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Showing posts with label Wordless Wednesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wordless Wednesday. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Is There a Disco Bunny Teaching in your Room?

New app alert! Click on the picture below to see a video I made for the classroom using Zoobe.


Isn't she a hoot! What a great attention grabbing intro to the '-at' family. There are many other free characters you can bring to life.  There's even a few talking mouths you can put on photos to help your kids learn all sorts of things.

It is a free app– just search for zoobe at your App Store. You record what you want the message or the lesson to be, and then adjust the voice. Voila! Your new cast of teaching assistants come to life.

You can also record messages and send them to your students. Wouldn't that be a great reminder for the kiddos and their parents to find in the in-box!  

This little gem makes the thought of school start-up a happy thing. We're gonna have fun. Hope you do, too.

Do you have any favorite apps that help your students learn in fun ways? I'd like to hear about them!

Thanks to Christina at Sugar and Spice for Wordless Wednesday so I can share my new find. Click to check out the rest!


Thanks for stopping by.  See you next time!



Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Little Plant, Big Will

I think all classrooms should have a few green plants, and a Jade is one of the easiest plants to grow, mainly because it has a strong will to live. You can water regularly, or NOT, and still it presses on. If a leaf falls off in the dirt, it will send out root shoots and keep on growing. Not too many plants can be grown from one single leaf! I have a big one in my classroom and a few smaller ones at home, all offshoots of the big one. They truly are almost impossible to kill.

When school let out for summer and I actually started spending time at home, I found one of my little Jades over in the corner suffering from severe lack of water. It was still alive, but several of its leaves were shriveled. As I went to clean it up and pick off the oldies, I found THIS leaf.

New Jade babies growing on a damaged leaf!
It had a hole in it from some earlier accident and much to my surprise, the edge of the hole was growing NEW baby plants! That was a new one on me!

If you are looking for a plant for the classroom I highly recommend a Jade plant. By the end of the year you can have enough little plants growing that each student can take one home.

Do you have plants in your classroom? If you do, what kinds do you have?

Thanks, Christina, for your Wordless Wednesday link up, which gave me the idea to share this little green thumb suggestion. Click below on the WW button to find more great pics and ideas.


Thanks for stopping by!



Sunday, May 31, 2015

Give Them the Words

I am inspired by Christina's Wordless Wednesday question over at Sugar and Spice.  I haven't posted in weeks because at this ending time of year there is so. much. to. do. I admire those teacher bloggers who can blog now. I'm going to dash this little post out because it might be useful to some of you in your last week.

Christina asks, "What do your students just LOVE getting to take home?"  Each year, although my kidpeople get to take home all sorts of stuff, their favorite items are the words from the word wall.



Yep, that's right. See those not at all fancy, handwritten on index card strips, words up there in the photo? Those become precious treasure in the last days.  I hand them out very ceremoniously, taking one down at a time while asking, "Who would like the?  Who would like with?  All the hands shoot up.

I think the biggest reason these words are so popular is that they represent so much of the kids' learning. The word wall is a resource they look at and use every day. The kidpeople help me build it when we do our word routine each week. Those basic words were the keys to reading and writing and the world that opened up when the kids could do both.

I stumbled upon this idea quite a few years ago when I decided to incorporate the kiddos into the clean up/take down process in the room. I used to resist this, doing almost all of it after they left for summer break because I didn't want the room to seem empty and sad. I've come to realize that it is a way for the kids to say goodbye to the year, and to ready themselves for first grade that lies ahead. They ponder the idea that brand new kidpeople will be in their space next year... which brings up some mixed feelings. We share lots of memories and laughs. And it does have the added bonus of getting just a bit more of the room packed up for summer.

I ask my readers, What do you do to ready the kids for next year? Do you pack anything up with them?  Give them things?  I'll be happy to hear.

Click on the Wordless Wednesday button to find more ideas.






Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Do-It-Themselves Student Display

I'm linking up with Miss DeCarbo at Sugar and Spice for Wordless Wednesday to show off a new way to display student work.


I have student work up in several places in my room and out in our centrum, but I really wanted a spot for the work the kids chose to display, and where they could put it up on their own. The putting-it-up-on- their-own part proved to be a bit of a challenge as display spaces, like bulletin boards, tend to be up high.  I finally created the perfect spot, heretofore unused.

Yes, this photo was taken at night... don't YOU live at school??
I took a long plastic strip that I got in the lumber department of Lowes. You could use a wooden strip but I find the plastic easier to work with. I used purple duct tape to cover it-- faster than painting and it can't flake off. It fit so that the edges of the tape wrapped around to the back on the top and bottom edges of the strip. Then I screwed the strip to the edge of my window counter ledge. I suppose you could skip this strip step and just use the edge of the counter, but I wanted to mess up the counter edge as little as possible, and gluing 20+ clips directly to it might have left too much mess. This way there will only be some very small unobtrusive holes in the counter edge when I'm gone. And I think the purple edge makes it look "on purpose." The color theme of my room is sage green, gray, and purple.

Close up– see those little screws?
I got wide black clothespins at Michaels and wrote the kids' names on them with white chalk pen, also found at Michael's. I needed a few more clothespins than they had, so I bought plain ones and spray painted them using black chalkboard paint and it worked just fine. The white chalkboard marker stays on as the kids use the clip, but if I wet it, it wipes right off– handy for putting next year's crop of kids' names on. The hot glue gun did the job of attaching the clothespins to the strip.  I spaced the clothes pins so that student work (of 8.5x11) could hang in either the vertical or horizontal position. I have fabric "curtains" that cover all the stuff on my shelves- makes for a much cleaner look– and the kids' work hangs with the curtain as a backdrop. Now the kids can hang whatever they are proud of in their own designated spot, and change it in seconds. I am happy with it and so are they!

So, how do you do student display? Do you let them choose what goes up? Have you found a way to let them put it up by themselves? Is this photo and post helpful to you?  I hope to hear!

Now click on the Wordless Wednesday button up top to find more good stuff! Have a great week!


The post Do-It-Themselves Student Display first appeared on kidpeopleclassroom.com



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Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Student Writers' Wall Makes for Great Display

Happy Wordless Wednesday! Linking up today and thinking about my classroom set-up... 'tis the season, after all. I'm sharing a photo from last year of how I display our student writing.

My Little Corner of the World
This pic was taken outside the door of my classroom, in my corner of the centrum. Through the window is my classroom, which is rather small for kindergarten, so I make every inch count, even those inches outside my door. This corner houses many things. It has a low, round table that we use for center work with parents, and for our listening center. The table is not in the picture, but you see our headphones hanging on the wall for easy kid access. It has my message board, where I post notes from the kids– I encourage writing every way I can. It has my beautiful class sign– so nice to be married to a talented artist. And it has our Writers' Wall.

Our Writers' Wall is where we display our best work from each writing unit and mini-unit we do. For each unit celebration– that oh, so important aspect of writers' workshop– we gather here in a circle and read our work before ceremoniously hanging it on the wall.

The binder clip system allows me to easily put the newest writing pieces on top of the old. Everyone, especially parents, can stop by any time to see their child's work. Keeping all the work together really highlights the progress kids make through the year! Notice I put up a little sign that lists the important objectives we learned in that particular unit. By the end of the year each child has this nicely collected portfolio of their best work in one place. I put it in construction paper folders to send home as treasured keepers.

To set up the binder clip system, I print each child's name on the top of a heavy cardstock sheet. Then I glue down another piece of cardstock on the back, so it covers the top third of the back page. I reinforce it like this so that after I laminate the pages, and make a slit to insert the binder clip, the weight of kids' writing doesn't make the paper rip at the slit. I make a slit, the width of the binder clip with an Xacto, about an inch below the name. I insert the binder clip carefully so the binder clips "wire thingy" that helps you open it is at the back of the paper, and the clip itself is clipped to the top of the slit. It takes a little finagling. I staple each child's display paper securely to the bulletin board. There is then enough leverage when you push on the front "wire thingy" to open the clip, and slide papers up into it, so they hang down in perfect view.

It provides a practical, convenient, and beautiful way to show off our hard work! If this is something you want to try, Pin, Pin, Pin-It :)

How do you display student work?

Thanks Christina for providing us a way to share our ideas! Head on over there by clicking!




The post Student Writers' Wall Makes for Great Display first appeared on kidpeopleclassroom.com

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Meet My Personal Trainer

Popeye
All school year, our pooch Popeye is content to dash outside on her leash to do quick work of her "morning business."  But once summer break hits, NO WAY.  Only way business is happening is on a WALK!!!
Are we going now?

Now?????

It's gotta be NOW!!!!!!!!!
When I put on my socks and sneakers, she doesn't take her eyes off me... in case I do it wrong.

And when I reach under the sink for the poop bag... YAHOO! YIPPEEEE! We happy dance all the way out the door!!!

She's so cute, and SO insistent!  But it's good for her and good for me, too.  Let's hear it for short, hairy, enthusiastic personal trainers!

Click on over to Sugar and Spice to see more things going on with the Wordless Wednesday link!

And don't forget to check back here Friday for Funny Kid Friday.  There'll be a chuckle or two!

Happy Summer!!!!

The post Meet My Personal Trainer first appeared on kidpeopleclassroom.com

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