Whole Body Listening, Responsive Classroom, Check-in Cards, Plus MORE

We survived our first week of school!  We learned how to be a kindergartner, how to listen, how to line up in a straight line and how to walk down the hall without talking, how to enter our PIN numbers for lunch, plus so much more.  We are doing a great job learning our new routines in school,


We have been learning about being in a new classroom community.  We use Responsive Classroom in our room.  We have practiced how to line up, how to listen, how to sit in a circle, how to walk in a line, how to use our supplies, etc.  I introduced the Take-A-Break chair this week as well.  I had one little girl ask if she could go sit in it one day because she just wanted to think.  They are so sweet.  It's so hard to be  in school all day.

You can check out some things I made  HERE.

We have been really practicing sitting in a group,  We learned all about what it means to be a good listener.  I used a Mr. Potato Head and applied the body parts that we were learning about.  They loved using him.  I had them cut out the body part that we talked about.  They glued it on to their Mr. Potato Head.

You can find the sheets that I created HERE.


We are also working on being a good self advocate.  I want students to be able to tell me if they do not understand something.  I created some check in card for this purpose.  When we are doing our work, they will flip the cards to the color that they feel that they are at.

You can find these HERE.

I got some cell phone holders from Companies to Classrooms.  This is a local place that businesses donate things for teachers to.  We get to go and shop once a month for things for our classroom.

If you don't have cell phone holders, you can always put the cards on a ring and have them flip to the color that they are at.

We have been using our iPads in our classroom.  This year I got timers from Dollar Tree.  The kids set the timers when they are using the iPad.  once the timer is done, their partner gets to go.

We did our first science experiment this week.  We talked about germs and passed a piece of bread around the circle during our sharing time during Morning Meeting.  We put it in a baggie.  I then had one kid wash their hands and touch the piece of bread.  We put that in a baggie.  Finally, I put a piece of bread in a baggie that no one touched.  We predicted what we think will happen and wrote these predictions down.

I was so excited to have another Naeir order come in.  If you haven't heard of it, you seriously need to sign up.  They have such great deals for teachers.

During the week, my son got his iPad at school.  He said it was the best day of his life.  My oldest son gets his this week.  They are both pretty excited that they each get an iPad at their schools.

My oldest son played football this weekend.  It's so fun to watch him play.

Finally, we celebrated my youngest son's birthday this weekend,  He turned 12.  It makes me proud to see my kids grow up...but I am sad at the same time.  Time is going so fast!

I hope you have a great week!

Sara

Creating QR Codes For Your Classroom

Hi!  I hope you are all having a great week.  It's Friday, which means it's officially my last day of summer vacation!  I have enjoyed spending the summer with my boys.  I am excited to meet my new kindergarten students next week during our Open House.  Our kids officially start back to school on September 8th.  

Today I am going to share with you something that I learned how to do this summer.  We have 12 iPads in our classrooms.  We use them a lot for so many different purposes.  I will be using them more during our center time and when kids finish their work early or when we have a little bit of time left during our learning chunks.  This summer I learned an easy way to create QR codes.  I also learned about Safe Share TV.  I can't believe I didn't know about that earlier.  No more playing a YouTube Video for me...hoping that an ad does not pop up that I don't want my little eyes to see.  I became really good at stopping videos before they even started.

This summer I went through our curriculum books and listed any of the books that the publisher recommended we use for a unit.  I found as many of them that I could on YouTube and Storybook Online and then created a QR code for that so that my kinders could just scan the code and listen to the story.  I also created codes to go with my social media sites, songs that we use in class and other videos that we use.

I am now going to walk you through how you need to do that.

1.  You will need to enter goo.gl into your search bar.  

2.  You will find some options.  I selected the goo.gl url shortner.  You will get an option to pin this to the top of your computer.  Mine is already there as I downloaded it awhile ago.

3. You will see it pinned to the top right corner of your computer.  It is a little green box next to the search bar.

4.  In another tab, you will have to search for safe share TV.  This screen will come up.

5.  You are now ready to create QR code.  First you will call up YouTube and enter the title of a book that you are looking for.  I called up the The Kissing Hand as we use that during the first week of school.

6.  You will highlight and copy the link.

7.  You will then go to your SafeShare.TV tab.

8.  You will paste the link that you copied from YouTube into the bar.

9.  You will then Click on Generate Safe Link.

 10.  You will see this screen come up.  You will click on Take me to the safe view.

11.  Your screen will then show the box in a safe viewing mode.

12.  You will go up to your search bar and click on the little green box (the QR code shortener).

13.  Some options will come up.  You will click on the bottom one that says QR code.

 14.  A QR code box will pop up.

15.  When you click on the box...another screen will open with the QR code.

16.  You will right click on the code and select copy.

17.  You will then need to open a new PPT document.

 18.  You will see a blank screen come up.

19.  You will now right click on the screen and select paste image.

20.  Your QR code will come on the screen.  You can position it to where you want it to be.

21.  You can then either add text of the book title or find an image and copy it.

22.  You will then paste the image next to your QR code.

23.  You will adjust the sizing so that they are sitting side by side.

 24.  You will now repeat the steps from finding a YouTube book on.  For math, I found math books that went with each unit that I was teaching.  When we have extra time at the end of our math lessons, kids will be able to grab an iPad and a QR code with a book, scan it and listen to the story that relates directly to the lessons that we are learning about.

25.  I did the same steps above with songs and videos that I use in my classroom.

26.  Finally, I created QR codes for my social media sites.  You don't have to go into SafeShare.Tv for this.  You just call up your site and click on the green square in the upper right hand corner of your computer.  You will click on the bottom option and then copy the QR code to a document.  You will find the images that you want to add to go with the code.  I suggest doing this right away so you don't forget what QR codes go with the images that you find later.

I hope this is helpful for you.  I realize that some districts block YouTube and you are not able to view these at school.  You could always send a code home with your kids in your newsletters for them to view at home.

You can find a freebie of some QR codes that I created for some books and videos that I use in my classroom by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Sara Connell

It's summer! Alphabet, Rhyming and a Freebie!

Ahhhh!  This blog has been very neglected and I feel really bad!  My boys and I have been enjoying our summertime.  We have been relaxing, running errands and we're getting all our doctor appointments in.  The biggest thing I have enjoyed is that both my kids sleep in until at least noon if not later.  We have officially caught up on our sleep. :)  I am in denial that summer is half over but am really excited for the new year to start.  I will be in a brand new classroom teaching all day kindergarten, which is new in our district.  I will miss teaching first grade but am excited for the change.

I have been taking pics of the progress of our new rooms as we go.  I need an updated one of the outside with all the walls built.

In order to get more prepared for kindergarten, I have been stalking kindergarten teacher's blogs, looking for new ideas of things to use in my classroom.

I am excited to use these items in my classroom this year.

I may or may not have an obsession with Deanna Jump's products.  I was lucky to get to see her present in April.

I have created some units of my own to use in my classroom as well.

 There are word wall words in black and white and color for each letter of the alphabet.

 There is a mini book for each letter of the alphabet.  There are two books.  The top one can be used with kids who are able to trace and write the words.  The bottom book is for kids who may need more practice just tracing letters for right now.

 There are cut and paste worksheets.  Kids will look at the picture and glue the letters underneath.

There are worksheets to practice printing for each letter of the alphabet.  There are two levels for each letter.

I am including the letter A as a freebie so that you can see what you will get for each letter of the alphabet.
You can download the letter A set HERE.  If you enjoy that, you can purchase the pack HERE through TPT.

I also adding a rhyming pack.  Beware...there are lots of pictures!

 

You can find this pack HERE on TPT.

I hope that those of you that are in Vegas are enjoying your time there and are meeting lots of new friends.  I am super jealous.  

Sara