QR Code Adventure: Animals

Happy summer! Hopefully, all of you are out of school by now!

So I made this product a loooooooong time ago and it just sat on my hard drive. And sat. And sat. Annnnddd sat. A few months ago I came across it and updated it. And then it sat some more. Then I came across it a few weeks ago and actually used it in my classroom. And then it sat some more. Well, I am proud to announce that I FINALLY posted the product!! :D Here it is:

Now, I originally made this with 4th graders in mind (back in 2012 when I was teaching 4th grade--told you it was old!). The product has evolved since then and I believe that it is now appropriate for 1-5th grade. (I can attest to using it in 1st because I successfully used it with my 1st graders!)

In this pack, students will read a description of an animal and use prior knowledge/evidence to make an inference about what animal they think it is. The animal descriptions include information about the animal's body and/or habitat, so you can also discuss what kinds of things the animal has in order to survive in its environment--perfect science connection. Here is a sample page (see if you can figure them out!):

And here is one of the recording sheets:

Looks like fun, right?! It is! Check out a preview and the product itself in my store:

Have a great Tuesday! :)

Let's Write!

My Math Block Mini-Series will conclude tomorrow (gotta get more pictures!). In the meantime, enjoy reading about writing in my classroom! :)

Writing has always been one of my favorite subjects and I am loving that I get to teach it this year! My kids have become such super writers over the past few months! Here is how it goes in my classroom...

Writing in Daily 5
We use Daily 5, so writing is one of the choices my students have each morning. When they choose Work On Writing is up to them UNLESS the Work On Writing sign is out, which it usually is 1-2 times per week (mostly on the days we do not have Writers Workshop).

My students really love to write, so most of them choose it whether the sign is up or not. (By the way, I made the sign out of construction paper; it's a little smaller than a 12 x 18 piece of construction paper.)

Work On Writing is extra special for two students each week! Each week I choose 2 writers of the week and these awesome little authors get to sit at the special writing table during writing in Daily 5 and during Writers Workshop work time: 

 Above the table hangs this awesome little star I got from The Dollar Tree! In the background, you can see the The "Writers of the Week" bulletin board. It has the names of the super writers with some writing samples. I write their names on the coconuts.

The writers also get to use these special materials to write/color with:

Everyone's writing is displayed in the corner behind the writing table. (The writing table actually used to be over here but I had to make room for two more computers so out it went.) After students have published a piece, they can choose to put it in their writers notebook or display it on the wall.

On the other side of the classroom is our Writing Center. In the Writing Center, you will find rough draft paper, publishing paper, publishing bookets, and revising and editing tools.

The students are required to complete a rough draft before getting fancy publishing paper or a booklet (which is no problem for them!).

They draw and write on the rough draft, revise/edit, and then turn it in to the "Ready to Publish" bucket. I check all of the papers that come in and will either hand it back marked "Publish" or I will individually conference with them if need be. In an individual conference, we usually revise/edit a little more though sometimes this time is spent discussing handwriting, conventions, or reviewing proper procedures for those still struggling.  Since I do not immediately return papers because I am involved in small groups during Daily 5, the student knows to start another draft until the paper turned in is handed back to be published.

I have custom-made all of our publishing paper. I used frames, borders, and shapes to make some of the pages (easy peasy). 

I had a bunch of weird colored paper at home so I took it to school and copied lines on it! There are about 6 or 7 colors to choose from. They LOVE it and I got to get it out of my house (win-win).

Gotta have big erasers for big mistakes.

Colored pencils to help us revise and edit. They are GOOD at it! We also sometimes use these to help us color.

We will start letter writing this week, so I will add letter paper and envelopes to the station after we finish. I will update you on that when the time comes!

Finally, friends, I hope you have been able to use the little writing activities and freebies I have posted in the past few months! Click here to access all of my writing freebies, in case you missed out. Over the last few weeks, I have been working on a writing notebook package that will be finished sometime in Octember (Seuss fans will appreciate that joke). In the meantime, I have made some little writing packs:

Each pack includes graphic organizers, charts, prompt pages/publishing paper, literature list, and a craftivity related to the subject. I have started making several of these and will be releasing them as I get them finished. I really hope this is something you can use because I am excited about them! I will definitely use them in my own classroom.

I would LOVE for some of you to take a peek at it, so leave your name and an email address and I will send 3 of you a copy of your choice. I will randomly choose tomorrow evening. Now, go forth and write!

The winners have been announced. Thanks for your interest! :)

Alberto the Dancing Alligator

Well...I have started working much harder on preparing for the upcoming school year (especially since I have to start from scratch!) because summer is ALMOST OVER!!! :(

So far this summer, my 2-year-old and I have visited the library several times. A few times ago, we checked out a random alligator book because we had been talking about the letter A and alligators, and she really likes animals. The book was Alberto the Dancing Alligator, one I had never heard of before (click on the picture to head over to Amazon to check it out).

It ended up being a really cute little book! It's about a little girl and her pet alligator, Alberto, that both love to dance. One day while dancing in the bathroom, Alberto slipped, fell in the toilet and got flushed down to the sewer! (And don't worry, no gross toilet nonsense in this book.) The rest of the book describes his adventure under the city and how he makes it back home. I had to read it to her a bajillion times, of course, so now I also know it pretty well! Anyway, I ended up making a few activities to go along with the book for bigger kids but first, I'll show you my sweet little girl's alligators that she made!!:

Aren't they soooo cute?!? I'm not biased or anything. ;)

ANYWAY, I put together a little pack of activities that are appropriate for 1st-2nd and maybe 3rd graders. Here is the one of the writing activities included in the pack:

 And here is a sample page from the pack:

Head over to one of my stores to check out the rest of it!!

Be one of the first 4 people to comment (with an email address) and get a FREE copy of the pack!

I hope you like it!! :)

A Thank You, an Announcement, a Question, and Technology Camp!!

Well, my summer OFFICIALLY begins tonight! I had a few trainings to attend the week after school ended and this past week was Technology Camp, something I teach at every summer (since its inception 4 years ago). Visit the link in the previous sentence to read about last summer's camp--see the bottom section of this post for cool pics and activities from this year's camp!

First things first--A Thank You!
THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support and advice in regard to my move!!! Within hours of my announcement several of you responded to my post and HUNDREDS of you responded to my survey about what to do with my blog! It is such an incredibly awesome feeling to know that you all are behind me, especially when I have yet to meet any of you face to face!! :)


An Announcement
I have decided to keep this blog and simply adjust my tagline, especially since 81% of you suggested I do that!! I'll get around to emailing my awesome blog designer, Alicia, for an adjustment sometime this summer... ;)


A Question
I have decided to change my classroom theme from frogs! I love the colorful frogs and all but I think new grade level, new theme. Yesterday, I was struck with inspiration to do a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom theme! My question is, is that even plausible?? I think the book is an enjoyable read AND it would be SO cute to have those cute little coconut trees around! What do you think?? Any suggestions?!


Technology Camp
Picture this--teaching a class with an engaging topic that includes activities that you have complete control in planning for, no grades or test pressure, all the technology you need/want, all the supplies you need/ask for, an aide to help out, a small group of kids AND only 4 hours long...oh, and NO professional teacher wear, strictly t-shirt and jeans or shorts attire...sounds awesome, right??! That's Technology Camp in my district!!!! This is the best part of my summer each year!!

This year, I planned and taught "Germs, Mold and Other Gross Stuff" to kids that will be entering 4th and 5th grade next school year. I ended up having 5 girls and 4 boys, most of which just finished 3rd grade. I also ended up having two aides to help out for most of the week, so that was super nice. We did a variety of utterly GROSS activities and projects. I actually didn't get as many pictures as I wanted to because we were so busy the whole time. I did, however, capture a few things! I will also share some of the actual activities/projects we did with you (probably in a later post because this one's length is approaching "never-ending").

First project to share...bird poop paintings!!

First, the students chose a bird and we used PebbleGo to research them, particularly the bird's diet. We then talked about how a bird's poop should reflect its diet. After that, the students summarized the bird's diet and turned it into a QR code using Kaywa, which we glued onto their paper. We then took ketchup and mustard squeeze bottles and put some white tempera paint in them. Using the bird's diet, the students placed bits of various items into the paint, such as nuts, berries, grass and twigs. For the meat-eating birds we just tore up bits of construction paper and put it in the paint. After mixing up the paint the kiddos squeezed the paint onto their paper to make the poop.

It was wayyyyy fun--they had a blast with it! Here are a few more examples--enjoy! (And yes, I realize that some may be a little extreme...what can I say, they had wayyyy too much F-U-N with it!):