Tech Tip Tuesday

Hey y'all! This is going to short and sweet (for me, anyway). We had a FOUR day weekend for the Easter holiday - it was awesome. Sadly I spent day 4 (Monday) of it being super frustrated because our report card window is now open and I couldn't log on. Of course it is now 9:30 on Tuesday night, report card drafts are due tomorrow, and I still cannot even log in. So frustrated. I've been watching My Week With Marilyn while trying over and over again to log in - have you seen it? I wasn't super interested in it and now I am so glad I got it from Netflix. Cute cute movie about someone that I know almost nothing about. Michelle Williams was great. Maybe telling you to rent that movie should be my tech tip. Alright, here's my REAL tip.

As I've mentioned every week for the last several weeks... we are still revisiting addition and subtraction to 20. I'm tired of it. My high group is tired of it. My middle group is tired of it. My low group is tired of it. Everyone in between is tired of it. BUT the good news is they all love my games so we are continuing to build that fact fluency playing lots and lots of different games in math stations. Our doubles rap is pretty fun too. You can check out that post here. So we're in this never-ending unit and I'm trying to look ahead to the end of the year because - GASP - we only have 36 more school days! (I actually only have 33 because I'm in a wedding in Mexico at the end of the month!) I found these activities today and I immediately added them to my Tizmos page for my challenge group to work on using our student stations during math station time. While this group does still need to build fact fluency, they don't need to work on that for every station because they already get the concepts of addition and subtraction while honestly, some of my other kids are still a little unclear on those skills. I'm ready to reinforce and refresh all of our skills we've been working on all year long as firsties to make sure they are good and ready for second grade!

• First Grade Jeopardy - I can't wait to play this with a small group tomorrow. I will pull one student from each pair of my above level math stations, play the game with them so they understand how it works, then send them back to teach their partners. I am blessed with 6 student stations (only 5 are now working of course) and I *think* I can put pairs on each to play so all of them will be able to have a turn.
• Houghton Mifflin Math First Grade Test Prep - I don't use Houghton Mifflin Math, but I came across this companion site and had a great time clicking around in different units and checking out the content. Sounds boring, right? Hey kids, want to take a quiz? NO! Hey kids, want to take a quiz on the computer? YES! Enough said. I actually think it makes it more fun that I don't know what any of the units or chapters are - SURPRISE! This one is graphing! SURPRISE! This one is time! My kids will have so much fun. That being said, I do teach at a math magnet, haha! Oh - and here is the main page in case you want to check out another grade besides first.

That's all I got. Slow internet and my need to finish report cards only allowed me that much time. Let me know if you check out those sites!

Tech Tip Tuesday/Wednesday and More {FREE} Games

This whole Tuesday thing doesn't seem to be happening for me. Maybe I should change it to Web Wednesday. Or maybe I will get my act together and start posting on Tuesdays... we'll see! In my defense, there were 12 tornadoes here yesterday! We had to go into severe weather procedures and get against the wall with our heads down twice! I didn't even have all of my kiddos picked up until more than an hour after school got out! I came home and watched the news... and fell asleep. So... no blog post. Since I'm a day late I came prepared with LOTS of technology resources for you today - YAY!

I'm going to start with a share - two quick addition games that I made today. I know I mentioned this already but our pacing guide has us revisiting addition and subtraction for 6 weeks right now. I feel like we've been doing it all year! I'm trying to keep my munchkins engaged and interested by creating new games even though they are practicing the same old skills. Click on the pictures to download from GoogleDocs. All clip art from Scrappin Doodles and Just So Scrappy. Fonts from Kevin and Amanda.

Students roll a 0-9 die, double the number and cover it up. First player to cover the board wins! (I know the picture has two 8s, but I assure that the printable version has an 8 and an 18!)

Each pair of students needs counters of two different colors, one 0-9 die and one game board. Students roll the die twice (or roll two dice), add the numbers together and cover the sum. If they reach a sum that has been covered by the other player, they can "sink it" by taking it off and replacing it with their own. The game is over when the board has been completely covered and the player with more counters on the board is the winner. 

Now - Tech Time!

First up... this little ditty which we've all got stuck in our heads. There is a 1-5 version and a 6-10 version. When we do it together, everyone gets a parter to hold up the numbers together (showing doubles) and we made up a whole dance that goes with it. It's quite the workout but oh... it is so cute and so fun!







I challenge you to watch those and not sing them for the next hour afterwards! Moving on...

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? I LOVE poetry! Even more, I love poetry in the classroom! Here are some resources I found to share with y'all tonight so that your students can love poetry too!

Poets.org - Great poetry resources, especially related to activities for Poetry Month

Scholastic Poetry Idea Engine - Interactive poetry idea engine - use it to create haikus, free verse, limericks or cinquains.

ReadWriteThink Poetry - Resources, activities and lessons related to poetry and Poetry Month

Kathi Mitchell Poem Types - This lists different types of poetry in alphabetical order, explaining what each is with an example. For many of the poem types, a website is given for an interactive poetry activity.

Basically, I started looking for sites and was so overwhelmed by the results that I thought it was better for me to list some of the sites that listed other sites... ha! Does that make sense?

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of blog world!

Tech Tip Tuesday

It's Tuesday and I am back with a new tech tip for y'all! My tip tonight is about a website and tool that is most importantly, free, but I also think it has many applications for teachers and... just regular old humans! The site is called Wallwisher and well, it's kind of awesome. This site allows you to create "walls", which are pages to which you privately post messages for yourself, or publicly allow others to post to (Any other teachers out there have a love affair with post its?). I love posting questions for my kids to respond to on KidBlog, but this might even beat that. If you have easy access to multiple student stations, netbooks, a computer lab, or even if your students have reliable, consistent internet access at home, you definitely want to check this out and try it soon. What a great way to have students discuss, respond and reflect - in 160 characters or less, of course. At the very least, I know I personally am always emailing myself and sticking post its everywhere - this is a much better way to access your to-do list or personal notes from anywhere!

I created a wall here for you blog readers to see a demo and leave me a post and tell me how you think you might use this. If you want more information, check out their FAQ page or the demo page. You can also embed or share your "wall".

See?

Go there! Now! Let me know how you plan to use this cool web tool!

Tech Tip Tuesday and a Freebie

Happy first day of spring blog friends! It's Tuesday so here I am with a tip and a website to share with you! Open House is this Thursday... I hate that it is always the week after Spring Break... and I have been B-U-S-Y prepping for that big event!

• Google Docs - I share the majority of my printables and materials through Google Docs and I know many other bloggers do too. Even though I know all of my materials are available for download, I still get emails nearly daily from Google Docs requesting that I share my files. So, I thought it might be helpful to some for me to attempt to explain how you can save files in Google Docs. When you click on a link that takes you to Google docs, all you need to do is click "file", then "download" or "download as" and save it to your computer. Just be sure you are clicking file in the Google Docs toolbar and not in your browser's toolbar. That's ALL you have to do! Also, if you are signed with your Google account, Google Docs will automatically save a copy of the file in your account. Seriously... it's that easy. 

• Read to Me  - This a neat {FREE} site where your kids can stream videos of celebrities reading popular children's books. I've been using this site all year as one of their Daily 5 "Listen to Reading" choices. I didn't discover this site myself, that credit goes to Mrs. Claborn. There aren't a ton of books, but I'm not complaining - it's FREE! I recommend Bugtown Boogie... now,  I've never actually read it but I see my kids listening to it every single day so it HAS to be good, right?

Speaking of Daily 5... I have a little freebie for you! I know this is a big no-no, but I remade our I-Charts today. I created them with my kids and I've had those up all year... but they are looking a little worn. I just couldn't stand it anymore. The "Listen to Reading" chart is pretty specific for my kiddos and what I allow them to do at that time, but I thought I'd share anyway! Click on the picture to download.

Clip Art Courtesy of Scrappin' Doodles

Borders Courtesy of Graphics from the Pond

Off to enjoy a few minutes of blog stalking and Kindle Fire reading before turning in! Goodnight!

Tech Tip Tuesday

Hi! It's Tuesday again so I'm back with a new tech tip! This is going to be a super short post as I will be back soon in the next few days to post the Texas/Cowboy unit we're in the middle of. Today's tip is...

• WatchKnowLearn - This is an AWESOME site that provides free, educational, pre-screened videos for kids K-12. There are THOUSANDS of videos - seriously, go search something right now and I dare you to NOT find something you can use tomorrow. You won't be able to do it. I mean, a video of Justin Bieber reading The Cat in the Hat? What more could you need anyway? HA! Really though, we're studying Texas this week and on the first page of results from my Texas search I found 2 videos that I could use immediately. I love not having to screen the video and somehow, while YouTube is blocked at school, I can still access the appropriate and educational videos from YouTube through this site. Now go forth and search!

Hope you are all having a fantastic week! I only have 3 more days until Spring Break! Holler! 

Tech Tip Tuesday

It's only the second week and I already missed my Tuesday post! I have a good excuse - I have been feeling a little under the weather since last Wednesday but I kept pushing myself, working out, etc. and it finally caught up with me. One doctor's visit and 2 prescriptions later, I'm feeling *a little* better today and I know tomorrow will be even better! For this week's post I decided to share things that I thought might fit into all the Dr. Seuss activities going on this week. These are both sites that I heard about while at TCEA. Enjoy!

• Switcheroo Zoo - Your students can create and name their own animal, learn about animals and habitats and play some really fun (and educational!) games. You can definitely create some Seuss-like creatures! Here's an example of an animal that I just created:

• Build Your Wild Self - I haven't used this site with my class yet, but I can't wait to. What a neat way for the kiddos to express themselves creatively! I also think this would be an interesting project for the beginning of the year to learn about your students' personalities! The site is exactly what it says - you are building your wild self. It's like making your Mii on the Wii, but with some optional animal parts added in! Here's one I made this afternoon:

Now I'm off to enjoy all of the fantastic sales on TpT today!!! Happy Leap Day! (Anyone else watch 30 Rock last week??? I found myself wanting to say "Nothing's impossible on Leap Day" and "Real life is for March" today.)

Tech Tip Tuesday

I like alliteration. Do you remember "What We Love Wednesday" last year? It was my weekly link up last year with my (former) teammate, Mrs. Claborn. I can't promise that I will absolutely post every Tuesday, but I miss my weekly "assignments" and since I a) am always looking for new ways to integrate technology into first grade b) teach at a technology magnet and c) recently had the privilege to attend TCEA, I think this will be a good fit. Here we go!

1. Search Cube - Go search something. Seriously. It's awesome. Search cube is a visual search engine that presents your results in the form of a cube. You can use your arrows to navigate to different faces of the cube and scroll your mouse over tiles to see previews of the search results. I tested it out with a little search on Abraham Lincoln, in honor of Presidents' Day. So. Cool. Go try it out. NOW!!!

2. PicLits - Again, this is just a darn cool site! It's free, it's fast, it's first grade friendly! On this site, students choose a picture from a gallery, then create a caption to go with it. I love the choice and open-endedness that this site allows. Once a picture is chosen, students can drag and drop words to create their caption, or click freestyle to type their very own sentence. If they choose freestyle, a bank of suggested words will still be provided. If you want to save, share, email, etc., the projects that your students create, then you need to create an account. All piclits are automatically posted in the gallery under your username if you save them so you probably want to create a name for yourself that's not too terribly identifying. So far my only issue with this site has been that some usernames can be... interesting.

3. Tagxedo - You've probably already seen this on other blogs, but just in case you haven't, it's another word cloud site, similar to wordle, but in the words of the tagxedo site, these are word clouds with style. You can choose from an extensive gallery for your word cloud shape and even upload your own image or shape. My kids are pretty well trained in wordle skills, but I am sure they can handle the switch! I know they will love creating shaped word clouds even more than they love creating wordles!

4. Pinterest - HA! Just kidding! But seriously, I just created a specific Fantastic First school only account last Wednesday which now has 15 boards, 94 pins... in less that one week. I need an intervention.

Let me know if you try any of these out or if you already using them!

Science Week - Favorite Videos or Websites

I'm catching up on this post from yesterday's Science Week topic - favorite science videos and websites. I have two resources for videos that I absolutely love for science and use on a regular basis. I feel bad sharing these, because they both require logins and so I can't really give you a good preview. My district provides these for us through the library SO maybe you can check with your librarian and see if you have access - I hope you do! Saying that I use these on a regular basis is a big deal because I don't like to use videos very often during science. Our science time is at the end of the day, it's never enough time for all I want to do and I like to do everything hands on and messy! Every now and then though we need a little more information or I need to introduce a new topic and that's when I use these.

1. Discovery Education and Discovery Education Science - in addition to the amazing video database, you can also find games, lessons and more. Seriously, I've never searched for something and NOT found it on here. It's an incredible resource to have access to! If you already use Discovery Education, make sure you've checked out the "Science Elementary" tab and explored there. It's broken down by Life Science, Earth Science and Physical Science, with a wealth of subtopics within each one of those. Again, all I can say is AMAZING!

2. Pebble Go - This is a really first grade friendly way to have your kids research science topics using the web. Like Discovery Education Science, the website is set up by units and within each, you'll find even more subtopics. The kids can read the information, but best of all, they can click to have it read to them! Of course, they also have great videos. We just used this site last week when we were talking about pets and it's great for other animal research projects.

What websites and videos do you use to get your kids engaged during science? Go link up!

Two Great Web Resources

I know all of us in blog world LOVE technology - that's we're blog authors and readers! Here's a quick post about two new-to-me web resources that I think you might love too.

1. Tizmos - This site has revolutionized my computer centers. And I'm not exaggerating. This is a site where you have a personal homepage and can bookmark sites as screenshots. What I love about this site is that you can add tags or labels so that your sites can be sorted, if need be. Example: This week we're studying geometry. I added 12 activities to my page (www.tizmos.com/MGriffin) and tagged them with "math" and "shapes". If I had math sites bookmarked for several different skills but only wanted geometry, I could sort through and show just the sites that I'd tagged with "shapes". How cool is that? I LOVE this because even though I know I can add things to my favorites, sometimes my favorites get SO full that my kids have trouble navigating them. Another reason I love it is because I can access it from anywhere. We visit our computer lab a lot and it drives me crazy that I don't have all my favorites marked in there every time we go. With my Tizmos page, I can take them with me! LOVE. THIS. SITE. Oh, did I mention it's FREE?!

2. Interactive Geoboard - As I mentioned, we're in a geometry unit. Today I pulled up this site on my laptop and projector while my kids worked on geoboards at their desks. I was able to guide them if needed or let them show what they did and they just ate it up! They asked if it could be added to math stations and could I please email it to their parents so they can do it at home...YES! OF COURSE! My favorite part of this site is that after you have created a shape, you can click on one of those color boxes and it will highlight the space inside the rubberband. That was a great visual for my students who were having trouble seeing the shapes with just the outline.

Do you have any sites that you can't live without?

Mother's Day Idea

My kids did a quick and easy Mother's Day project today that they really enjoyed and {I think} their mothers will love. The kids brainstormed words that describe their mothers and my heart melted at their sweet words - caring, loving, hardworking, beautiful... the adjectives just flowed! Each sweetie made a list and off we went to the computer lab. The kids went to http://www.wordle.net/ and made wordles for their mamas using all of their adjectives. They turned out precious and the kids all added what they call their moms to the word cloud. Tomorrow we're going to mount them on construction paper, et voila! I actually think I'm going to do the same thing for each one of my kiddos as the end of the year.
PS: Summer countdown = 19 days!

What We Love Wednesday!

I really do LOVE my job. I work with some really great people and I am especially lucky to work with such a great group of 1st grade teachers. One of those wonderful teammates is Mrs. Claborn over at Burst of First. Last week we came up with the idea to link up every Wednesday for "What We Love Wednesday", starting this week with websites! Now, I realize that yesterday was Wednesday, but I had one thing after another to do after school yesterday and by the time I got home at 11 last night all I could do was fall in to bed. So it's Thursday morning and here I am!

What We Love Wednesday - Website Edition!

1. KidBlog.org

If you are not using this yet, you need to go check it out now! We started using it last week and the kids can't get enough of it! Its very user friendly, it's quick and easy to set up, and the kids can access it from home. You can post questions for the kids to answer by leaving a comment, or you can have your students create their own posts. It's also a great way to let other people get involved in your classroom. Our principal, technology teacher, math specialist and reading specialist all left comments and questions for us this week and the kids were SO excited to have "visitors"! I don't worry about what kinds of comments my students will leave for me, or each other, but I know that unfortunately sometimes we do have to think about that, so here's another great thing about KidBlog - all student comments have to be approved by you before they post . I wish I could take credit for discovering this awesome tool, but I saw it a few weeks ago over at Bishop's Blackboard.  

2. XtraMath.org

Again, I can't take credit for this discovery. I found it on this post by Heidi over at Swamp Frog First Graders. I am always looking for new ways to drill and practice fast facts. SO many of my kiddos are still counting on their fingers! I love this site for 3 reasons: its free, its accessible from home, and best of all it runs itself! Really. There are several videos that you can watch on their site if you want more information, including a video about how it can work in your classroom. We've been using it every morning for 2 weeks and it's working out really well. I use it when my kids finish morning work and calendar binders, but you could use it any time. The first six kids that finish hop on a computer and get to work on XtraMath. They take a quick quiz, and when they finish it pops up with another student's name. The finished student then taps the next student, and that continues until our morning work/calendar time is up. If someone is absent or busy, there are buttons to click and another student will be selected. The students can also click on their own names to bypass the random selection. Head over there now and set up your class!

Leave me a comment and share your favorite website(s)! Be sure to head over and leave one with Mrs. Claborn at Burst of First too!