Dear Santa

 Oprah has her Favorite Things, Ellen has her Twelve Days of Giving, and I have my Santa Wish List.  Ok, Ok I know that they actually give you things, so, this list isn’t nearly as cool as Oprah and Ellen.  Here are five things I wish Santa would leave under my school tree or someone could shop for them during the busiest shopping season of the year. A girl can dream!

1.     Cellulon Magic Cube:  This is magic in a box.  With the increased implementation of ipads in the classroom this is a super cool addition.  It is a full projection keyboard and multi touch mouse.  It pairs wirelessly with your device and projects the keyboard on the table so that you can type away.  When it is in stock, this cool tool can be you’re for $150.00.

2.     Livescribe Sky Wi-Fi:  This is the next generation of the Livescribe smart pen.  It holds many hours of recorded notes and automatically and wirelessly sends your notes to your evernote account. I have used my livescribe echo pen in the past to be a “test reader” as a classroom accommodation.  It is also great for students to retell or share information that they are writing, retelling, or drawing.  If you are thinking about flipping a classroom integrating a livescribe pen is a great start.  The Livescribe  Sky is $199.

3.     Leap Motion:  Turn your computer into a device that recognizes your hand motions. It works similar to the Xbox technology with just a wave of your hand. This would be a great tool to have when using a drawing or painting program.  Drawing in the air seems much easier than trying to manipulate the mouse.  Another use…think about being a hand pilot on Google Earth.  There are a limited number of apps available, but the number is growing.  Leap motion is $80.00.

4.     Ion Audio Guitar: This one is personal.  I am musically challenged.  I took piano for years but I never learned to read music and my left hand doesn’t seem to listen to my brain when it says move.  I played flute all through middle and high school but my non-ability to read music had me writing the names of the notes on my sheet music for years.  Here’s my chance to find my instrument.  You pop your iPad into the guitar and the frets light up to teach you to play. It works with the All Star app and with Garage Band. At the current price of $56.69 it is the one thing that might make it under my Christmas tree. 

5.     Chrome book:  One day I hope that I am in a 1:1 classroom.  I have always been and continue to be an Apple girl.  I love my MacBook, iPad, and iPhone but for the first time something with android has peaked my interest. The reasonable price and the simplicity of use have put this near the top of my wish list.  It would be amazing to have the space made available by not having 18 kids fighting over 5 desktop computers.   

What’s on your wish list?

Have a great weekend and Thanksgiving Holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving

This week is all about my favorite Thanksgiving apps for school. Some of them are silly and some are stories but they are all entertaining.  You can make anything a learning opportunity if you just give it some thought.

 1.  A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving:  This is an expensive app at $5.99 but I am such a fan of the Peanuts apps that it was worth it to me.  It is filled with Charlie Brown’s antics and the usual troubles that the Peanut’s Gang encounters while sharing the true meaning of Thanksgiving.  There are hidden treasures that can be clicked on in each page.  It has the graphics and wording from the original   1973 TV special.  I use this app in a center.  When I assign an app as a center, I usually have a directions sheet that requires some type of accountability.  Click for the  document I’m using with this app. I also do something similar with the Berenstain Bears GiveThanks App.  It is another pricey app at  $3.99.

2.  Dress a Turkey:  In this free app students choose a turkey, add a shirt, pants, shoes, headgear, and accessories, and add frames and effects.  Students can save their pictures.  The picture can be the prompt for a writing activity.  They could write about their turkey and what the turkey is doing dressed in its outfit.  This is a fun activity for a reluctant writer. Although this is a free app, there are in app purchases available.

3.  Turkey Painting:  This free app is a coloring book for Thanksgiving.  It has preset colors and a chance to pick many other colors.  The brush size can change to fit the area you are coloring.  It has a puzzle feature that lets you turn your picture into a slider puzzle.  This can also turn into a fun writing prompt.  After students paint their picture they can save it and complete a writing piece to match their picture.

4.  Hand Turkey:  This is a fun free app for the younger crowd.  You place your hand on the ipad and it turns your hand into a turkey.  You can customize your turkey by changing its feathers and clothing.  You can also have your turkey rake a pile of leaves that you make or stampede the screen with other hand turkeys.  This is a great alternative to the Turkey in Disguise that many teachers do this time of year. I’ve seen several of the disguised turkey description forms that would be great to go with this app.(It’s even fun for the grown ups.)

5.  Just for Fun:  Here are two stress relief apps that can be for students or the teacher.  Turkey Talk is similar to the Talking Tom App that many have seen and used before.  It can be used to practice sight words and vocabulary or just to be silly.  Another stress reliever is the Turkey Rescue app.  You have to put the turkeys on the road to save them from the farmer, butcher, or bulldog.  How many Turkeys can you save?

Have a great week!

Primary Programming

I’ve asked myself many times if teaching programming or coding to my elementary age students was actually worth it.  When I stepped back and looked at what it taught, I knew I could continue teaching coding because of the opportunity to gives students to problem solve, create, think, and plan. 

1.                     Scratch:  I fell in love with Scratch 6 years ago when I fist saw it.  I’ve made no secret through the years of writing this newsletter that I’m a fan! I remember the first time I used it in the classroom had students just complete simple codes that made a cat dance.  It was almost as amazing as the first time I had to write a program in a BASIC computer class that made a countdown clock.  (It doesn’t take much to impress me.) That first introduction to Scratch evolved into 4^th graders completing a computer generated retell of a story. Because of the resources available Scratch is still my favorite site to use for programming.  If you want to start slow, like I did, check out the Scratch Teachers Resources page.  My favorites are the Scratch Cards. When I first started using Scratch it was a download now it is web-based.  It looks like Lego bricks that you put together.  The bricks trigger different actions and the combinations of the bricks can create some amazing projects.

2.                     Kodable:  This is a free app that students can use to learn to program.  Kids can learn computer logic, sequence, loops, functions and debugging with the Kodable app.  They claim that this is great for beginners and it designed for younger students.   The skills gained in Kodable help students become better prepared for coding with more options like Scratch. 

3.                     Daisy the Dinosaur:  This is a free app where kids can learn the basics of programming.  Like many of the other programming sites for kids, it is a drag and drop block interface.  Solve the app’s challenges, and Daisy will dance across the screen.

4.                     Hopscotch:  This is the same company that made the Daisy the Dinosaur app.  This is another free app. Hopscotch allows you use characters to complete the tasks that you write in your code. The characters leave a trail behind as they move, so you can have them create shapes, letters, or numbers.

5.                     Why Teach Coding??- “Learning to write programs stretches your mind, and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains.“-Bill Gates

Have a great weekend!

National Symbols

When planning for upcoming topics and units in Social Studies are you thinking about a PBL unit?  Second graders are asked to identify acts of patriotism and symbols of the United States.  Students can be asked to research one of the symbols to learn about the importance of one of the US symbols to share with families at our school that are new to the United States.  The essential question could be Why are these symbols important to Americans? 

Here are some sites to help with research and projects to present their findings to a new family.

1.                      Ben’s Guide to Us Government for Kids:  This is a great site that is provided by the Government Printing Office.  It is divided into age groups for sharing age appropriate resources.  Their goal is to teach how government works, about American symbols, and ways to carry out civic responsibility.  There are great resources in the K-2 section on the American Symbols.  This is a great place to start the research for the national Symbol PBL unit. 

2.                      Brain Pop Jr. and Brain Pop:  Both of these sites and apps have a lot of great videos that introduce many topics.  Brain Pop Jr. has a free video on US Symbols.  Brain Pop Educators section you can find background information and activities for US Symbols. You will also find a matching game for US Symbols on the website.

3.                      Sekai Camera:  With a little Prep work students can go on a virtual scavenger hunt in your school.  You can place digital “post-its” in the air.  Place a picture of each symbol virtually around your school.  Have students find the symbols using the ipad camera.  Have students comment to name the symbol or a reason it is important.  This would be a fun quick check of student learning.

4.                      Find More:  Pinterest, Discovery Education and Teachers Pay Teachers are great resources to find more ideas to implement this unit in your classroom.  During my quick search I found book ideas, writing prompts, craftivities, and videos.  Students could write about being green like the Statue of Liberty or watch a video on Discovery Education.

5.                      Aurasma:  Here’s the project using Augmented Reality.  Have students draw a picture of the symbol they researched.  Students will then record themselves answering the essential question and telling why their symbol is important to Americans.  Put the two together and create an Aura.  Use the pictures as a display and post instructions on how to view the Aura.  Erin Klein has lead many face-to-face and virtual workshops on Aurasma.  She has a free step-by-stepdirections PDF on Teachers pay Teachers.

 I can’t wait to teach this unit in my class in November. What PBL units are you looking forward to teaching?

Have a great weekend!