One IPAD Classroom

  Week One 

For the last 6 weeks of school, we are working on Information Texts and will turn our reports into Digital books using a free app called Story Creator. Following in the faint footsteps of a great teacher blog  Mrs. Lirenman I decided to take the plunge with my one IPad (mine in fact) and do digital books with my first graders. I highly recommend following her, she does some really wonderful things in her classroom. Here is a link to her blog,  Mrs. Lirenman suggested I do as much as I can on paper so when the children get to the writing on the IPAD part, they will have much of their work already planned out - great idea!

I first had them read their books with their partner and gather ideas about the topic they chose. I would like to show them some supplemental videos to complement their topics, but I haven't as yet. They then wrote down 5 facts about their topic.  I then had them use Popplet LIte - another free app to create a diagram of their ideas. This app is so easy to use. The only downsize is with the free version, once you save, you cannot edit it, so I had to have each one finish their Popplet in its entirety. Lucky for this part, I asked for Parent Volunteers and they BYOD to the classroom - very helpful!

Tune in next week for the next step.

Big Giveaway!!

   There is a big giveaway going on over at My Kinder-Garden - click here to enter. There are many products to win so have a go!

Kid Blog

We only have 5 weeks of school left but I wanted to introduce blogging to my first graders before the year was out. I have been doing a lot of researching over at Twitter to gain my PLN and have found invaluable information regarding technology use in the classroom.  I decided to jump full steam ahead with Kid Blogs and love it!...and so does my class. It is a very protected blog for students. Teachers can decide if they want to only have their classroom interact with each other or open for all comments. In any case, the teacher has to approve all comments before they are posted for the children to see. The other great thing about kid blogs is you can connect with other classes who are on KidBlogs - you have a link with a class that you add to your blog roll.

We talked about internet safety and how we write posts and making comments on other people's posts and what kind of etiquette we need to have when responding to a post.  We discussed how we don't put photos of ourselves up unless our families say it is okay. I don't allow the children to post photos of themselves if they are working on their blog in the classroom. They are learning to upload photos, make comments, assign themselves avatars, create drafts. A whole new world of vocabulary has opened up to these children.

A few  times a week we do a whole class post - we decide on a topic to write and the students tell me what to write and I write it on our blog.  I purposefully leave out full stops and capital letters only to hear -  "you forgot full stop" or "that needs a capital letter". Finally.... it's sinking in!

I love reading their comments to each other. One really gets a new insight into a child.  I love that they are interacting with each other on a different level and are creating a digital footprint of themselves.

Please feel free to leave us a comment on our blog. We would love to hear from you! It's easy: Click here for link. Then click on a comment and post. You are always a "guest" and it will list you as a guest. All comments have to be approved by me before they go "live" so no risk of anything inappropriate.

We do not have 1:1 Ipads in our class, nor unlimited access to laptops, but blogging can still work in your classroom - you just have to be flexible.  The only regret I have is I wish I started this earlier in the year, but I will have a whole new class next year and we'll start in the Fall. Maybe we will be able to connect with some of your classes!

Spring Poetry Unit

   I love poetry and it is such a fun unit to teach to children.  Especially when you can tell your students, words don't have to rhyme, you don't even need full stops or full sentences. I purchased this Spring Poetry Unit from Happily Ever After Education and my class has really enjoyed the activities. This unit came with planning sheet ideas which helped the children plan their poems before they wrote them.  There were alot of activities in this unit. This is just a sampling of some of students' work.

Spring Acrostic Poem - courtesy of The Happy Teacher

More QR Codes and freebies!

   


I found these great freebie with QR Code Riddles over at Class Techie. Click here to get them.

 Also Table Talk with C and C has a QR Code Linky Party going on - click here to check out all the QR Code Activities.

I created a QR Code 2D/3D Shape Hunt for my first graders to use. Here is a link to the QR Code Shape Hunt Activity in my store and a blog link here to an earlier post about QR Codes including apps to download.

2D/3D Shape Hunt  - get it at my TPT Store!!

Teacher Appreciation Sale!

   Don't forget! Teacher Appreciation Sale starts tomorrow!! Get up to 28% off all products in my store!
    Woo-hoo!

Symmetry Ideas

   
Here is a fun way for young ones to explore symmetry using 2D shapes and desks lined up side to side or head to head - makes for a great line of symmetry! In groups of 4, I gave each pair the same 2D shapes. Each pair then designed what they wanted along one side of the desk. The other pair had to create the same pattern on the other side of the line of symmetry. Check out these symmetrical formations.

Intricate design here