Go Noodle!

   Do you know Go Noodle? Its a brain break interactive site that gives students and teachers 3 min breaks by incorporating exercise, dance, and even songs into short brain breaks. My class is hooked on this and ask for Go Noodle all the time.  I love for the exercise breaks, there are real cameos from Olympic athletes.  The brain breaks are well designed and are broken down from energizing to calming.

If you haven't already come across it yet, check it out here,  and your class too will be begging for more GO Noodle!!

Geoboard App

   Reading through my Twitter last week, someone posted a great app for Geoboards. I checked it out and sure enough, no more flying rubberbands. Children can work on creating shapes, symmetry and reflective symmetry with this FREE app. For the moment, I don't see any downside to the app. You cannot save any of the work, but you could take a photo with another device and save it in Evernote Portfolio if you wanted documentation.

Here is a link to the App:


https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/geoboard-by-math-learning/id519896952?mt=8

Tweeting in First Grade - Really?Yes!

   As a teacher, staying connected is so important. Reaching out to other teachers and reading what others are doing helps you grow professionally. So why not do the same thing for your class. We were already blogging using Kidblog and I wanted to introduce my class to Twitter. We started out by writing tweets on our "paper wall" so the children would get used to writing and the concept of Twitter.

Once the class was comfortable, I set up a classroom account under the Twitter name @MrsTsfirstgradeclass. We started out by the children telling me what they would like to tweet and I would write it. Then, I decided to create a "Class Twitterer" who would tweet out our class news. The class offers suggestions of what to write, the Twitterer tweets, and I approve all tweets before it goes live. This has been a slow go in the classroom, but I am confident it will continue to pick up. We began to connect with other first grade classrooms to share what we are learning in the classroom. I also invite the parents to connect with us as well.

We also use the hashtag #mathstories to tweet out math stories and answer any math problems that are here.

I have very limited tech. in my class, but the children are always welcome to use my computer and even my phone to get connected. Don't be afraid to try. There is nothing stopping you. First graders are smart - give them a chance.

You can find me at: @tamatrotti and @mrstsfirstgradeclass