School Week Linky: Tech Tips

Day 4 of The Teacher's Chair linky is all about tech tips!

I am not exactly "tech savvy," so unfortunately I don't think I have all that much to contribute to this topic ...so I cannot wait to see what everyone else posts about!!!

Today, rather than sharing tech tips, I'll share some lessons I have created for my SmartBoard, as well as one of my go-to websites during my kiddies' computer time.

Let's start with the SmartBoard. 

Despite not being a computer wiz, I *love* my SmartBoard and use it every single day in my classroom. Not only does it make my life easier, but the second I incorporate it into my lessons, my kiddies are completely engaged!

MATH: Patterning

The first file I will share is a hands-on graphing activity:

(I use the above file during our Hot Chocolate theme!)

The images in the coloured boxes near each of the graphs are "infinitely cloned," which means students can grab the image of their choice by tapping and dragging the picture to the appropriate location on the bar graph. Each student can take turns dragging and dropping their choice until all students have been "surveyed." When the graph is complete, either the teacher or students can fill in the information to the right of the graph using a SmartBoard marker.

Here are the other graphing pages in the file:

Click HERE to see an example of how I used this mini-lesson in my own classroom and download your FREE copy of the SmartBoard file :)

DOWNLOAD DIRECTLY

MATH: Addition & Subtraction

These simple, hands-on activities are a quick way to review/practice basic problem solving skills. They also connect word problems with the basic number sentences and symbols that we learn about in our addition and subtraction math unit:

Each activity includes an answer page to help you better understand how to complete the activity:

DOWNLOAD this SmartBoard activity (it's FREE)!

SCIENCE

This next SmartBoard page can be used during a science unit on energy.

This activity focuses on energy chains; the process of how the sun passes its energy to each and every living thing, OR how the energy of each and every living thing can eventually be traced back to energy from the sun. As shown by the example on the top right, students & teacher can work together to drag and drop the images in the correct order (answer page is included).

DOWNLOAD this for FREE :)

(I have also recently blogged a FREE DPA SmartBoard activity HERE if you're interested!)

Finally, one of my (and my firsties') favourite websites to visit during computer time is 

I love it because it features a mix of both educational and just-for-fun games, and a clear organization of grade level (as you can see from the screenshot below). I love the way the website is organized as it allows for easy differentiation (e.g. my higher firsties can easily challenge themselves by visiting activities one grade-level up). If you haven't already checked it out, GO!

See ya'll tomorrow for the last day of The Teacher's Chair School Week Linky...let's end with a bang!!!

Let's be friends!

Get teaching tips, ideas, and FREEBIES every now and then.

Built with Kit

Mmmm...Hot Chocolate!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 and welcome back to the crazy!! Boy, was it hard getting back into the swing of things after a much-needed holiday, but this week's theme made it just a little easier; Oh, the power of hot chocolate! I figured this week would be a little chaotic for me AND the kids so I chose a laid back theme that could ease us into regular routine...

We started off our literacy block each day by reading this "Snowman Soup" poem I partly stole/partly made up. We read it a couple times first and then sang it to the tune of "Let it Snow."

This poem was also incorporated into my Investigation Station where the kids could put hot chocolaty words in ABC order on the pocket chart and/or they could feel baggies of marshmallows and hot chocolate mix while writing step-by-step instructions of how to make hot chocolate.

My Word Work centre for the week featured two hands-on activities. 

1) putting hot chocolaty word cards in ABC order then recording the words on a worksheet/matching them with a picture 

2) arranging and rearranging the letter in "hot chocolate" to make and record as many words as they could:

(The above activity is from my mini Hot Chocolate Literacy & Math pack)

*2016: THIS PACK HAS BEEN UPDATED!* (the images on this page do not reflect the updates)

Although not hot chocolate-themed, I will throw in the worksheet I made for my writing centre. Rather than spending a lot of class time having students verbally share all of their holiday stories with me, I gave them the opportunity to write about everything in this centre. In the spirit of New Years, I called it My Christmas Break Countdown...3, 2, 1, Happy New Year!!!

(Click either pic above to download your FREE copy!)

Our focus in writing is still descriptive writing so this week I introduced "5 Senses Frankie" (who was inspired by Cara over at The First Grade Parade) to my kiddies:

We talked all about how our 5 senses help to add details and interest to our writing. With my kiddies help, this is what Frankie now looks like all labelled-up and hanging in our room for reference:

Later in the week we also completed a fun little Mr. Potato Head creativity to reinforce the concept of 5 senses and, more importantly, using those 5 senses in our writing:

(I had to take a picture of my example because most of my kiddies still haven't completed poor Mr. Potato Head. I promise to take a picture to share when they are up on the wall next week!)

TIP OF THE DAY! For just about every craftivity I do with my kiddies, I make myself a template out of thin cardboard (from cereal boxes, etc.) and label them. I keep all of my cardboard templates in various labelled folders in a banker's box so I never have to reinvent a template/go on a wild goose chase to find them. Here's what my Mr. Potato Head templates looked like (I hadn't finished cutting out the smaller pieces yet):

Get your FREE Color Monster lesson and activities!

I respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime. No worries!

Built with Kit

Anyways! To continue our hot chocolate theme into math (last week of our graphing unit!), we got to survey the class and graph the results on the SMARTboard. 

"Do you like marshmallows in your hot chocolate?"

(Click the pic or HERE to download my FREE SMARTboard graphing file. The file contains a total of 6 graphing activities to use throughout a graphing unit)

Then the kiddies transferred the data to their own worksheet for extra practice and answered questions about the graph...all while drinking delicious hot chocolate! Mmmm!

We did a couple other hot chocolate-themed activities throughout the week, all of which can be found in my Hot Chocolate Package on TpT!

In Science, we are learning about Energy. We now know all about Living Things so we began an experiment to see how plants would react if they did not get any sun, since the sun is the most important source of energy. We put one plant in a closet and one by the window. Both will be watered and we will monitor each plant's progress over three weeks in our Plant Books. But first we had to brainstorm what plants need in order to grow and stay healthy...

("Frlizer" = fertilizer! ...I have such smartypants in my class!)

We also did an experiment to figure out how we could made a ball move using just a paper fan. We followed the energy chain and, surprise surprise, as always the energy chain always comes back to our most important source of energy: the sun!

(Energy Chain: ball-->wind-->fan-->muscle-->person-->animals-->plants-->sun)

Well that's it for now! I'm off to stare out the window at the crazy weather we're having/sulk at the thought of having to shovel several feet of blowing snow banks...

Happy Weekend, everyone!!! :)

Tables, Anchor Charts, Gingerbread, OH MY!

On Thursday, something mind-blowing went down...MY TABLES ARRIVED!!! I ordered them about a month ago and, because I was incredibly impatient and could not wait until the custodian moved the desks on the weekend, I took matters into my own hands:

I spent my night moving desks out, and tables in. Great exercise, let me tell you! 

Ah, the finished product :) Already, the tables have solved so many little problems that were making my life (and the kiddies' lives) unnecessarily difficult: Now everyone can reach the supplies, goodbye silly arguments! And most importantly, I can easily sit and work with the groups that need one-on-one assistance during periods of independent work. Plus they increase walking space and generally look awesome.

Anyways, enough of my obsession with my new tables. On to some learning! First up: Science!

We have been learning about energy and this week was all about energy sources and outputs:

(sorry for the quality...I had to use my phone since my camera wasn't charged!)

We also completed a couple activities from my Science Pack. 

 Moving on now to literacy; First thing every morning, after morning routines, is our shared reading and literacy centres. This week we explored Ezra Jack Keats' infamous book, The Snowy Day:

I love this book, and so do the kiddies! I realized that way back when, we talked all about nonfiction but I kind of forgot about exploring fiction...oops! So this book was the perfect opportunity. We built on this anchor chart all week: 

(please excuse the horrible printing...especially at the bottom :S)

For our Oral Language Centre, I stole this awesome idea from my team teacher: The kids take turns giving each other instructions of various details to add to a blank colouring page. But here's the catch: I put up a screen between them so they couldn't peek at each other's drawings. The point is that they had to give very clear and detailed clues {shape, size, colour, location} so that the pictures would be as similar as possible at the end of the week. You can print off this worksheet and others like it HERE (scroll down and make sure to click for the B&W versions). These two did really well!

Next up, after literacy centres, we have shared/modelled whole group writing and independent writing. We are now finished with Making Connections and are moving on to Descriptive Writing. After our diagnostic assessment earlier in the week {describe one of the four seasons}, I'm starting off this unit with adjectives! First, I read the kiddies a couple pages from this FANTASTIC book to help them understand what adjectives are (I found my copy at a Miko Toy Warehouse Sale back home in Toronto, but you can grab a copy HERE)

 Here's the anchor chart we built with this book:

Kids love to talk about themselves so what better way to introduce adjectives than to have them describe their awesome and unique personalities?! This activity is included in my Writing Focus #3: Descriptive Writing unit:

(I love it: "I wrote clumsy bumsy because my mom calls me that!")

Next we were given an impromptu challenge to decorate gingerbread people for a contest held by the Canada Post Office. So after a busy day of hard work, we had a little holiday fun and decorated our gingerbread with markers, pencil crayons, sequins, stickers, and tinsel. I ended up with some gingerladies, gingercats, and even a gingerzombie! And of course, I forgot to take pictures of the finished product (blame it on my foggy Friday brain) so this will have to do for now:

And that's it for now! The snow is falling and I'm off to hunt for my first real Northwestern Ontario Christmas tree!!! God bless us, everyone :)

Let's be friends!

Get teaching tips, ideas, and FREEBIES every now and then.

Built with Kit