Halloween Addition Doubles Book/Movie Activity

Last year there was a great post by What The Teacher Wants.  They posted a doubles rhyming book that is amazing!  I used it with my class this year and had a great time.  We used gestures (Whole Brain Teaching) to create a movie about each doubles fact.

Awesome doubles rhyming book for Halloween

Orginal post by Rachelle over at What The Teacher Wants with the link in it

Check out our Double 4 clip:


Want to learn more about Movie Making in your classroom?  Check out some of my older posts here and here on green screen/Chroma Key.

You can also hear me present live at the upcoming Tennessee Educational Technology Conference in Nashville November 30 - December 2, 2011.

Sorry I've been MIA from the blogosphere for so long.  Our new evaluation system has me working overtime (to the benefit of my classroom and students) and I'm still trying to work out my schedule.  I haven't implemented writer's workshop yet and my word work/literacy activities need a serious upgrade. All of that coupled with the passing of my step-mother has left me playing catch-up.  I'll try to be on here more in November.  :)

RIP

My stepmother Barbara passed away this week.  She was a wonderful Christian woman and she will be dearly missed.  Please pray for my father (it's his birthday too) and family this week.

Owl & Bat Nocturnal Animals Ceiling Decoration

Handprint wings :)

Haha my favorite!  I think it is supposed to be a scary bat, but I think it kinda looks like a lady bat... too cute.

Ok, now here's the bad news... I don't have a pattern.  I got it from one of the veteran teachers and I have no idea where they got it from.  But, I have a plan!  To make your own, find a clipart image of an owl.  Print and cut out the large sections onto a manilla file folder to make a pattern- then cut out the individual pieces for your kiddos.  It takes a little while to cut out, but I think the results are so worth it!  Also, use colored hole punch protectors to add some colors to the eyes.  And googly eyes are a must.  :)

 Also, the bat pattern is very simple- just the body!  The students trace their hands (twice) on 1/2 a sheet of black paper for the wings.  The moon is just a 10" circle from the die cut.  Owl on one side, bat on the other.  Looks great from the ceiling!

What do you do for fall decorations?

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?!