ipads: shifting from one to ten

Today I am a busy teacher. Actually I feel like I have been an overly busy teacher since October (hence the hiatus in postings). But, I have been enjoying my busy life. One thing that added hustle and bustle to my classroom was the gift of nine iPads! I'm not too sure who was more excited, my students or myself... However this shift from sharing my one iPad under the document camera to nine iPads, a teacher iPad, and an apple TV created the need for me to seriously think about how this whole system was going to work and function in my room.

The first step I took was searching out other teacher blogs that have created rules and a visual representation of those rules to get an idea of what guidelines I would need in kindergarten. A lot of rules and permission slips were geared towards the upper grades, but a lot of those ideas still applied. I thought that I would have to compile my own rules page and switch into my graphic designer mode until I found this: Heidi Songs Ipad Tips.

created by Heidi Songs

I have used Heidi Songs in my classroom the last two years and my students love learning with the DVDs, so you can tell how pumped I was when I found a connection to iPads through her site as well. The image is wonderful and sums up the basic rules I wanted in my room. The visual is fantastic for my little ones. Of course we had lessons and discussions on the rules before the iPads were touched. I then posted the sign on the cupboard where the iPads are kept, making it right in their sight line everyday when pulling out and putting away their iPads.

Now that they had the rules, I had to work on which iPad would go to which student. I wanted to assign iPads so that certain games that required/ allowed name sign-ins would match the specific students (instead of student one or guest). Some of the apps I use grow with the students as they accomplish certain goals. I did not want a high student to go in and raise the difficulty for a lower student. I wanted it to be more individual. Also, if there was an issue with the iPad I had a limited number of students to address, verses the whole class. Obviously this would be much better if I had one iPad for one student, but we made it work within our center groups. I made the background screen image a giant number. And then wrote the number next to the student's name on their center group list. They knew that was their iPad and not to touch any other iPad without teacher permission. It worked wonderfully. No fighting over iPads and always being able to track who was on the iPad that day.

Sorry, kind of blurry... but you get the gist.

My last step before teaching some basics of how to use them and the apps they would like was to kid-proof the iPads. By this, I went into settings and controlled the content and accessibility of the iPad. In settings> general> restrictions you can prevent students from accessing everything on the iPad. For example my young non-readers see a pop up in a game talking about "in app purchases" and they are to click yes or no. Frequently those fingers just click boxes until the game they are playing reappears. This could get costly on my personal credit card if all 100 apps on all 9 iPads started charging me a dollar or more. I have things like the internet, inappropriate content, camera, and in app purchases restricted on mine. You can also restrict things such as volume limit, deleting apps, and more. The best feature is that if you would like to alter these restrictions you would have to go back into settings and type in the passcode before given that option. I found out that it takes zero time for these sharp five and six year-olds to learn how to move apps around the screen, delete them by accident, and spend their learning time taking pictures of their group mates. I will possibly remove so many restrictions after some time and more teaching, but for the start this was wonderful to have it all locked down.

The last couple issues that we delt with when they appeared (and now I know what else to include for the next class) is communicating when iPads were about to die and have zero battery left so I could charge them in time, communicating any technical issues like apps not responding, and how to control the brightness and volume. I wanted the battery life to last and their eyes not to burn, and one of my kiddos learned how to adjust this by double clicking, so we had to talk about what level of brightness is okay and how to fix it if someone has messed with the brightness; along with loud and quiet volumes.

I also kept the iPads in a locked cupboard so they were safe and only accessible when I wanted them to be.

 If you think you are going to include iPads in your classroom environment or you are not sure about this I have three big BIG pieces of advice: 1. DO IT! iPads have added a lot of success in my classrooms. 2. Explore and know the piece of technology and the apps you place on it. Be one step ahead of those smart brains in your classroom. 3. Everything in moderation. We might use iPads frequently and I am constantly expanding their use, but I am still an advocate of play-dough, real books, and everything children need to experience in real 3D life.  

it's going to be an APPealing year

Today I am a scavenger for great classroom apps. I started my stock pile last spring and it seems to be growing every moment. However, my critics on keeping an app are tough- any app has to be approved by my five, six, and seven year olds. If it does not make them yell out for more than it gets deleted quicker than it was downloaded.

*Note: This is a rough draft with no time frame of a final being released. The plan is to update this when I find new apps and to continue filling in personal summaries to help further explain each app.*

First Grade:

- Phonics Genius (Innovative Mobile Apps): This app is home to word families and OCD organization. With customization you can highlight word chunks, turn auto-reading off, and record your students sounding out and reading the word. I love to do the SIPPS format of "sound it, sound it, read it."

- Count Money- Coin Matching Game for kids (GrasshopperApps.com): Great customization to help keep the game at a "just right level." Students play a matching game to match amounts to coins, or different coin representations showing the same amount. They have also created a new app called little reader that has sparked my interest...

- First Grade Smart Kids (Suma Solutions Inc.): This is built for the iPhone, but can be enlarged to use on the iPad. It deals with topics of Math, English, Social Studies, and Science. Pick a subject, category, and boom multiple choice review questions appear.

- Tic Tac Toe: This is a Lakeshore learning app that requires students to answer a phonics question before placing their symbol. My class could play round after round if I let them.

- Planets (Q Continuum): Great to explore, zoom in, and learn about our solar system. My favorite highlight is to see real time earth as part is under the darkness of night.

- Hungry Fish (Motion Math): Not only are my kids addicted to this, everyone I come across is addicted to feeding math facts to this fish. It is so fun and challenging that you forget you are building fact knowledge! A must get!!!

- Adventures Undersea Math Addition (Brain Counts): Another fun fish game perfect for addition skills. Work to uncover the hidden sea picture.

Dinosaurs: (One of my favorite themes)

- Dinosaurs Unleashed Free! (Lucidifi): Great flashcards for a wide variety of dinosaurs (less childlike images when compared to Dinosaurs: An Early Introduction). You gain all sorts of facts such as weight, height, diet, when and where they lived, etc. You can also test your knowledge with a quiz offered in the app.

- Discovering Dinosaurs (Laughing Technology): Leveled reader that discusses discovering dinosaurs. Interactive with vocabulary to hear harder words sounded out, clear photographs, and finishes with questions to spark class conversation.

-Dinosaurs HD (PicPocket Books): Funky book that mixes computer images with photographs. Nice introduction to dinosaurs without overloading little brains with extra information.

-Dino Kids (Template Magician): Memory match with cartoon dinosaurs

- Dinosaurs HD (Rye Studio Science): More geographical based. Instead of shuffling through dinosaur flashcards, you first select a location off the map, then select a dinosaur, and finally listen to information about it. Honestly, I did not find myself using this app with students yet as I am still trying to figure out if I like it. I kept it on the list for the time being though.

- Dinosaurs Magic School Bus: While either reading or listening to this story be read to you, students gain information about so many different dinosaurs and the eras they lived in. The best part? You get to play paleontologist and dig for fossils, then place them to form a dinosaur. My students learned how to ID bones, built academic language, and knocked the socks of adults with their knowledge!

-Dinosaurs An Early Introduction (Curious Circus): You get to hear dinosaurs, see their skeletons, and hear their names. Best app to spark interest and start the unit with.

-Dino Park Math (Millenium Multimedia): Have fun exploring the dinosaur park while building up your math skills. Cute illustrations, with a nice reward system as you collect and build dinosaurs.

Kindergarten:

-National Geographic Explorer: This was last updated in March when I downloaded it. Basically it is based off their magazine, however no subscription is necessary as far as I can tell. Topics included are snakes, weather, and lemurs, as well as others. Great images and nice information.

-Educreations: Mobile whiteboard: Best white board app I have come across. Different color ink, add images, and record your whole lesson for easy play back.

-Little Fox (Shapes Minds and Moving Images GmbH): great music app that has a lot of fun surprises to find as students learn about the touch screen abilities of an iPad.

-BrainPop Jr.:

-Preschool and Kindergarten Learning Games (Kevin Bradford): Free topics are shapes, colors, and letters. You can make a purchase for more subjects. Asks simple questions and students choose the correct answer. Cute little owl dances when correct. Straight forward simple app, easy for beginners to just pick up and play.

-Punky Dunk (FamLoop): Great interactive story that allows students to take pictures, draw, and play as they read.

-Where Do I Go? (Camigo Media LLC):Great sorting game to introduce grouping and categories.

-Wood Puzzler (Little Five Games): The name says it all- play with the alphabet, pictures, or build your own. Looks like a classic wood puzzle, but has a nice technology upgrade to it. Best part? No more lost puzzle pieces!

-Time Reading (Kinder): Times reading passages and provides results. I believe you can create a profile for each student and see how they did on each individual story. Love the clearly shown words per minute.

-The Cat in the Hat Lite (Oceanhouse Media): This is the best interactive story I have come across in a long time. Helps build vocabulary and confidence in beginning readers. Love it!

Math:

-Teaching Number Lines (Little Monkey Apps): Deals with sequencing, skip counting practice, and tests skip couting. Click the "jump forward" lily pad to do simple math problems using a number line and frog. You have to move the frog each step by dragging, which I love than just tap the numbers, makes it more interactive and meaningful.

-Math Bingo (ABCya.com): Pick out a fun character and what math operation you would like to do. It brings up problems and you find the solution on your board. Try to get bingo! Be careful it does time you and show how many incorrect which calculates into your score! As you win you collect these bugs which can be viewed and played with minimally- cute tiny reward.

-Mad Math (Lunchbox Apps): Nice flashcard app that really allows you to adjust what your student is practicing. Select the biggest number, problem type, number type, and the number of flashcards, all before starting your challenge. Warning: you do have to type in your answer on a calculator keyboard format; don't forget to hit enter!

-Math Chicken- Number Scale (Taptolearn): You are building a bridge for the chicken to cross by balancing the scale (the scale looks like a bridge). The goal topic is finding equivalents. The scale shows the number or numbers on one side and you add a weight to the equivalent. The top of the screen also shows the problem in math sentence form.

-Chicken Bounce (Tiny chicken learns math) (Taptolearn): This app moves quickly and I think gives the answers away. My students like it because you are given an addition problem (or other operation you choose) and than you must place a raft on the number line in the correct location. The chicken than bounces down to your raft answer and back up to the other side of the water.

-Motion Math Zoom (Motion Math):

-Kinder Add

-Comparative Adjectives (Grasshopper App):

-Visual Manipulatives (ABCya.com):

-Lobster Dive (Learning Games): This app is pretty advanced. I would recommend for third grade and up. It starts on a nice simple number line, but it quickly turns to negative numbers and such.

-10 Frame Fill (Classroom Focus): Great reusable 10 frame. Now I do not have to create one every lesson (because we all know I cannot seem to ever find the one I "just made".)

-Candy Count (Camigo Media LLC): count the candy as it fills up the jar.

-Lunch Box (part of the Monkey Math series; THUP Games):

-Monkey Math (THUP):

Alphabet:

-Magnetic ABC (Dot Next): Just like the name suggests- here is your digital magnetic letters.

-ABC Alphabet Phonics Touch (GrasshopperApp): Helps with letter name identification.

-My first puzzles The alphabet (Alexandre Minard): Complete a puzzle to build each letter of the alphabet

-Pocket Phonics (Apps in my Pocket): Hear the sound, draw the letter that makes the sound. Very picky app to help with precision.

-Letter of the Day: Another Lakeshore Learning app that helps focus on one letter with a song, pictures, and writing practice.

-MyABC lite Write and Learn (PlaySmart-Kids):

-Pre-K Letters and Numbers (Bright Start):

-Wee Sing (Zuuka Inc.): Great app that blends images with each letter name and sound. Each letter has an animal that plays a little song, and the letter is supported by three other images that start with the letter of focus. Lots of different ways to choose how to interact with the app.

Sight Words:

-Sight Words and Spelling (Marcel Widarto):

-Sight words Hangman (Marcel Widarto):

-Word Wall HD (Emantras Inc.)

Spelling:

-Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 (Pyxwise Software):

-Spelling Magic (1, 2, and 3) (Preschool University):

-Rocket Speller (Little big Thinkers): This app is hard for those of us that are not gifted with a rocket background. I had a couple students like it, but in all honesty I think this might be the next app deleted.

-Skill Builder Spelling (Ben Kaiser):

-Word Scramble PCS (DynaVox Mayer-Johnson): Try to build the word shown by the image.

Phonics: 

-Phonics Rhyming Bee (Abitalk):

-Build a Word- Easy Spelling with Phonics (@Reks):

-Zap Phonics

-Sound Sorting: Lakeshore Learning app that has you choose three sounds. It then shows you images of items that need to be placed under one of the three selected sounds.

If you have any great apps you are hiding out there please share them out, don't make us dig for treasure you already found! Also, if you have any questions I will do my best to answer them, but no promises.

Happy Hunting!

chicka chicka blank slate

Today I am a survivor of the first week of Kindergarten. We had a wonderful unpredicted turn out of too many kindergarteners, making the first day pretty interesting. Thankfully I have found a supportive team that has tried to combat the 54 and especially thanks to a flexible colleague, I am down to 28 (phew!). We celebrated the start of the school year with a wonderful theme of Chick Chicka Boom Boom, and so without further ado, welcome to our new room!

Coconut tree: puffed up to have a 3D feel.

Calendar wall: Theme section, math number line, months, days of the week, counting the days of school, tally the days in the month, Velcro pattern block, calendar, pocket chart for focus stories, pocket chart for jobs, and weather window visuals.

Library corner: dollar tree baskets and color coordinating zip ties, paint chip labels.

Supply Station

Activity corner: "Jobs" change monthly to grow with students. Currently I have blocks, beginner puzzles, magnetic alphabet, animal cards, lacing cards, etc.

To step back and gain an almost 360 degree view:

The word wall seems so empty, but we add to it throughout the year all together. (Teacher's corner-ish, word wall, rug area).

On the board I have found rocks that I have painted the ABCs and glued magnets on the back. (Library corner, book boxes, writing center).

The garland in the windows is punched paper that is sewn together. (Playhouse, activity corner, supply station). 

(Art center, rice table, to the right are the bathrooms).

Side note: This is a shot of the garland in process. Cute blues, purples, and greens.

I'm just so happy to be in a room this year that I could truly make my own. I am minimalistic, and very cautious to put up anything that does not serve immediate need. That being said, it does seem more bare than my usual room without student artwork. I cannot wait to get started so we can fill up our art wires and art gallery. I also have the chance this year to forgo having a teacher's desk. I like giving as much space to the students as necessary. I have a few filing cabinets and one bookshelf- what more could a girl need? As much fun as it was getting ready for the first few weeks I am already planning for my tree to change as the next set of themes appear!

By the way, we are calling the battle of the rooms a tie. All is fair in love and war.

summer already?

Today I am on "time out." Summer has officially hit as of 2:00 PM yesterday and I am already at a loss as to what to do with myself. My husband and I have big traveling plans, but they do not start for what seems to be an eternity. So, until that day comes I have to figure out what to do with myself.

So far I have: cleaned house, organized ALL of my school supplies (yes even broke it up into themes), spent too much time on pinterest, and started working on projects for next year. I have even painted my clothes pins to hide the previous year's marks...

On a more productive note- I have started to compile the information I want to send home at the beginning of the year. One main component is a student contact information page. Parents will fill this out and send it back with their student so I am able to have more insight into their home life, be ready to contact parents for the good and bad a year brings, and be super ready to update their cumulative folder come end of the year. Since I have spent time spiffing up my blog (note cute share and follow buttons on the side?), I have now figured out how to share a PDF. So for your pleasure here is my rough draft. I just love the fonts and my husband has already asked for a copy for fifth grade.

Option One
Option Two 

Ok, so I figured out how to upload them online for you to download, but I have not figured out how to be fancy and display the image here first before you click the link. This just gives you the bragging rights to say "I downloaded it before it was even shown!"

driving in the classroom

Today I am bus driver. I am putting off what I should be doing to think of what I can be doing for next year. So procrastinating for the end of the year but proactive for the next. I am calling this a win.

I have had a blast teaching K-1 this year and I am hating having to say good-bye. I will be moving schools next year and will teach a straight kindergarten. As I'm packing up my room and thinking about the positives and negatives of my teaching this year and what will make the cut for next year, my focus shifts to my classroom management. 

Being a new teacher I did have my great down-falls, but one cute thing that I created this year was a new spin on the colored tag behavior chart. I used a pocket chart and bus calendar cut-outs (purchased at Lakeshore). Each student had a bus with their school number on it. Everyday the buses started on green. I labeled the green area "moving along." Meaning in the discipline realm: life is just fine. If I found a student going above and beyond, being an amazing friend, first to follow directions, etc. I would move their bus up to the purple level entitled, "cruisin'!" However, if a student was needing reminding and some time away from fun activities they moved their bus down to yellow, "rough roads." If they were still acting up and not following the rules of the classroom their bus was moved to orange, "flat tire." And yet still, if it was just not going to be a good day and I needed to inform parents of behavior I moved their bus to red, "call AAA." 

Of course reactions came from each level, positive reinforcement for making it to the purple level X amount of days, or missing out on certain activities if moved below green. And one thing I did was make each student earn their way back up. Even if punishment was paid in the amount of time on the bench, I still waited to see better behavior before returning their bus to green. 


My other thing I enjoyed having this year was classroom helpers. I had a list of jobs that changed three times this year. Some jobs stayed all year long, but a few switched to keep my busy worker bees happy and feeling more responsible.

flag, lights, line leader, caboose, germ squirt, reader, paper pass

added last trimester: phone, office

I know that both of these concepts are not new (and really my display for jobs is nothing special as of now), but I just wanted to share another spin on how to display a behavior chart and include a list of jobs my students loved. But, what I really want to know is are there any other ideas floating around out there that are just too cute to ignore??  

scent free flowers

Today I am a florist. When Andrew and I dreamed of our wedding day we talked about themes and concepts that would reflect our life and personality. We talked about a winter coffee wedding, a backyard picnic, and finally settled on a school themed wedding. I swear telling people it was school themed and seeing their reaction was the best part of planning. 

Andrew and I met in college while earning our elementary education degree. We survived back to back years of student teaching, the second while planning our wedding. We both talked about our first teaching job, and come to find out one week after the wedding they would be at the same school. Teaching brought us together, teaching fills our days, and teaching is our current passion. It was here we just had to go full out with this wedding theme- go big or go home, right? 

We had the yellow pencils, the red apples, chalkboard signs, coffee for a toast, flipbook station for our guests, and... paper flowers everywhere. I saw the idea online and thought I could do it. I even got Andrew believing he could do it! All of the flowers, my bouquet, the boutonnieres, the center pieces, and the decorations were made from paper. I thought it was cool, my traditional mom thought I was nuts, and in the end the guests were stealing the center pieces before the night was even over.

Here are some unedited pictures of the flowers in progress...