id538407602?mt=8

8. My kiddos would put Word Wonderland in their top 5, and yours probably will too. This app makes phonics fun and has several levels which makes differentiating easy.

Check it out here https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-wonderland-primary-full/id611436564?mt=8










9. Coming in at number nine is a whole family of apps called Alligator apps.

These apps contain a fun new spin on old school flash cards that can quiz your kids when you can't. They can review all kinds of flash cards as many times as they need to in order to learn them! Get their apps here http://www.alligatorapps.com/

 10. Number 10 is just for fun... it makes me laugh!
Mibblio lets you pick one free interactive song book where you can read, sing, and play along with songs like On Top of Spaghetti and Monster Mashed Potatoes. There more books available, and it is just plain fun. I bet it will make you laugh too so give it a look https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mibblio/id576189100?mt=8

 

Happy "apping"

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Going BIG... also known as publishing to YouTube

 In the high tech world we live in there are so many opportunities for our students to get their writing out there for the world to enjoy. One way that my students and I love to do this is by publishing our writing to YouTube. We have done this a couple of ways, and both work great! First we published our animal reports by paring a voiceover of students reading their report with a photograph of the students chosen animal.

 It turned out great and you can find them here 1st Grade Animal Reports
During summer school we studied poetry, and I photographed their writing and illustrations before adding a voice over of them reading their poetry.

Which you can check out here Safari Poetry
Knowing that they get to publish to the web... and not just to the hallway has really been a great incentive for my little monkeys to finish up those final copies!
We created these videos using a free app from iTunes called face talker. It looks like this

 and you can click on the following link  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facetalker/id451871237?mt=8 to download it from iTunes. It does have a creepy moving mouth feature, but we just pull the mouth down and out of they way to make it work for us! I also post our writing in the hallway, along with a QR code that takes people directly to our playlist!
Happy Publishing!!!