FREE phonics app!

First of all,  if you haven't liked Smart Apps for Kids on Facebook, do it now!  They search iTunes for the best and newest apps in education, and post about them weekly.  The best part, is that they offer a free app of the week!  Yes, free!  

I just picked up Phonics Genius, and it is great!  It's like personalized flash cards for each setof phonics you can think of.  Last week, we were working on vowel pairs, specifically "ee."  Guess what?  They have an entire set of ee flash cards, on top of a hundred more sets!  The phonemes are colored red to highlight it for the user, and the rest of the letters are black.  The app reads the word, and you swipe to go to the next word.  Great practice for some of my guys who are struggling with picking up different blends, digraphs, etc.  It should be still free until tonight.....go get it.  

Theres also a feature that you can record them saying the word to diagnose and document any articulation issues.  If you miss the freebie, I would say its totally worth the cost if you have to pay.  

H-app-y Sunday!

Online Collaborative Projects

Happy 3 day weekend to everyone!  I wanted to share a collaborative project that my class is participating in.  It's through an amazing online resource called projectsbyjen.com

She has created an online database of projects that your kiddos can be involved in.  They are all different.....from sending in a picture of your favorite pair of shoes, to having a penpal from across the world.  I think that's my favorite part.....some are super simple & some projects are more involved.  I know what you're saying, "this is great in theory, but I don't have any time for things that arent tested on (insert state standardized test!)". Well.....

They don't have to take any valuable class time, per se.  The project I'm participating in is, "what's the weather like at your school today?"  I have a weather watcher of the day.  I keep track of it with a class list & a clothespin that moves down the list.  When that student comes in, they grab an iPad, take a friend to go outside & snap a quick pic of the sky outside, and come back in to use the kid journal app to complete their entry.  All during our morning announcements/ unpacking/ breakfast time.  No extra class time needed!  

    App shout out:  I love this app:  kids journal.  It does cost $1.99, but IMO its totally worth it.  

Simple kid-friendly interface.  They can very easily add a picture to their entry by clicking PICTURES not words.  This app is even successful for my non-readers!  For this project, my weather watcher uses the FREE weather bug app to find out the high & low for the day, and to check on whether it will be sunny, cloudy, etc.  

Then they open the kid journal app to take a picture.  Next, they sit down and journal about the weather.  My advanced students are writing independently, but I also offer a sentence frame for my less confident writers.  They are required to tell the high & low temperatures for the day.  Also what the sky will look like: rainy, cloudy, sunny, snowing (yeah, right!). Last, they have to add one more sentence of their choice--usually about what they would wear for the weather.  That's it....the whole process Thames about 10 minutes of morning time, and the kids are so excited about it!  

We are also going to get to Skype with another classroom to compare their weather with ours!  

What about y'all?  What sorts of projects are your kid-doodles working on?

Smart Collaborative Classroom

So, I've been an absent blogger lately, forgive me :(

School, life, and this labor of love I can finally share with you all has been a bit overwhelming these past few months.  Awhile back, I was approached to write a proposal to be one of about 20 classrooms across the nation to be a Smart Technology Collaborative Classroom.  First of all, I was amazed to even be asked to write a proposal.  Then, when I found out I was chosen.....mind = blown.  I kept it a secret because it was a huge surprise for my kiddos.  What is it you ask?  My classroom is going to be a model of how using technology collaboratively can boost student achievement.  My proposal included all of the awesomeness that Smart offers....3D document cameras, surround sound (its like a movie theater in my room,). Smart response clickers,, voice amplification system (like i need help in that dept,) a small group set of smart slates, Smart Tables, and of course the 4 new wide screen dual touch Smart boards.  im in full out Techie heaven right now
We were moved to a portable building for 2 days to allow for the install, and then came the magical reveal!  They walked into the classroom this morning & their jaws just about dropped!  It was like Christmas all over again, the air was filled with excitement!

Here are a few pics from my new improved classroom.  Please excuse the baroness of the walls....I literally had to remove everything from the walls & then put it back up in a matter of hours to be ready for us to move back into our classroom. 

So this is my latest project.  Be looking for lots and LOTS of technology integration ideas in the coming months.  Happy almost Friday!

Texas First Grade Teachers Conference!

What have I been up to these past few days...err....months?
Well, I'm busy with a surprise that I'm SO excited to share, BUT not just quite yet.  It's been a labor of love for the past few months, and it's being put into place this week, squeeeee!  I'll share on Friday....stay tuned!
Just as exciting, I'm in Austin for a first grade teachers conference since Sunday.  I love conferences!  Although its been difficult to be away from my kiddos, I come back energized with TONS of ideas.  I'll share a few when I get back home.  Anyone else out there at the conference???

inflectional endings: ing!

So, I've been super bogged down at school lately...I know, hard to believe with the holidays approaching and all!  We have been working on lots and lots of skills and activities, but I sadly haven't had time to write about them :(
     I am going to break that trend of not blogging!  This week, we have been working on adding chunks to the end of words to make new words.  Tomorrow will be adding ing.  Mine always try to sound it out (which I am totally thankful for the effort--it just doesn't turn out so well with that particular chunk!)  So, this is what I have planned to tackle that skill:

     We're going to start with some practice with what ing sounds like.  I thought of a bell (ding ding!)  I am going to go over that sound annoyingly a bajillion times with them.  I made a bell graphic with the ing chunk to hang to remind them if they ever get stuck.   You can grab it here:

For my kinesthetic (sp) learners, I;m going to have them *pretend* to flick a bell as they say the sound ing!  ing! ing!  I even found an app for the ipad..it's called "Bell for Christmas"  you can tap the belll & it dings--FREE!  We will ding-a-ling to our hearts content to start out with.
    Then, I have a Smartboard balloon pop game.  They click on the balloons to reveal a word.  Next, I'll have them write "ing" with the "rainbow" pen next to the word.  My other kiddos will be working on white boards or boogie boards writing their words + ing too.  I will probably have a quiet bell-dinger to remind us to add ing each time too.  lol, why waste a perfectly good free app?!  As soon as I figure out how to post Smart notebook files, I will post the pop game.  Until then, shoot me a message or comment with your email if you want it.
    After that, I made a little foldable for them.  They will think of 4 different words to neatly write on the flaps.  Then, they will add ing to make a new word.  On the inside of the flap, they will write and illustrate a sentence using that new word.  Click the pic to grab yours for free!
 And lastly, I found a cute Between the Lions video "without an ing" we can watch. I think we will be just about ing-ed out after all this!!

    Sorry this post is so short, but it's waaaaay past my bedtime & I gots to rest up for thparkly vampires tomorrow night!!!   

Catching Up..Field Trip and a Rafflecopter Giveaway!!

This post is all about a field trip, and a freebie. The rafflecopter is at the end of this post.
First things first: Field trip.  I decided, instead of me being the only photographer in the group; I'd give my students that job too.  I armed each of my parent volunteers with a camera or an iPod, and talked to the kids about what type of pictures they were looking for.  They were on a scavenger hunt.  Looking for pictures of things they used their 5 senses for.  Things they saw, smelled, heard, tasted, and touched.  They came up with some fantabulous pics.  I printed them out & we debriefed the field trip by going through their photography.  We sorted them into a tree map in the hallway, and it was truly one of the most successful field trip projects I've tried.  If you'd like the tree map headers, I've posted the link below.  lol, I'll post it as soon as I figure out where I saved the file!

I also made a field trip survival kit for my team.  Basic supplies: bandaids, baby wipes, napkins, kleenex, plastic bags, advil, chocolate.  You know, the essentials!  I put these labels on the front & they saved the day more than a few times...click on the pic to grab the labels.  Thanks to the 3am teacher for the cute background!

We had our first field trip of the year a few weeks ago, and I think it went smashingly well.....as far as field trips go!   We all know, the kids look forward to these for months, but I usually dread the organized chaos involved.

This time around, we went to the Oil Ranch located in Hockley, about 45 minutes outside of Houston.  It's a sprawling bajillion acre ranch with TONS of things for my little explorers inquirers (gotta use those IB words!)  They have trains, hay rides, animals, pony rides, petting zoos, indian villages, mazes, bouncy thing -a-ma-jigs, playgrounds, picnic areas, sno cones, pumpkin patches, lakes, and a  partridge in a pear tree.

I wish I could post pics of all the fun my little guys had, but y'all will have to settle for one of me and my counterpart in crime first grade, Miss French.  We had such a great day; the weather was beautiful and I had so many awesome parent volunteers.  Our day ended with the excitement of each of my students getting to pick their very own pumpkin--oh the excitement!!  I think our bus ride home explains it all....

Now, Rafflecopter.  In honor of me being an absent blogger, I'm giving away an item for every week I slacked off and didn't blog.  Yay for you!  As of now, there will be four winners...so put your name in the hat, tell your firends, and blog about it!  I'll draw 4 winners on the 17th!  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Bad Blogger....baaaaaaadd! And November currently

It's November currently time with Farley.  Here goes...
So, this weekend has been a sports-filled schmorgesborg!  Started off with the Texas Tech/ TU game.  Wreck Em, they didn't, but it was still a great game!  I know, I'm supposed to loathe Texas Tech and Texas alike, but there is a special place in my heart for those Red Raiders.  My twin brother went there, so I root for the Tech-sters too...Guns Up!

Then, it was WFTDA National Championship weekend.  I got to watch some gret Roller Derby, but this afternoon, the Championship bout between Gotham and Oly, WOW!  I am definitely gonna have some new derby-crushes after this weekend...sorry Smarty Pants.

And the cherry on my sports coma weekend: ANOTHER win from my Houston Texans over Buffalo!!  7-1!

Lastly, there's the new Zac Brown Band album.  Newly burned off of I-Tunes...LOVES IT!

Oh yeah...I'm having a Rafflecopter giveaway...see the post here & enter to win.