Easter Listening Center

Keeping the boys and girls in kindergarten and first grade interested in reading all year long can be challenging.  That is why I have been working so hard this year to find stories the kids will be motivated to listen to.  It is more work than you think.   Creating an engaging listening center is a lot different these days, my students prefer to listen and watch stories on the ipad.  

When I first got my ipad I was able to find lots of story apps for $1 however that has not been the case lately.  In fact many of the stories can be costly or the apps are confusing for young readers to manage on their own.  So I have turned to youtube and the generosity of the wonderful people who are reading the stories and recording them.  

I find links on youtube and filter out the surrounding advertisements and create my own qr codes. My students use this center on their own as part of my weekly reading block and I want to make sure the links are safe for them.  Each week my students are required to listen to one story on the ipad and complete a listening form.  I use all sorts of different forms I have collected over the years on Pinterest and various other sources during the first two quarters. 

However, once third quarter starts I have the students start to complete the forms attached to the unit.  We start with the simple ones and work our way to writing our own letter on lined paper. 

I like to print out the listening cards on card stock and laminate them.  I punch a hole in the corner and gather them together with a ring.  I keep the cards in the ipad basket.  Another teacher at my school hangs the cards up on the students’ lockers.  Another organization idea might be to keep them in a small binder or create a bulletin board with the cards in your reading center. 

Click Here to get The Easter Listening Center for FREE! 

Author of the Month Helen Lester

I can honestly say the Helen Lester's books are some of my favorite books for teaching young children.  The children love the humor and illustrations in the books.   What I like about the books as a teacher is that each story has a lesson to learn.  

Helen Lester has written so many wonderful books it is really worth your time to look at her website and see which of her books will work in your lesson plans.  

I have been working hard each month creating links for the teachers at my school on our share website.  I also put a couple links for a few free resources I found on Pinterest as well.   I have created qr codes for the classroom with ipads.  

For each of the Helen Lester books I found on youtube I found the cover on google images.  Then I created a qr code.  

I created mini posters that I will hang up by the author board and it will have a dual purpose.  It will look good and the kiddos can get the qr codes to listen to stories. 

I also created some reading challenge sheets for advance students.  You know who I mean, those students who are the first to finish everything.  

   You can find everything FREE HERE!

Fire Prevention Ideas

It's time to start planning for Fire Safety Awareness.  There are so many wonderful books to read to the class however a rare one to find is my favorite by Felicia Bond, Poinsettia and the Firefighters.  I checked on Amazon and it is only available to purchase as a used book.  The kids love the story most of them can identify with the character Poinsettia.  

I added the poem Ten Little Firefighters to my Poetry Basket this year.  As always I made a homework sheet for the children to share with their families.  I believe I found the poem on Pinterest, however I did not have anything marked down in my notebook from last year.    

Click Here for your FREE copy

My main resource for the week are these videos I found by the Ocoee Fire Department on Youtube.  I have them on my teaching site CK Primary.    They are super cute with puppets and firefighters.  My class loves them.  I also used a free Fire Safety Pack by The Clever Classroom as a follow up.  I do not use all the pages.  I pick and choose which ones  that are the most important to me based on the time we have together that week.   

Finally, I found some free apps that I am looking forward to checking out.  They all can be downloaded on the Apple App Store.  

 

Notes about Ipads

I am taking an ipad course and the first assignment is how do you use ipads in your classroom and in your school.  I thought it would be nice to share this information with you as well.

I love having ipads in my classroom.  I have two school ipads and two personal ipads that I have synced with the school account.  For the most part I use the ipads for enrichment type activities because I do not have enough for everyone.   I set up the apps or qr lessons for the students and they just use the ipads to complete the directions I give them.

I prefer teaching in small groups so generally I have a group of five to six children sharing the four ipads.  My students have been pretty good about sharing however generally one student tends to do most of the work.  I manage my own ipads and have had to learn how to trouble shoot the best I can.  I don’t have much of a storage place for them.  I use some magazine containers between my computers and the end of the day I lock them in my teacher locker.

I read the blog post by Jayne Clare, 17 Pros and Cons of Using Ipads in the Classroom.  I agreed with a lot of what the author was saying.  Ipads are great for elementary classrooms because they have a good battery life, there are so many apps out there, it is super user friendly for young children, it is lightweight and easy for them to carry and best of all it is fast.  I also like the students can plug in their headphones and not disturb the rest of the class.  

An issue my school needs to think about is accountability.  Not all homerooms have ipads, I think several of the elementary teachers had them on a wish list one year.  So the middle school teachers are constantly borrowing them, needless to say, the ipads are coming back scratched and the protective covers are starting to stretch off.   Who is responsible for them? 

I would also like to see my school offer more training for the teachers and some type of lessons of internet safety for the students. 

My first lesson with a QR reader

One of my "sick goals" during my time off is to create a lesson using a QR reader.  It was not easy to find directions on how to create a lesson.  Of course I want to do this for free. One of my biggest obstacles was staying focused and awake.   It took me a while however finally I found a blog with great tech ideas that pointed me in the right direction...Reflections on Teaching, Learning and Technology.

Sara had a post where she wrote about creating a lesson about QR codes for kindergarten....so I followed her suggestions and after a few misses I created a lesson of my own.  

Here is what I learned in the process of creating a lesson using QR codes!!

1.  Never Give Up.....
The first couple blogs I read were not helpful, thank goodness the sixth one was.

2.  Start with Kaywa. I had to sign up but it did let me try for free with joining.  I was able to download the codes I made without paying.  

3.  I had to click the "more" button and look for the word text.  Then I could type whatever I wanted.  Next, click Generate and download the format you want.  So simple!!!

4.  Following the suggestion from Sara at Reflections on Teaching Blog, I downloaded the app i-nigma from the app store.  Yeah, this was free and it is perfect for the kiddos.  Very easy for kindergarteners and first graders to use.   

5.  Finally I created my lesson.  I imported all my qr codes into word document and printed them.  I cut them out and put them on apple cut-outs because that is what I have at home.

6.  I created a simple recording sheet for my students. 

7.  Now Monday on my first day back at school my students will have a fun activity to do for spelling.  If you are interested in trying my lesson you can get a FREE copy HERE!  Enjoy!

Fun Friday Finds

I hope this ideas are helpful to you.

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This adorable necklace can be found at I Heart Crafty Things.  It is a great idea for something to do for St. Patrick's Day.  Super Cute!

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This is going in my file for my I Have A Dream project next year.  I love the chalkboard idea next to the children.  Sooooo Cute!

Mercer Mayer App...Just Me and My Puppy  99 Cents

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and What a Bad Dream for 99 cents

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Free App

Click Here

I wanted to pass on this wonderful free app that I found in my email today,  The Kissing Hand, from Ocean House Media.  This is such an adorable story for the beginning of the school year.  I know you will want to add this to your story collection.  Also, I know teachers do not pass up free things.  

Ocean House Media has another wonderful story for 99 cents if you are interested, Just Shopping with My Mom, by Mercer Mayer.  I just love Mercer Mayer stories and my students enjoy reading along with them as well.

Click Here

And of course I could not help myself and I just had to browse around and I found this funny penguin story by Jan and Stan Berenstain, Nothing Every Happens At The South Pole.  A friend of mine read this to my class last week and my little ones loved it.  This app is $3.99.

Click Here

Sharing a Good Deal

I just love a good deal and Oceanhouse Media has two good deals on apps.   Right now you can get two story apps for your i-pads for 99 cents each. 

Trucks by Byron Barton

Just Go to Bed by Mercer Mayer

Another great app for Thanksgiving is The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks by Jan and Mike Berenstain this one is $3.99. 

These will be a great addition to my listening station!

I Pad Center

The I-Pad Station

I will hopefully have three i-pads in my classroom this year so I set up two different stations for the children.   They are across the room from each other hopefully that will help with noise level.  

I put “I Can” directions in the stations.

The biggest problem I had with the i-pad last year was that the children could not write the title of the story they listened to on the i-pad on their paper.  So I created this chart,

Hopefully this will help with the problem.   I want the children to write the titles if possible.  I laminated the cards and I can circle the title I want them to listen to when it goes with our theme.  I have almost 40 stories on my i pad now.  I try to get apps when they are under $1 or $2.  

I do  have some headphones, however I need to pick up some more.   I also want to find this neat gadget I saw on Pinterest.    This gadget will allow two children to listen to the same story at one time.