How to use Google Forms + Giving Surveys in the Classroom

Hey all, I need your help!

I want my kids to be able to create a quick survey, and then walk around with the iPad to get responses from their peers. From there, I want to be able to see a chart of the results. I can't find ANYTHING that does this on a mobile device. Help!

Today we graphed the total number of colored conversation hearts. Each student completed their own graph. Next, we combined the results in an online Google form that I created. We used the iPads and computers to enter in our data.

*That is my personal Macbook Pro, not the school's.

After all the data was put together, we viewed our results and talked about them.

Why TPT is great

I discovered something a few months ago that has changed my teaching! Our school can do Purchase Orders to Teachers Pay Teachers, which is pretty amazing.

It basically means I'm not sitting at my computer while my husband gives me raised eyebrows about why I have out the credit card!

Lately, I've been loving two units in particular:

Let's Get Poppin' With Adjectives

By Babbling Abby

Cost: $4.50

My kids were not "getting" adjectives. They did after this unit! Our PTO even has a Popcorn cart which increased our fun! :)

Just for the record, our popcorn wasn't burnt. But hey, it fits!

Smells yummy! :)

We "buttered" our adjectives with a highlighter in our writing piece. Bonus: The popcorn box pattern is adorable and can be used for many things! We have some up as AR incentives. Each kid has their own box (cover up "adjectives" and add names there) & for every AR point they can add a piece of popcorn.

*All products copyright Abby Mullins*

America Math & Literacy Fun

By: Deanna Jump

Cost: $8.50

First of all, let me say that I am a big fan of Deanna's. Her units are always good, but I was really blown away by this one!

Sample thumbnail from TPT

I LOVE her graphic organizers. These are so versatile and helpful for the kids. We made a book of all the U.S. symbols from this.

Sample thumbnail from TPT

This penny experiment was amazing! The kids had a great time doing it, and I think it summed up everything I was teaching that week! It was perfect because we had been learning about: math- coins; reading- sequence; social studies- U.S. symbols

Here are some of our class products:

I LOVE that I can laminate all the headings and have them ready to go for next year!

The directed drawing activity + Venn

*All products copyright Deanna Jump*

What are your favorite TPT items?

Valentine's Day LINK PARTY + Card Idea

I wanted to do a special Valentine for my class. I found this adorable idea on Pinterest, so I had to create my own! I purchased the lanyard glow stick necklaces for less than $10 at Walmart. They come 8 to a pack- $3 each pack in the party favor section. They also have cheaper options- you could just do a glow bracelet for each kid to make the cost go down.

Here is one you can print if you want to make your own:

***Update: I found the original! This activity came from The Teacher Wife. She has a GREAT printable version that is wonderful & you can check out her original post you make my ♥ GLOW! {v-day freebie} here!

The Teacher Wife Super Cute Original Version:

Another Version:

Check out these adorable arrows! This one is the same concept from Disney's Family Fun (LOVE this site/magazine!). Check it out here.

If you are broke this holiday you could always write your own Valentine messages. Check out last year's post on how to make your Valentine's extra special.

We also are creating Valentine Card Scrapbooks. We are studying adjectives for size & color this week, so I modified this document. The students will pick out one valentine card, glue it to the page and write the adjective & sentence that goes with it. The scrapbook idea came from somewhere else- I did a regular scrapbook last year, but I added the adjectives/sentence part to make it more academic this year. If you are the original creator of the V-day scrapbook, let me know and I'll add credit here & a link back to you! Click here to get your copy of the adjective version.

What's your favorite Valentine's Activity? Link up! Or, link your V-day Pinterest Board!

Dot Day: Student Art Show

Are you using Reading Street as your series?

Be sure to check out my detailed post from last year on The Dot & hosting a student art show. This year we are doing it a little differently. It has been a great success in the past, so this year all seven of my first grade teammates decided to get onboard. We are not having parents attend, but students from the entire first grade will create art masterpieces to display in our classrooms. We are going to parade from room to room on Friday afternoon and view all of the art collections.

Click here to get your parent letter about the art show.

Blogger Meet Up!

All the ladies! What a great time. I didn't get to meet everyone that I wanted to. There were so many people there- 39 in all! I'd love any more pictures- especially from our table. Email me: ashly2499@gmail.com if you have any!

It was so fun swapping stories and sharing ideas. I loved hearing about how we each had different situations and challenges. There is a camaraderie between all educators, but I think the blogging world has an extra special bond. :)

Stop.The.World. You know I'm *12 kinds of excited* because this is Babbling Abby. In person! :)

Michelle from Fabulous In First

The Queen of the First Grade Jungle!!! Too cool.

There were some people that slipped away before I got a chance to grab more pics. :(

Sidenote: This was the AH-MAZING hotel my husband got for us! Best weekend ever. We have a PTO meeting on Valentine's Day (yea, seriously.) so hubby and I made a weekend of it. We stayed at The Brown in Louisville which was crazy nice. Not something we could normally afford on an educator's salary, but get this- we had to sell these fundraiser coupon books at school. Well, they were all local coupons except for the very last page- it was a buy one night get a night free at The Brown. Club Level. :)

Groundhog Day Classroom Activities

Today we went outside for Groundhog Day. We partnered up and traced our partner's shadow with a piece of sidewalk chalk. Next, we measured our shadows in non-standard units (groundhogs) and created a graphic organizer together to show what we learned this fun holiday!

If you don't have Cara Carroll's Groundhog Unit, you can snag it right now while it's on sale! We used her graphic organizers and Groundhog pattern for our measurement activity. I laminated the ground hogs and glued them to popsicle sticks to make them a little more fristie friendly for this activity.