Science Websites & Videos

BrainPop Jr.- hands down the best animation for EVERYTHING!  If you don't have a subscription yet, you need one.  So do I actually... mine is out :(

Scholastic Study Jams- Scholastic's free version.  They have really cool karaoke vidoes

Science NetLinks- Free hands-on science lessons & activities

History of Laundry- Ok, I know you are "thinking what in the world?!" but this is a really neat site with videos from Proctor and Gamble.  It really does a great job of tracing history (hello social studies standards- long ago vs. modern times!)  Great inventions highlighted as well.

Science Books

Science Books:Actual Size by Steve JenkinsThis book is so interesting!  It has illustrations of animals at their... actual size!  We used this book in math as well.  We took paperclips, pipecleaners, counters, etc and measured the hand on the gorilla page.And look what adorable idea I got from Pinterest and had to recreate:

This is the actual size of a gorilla hand compared to one of my little sweeties!

Snowflake Bentley is a really unique book that tells all about snowflakes and is also a great view into the life of a scientist.  

Fun Science Apps:

• Bobo Explores Light
• Starwalk
• Magic School Bus: Oceans
• Ansel and Claire's Africa Adventure
• Pocket Penguins
• Zoo Borns
• exZOOberance
• Geo Walk

Educational Apps for the Classroom

So what do students do on the ipad/ipod in the classroom?

Here are a few of the student favorites:

Toy Story (Disney Digital Books)


The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore


The Monster At The End Of This Book (Sesame Street)


The Tale of Peter Rabbit Pop-Out Book


The Magic School Bus: Oceans



Bobo explores light


Skywalk


Ansel's Africa


I've told parents about the technology we use and encourage them to send in cheap itunes giftcards.  This has been a great success in my classroom!

Want to pick out which app we get next?  Click here to see our wishlist!

Looking for free educational apps to use at home?  Check out this post for my full list.

What apps do you use?

Giveaway Winner

Teaching Blog Expo Question and Answer

Post about this giveaway on your own blog & leave a comment for an extra entry!

Hello friends! 

Today is the big day- the Teaching Blog Expo is here!

Welcome to the question and answer post from my presentation: Blogging Parties and Prizes!!!

After viewing the presentation, please list any questions that you have.

In the meantime, how about a giveaway?  :)

These wonderful ladies have donated products for one grand prize winner!




 Johnny Appleseed/Apple Mini-Unit. The unit contains math, science, and reading activities with a Johnny Appleseed/Apple theme. Included are graphs, games, a glyph, an original poem and song, and more!



Letter-Sound Awareness Pack

 Color by Number Bundle (pre-primer-1st Grade)

Playdough Word Work Pack



Memory Book




Pattern Block Site Word Pack
To enter, just leave a comment and make sure your blog or email is listed! *Anyone can enter :)
What topics do you think would make a great linky party?What's your favorite linky tool?
 I would love to hear any questions you have about link parties or giveaways.The giveaway will close on Friday, September 23rd at 5:00 p.m. Central Time.

What's your most prized school items?

I found out today we might have some extra money coming from a PTO fundraiser.  Woohoo!  Now my dilemma is purchasing meaningful, classroom changin' products.

At the start of the year I shelled out some major moolah out of my own pocket and purchased:

• A Wireless Printer (helloooo blogging ideas!)
• 2 color ink cartridges and 2 black ones (I could use some more already...)
• Book Bins for the kiddos
• Book Baskets for my classroom library
• iHome Dock (result of me selling my graduate school books back to Amazon...)
• Otterbox ipad case (which makes the ipad not fit in the above-mentioned ipad dock.  thankyouverymuch)

Other classroom rockin' products that <3:

• The Daily Five
• The Cafe Book
• Words Their Way
• Lucy Calkin's Units of Study for Primary Grades
• All the recommended mentor texts from Units of Study
• Math books- I would guess that I have over 100 math books in our class library
• A document camera- iPevo $70 on Amazon
• Ipad
• My iphone (yep, I put it in the hands of the kiddos)

I would love to have:

• Audio CDs and Books for the CD player
• More organizational stuff... like to keep our weekly leveled books in
• An interactive whiteboard (ha!) or Mimeo 
• A cutting machine 
• A closet makeover (my closet is about 1/4 the size of everyone else's on the hall.  Stupid AC unit or whatever the heck is back there taking up all my closet space!)
• More fun teaching tools

So, what do you recommend that I get?  What are your favorite classroom items?

Also- what are your students' favorite apps?  Anything I need to get?

Positive Perspective

The moral in my county is low- 90 layoffs from budget cuts.  The moral at my school is low- we have a new very strict evaluation system that everyone is doing poorly on.  As we face a trying time in modern education, Rowdy in First asked everyone to post something positive today.
 So here's to the new and exciting things going on in my world:

First off, my diploma arrived today!  It's good to see it in writing!

Friday we made homemade apple sauce in class.  Ohmyword ya'll... it's the coolest thing ever.  I had a blast, the kiddos LOVED it and it was a great learning experience.  To do it, get one of these super amazing apple corer/peeler/slicer machines.  Have the kids crank 20 apples through the machine, dump them in a crockpot, add some brown sugar and cinnamon and wait a few hours!  Voila!  Homemade applesauce!  Have some volunteers helping out this day.  :)

Ok, this is a biggie:

I have been doing all the parts of the daily five, but I had a center management board drawn on my board.  Today the students picked their own rotations and buddies for the first time.  They were SO EXCITED and SO well-behaved and on-task today!   I've got to be honest... I've been very anxious about putting that last major component in with my group this year.  They wowed me today.

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Tag Photo

My adorable little sister went through sorority recruitment this week.  I had a great time reliving my college days vicariously talking with her every night.  I'm an ADPi, and she pledged Chi-O.  I'm ok with that- I always liked Chi-O girls.  Glad she is settling into college and made it happily through recruitment.  

I feel like my class is really getting into a groove.  They walk down the hallway quietly in a line.  We have class bathroom breaks down to an art.  I see them using amazing "math talk" during rotations and their buddy reading is awesome.  It's not perfect, and we can definitely have our days, but I'm lovin' my little guys.  And that's what it's all about. (you know, and the hokey pokey.)

ps AND TEACHING BLOG EXPO is THIS WEEKEND!!!!!  Did you know that over $90,000 worth of digital goodies are being GIVEN AWAY to attendees?  Are YOU registered yet?!

 

New pics: conferences, fall activities, apple activities

So I've been craaaazy busy lately, and I wanted to share a few of the fun things that have been going on.

Saturday my husband and I volunteered at Habitat for Humanity.  That's a pic of: Kurt (site supervisor), Edwin (the amazing man that is getting a new house!) and me.  I put up siding for 10 hours.  Whew!  It was fun using the saw and getting outside for a little while.

My papers getting ready for conferences... I spent 3 hours working at McDonald's.  Our conferences were Tuesday after being in school for only 20 days!  

This is a shot of the student desks on conference night.  I'm hoping to have a whole post soon on conference materials.

Ceiling decorations :)

I can't wait for the Teaching Blog Expo this weekend!!!!!!  I have more details coming soon... but for now I'm going out to dinner!  :)

I'm have a sale! Apple Short Vowel Word Sorts for centers

Check out my apple-themed center word sorts- one activity for each of the short vowels!  Looking for Word Work to do during The Daily 5?  These activities are prefect- and this week only, the are one sale for 20% off!!!

Giveaway ends today! Apple math center activities

ENTER HERE for my Apple Math Center Activities Giveaway!

Giveaway ends at 9:00pm.  

New Facebook Page

I'm finally on facebook!
I followed Moffat Girl's lead and signed up, but I'm kinda lonely over there too!  How about you stop by and "like" my page really quick.  Pretty please? :)

Also, I'm trying to upload a pdf on TPT and it goes through the whole uploading slow process, then the page is reset!  Help!  Does it do this to anyone else?  I worked all weekend on this Apple Thematic Unit, and then I realized that it was 164 MB (heeeellooo graphics!)... So I broke it down into smaller sections under 50 MB, but I'm still having issues.  Uploading 19% right now... cross your fingers!

Blogging Expo!

  

Have you heard about the latest big news in the blogosphere?

We're having a teaching blog expo!!!!!!!!!

Mark your calendar for Saturday, September 17th!

So what exactly is a teaching blog expo?  Well, some of the biggest authors on the web will be presenting on all things blog-related!  Seven presentations will be made, and each will be followed by a live question and answer session. 

Here are the topics: 

• Miss Kindergarten will cover blogging basics
•  The Lesson Plan Diva will cover marketing products
  The Organized Classroom will talk about building your blog with buddies
• Erica Klein will discuss getting paid for your passion
  The Moffett Girls will discuss being a balanced blogger
  In The Teacher's Lounge will teach you how to add videos to your blog
• And I'm thrilled to announce that I will be presenting on blogging parties and prizes!  I'm so honored to be presenting with such a talented group of ladies!

You can attend only the sessions you want, and you can reference the archives later.
It gets even better- did I mention that all attendees get a free virtual goodie bag?  Included are free digital downloads from dozens of authors.


The cost for this amazing expo is only $29, but if you register before September 3rd you get a discounted price.  Find out more at www.teachingblogexpo.com  The first grade conference that I went to here in Nashville was $250 for one day, so I think this expo is a steal!

I'm looking forward to attending.  I have never sold any products, but I will definitely be taking notes on how to get started!

Win an Ipad

This post is now closed- thank you for all the volunteered!

Hey all!
I am on Scholastic's National Advisory Board.  They are about to launch a new site, and they are looking for teachers to check it out and take a quick survey.  If you complete the survey, they will enter your name in a drawing for an ipad!

If you are interested in participating, please leave a comment with your name and email and I will pass this info along.

Thanks!