Five for Friday

Happy Friday! And HAPPY SPRING BREAK!!!!!! What a week it's been leading up to break- glad I survived it! Hehe. Here's what we've been up to!

Have you heard of Lularoe? If not, I'd fee bad for introducing you to a money sucking obsession but then again you could go to work feeling like you're wearing PJs so I must tell you.. Do a Facebook search of Lularoe to find consultants out there that sell it. They have lots of fun prints for buttery soft leggings, shirts, skirts, and dresses. I just got a maxi skirt in the mail I plan to wear for Easter and it is amazing!

So they had planet print and dinosaurs... Me and a teacher friend couldn't resist!

My planet pants were a good way to celebrate our solar system test and the end of our unit!

We've started working on area and perimeter the past few weeks. I've been using the math unit from Ashleigh's Education Journey, and it's packed with fun activities. Our favorite by far are the area and perimeter robots!

Sorry for the poor quality picture! The lighting in the hall isn't great. I had to get a group shot of the robots though!

This week we took some time to practice tricky questions that do not have a clear cut way of solving them. My students weren't very familiar with "guess and check" so we started out pretty simple. Of course I had to bring in my goats some how!

Here you can see it escalated pretty quickly! Haha. This was the challenge problem after a few examples where I increased to 2 digit, 3 digit, and now 4. I wrote a couple on a notepad and the ones who already solved the 3 digit problem on the board could pass those around. It was like they were on a secret mission having their own individual problem on a little slip of paper.. They're too precious!

I also felt it necessary to start this problem with the fact that I own a fruit store- because the number of apples and oranges were ridiculous!! LOL

Last post I shared that we had raised enough money to get a set of giant blue blocks similar to tinker toys for outside play! It takes a month for them to make the blocks and ship them, so we downloaded the Imagination Playground 3D build app so we can get a jump start on some building ideas!

This castle comes complete with moat! Pretty neat!

Farm update- We are now officially actual farmers! We've upgraded from our .3 acres to 7.5 acres! SO MUCH ROOM FOR GOATS!! :) We're pretty excited to build there soon- just have to sell our current house. Ahhh now to clean all spring break :)

Hope your spring break is filled with relaxation and exciting things! Link up with Doodle Bugs teaching to share your survival story of this week :)

Rock on,

Diana 

Five for Friday

Hey folks! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching again for Five for Friday! Here's what we've been up to.

Silly McGilly has visited our classroom! I was so excited to see the book and doll had come in the mail, I couldn't wait to introduce him to the class. Since I teach 3rd grade my students are no stranger to leprechaun mischief... but they'd only experienced it on St. Patricks Day. Well well well, that's because they didn't have the Silly McGilly doll to place by the window to invite the leprechauns in sooner! My kids have been so pumped, but I reminded them we can only put Silly by the window if we're having a good day... no way I'm going to invite more silly in the room if we're already at our silly limit! Here's some of what our leprechaun has done..

Pencils for everyone! Gosh Silly.. I'd just cleaned that table!

The window that Silly sits at.. with green paper hanging out the window... oh no...

Yes green paper EVERYWHERE I TELL YOU! Ahhhh Silly. We love you.

I posted last week about our solar system projects being due and WOW! I've seen some pretty cool projects! Now where to put them all... hmm..

I posted yesterday about using technology in the classroom, and I'm excited to share technology centers I've made too! I've always felt guilty having tablets and just having kiddos play games on them.. while the games are great there's so much you can do with technology! So here's a post of some of our favorite apps that are free, and how we use them all together and also independently in centers. Check out the blog here! 

Check out the technology centers here!

Click here for product!

We got some exciting news this week at our school and I can't hold it in! We've been raising money to get giant blue blocks that are like tinker toys, to use outside for recess and also for STEM challenges and math activities. We found out this week we got all of the money raised and placed our order!! AHHHHH!!! I can't wait to see the looks on the kids faces when they run outside and see these blocks! We have to wait a month for them to be made and shipped.. I don't know if I'll make it!

Farm update! We need a new fence... LOL! Not really, it was a quick fix but these goats are little rascals I tell ya!

I hope everyone is having an excellent week and enjoys their weekend! Don't forget to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and share your highlights from the week :)

Rock on,

Diana

Tablets for more than games

This year we've been super lucky to get 9 tablets for our classroom thanks to the love and support of family, friends, and our PTO! With these many tablets I can have a center designated to technology but also do whole group activities with 2-3 kiddos per tablet. With this amazing opportunity, I really spent a lot of time figuring ways to incorporate technology that isn't just playing a game.

Now don't get me wrong, we love a good game of Sushi Monster to practice multiplication, or Math Zombies where fluency and speed is the trick. However, I really felt to make these tablets worth it we needed to use them in ways that enhance their learning and they are a tool. Here's some tried and true apps and uses for tablets in your math classroom!

1. Seesaw

Seesaw is a neat app that's sort of like Facebook for the classroom. You log in by scanning a QR code particular to your class, where you've put all of your students names. They can upload a picture, drawing, or write a note and post it. Then they are able to comment on other's work and ask questions. The great thing about seesaw is you must approve the posts and comments first, so you can make sure everything looks ok and the kiddos are being nice :) I love this for grading from home right off my computer or phone! I also leave comments and ask questions on their posts, which they think is super cool ha!

2. Tellagami

Tellagami is an app where you can record your voice and an animated character says them and has hand gestures. You can choose different emotions for them to use while they speak, so their facial expressions are different. If you have the free version they can record for 30 seconds, so it's sweet and to the point. We love this for explaining math vocabulary or explaining how to solve a problem. It helps children be more concise with the time limit, but they usually don't only say a few words as it's a lot of fun for them to hear their voices. You're able to save the videos on the device but can also post them to twitter! That brings me to my next technology tool...

3. Twitter

Twitter has been great for our classroom. I use a classroom Twitter account and only follow fellow teachers. My students like to tweet because our Twitter feed is on my classroom website, so they can go home and show their parents. We tweet about what we're learning and snap a few pictures. We've also had fun with hashtags- which are perfect to sum up their learning or get the main idea. Many of the other apps we use like tellagami, poppet, and pic collage (we'll get to those two later) allow you to save to your camera roll and tweet, which is great for sharing student creations! Students are much more likely to do their best work if they know everyone on Twitter can see it! :)

4. Show Me

ShowMe is an app only available for iPads, although there's other versions of this app out there. ShowMe is an interactive whiteboard that records your voice and you draw and write. I introduced this app in small groups in about 5 minutes and the kids picked right up on it. We love this for "teaching". I've told my students that the best way to see if they understand something is if they can teach it, or explain it to somebody else. So, we use this app to make a video teaching a concept! We then use those videos as a recap at the end of a lesson or to review. To save videos you'll need to make a free account.

5. PicCollage

Pic collage is so fun! This is the perfect app for those visual learners. The name of the app is pretty self explanatory.. You can make a collage of pictures :) We love this app when we do scavenger hunts of real life math examples. You could make a collage of cylinders or other 3D shapes, or a collage of arrays. You can also add text so you can label pictures or add comments. These collages can be saved as a picture so you can tweet it too!

6. Popplet

Poppet is an excellent app, I just hate it's only available for iPads. Poppet lite is the free version and it's worked just fine for our purposes. This app allows you to make bubble maps with as many bubbles as you'd like. Inside those bubbles you can add text, pictures, links, or drawings. We love poppet for math vocabulary, but really any topic you'd like your students to organize in some fashion poppet is the way to go. 

Overal, what I love about these apps are the creative outlet children have while making something or writing something- it's not just plugging in an answer. Your students will use higher order thinking while they make visuals, flow maps, explain their thinking, and show examples. You can't beat it folks!

To help me keep on track and using technology regularly during the week, I've made these center assignments for their "math technology" center. My students go to their center, read the directions, can see the picture of the app so they know what to click on, and follow the rubric to explain a vocab word or math problem. They're open ended so I can use them over and over with different math topics! Check them out here!

Check out the technology centers here!!

Please share some of your favorite apps! I'm always looking for new things to introduce to my kiddos :)

Rock on,

Diana 

Five for Friday with Freebie!

It's finally FRIDAY!!! AHHHH I've been looking forward to this day all week. I know you shouldn't live for Friday, but hey, I really need a nap so that's my plan right after school :)

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share all of the fun things we've been up to this week.

SEAT POUCHES!!!!!!!!!

NOT JUST ANY SEAT POUCHES........

SEAT POUCHES THAT MATCH OUR COLORS!!!!!!!!

Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about things matching. These adorable seat pouches were made by my cousin who is an amazing seamstress as a wedding gift. BEST GIFT EVER!

This week we're working on perimeter and had a fun time building pens for our favorite animals! The kiddos got really into this, and then we beefed it up by changing the shapes with the same perimeter. I just love their adorable drawings too.

This one ALMOST made me want a pet mouse :)

A turtle, butterfly, and snake living in blissful harmony! In a 6x6 pen LOL

With spring break on the horizon we've been doing a little more of reviewing rules and being plain nice. It can't hurt to be plain nice :) So it made my heart happy to see this sticky on our "class shout out wall" <3

We've been learning all about the solar system!! I posted last week a picture of me dressed as Mrs. Frizzle for a character day- check it out here! I loved chanelling my inner Mrs. Frizzle and we took a trip to outer space to visit the inner planets and the gas giants. It was pretty convenient that the planets were right on my dress for a reference :)

We're currently working on solar system projects where each child is presenting a planet with a model for the class. Check out the freebie project here, rubric included! I can't wait for presentations next week. My students have been so excited and coming in sharing new facts they learned from their research. I love their enthusiasm!

 

Farm update! Nothing too much going on with my fur babies and feathered friends. We're hoping one of our does is pregnant, which means adorable baby goat pictures to come in June! Since she may be, I've been trying to use natural things to clean and reduce chemicals and processed things in their diet and environment. I couldn't have made this natural cleaner without the help of my healthy students! Several of my kiddos graciously donated their orange peels to me, which I put in a jar with vinegar. In two weeks I'll strain it and dilute it with water for a natural all purpose cleaner with a citrus scent! This will be perfect to use in the goat area, in the coop, in the house, and I promised to clean the desks with it so my students could see it in action! One kiddo called me a hippie this week.. I loved it.

That's all folks!

-Diana