Sunday, November 22, 2015

Check out my latest Tiny Tap game.  Practice articles a, an, the and demonstratives this, that, these, those



Saturday, October 31, 2015

Dissecting owl pellets and Seesaw

My parents were able to enjoy our Science experiment of dissecting owl pellets via Seesaw.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Apple Taste Test ~ Tiny Tap Game



Check out my Apple Taste Test Tiny Tap.  My students and I had a wonderful time creating this game/story following our week of Apple activities.  Tiny Tap provides such a rich way to incorporate technology with meaningful hands-on learning experiences!  

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Friday, July 24, 2015

SeeSaw-A Learning Journal

I cannot wait to use this app in my classroom!!!  It will work with everything I use and do!  


Explaining Showbie to a Senator


One of my sweet 1st graders explaining Showbie to Oklahoma Senator Darcy Jech at our Tech Fair in January 2015-this is the Showbie star of my iPads in the Classroom video

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Library Book Organization Using Dropbox and QR Codes

Here's how I organized my books:

1.  I sorted by theme, genre, or author.  (used a variety)
2.  I took pictures of groups of like books, according to the before mentioned groups.
3.  I placed cropped pictures in a Dropbox file folder (I pay for the Pro version which is 1TB-plenty
of space.
4. I created a QR code for each folder. I used qrstuff.com.
5.  I numbered my boxes and put the appropriate codes and books together (notice in the picture the hanging numbers-qr codes are behind them).
6.  Next project:  I will number my books so that students can help me keep the library organized.

*I can't wait to need a book and go right to it.  I can even do a search in my Drobox Library folder
for particular books and find its sub-folder or box that it is in. 

Math Tips and Tricks (multiplication)

Multiplication Tips and Tricks

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Summer's Over Sentence Scramble-Get it while it's free...

FREE for a short time!! This would be a perfect practice for your 1st(some help), 2nd, or 3rd graders at the beginning of school.  The pages in this file can be easily be uploaded to Showbie for paperless practice.

I LOVE my !


Friday, July 10, 2015

Popplet Lite and Primary Writer-hand in hand apps

Use Popplet 1st-  have kiddos choose a topic and create a 4 square.

Click the picture below to go to the app-Popplet Lite by Notion.




Using their 4 square they can write a rough draft.

Click the picture below to go to app-Primary Writer by Grassroots Technologies


Then they can use Primary Writer for their final draft.


Saturday, July 4, 2015

My Classroom Theme for the Year


My Class Theme for the Year- to me owls represent wisdom and are very cute!  Click the picture for my "THINGLINK".



Sunday, June 28, 2015

a Presidents' project from February

Scroll down to see the video-this pic isn't the project ;)




I am enjoying Philadelphia, even if it is raining… My hubby, Dannie, and I  went to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall while we waited on the rest of the gang to get here-(our flight was an earlier flight).  I thought I would include our picture(even though we were drenched) along with a presidents project my kids and I did in February since we are in one of our founding fathers' historical cities.  Here's what we did..

1.  The kids picked one or two presidents.
2.  They searched for images with guidance.
3.  They acquired personal dates for each president.
4.  They created a scrapbook page with the picture(s) and info they found.
5.  They saved their pages to my Dropbox (president folder).
6.  I pulled all of the pages together in Book Creator.

*special treat at the end of this video



Friday, June 26, 2015

Showbie and Book Creator, GREAT together




1.  Create a Showbie Book Creator class.  
2.  Create a template in Book Creator that 
goes along with what you are studying.
3.  Kids will then open the template in their
Book Creator.
4. The kids can edit by filling in blanks and 
adding pictures.
5.  Kids export either ePub, pdf, video.
*My kids placed theirs in a Dropbox folder that I could share with parents.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

CLASS EBOOK-CREATED WITH BOOK CREATOR

HERE IS A CLASS BOOK CREATED WITH BOOK CREATOR BEFORE MY KIDDOS ALL HAD THE BOOK CREATOR APP ON THEIR IPADS. 2013-2014
The kids use ABSOLUTE BOARD to create their pictures then added to my DROPBOX.  I pulled them altogether on BOOK CREATOR to create this class book.



Book Creator template-ALL ABOUT ME

Here is another example of what you can create with Book Creator. 

 

Below is the template Ainsley used to create her book.



BOOK CREATOR CREATION by a 1st grader

Here is an example of what your kiddos can do with BOOK CREATOR!  The idea for this story began sitting at the corner during group time-I was reading A Dog Called Kitty by Bill Wallace to my 1st graders.  As we were talking about how important our pets are and contemplating what animals think and feel… I told the kids about my mother-in-law's pet chicken she had as a child, her chicken was named Jenni.  After our discussion and story, a couple of the kids wanted to write a paragraph about a chicken-this story came from Reese Richardson.  She obviously had some terrific ideas and, WOW, what a knowledge of people and places.  PS.  Her mama is a high school English teacher, so…. ;)




Book Creator template: MY ABC book

TO DOWNLOAD:  Follow the directions in the Noun Book post previous to this one.  This is a GREAT activity for Kinders and 1st grade(beginning of the year-while reviewing letters and sounds) Common Core L.1.1.a and RF.K.1.d.

*THIS IS A VERY SIMPLE TEMPLATE-YOU LET THE KIDS ADD OR CREATE THEIR OWN PICTURES TO EACH LETTERS PAGE.

Book Creator template-MY NOUN BOOK

Downloading Instructions(assuming you have DROPBOX and BOOK CREATOR) *may be able download without dropbox-unsure
You may also want to save to DROPBOX or SHOWBIE if you you want your kids to add to their iPad. THIS WORKED FOR ME-



THIS IS A SIMPLE TEMPLATE.  KIDS ADD OR CREATE THEIR OWN PICTURES TO EACH PAGE.  THIS ACTIVITY GOES ALONG WITH COMMON CORE L.1.1.b and L.K.1.b.



Thursday, June 18, 2015

TpT FREEBIE


QR Codes + Sound Files + learning centers = AWESOME!

Here's my latest project: I am taking one of my old word work centers and I'm adding a QR Code Card. The codes are connected to sound files I have stored in my dropbox. Click here to download a pdf that explains  how I did this.


here is a link to some game files that you can create;


Thursday, June 11, 2015

QR Codes

Create your own codes at QR Stuff.com.

QR Codes to Tiny Tap Language games

This is a link to a pdf that has QR Codes to 3 of my Language Tiny Tap games.  Feel free to download this for your own use in your classroom  QR Codes make it so easy for your students to access these games.  I usually paste a link to the games I want the kiddos to practice in SHOWBIE, but I think having this in centers or stations would be very handy.  I will be creating more of these, check back later…Click the pic to download or print the pdf.


Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Pronoun game on Tiny Tap

Here's my latest Tiny Tap game.  Students can practice Common Core Skill L.1.1.d. 
PS. The clipart, bless its heart, is all mine... I had fun..oh and did I mention, IT's FREE!!!




Sunday, June 7, 2015

iPad Clip Art-Absolute Board

Here's how I create some of my clip art using just my iPad and the apps, Absolute Board and Back Eraser.


The key to create the best iPad clip art you can using this technique, is to go slow, stretch your screen in and out to create minute detail, continually change your writing tool size-creating test marks to the side of your picture (which can be erased later), when you make a mistake erase and begin again …  I have to keep repeating that I am not a professional clip artist, I just simply enjoy it.  It has become a hobby for me.  I also use it in creating my Tiny Tap games and teacher resources.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Create Clipart on an iPad

Here's my newly discovered Clipart making procedure.  You will need paper, pencil, marker, an iPad, apps-Back Eraser, Sketch Book Xpress, Absolute Board. (FREE Apps)
*I don't sell clip art and may never sell it(my clip art is for me and I want to share-but not convinced it is up to most people's standards)but I love to teach, I love to draw, I love "tech-y" 
teaching ideas, so I just wanted to share what I've been up to lately...


1. Draw a picture.
2. Trace with black marker.
3.  Take a picture with your iPad, edit-crop your pic.  (missed this step in video)
4.  Remove background in Back Eraser.
6.  If you wish to fill PNG with color-do so in Sketch Book.
7.  For extra details, go to Absolute Board.*missed in the video that you need to go to back eraser to
     erase background after creating details
8.  Go once again to Back Eraser and remove background.

*make sure you save the pics you want such as one with just lines and then one with color

KEEP WATCHING...I will make a video on how to create clipart in a couple of other ways-Solely Absolute Board and a combo of Open Office Draw + iPad.

Monday, June 1, 2015

iPads in Our 1st Grade Classroom


In this video you will see that the kids did most of the interviewing with their own iPads.  I simply pulled all of the material together to create our iMovie.  This video is one of the  featured videos in our school's iBook that that we entered to be named an Apple Distinguished school.

Here are some of the things you observe in the video:

~iPads used in center time with manipulatives such as word tiles for the app Word Wizard.
~RAZ Kids, a Learning A-Z app-kids read on their own level and at their own pace.
~Spelling City- Kids practice their weekly spelling words
~Book Creator-kids and teacher create class books on their own and together
~Showbie-students complete worksheet type work on their iPad…beginners take a little time to
   learn how to manipulate the screen and using a stylus…I LOVE it when the kids figure it out, it
   saves time and a TON of paper.
~Kidblog-we dabbled very little with this, hopefully I can give it another go next year.
~Scrappad-kids create digital scrapbook pages-they love this!
~QR Code Reader like iNigma-there are many others



…this time… maybe I'll figure it out...

This is my 3rd attempt to create a blog for "teacher stuff".  I enjoy reading and exploring teacher blogs! I've always wanted to create my own.  I do not know how to tweak it just the way I want, but I plan to figure it out eventually…  I do not proclaim greatness, at all.  I just LOVE my job and I love to create things for myself, my students, and other teachers.

Tiny Tap is AWESOME!