Anita Goodwin here from I Live to Learn I Love to Grow. One of my newest favorite apps to use is Typorama. It is a FREE app that you can use to add words to pictures. The only difference between the free and paid version is the removal of the watermark. There are so many different styles and choices of text to choose from the possibilities are endless. You can only use one photo but it is perfect for encouragement posters. Phonto and Pic Collage for Kids are two other FREE apps that you could also use to make your posters. Keep reading to see how we came up with sayings for our posters.
We have been watching the new Growth Mindset Videos by Class Dojo in class the last two weeks. If you have not checked them out they are awesome. My students absolutely love them. They have been begging to watch the new one for this week because we haven't had time yet. There is a thinking question at the end of each video that brought up some great discussions in our classroom. These quotes above were some of the things my students were saying in the discussions. I decided to write them down because they were so good. I thought it would be fun to make and print posters to hang around the room with their sayings and they loved making them. The directions were to take pictures of things that would represent the quotes using students in our classroom. As you can see from some of the final projects they turned out great. They were very creative with their photo shots. I told them to try to leave some space at the edge or side of their photo so they could type the words. The app Typorama is super easy to use. You open the app add your photo and double tap to type. Then tap any of the different styles of words at the bottom and watch your text change. I gave very little directions on the app and they finished creating their posters in minutes.
I hope you have time to check out the Growth Mindset Videos from Class Dojo and some of the word apps I mentioned. Have fun creating Encouragement Posters in your classroom.
Hi, It's Anita Goodwin here from I Live 2 Learn I Love 2 Grow with a super fun activity to share. I've always loved "Hands On Science" and so do my students. While recently studying force in our classroom I came across a neat blog post by Frugal For Boys using popsicle stick catapults and thought it would be fun to explore catapults in the classroom. I decided to use some "fallish" things to shoot in them. I happened to have 2 bags of those plastic spiders in my closet and knew they would work and it would be interesting to compare them with candy corn to see which we could shoot the furthest. I loved the suggestion in the post to use the bands from the loom bracelets and made a quick trip to Walmart to buy some sticks and bands. It cost around $6.00 and was money well spent.
My husband helped me make a couple of catapults to use as examples for the students. We had fun trying them out in our living room before I took them to school the next day. I put my students in groups of 2 and gave them 12 popsicles sticks and a small hand full of the loom bands. I told them they could look at the samples and they could make their own. They needed to figure out exactly how to put them together. There was no perfectly right way and they could do it any way they wanted. They could also have more popsicle sticks and bands if they needed. My second graders were so engaged at putting their catapults together. Not one group of partners needed any help. After they finished, I hot glued on the plastic lids. We set them up to use the next day.
(Note: Catapults can be used immediately after hot glueing. If using tacky or Elmer's squeeze glue let dry overnight. We did have some trouble with a few lids coming off the sticks. If I had time I just quickly reglued them otherwise I just had them shoot their objects without them.)
We had lots of fun shooting the candy corn and spiders and comparing them. We even had a class competition. The two furthest shooters competed against each other while the class watched and recorded. The next day we used used Snapple lids and milk jug lids. The blank sheets included in my catapult set can be used to record any objects you have.
I strongly recommend this activity for teamwork, thinking skills, science, math, measuring, predicting and confirming, etc. Get this freebie here to record your own catapult fun. I hope your students enjoy this activity as much as my students did.
You can also check out my set on TPT which includes many more recording sheets.
Hi, Anita here from I Live to Learn I Love to Grow. I'm enjoying my first few weeks of summer vacation and hope you are enjoying your vacation too. If you aren't already on summer vacation hang in there it's coming.
Why do we love selfies so much? 1- They are pictures of ourselves and we love to see ourselves in pictures. Be Honest. I know there are times you wish you weren't in a photo if it is a bad one, but the "JOY" of selfies is you can delete the bad ones and take another. 2-It's a great memory. You're making a memory of a memory just by taking the photo. I remember trying to get our whole family in a photo at a restaurant and we were having lots of trouble and then the waitress stopped and asked us if we wanted her to take a photo of us. We agreed to let her take one and after it was over my son said, "That wasn't as fun as the photo we were trying to do." It's fun trying to squeeze everyone in and then squeeze and take that "PERFECT" photo. 3- It's just plain fun. Acting silly with friends, family, or by yourself is just what makes taking selfies so entertaining. It could be a photo of going to a movie. an ice cream run, shopping, Mother's Day, or enjoying the different seasons of the year. No matter what it is selfies will always be lots of fun.
So why not use selfies in the classroom? The camera is free and comes with every iPad.
There are many ways you could use selfies in your classroom.
1. Take a selfie of you with your class. I started taking more selfies with my students towards the end of the school year to post to our class twitter account. You can never get all students in the photo (unless your class is super small) but students love to try to squeeze in.
2. iPad Screen Saver We are lucky enough to have 1:1 iPads so the students take a selfie to use as their screen saver. We have a little mini lesson on the camera the first time we get our iPads out to use them for the year and then I let them take a few selfies. They get to choose their favorite and delete the others. This makes it easy for me to identify the iPads right away when I look at them.
3. Selfies with different facial expressions.Use the selfies for helping to develop character traits when writing. Make a book about different feelings and use it to help students learn to get along with one another.
4. Label a selfie with parts of speech. Think about your face it has lots of features. You could label all the nouns on your face. Then label it again with the action that each part of your face does. This would be labeling verbs. For older students have them turn the simple labels into sentences and require them to have certain parts of speech in the sentence like past, present, and future tense verbs. Educreations is a free app that you could use to make this selfie with labels
5. Acrostic Poem Take a selfie then write a poem using your name. You could use many different apps for this but these students used the free app Canva. I made one class account and signed all my students into it on their iPads. I didn't help them to much with this app. They learned most about it on their own. Don't be afraid to let your students learn by trial and error. Have a class expert that has figured it out and have them help other students.
6. A Selfie Comic In December Elf always visits our classroom. This year we had 2 elves. The students were surprised one morning when they came to school and the elves had taken selfies on their iPads. Each iPad had a different selfie. There was also a day when they were allowed to take their own selfies with the elves. They could chose to make a comic with the photos. We like to use the Halftone 2 app for our comics. It is a paid app but it does go free periodically. You can read more about some comics apps here on a blog post I did about popsicle comics. You could have students take selfies with a class mascot, stuffed animal or figurine and make comics on different skills you are working on in the classroom.
5. Selfies with any object. Take a selfie with any object and write about it. You can write, type, blog or record all about your favorite valentine, book, stuffed animal, writing utensil, product, candy, toy, etc. The list could go on and on.
6. Selfies holding up things to represent numbers. Make a collage with the selfie photos and add some math facts to it. Use 2 friends to represent tens and ones. Four friends for ones, tens, hundreds thousands, etc. Make a math comic or use educreations to write on your number photos. Fraction selfies with a person up and person down. I'm sure you get the idea and now your creative juices are flowing.
7. Make a Selfies Digital Book My second graders made selfies books with one selfie and one sentence about it on each page. We used my Selfies Snaps digital writing unit to do this. (read all about it below) We were focusing on complete sentences and simple writing at the beginning of the school year. A fifth grade teacher friend used the unit to have her students turn their sentences into a paragraph. She explained how this worked well at the beginning of the year because many of her students had forgotten how to write a good paragraph. See one of the student's sample video above. Using these lessons was as a great way to teach my students about the app Book Creator. If you don't have the app you will want to get the free one to try it out.
I hope you have lots of new ideas about how to use selfies in the classroom. Would love to hear your ideas in the comments below.
Selfies Snaps is a mini unit of digital writing. It includes step by step lessons to make a digital book using the free app Book Creator. Students then publish their book to the free iBooks app and share it with the class.
Students take selfies with suggestions given to them on one of the photo grids. Grids include ideas for the classroom, playground, and around the school. Then they write sentences, make a digital book, grade their book, and share it. Step by step videos help students follow along with their iPads to make their digital book.
The unit includes half page cards that can be used as a Writing Station or Center for many weeks after doing it as a class. Students can chose from 8 different grids to make 100's of different books.
Here is everything included in Sefie Snaps my first iPad Mini Unit.
I'm a Kahooter! You may ask, What's a Kahooter? If you haven't heard of
Kahoot you absolutely have to try it. "Yeah Kahoot! Can we do that
again? I wish there were more questions. I love Kahoot! Wooo Hooo!!" These are things my students have said when doing a Kahoot. I saw a tweet about Kahoot this
past summer and immediately knew I had to try it in my classroom. We
have been using Kahoot at least once a week since the first week of
school. If you want 100 percent engagement in an
activity then Kahoot is for you.
This fall I taught a technology session with teachers from area schools and one of the things we covered was Kahoot. Teachers loved it!! This winter I taught a Kahoot session during our tech fair and teachers loved it. I have had many teachers try it in their classroom since the tech fair and all of them say their kids can't get enough of it. Kahoot is just plain FUN, FUN, FUN and totally engaging.
When I taught the second tech session on Kahoot I added more to my original downloadable directions. Keep reading to see the new directions and get your new file below.
What is Kahoot?
Kahoot is a game type quiz, discussion, or survey created by you. You create an account. There are tons of Kahoots already created that you can use or you can type in your own questions for your students to answer.
What device do I need for Kahoot?
I love that Kahoot works on all devices. You display Kahoot from a computer and the students can answer using iPads, iPhones, or computers. No matter what device your school has it should work for you. Since we have 1:1 iPads we added a Kahoot button to the home screen on our ipads by going to Kahoot.it This makes it easy for my students to connect to Kahoot quickly.
Ideas for using Kahoot
The first day of school I always have a power point to tell about myself. This year I made a Kahoot to test the kids and see how well they listened to what I told them about myself. It was so fun. The kids loved it and it seemed they did listen pretty well after all.
Take a quiz you already have and type it into Kahoot. I have used questions from our weekly reading stories, questions from Scholastic News, and quizzes from books that I found online.
Share a Kahoot. You can create a Kahoot and share it with other teachers at your school or in your grade level. I shared Kahoot with my 2nd grade team and we make quizzes to share with each other. We have shared math quizzes and end of math chapter review questions to review for chapter tests.
The newest thing I tried in my classroom was using Kahoot to create surveys to use with our math chapter on Data and Graphing. For this I turned the sound off so that students would understand that it was more about putting in the correct data than being first. I created some surveys and then created blank paper pencil graphs for them to record the data. Before the Kahoot survey I had students mark their favorites on their paper so they would know what to answer. Then we went through the Kahoot survery and filled out our data with tally marks and total numbers. After the Kahoot survey was over we returned to our seats to graph the results.
Click the link here to get the papers we used so that you can use them with your students.
I am sharing my Kahoot link with your so you can survey, record and graph some favorites with your students.
Click here to get your NEWSTEP BY STEP Google Drive Downloadable Doc that shows you how to set up your own Kahoot Account and make and play a quiz. NEWLY ADDED How to Save and Edit Kahoots that others have made. There are so many quizzes on topics you might need that are already made. You can tweak them and make them your own quickly and easily. Also added directions to share your quiz with others.
Do you need a "Super Simple" time filler to practice addition and subtraction? I have been doing
Board Races for years in my classroom. My students love it and even beg to do Board Races.
One of the big math skills for us in Second Grade is addition and subtraction with and without regrouping. Board Races make learning math fun and engaging. Students hardly even know they are practicing or learning while doing it. Board Races can be adapted to use in other grades too.
What are Board Races?
Board Races are just what they sound like, races at the board. They involve the whole class and have 100 percent engagement. Board Races work best for about 15 minutes or less. It is a quick moving activity. As soon as a group of students get done racing at the board the next group of students head to the board for the next race. I think the students like it because it is not only competition but an up and down moving to the board activity.
What you need: All you need is a class set of whiteboards, markers, erasers, and a whiteboard or chalkboard in your classroom. Sometimes we even write on our desks with our dry erase markers and it comes right off. (You might want to test in a small spot to make sure this works on your student desks.) I got my white boards made the first year I was in the classroom about 20 years ago. I went to the local hardware store and had them cut a sheet of shower board into sections. I also had them round the corners which cost a little more but makes them a little nicer. I have never replaced them in all the years I have been teaching. It has been one of the best and most used investments I have made. My students bring their own dry erase markers to school. (It is on our supply list.) They also bring an old sock to use an eraser.
How to Play:
1. Divide the class into groups of 5 and have 4 teams. (My students' desks are in groups and each desk group is a team.) Write teams on the class white board or chalkboard. Team #1, Team #2, Team #3, Team #4 and draw a line under each. This is where students will record their points for their team. (You can adapt groups to your class size.)
2. Send one student from the each group to the board. Give a math problem to the class. Students at the board are racing to see who gets the problem done first. Students at their seat must also be writing the problem and the answer on their whiteboard or their team can lose points if they are not participating.
3. The first student that turns around at the board with the correct answer gets 2 points. If students tie with another student they each get 2 points. Everyone else at the board with the correct answer gets 1 point. Once they are turned around they may not turn back around and change anything on the board. If a student is taking an extra long time to get the answer “Times Up” is called and points are given for whoever is done so far. Students make tally marks under the team name to keep track of the score.
4. At the end of the game count the tally marks together as a class to see who wins.
How this helps my instruction:
While students are at the board I can jot down names of some who are having extra trouble and then I can stand close to their desk and help them a little while the other races are going on at the board. I can also work extra with them in a small group later.
At first when students are learning about addition and subtraction without regrouping and we do Board Races I “BUZZ” the kids. Just say the word “BUZZ” when they are starting on the wrong side (left side) of the math problem. I want to get them used to always starting on the right hand side of the problem. If they are “Buzzed” they don’t get any points.
I always have Board Races in my sub plans because it's easy for them to understand and it's a great time filler if they need it. I type up the directions above and attach some math problem sheets with answers and leave them in my sub folder.
Other Board Races Tips:
Have math problems with answers on a paper so you can quick check students around the room and at the board to see who is struggling. You could use workbook pages with answer keys that come with your math series. You could also use student worksheets. If you don't have anything like that just print off some worksheets and answer them yourself, so you have the answers ready for quick reference.
Sometimes I use Board Races in my class when others are out of the room to get extra math instruction. Other times I do it was a warm up to start our math lesson or to end our math lesson, if we have some extra time.
It is great to use every week to review addition and subtraction with and without regrouping after you move onto other topics in math. (or after a long break from school like Christmas Vacation.)
Another fun thing I have done is invite another class over to compete with Board Races. You can mix groups so that both classes are in the groups and competing against each other. The students love this.
If you don’t have whiteboard sets for your class you would use iPads, if you are 1:1, with an app like Educreations or another whiteboard app. You could also use paper and pencil for those practicing at their seat.
While racing it’s nice to skip a student in one group and go to the next student every now and then so they are racing against different student groups and not always the same students.
What if I don't teach Second Grade?You could adapt the concept of board races to other math concepts that you do in your grade. You could use multiplication and division for upper grades or maybe just simple one digit math problems for K-1.
You do not need this packet to do Board Races but I made it to help me out in my classroom with Board Races. It has a nice section to leave in my Sub Folder as a time filler if they happen to need one.
It has 192 problems with addition and subtraction with and without regrouping. It has 8 pages with 24 questions on each page:
-1 page on addition without regrouping
-1 page on subtraction without regrouping
-2 pages on addition with regrouping
-2 pages on subtraction with regrouping
-1 page of mixed addition with and without regrouping
-1 page mixed subtraction with and without regrouping
-all pages include answer keys which will be used for board races.
I don't really like to do worksheets but the pages without answers could be used as assessments if you need to check to make sure your students are understanding what they have learned. If you want to check it out click HERE to go to my TPT store.
So there you have it: "Super Simple" math practice. I would love to know if you try Board Races and how your students like it. Feel free to comment below and let me know how it goes.
