Updating My Reading Stations Link

My listening station is four iPads and these two computers. The iPads are easy to navigate because they are organized by apps.  But when the children are on the computers and at home it is a different story.  I made this link on my website Reading Stations.  

When my students come to the listening center they have already completed all their class work.  So listening to a story in my classroom is a "fun" choice to do.  I do not have them do reading response sheets during this time. 

I  made it easy so that when they finish their class work or computer work in the computer lab they can come to my website and find fun "educational" things to do without teacher assistance.

I used graphics for the students to click on so it is easy to navigate my website. 

Friday Freebie -- The Water Cycle

Switching to First Grade this year challenged me in so many ways.  For the first time in a long time I was looking for new material each week in more than one subject.  One topic I taught for the first time was the Water Cycle.  This book about the Water Cycle was basic and had great photos.  It was easy for my first graders to understand.

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Of course Brain Pop Jr. came through for me and had something wonderful to show the children.  I can not believe how much my students LOVE Brain Pop Jr.

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Another great resource I found was from Kristen Smith and her blog A Day in First Grade.  She created this wonderful Weather Packet.  My students loved the activities.

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I found a great poem about the water cycle in my favorite poetry book by Helen Moore.  We added this to our poetry collection.

I created a follow up worksheet for it as well.

Get Your Free copy of the Poem and Worksheet Here

Teaching about weather turned out to be one of my favorite topics.

Student Birthday Bags

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It's offical resting time is over!  It's time to get back to work.  I have a long list of things to do before I go back to my classroom.  As you know there are lots of little things to do to prepare the for new school year.   I like to have complete as much as possible before I get back to the classroom.   If I do one thing a day it cuts down on my stress level in August.

One of the things I do ahead of time is make birthday cards for each student.  I have to admit I sort of do the same thing every year.   I like to hand make parts of the card.  I  am keeping the same theme again this year:  Ladybugs.....so I made the same birthday card.  I found some goodies from Target.
  

Then I bag it all up in a simple brown bag and staple a birthday sticker on the front.  The kids are exited to see the the brown bags because they are similar to the surprise bags they get from time to time.  

In addition to my gift and book each child in the class makes a creative birthday note or card for the birthday person.  

If you do something special for birthdays please share.   :)

A First Grade Time Line

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A couple of years ago I pinned this amazing time line of the school year.  I just loved the idea of hanging up the events that happened throughout our school year as a reference.  It is the perfect way to teach about time lines.  

I created my own squares and printed out the months.  As the year went on I hung up pictures of our events.  However I noticed that the children really did not look at the pictures.  They were just taking up wall space.  AND why would they look up high at some of the months.  We all know that  children like to touch and look so I decided for this year to change this same idea a bit.

As I was de-cluttering my basement I found a scrapbook that I have nothing in,  PERFECT IDEA!

My original squares fit perfectly into the scrapbook.  I think the kids will like this better.  They will be able to take the book to their desks or a cozy corner and look and touch all they want.  The first page will be a class picture of the first day of school.  

Then at the end of the year when we learn about timelines in Social Studies I will just take the pages out of the book and line them up.  Wow!  This will be a great lesson.  I can not wait to get started.  

Chapters 7 & 8 Teaching in the Digital Age

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I have to admit I am taking this summer vacation thing seriously this year.  I am doing a lot of relaxing and moving at a very slow pace.  Nothing seems to be getting dong around here.  I am reading my chapters for this book last minute, just like a college student.  Maybe it is because I have not yet connected with the book I am not sure.  This week I read Chapters 7 Using Video Snapshots to Support Inquiry and Expand Classroom Walls and Chapter 8 Multi-Touch Mobile Devices Bring the World to our Fingertips.

Maybe it’s just me, or maybe because the book was written a couple of years ago, nothing is jumping out at me as something new or something I need to add to my first grade classroom.  The author Brian Puerling did have a couple resources that I did not know about for young children:

·      Safari Montage ($$$$)

·      Discovery Channel for Kids

·      PBS for kids

·      Teacher Tube

·      Brain Pop Jr. ($$$)

I would add to this list:

·      National Geographic for kids especially the animal videos  

·      abcya

·      cool math games

·      starfall

·      Arthur Stories online

·      Barnes and Noble Online Storytime

·      Tumble Books ($$$$$)

Another idea I thought of while reading Chapter 7 was to have my students take notes during and after some of the video clips I show and then share ideas

afterwards.

I also thought it might be fun to divide the children into groups and then some how have them video their responses.  Then share that with the class.  The first graders would love this. 

 

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The author writes about recording small group interactions as well to possible share at conference time.  Also you could use this video as a teaching moment with the children to talk about what the directions where, who is staying on task, who is following their role or assignments – introducing reflection on how I worked in the group.

 

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As far as teaching with ipads or other hand held devices I think this is important for all technology you need to teach the children the vocabulary that goes along with the devices.  Show them the power on/off button.  The difference between swiping and scrolling on a device.  What is an application?  Where do you put the device when you are finished?  How to close out or log out of a site. 

All these little things do not need to be taught in one lesson, however you should address then throughout the year as the need arises.

 

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If you are a beginner with technology you might want to read the chapter a bit more there is lot of advice on how to pick the best devise for your classroom and other basic information.  Since I already had four ipads for my classroom I skimmed over those sections.  

Ok I have to go......my drink is getting warm!   hahaha!

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Chapters 5 & 6 Teaching in the Digital Age

Dear Teachers,

Sorry I am a day late with my reading assignment I waited until the last minute to read and then we had a problem.  The hose leaked on our air-conditioner unit Sunday night and I had to mop up the basement floor.

Anyways, Chapter 5 & 6.......... I found to be a little bit more interesting.  Both chapters are about areas I have not yet explored in the technology field, Videoconferencing, Webcams and Presentation Tools.  Yes, I have so much to learn.    There are lots of ideas however I am just writing about the ideas I want to incorporate into my classroom next year.

Chapter Five

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The first thing I want to explore for my classroom is getting some ePals.  It is digital penpals.  The author provides a site that safely connects teachers and classroom up,  www.epals.com.    I think that would be a fun and meaningful way to develop letter writing skills with follow up in the computer lab. 

 

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Next, I need to learn about SKYPE.  I know what it is.  I have the ability to SKYPE on my laptop.  It is something I have never tried to do.  Sure you can SKYPE with another classroom.  However the idea that caught my attention was Skyping with Authors.  There is even a site out there that can help you, http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com

This is definitely something I want to explore.   This would be great to work on questioning skills.  This is an area first graders always need to work on.  Plus it would be a great addition to writer's workshop.

Chapter 6

The author, Brian, writes a lot about the publishing process and teaching the children the steps.  I know most teachers have their own way of doing this already.

 

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One idea that stuck with me that I would like to do next year is to encourage the children to write mini articles about what we are learning in class.  Maybe I could set aside one day a week where the students about write something.  Then I could choose two or three, help those students finish it up to a publishing point.  Have the students illustrate a picture and then add that to our class website as an article.  I thought that was a neat idea.

Another cute idea in the book was utilizing ipads and creating I SPY books.  He writes about this on P. 147.  I think this might me a fun way to start working in groups.  We can create a fun class book together.

OK….I need to learn about podcasts and how I can use them in my classroom.   I hear about them all the time and run the other way.

Finally he writes about these programs on my Apple computer I have yet to learn, Quick Time and iMovie.  He writes about creating digital books.  My idea is after a child has published a book in my classroom they could read it and then we could post it on the class website for parents to view. 

 

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What makes me nervous about these chapters is that ALL these wonderful ideas will need my time to pull them off.  Time is the one thing I don’t have.  I know there are great opportunities for the children to work together as a team, make decisions, generate ideas, collect materials, draw and write.   However, when it comes down to the wire it is me who has to do all the nitty-gritty and learn HOW to do it too. 

Freebie Friday

Welcome to my first FREEBIE FRIDAY.  I found this idea on Pinterest last week, several blog’s were linking up and sharing.  I thought this was a great idea, that is the main reason I blog,  I enjoy exchanging ideas with other teachers for free. 

 

Click Here for Free Copy

This week I am sharing a poem I did with my students the last week of First Grade. 

It is from the book, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You.

I am trying to buy the additional copies of the book every change I get.  I think I have 6 copies now.

I introduced the poem to the children on Monday.  They LOVED it.  They colored the mice and added it to their poetry notebooks.  Later I read more poems from the book as well.  That is all I needed to do and they were off reading for the week.  There are several other books similar to this as well.  I showed the first graders where they could find the basket with the poem books.    

This was a favorite among the boys.

They enjoyed buddy reading with their friends all week.  They just loved the books. I don't think I had to remind anyone to read.  They were all buddy reading!  Amazing!