The Candy Class' 500 Follower Giveaway!

Hey, all!  I've joined up with Jolene at The Candy Class to help her celebrate 500 followers!  She's having a 5-day giveaway on her blog, so check it out!   Today is Day 3, and she is giving away lots of great prizes for both K-2 (including my bestselling Frog and Toad Are Friends Reading Comprehension Pack!) and 6 - 8

Want to win?  Just enter through the Rafflecopter here or on Jolene's blog!  Good luck and congrats, Jolene!
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You Oughta Know About... Smart Apps for Kids AND Automatic Downloads!

I am so excited about this!  Today I am linking up with Jasmine from Buzzing with Mrs. McClain for the You Oughta Know Blog Hop, where teachers are shouting out about things that work well in the classroom!

So here's what I think you oughta know about... If you have iPads in your classroom, you NEED to know about the website Smart Apps for Kids! 

Smart Apps for Kids is ahhhhhhmazing.  I kid you not!  Every day they feature a Free App of the Day (generally for preschool or elementary but sometimes older).  But most days they feature ridiculous amounts of free and discounted apps.  The apps are not theirs - they scout out what is free right now and tell you about it!  Most days there are several apps listed and on Fridays they host Free App Friday, which often features over $100 in free apps!  The apps they feature are sometimes free for that day only or a few days only, so be sure to check them out and grab what you like while it is free!

In my classroom, I have 4 iPads (and typically about 22 kids).  We use them for projects, etc., but when we have indoor recess, the kids have free time on the iPads on a rotating schedule and I need to have good stuff on there that they can use independently but is also educationally relevant.  I don't have an app budget at all... zero dollars... so Smart Apps for Kids has been a lifesaver!  I subscribe to them via email and Twitter so that I don't have to remember to go and check every day to see what's new.

Also... and here comes the second thing You Oughta Know...  did you know that if you have multiple iPads, you can download something on one of them and have it automatically download on your others?  It's TRUE!  Go into Settings and on the left hand side scroll down to iTunes & App Store.  You can see it hilighted on the left in the picture:

Then see where it says Automatic Downloads on the right?  Yup... you can turn that on or off for Music, Apps, Books, and Updates and it will automatically work on any other iPad you have with the same Apple ID (the email ID that you use in the App Store).  In the picture above, you can see that Music and Books are turned on and Apps and Updates are turned off.  I just slide the little bar to the right to turn them on and, presto, I only have to download things on one iPad to have them show up on all 4!
 Because I wanted a different email on my home iPads/iTunes account and my classroom iPads (I didn't want all of my classroom stuff showing up on my home devices and vice versa - yikes!), I set up a gmail account just for my school iPads and made that my userID.  Since I only download free apps, I don't worry about linking any accounts to it or anything, and I have never once had to actually check that email account since I set it up. :)  
This tip is especially helpful for both saving time downloading new apps onto all of your devices (you can do this with your home stuff, too) but updating everything at once automatically - yes, please! :)  Hope these tips make your life a little bit easier when it comes to managing iPads in the classroom and finding quality free apps. :)
Speaking of making your life easier, I have just posted something I've needed myself for a long time - Morning Stretch!  It's Common Core aligned September morning work for first grade. Talk about making my own life easier... and I am known to scramble in the morning to figure out what morning work I want to give!  (Fortunately, I'm the only one who knows that.... and now you, lol).  

Check... done... one less thing to worry about in September!  I'll bring you more on this soon, but for now, guess what else you oughta know about? The great ideas from the other teacher in the You Ought Know hop!

An InLinkz Link-up

Fab Vocab!

When you read aloud to your class, you come across lots of great vocabulary words, right?  There is so much rich conversation around these words that happens when we are having story discussions, but what happens to those amazing new words after that?  If you don't keep using them, they just flutter away when the book ends.
Now, don't get me wrong.  I don't expect my firsties to remember and use tons of new story vocabulary, especially if there isn't anything to "stick" it to our classroom lives (for example, some of the farm vocabulary in Charlotte's Web, which I adore, and read every year).  But there are lots of colorful, descriptive words that we come across in books that the kids could be using in everyday life if we scaffold it.
How do I do that in my classroom?  I keep a stack of index cards and a Sharpie nearby when I am reading and when I come to a word that I think is fascinating (oh I definitely play up cool new words), I'll say something like, "Wow, that's a great/smart/interesting new word! (Or "whoa, that sounds like a high school word!" - They think that is the super coolest  thing ever)  How can I remember that word?"  I'll scratch my chin and look around and then amazingly find just what I needed to jot that word down!  So I'll write it down and say it a few times (of course, the kids get into it too, they like to say fancy new words).  And then I'll look all confused again and say, "Wait, what did that mean?"  And since we discussed it in story context, they are more than happy to remind me.  So smart, those firsties.  So smart.  
Then I wonder aloud how I can remember what it means.  Sometimes a problem solver will suggest to draw a picture.  If they don't, I'll suggest it after they've given me some ideas. Now, all of this takes a very brief amount of time, and I don't want to stop and draw right now and totally lose the mojo of the story.  So I'll ask if anyone can do me the huge favor of reminding us all what that word means.  I am never short on volunteers for that job.  I'll pick someone, they take the card to their table and illustrate while we continue reading.  They keep listening too, and often I'll find my illustrators stopping to look up at the story, staying connected.
When the illustration is done, they bring it back to me (usually I am still reading) and I just quietly reach out my hand to take it.  I'll lay the card down until after the story and then show it to the class.  I do ask the illustrator to put his/her name on the back.  Then I add it to the "FAB VOCAB" section on our word wall.  These are not like our sight words on the word wall - I do not expect them to be spelled correctly, etc., should the kids use them in their writing.  And the great thing is that they do!  Once a fab vocab word goes up, I'll use it if I can when I am teaching or talking and the kids follow my lead.  It's pretty awesome at the end of the year to have a nice collection of great vocab words and kids who actually use them in everyday language!  (Many of my kids speak English very well but are bilingual, often speaking Chinese or several Indian dialects at home, and they still get to know lots of great new words!)

Of course, I don't do this with every new word in every book we read*.  Lots of times the kids will ask to put new words on the Fab Vocab board and I'll say "Not right now", mainly because it would take way too much time to do that with every new word in every book I read.  We save it mainly for our chapter books and I do refer to it during writing lessons on word choice, but it is always there.  At the end of the year, I just pull them down and send them home with the illustrators.
*I also don't have a plan at all... like... ever... for what words will go up here.  It happens completely in the moment when we read new and interesting words in context, so every year the Fab Vocab board is totally different!
How do you help your kids to hang on to some of the new and rich language in the stories that you read together?

July Currently

Hey guys!  I know, it's been a while... We finished school at the end of June and I needed a little bit of a break from all things schooly!  This year was great in some ways and very challenging in others so I do welcome the drop in intensity that comes with summer!  Today I am linking up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for a July "Currently"!

The end of school was crazy busy and then my kids were in school a week longer so I was able to go in to some of their events, which was so much FUN!  We live in an area with lots of parents who stay at home, so I know it can be hard for my girls sometimes that mom and dad can't come in for all of their events.  But they are so sweet and understanding, and we get to as much as we can.  I use pretty much all of my personal days for their school events.  This year, that included an awesome Philly Zoo field trip for my own first grader and the Locks of Love event at her school where she proudly donated her long hair to help make wigs for children who have illnesses that result in hair loss.

 So proud of my little cutie!  

Now we are juggling children's theater camp in the morning for my little one and in the afternoon for my middle schooler.  Mom's taxi is racking up trips but I really don't mind... it's nice to have to go outside a few times a day, even in this 95 degree heat!  (My classroom was like the arctic this year, so having to go out into the sun is a welcome change.  Fortunately, my blower did get fixed at the end of the year!).

Once I had a little breather, I was able to work on some TpT projects that I wanted to get done - updating my fall and winter writing paper packs, adding summer, and bundling all 4:

 

 Then I created a set of calendar cards and monthly headers for a friend who is doing a full year maternity leave in first grade this coming year (her first full year, congrats Erika!) and wants a Polar Pals polar bear theme:

Then, because I was thinking about the beginning of the year and what might make life in September the teeniest bit easier for myself and other teachers, I made this Grandparents Day freebie pack:

Click to download FREE!  Enjoy!

I hope you are all enjoying the summer!  Looks like the storms are headed our way so we'll see whether our upcoming fun events will work out (Trenton Thunder baseball game with fireworks, friend's party, family pool day!)!  Fingers crossed but I'm not so sure lol...  Happy early 4th!

16 more days...

This time of year is always bittersweet.  We have 16 school days left with the kiddos, and though that equates to about three more weeks, we are definitely in the final push.  I have only one DRA left to do, my DSAs (word study assessments) are done, the kids have completed their self portraits and letters to their second grade teachers... all that stuff that goes along to their second grade teacher. Of course, we are still working... we just planted seeds, are deep into close reading, are writing memoirs, and are learning addition and subtraction strategies to take us into more difficult skills.  (You know how it is... if we don't do meaningful work right up until the end, the natives will go wild!  Lol). I am starting to feel sentimental about my kids moving on, even though this has been one of my more challenging classes.  I found this great project on Pinterest that I just finished and framed to send home to parents:

I wish you could see my kids' faces, they are just precious.  My two little future CIA Agents (they actually said "Good guy spy for the president"... but I couldn't fit that on the chalkboard) are just peeking over the chalkboard, all secretive.  So cute.  It was not my original idea... it came from Pinterest, where it links back to this blog post on We Are Teachers: 

You just take pictures and then plug them into one of the (free) pre-made collages on PicMonkey.  I tried my version in black and white, but I liked it better in color with the polka dot background (which I added later in Power Point).  Then I went to the Dollar Store and bought cutie patootie color frames (pink, green, and blue) for them.  I am going to tie them up with a ribbon and add a poem to thank the parents for their help and getting to spend my days with their little loves.

One more little way I am going to make the end of the year special is by changing my SMARTboard attendance to a graduation theme once June rolls around.  I just posted these.  Happy end of the year!

SMARTboard attendance - Graduation Theme

I made this one for my class, The Wise Owls, but anyone can grab it on TpT!

SMARTboard Attendance - Graduation Owl Theme

Happy summer to those of you who are already out and... 16 more days!!! :)

Hoppy Spring!

Did you have to make up any days during spring break because of all the snow this winter?  This past week was our spring break and we had to go in on Thursday only.  I know, it seems crazy to go in for one day in the middle of a week off, but it was on our calendar from the beginning as an Emergency Day, so we knew it was a possibility.  We've done it before, I'm not complaining, no big deal.  And I actually had 17 of my 21 kids, so I'm guessing some parents out there were probably glad school was open! :)  
The only real problem with coming in for one day in the middle of the break is that that day is like an island in the Sea of Days Before and Days After.  It's very hard to do good academic work that flows from what we did in class a week ago or what we will do when we go back on Monday, so most of us did a mix of academic stand-alone activities and fun spring or Easter things.   One thing we really enjoyed was reading The Easter Egg by one of our favorite author/illustrators, Jan Brett.

It's an adorable story that reminds me of Arthur Writes a Story, with its message of finding your own way to do something great.  After reading, we did some of the great activities in this free TpT pack by Smiles from Second Grade, including story mapping, summarizing, and designing our own Easter eggs.

And some writing from my Spring Writing Paper pack:

And boy was it refreshing to take the time to do crafts... something I know most of us feel like we can't justify anymore on normal school days even though in our hearts we feel like it's right for our kiddos to cut and color and glue. :(  It was a great way to make this oddball day into something special!

So I walked into my classroom Thursday morning and said to myself, "Hmm.  What can we make with stuff I already have here?"  And.... voila!

Easter bunnies!  So.  Easy.  And cute!  I used lightweight tagboard and cut the egg shapes.  (The kids could certainly do it themselves with tracers or directions, but it was faster for me to cut them - I did it freehand, 5 at a time).  Then I drew the bunny head shape, hands, and feet onto one piece of white paper and photocopied it onto lightweight white tagboard (one page per student).  I wish I had it here for you to download, but I left it at school - Anyway, it's super easy to draw them. :)
In the morning, I put out cotton balls on each table along with 6 colors of tempera paint (like I said, I used what I already had... I took out any colors that looked springy!).  I modeled for the kids how to blot the cotton ball into the paint and then use it to decorate their eggs.  I kept a paper plate on each table for used cotton balls.

I showed the kids that they could blot in stripes or randomly but they came up with some pretty good ideas.  They loved getting creative!

Tempera paint dries relatively quickly.  We put them in the hallway to dry.  Later in the day, I had the kids cut out the heads/hands/feet.  They decorated the bunny heads however they wanted with crayons and Twistables (like colored pencils).  We glued hands and feet with glue sticks and heads (since they were a little heavier) with white glue in glue bottles.

Hehe... you can see one of my little friends at the bottom added a hat... because we watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail and he had a hat in the video. :)  I love they they came out so springy and each one has its own personality!  Happy Easter!

SMARTboard Attendance Fun!

One of my favorite things to create is SMARTboard attendance files.  The kids love them because they get to move something around the SMARTboard with their names on it. SMARTboard attendance is great at the beginning of the year if your kids (like mine) have never used a SMARTboard before.  Because they have to do attendance every morning, it gives them a daily interaction with the SMARTboard.  They learn that it's ok to press kind of hard (some kiddies have such a light touch in the beginning) and they figure out how to manipulate items on the board.  I recently updated the very first one I ever made to match my own owly classroom, and I still love it.  Click on the picture to check it out in my TpT store:

Once I got the hang of making SMARTboard attendance files, they became one of my favorite things to make.  I made some to match my colleagues' classrooms:

And then some that are seasonal or holiday themed:

And some just for fun!

Here is my latest one.  I just made it last night after a very trying week, and it cheered me right up!  I plan to use this one ONLY on student birthdays to make the day extra special.  Of course, it will have to wait until next year since so many birthdays have already gone by now that it's March... but I have it ready to go and it's already one of my favorites! 

Which one do you like best?  What things do you love to create? :)