Seesaw App

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to the ios Summits.  It was the FIRST Saturday that we had BEAUTIFUL (40+ degree) weather and I was really bummed that I was going to be missing out on going outside but I was still somewhat excited to go and learn some new things.  I finished the day on Saturday feeling so thankful that I went.  I learned so many new things that I could bring back to my classroom.

My kids LOVE using our iPads in our classroom.  We are lucky enough to have 12 iPads in our room.  We use them a lot.   We are going to be using them even more after this weekend.  

I had a lot of AH HA moments on Saturday that reinforced my thinking.  Most of all, I took away that kids learn better when they are having fun.  Just because a child is having fun, does not mean that they are not learning.  We got to see  and play with Drones and Spheros.  I could think of so many possibilities of using these in my classroom.  I also learned how to make a movie in iMovie with 4 different kinds of shots.  

I loved all of my sessions, but the one that I loved MOST of all was the one in which I learned how to use the SEESAW app.  If you haven't used this, or heard of it, I would look it up.   Angela Gadtke sold me right away!!!

When I see a great idea or hear a great presentation, I want to jump right in.  I am not one to sit around and think about what I learned or try to find out more about it...I dive right in and experiment with it with trial and error.

Today (Monday) I got back to my classroom and told my kinder kids about the classes I went to.  I told them we were going to play with the Seesaw app and that they were going to be able to share things that they did with their parents.  They were just as excited as I was.   I am going to walk you through what I did with my kids today.  Keep in mind I am newly learning this.

First I downloaded the app and created a class.  I did not take step by step pictures of this part, but will try to as I am helping someone else set up their class.

The first thing you will have to do is download the app.  You will then have to create an account and log in as a teacher.  I set up my class by adding all my kids names.  We took pictures of each kid to set as their icon.

I went to the manage class section on the left side and printed out student log in notes and parent letters.

I hung the student log in sheets around the room.  It comes with a QR code so they can just scan it when they want to add something to their journal.  

Here's where the kids came in.  I will try my best to explain things step by step, but remember this is my first day using this.  I may not know the best way to get to something or how to do everything yet.

One of our assessments this quarter is to have the kids write CVC words.  I had them draw 4 pictures and told them they had to write the CVC word under each picture.  Normally, I would call them over to me and work one on one with me.  They would also complete an assessment sheet (which they still will do because it's standardized in our district).  Using the Seesaw app is going to help me show my kids parents what they know and can do.

After they drew their pictures they came and got an iPad.

They went to a place in the room that had a Classroom sign in sheet hanging.  I have several in my room.   They scanned the QR code, which took them right into the program.

After they clicked the Seesaw app button, I told them to tap the blue button to scan their QR code.

In order to use the QR code reader, some of them had to click the button that said Enable Camera.  It didn't come up for every child.

It then came up with this message and I told them to click OK.

Once this happened, they were able to scan the code.

It brought them to this screen.  Today we just learned how to take pictures.  You can make a video, draw, upload pics from your camera roll or make notes.  We are learning one a day.  They clicked the camera mode today.

They took a picture of their drawing with the CVC words.  

Once they saw their picture, they had to click on the green check mark in the upper right hand corner.

They then saw a list of names of all the people in our class.  They had to click on their name with their picture.  They had to make sure they saw the green check mark.  When they saw this, they could go on.

When their name was checked and they saw the green check, they could press the green check mark in the upper right hand corner.

They then saw the uploading message and they waited.

They knew they were done when they saw this message....WAITING FOR APPROVAL.  In the main screen, I slid the approval button on.   I did this so that I could preview EVERYTHING before it goes into their folder and before parents see it.  I don't want them to accidentally put something in the wrong folder.

I then logged into my teacher account and approved everything that I thought was okay to go into their folders for parents to see.

I have the parent letters printed out to go home but have not sent them yet.  I want them to have a few pieces of work in their folders so that parents can see some things.

I added myself and our principals as students too.  There might be some things that we want to share with them or that I want to show them.

I am going to use this app for assessing kids and for them to share their work with their parents.  I recorded a little girl reading today and put it in her folder.  She read with great expression and with great fluency.  I can look back at this when grading her and her parents can see it.  I am going to have them take pictures of shapes in the room and have them record with their voices themselves naming the shapes.  I will easily be able to see if they know them and I won't have to sit with each of them during the day (spending a large amount of time on each kid).  I will have them take pictures of their journal entries so parents can see what their child is doing daily.  I have so many possibilities of how I want to use this.  I am so excited for parents to be able to view their work.

When my parents get the letter, they will download the parent seesaw app and will have a QR code that is linked directly to their child's folder.  They will be able to see what their child is doing in class.  Typically when a child is asked what they did at school they respond with "Nothing" "I don't know" or "I ate lunch".  This will be a great record of what they did and will give parents something to see and talk about with their child.

Angela Gadtke was our presenter.  Follow her on Twitter @MrsGadtke.  She'll be able to help you with questions that you have.  She said that they are having a session this Thursday *March 11 @ 6pm Central time on Twitter with questions and answers.  I can't wait to learn more.

If you have used this app and have ideas for me, I'd love to hear them.  If I missed a step, I apologize.
Sara

Word Families

We have been busy working on word family words.  My kids are loving it.

We start our routines by grabbing our white boards, dry erase markers and kleenex and have a seat by my easel.  I tell the kids what word family we will be working on.  I then have them come up the front and pull a letter to the left of the word chunk.  They have to say the sound the letter makes and the sound the chunk makes.  They then have to slide the letter and chunk together and say the word that they made.

As kids are making a word at the front of the room, the rest of the kids are writing their word on their boards that are in their laps.  Once we are all done, we read all the new words that we made.

We put our things away and then do our word family mini book.  My kids absolutely love these.  I have the words copied on yellow card stock to make them stand out a little bit more.  It also helps my kids that are struggling with cutting to have a better handle on the paper.

You can find them here.  You will not be disappointed with anything from The Moffatt Girls.

Sara

Book Study and 10 More, 10 Less, 1 More, 1 Less Puzzles

I don't know if you have heard about the book study that some of my favorite bloggers are hosting.
Head on over to Kickin It In Kindergarten  to find out all the details.

When I read about this book study, I called my local Barnes and Noble right away to see if they had the book and they DID!!!  I was so excited.  I have always firmly believed that kids learn by doing.  Many of the activities that I do in my room are hands on and have some musical component attached to it.  I have kids that love to sing and dance and that is how they learn.  They remember every word to their favorite songs, but have a hard time remembering to put a capital letter at the beginning of their sentence.  When writing a sentence is written about in a song, they remember it.  I use a lot of  Miss Jenny Fixman's songs in my teaching.   I absolutely love my Phonics Time cd.  I may have had to order it again from using it so much!

You can check out the link below
Miss Jenny Fixman

One of my favorite cds of hers is this one!

We love singing these songs and then doing hands on math activities to go with her songs.

I have tons of math center puzzles that I do in my classroom to go with skills that we are learning.  Today I added this one. 

I created a 10 more, 10 less, 1 more, 1 Less pack for fall a long time ago.  My kids LOVE it.  I used fall clip art and am so picky with things I have out during the year.  I didn't want my puzzles with fall clip art out all year, so I created a new pack.  This one has a puzzle for EVERY number 1-100.  I can pick and choose what numbers I want out and when I want them out.  The clip art that I used will allow me to keep them out all year, not just in October and November.  I'm weird about that...I know.

If you don't have this book....head out and buy it now!  You won't be disappointed!

Dental Health Egg Experiment

Have you ever wondered what pop or juice does to your teeth?  In our kindergarten class we decided to do an experiment to see what would happen if we drank pop or juice and didn't brush our teeth.

We took 10 eggs (not hard boiled) and put them in clear plastic cups.  We covered them with different kinds of pop and juice and made our observations of what the eggs looked like.  We predicted what we thought would happen to the eggs after sitting in the liquids.

We recorded what we thought might happen to the eggs in our journals.

After 2 days, we checked the eggs again.  We noticed that the eggs that were sitting in the pop were discolored.  The shells of the eggs that were sitting in the Gatorade, grape juice and Energy drink started to look like the liquid was eating through the shells.

 Pop

 Grape Juice

 Energy Drink

Gatorade

We checked on the eggs a week later.  All of the eggs in the regular pop and the water were stained.  The 4 eggs that looked like it had the most change are below. The egg in Gatorade had the most change.  The shell looked like it was almost gone.

 Diet Pop

 Grape Juice

 Energy Drink

Gatorade

We checked the eggs again after 2 weeks.  We noticed the same changes occurring.  The shells looked like they were being eaten through. (I am not sure where my pics are...maybe on other camera?)

The eggs below having been sitting in their liquid for 3 weeks.

 The egg that was sitting in water looked okay.  The water mostly evaporated from the cup.

 The egg that was sitting in the Root Beer looked stained and like the shell was disappearing.  All that was left in the cup was a thick syrup.

 The egg in the Grape Juice was the grossest.  There was mold forming all over the sugar that was left in the cup and on the egg.    The shell had been eaten through.

 The egg in the Lemon Lime soda didn't look too bad.  It was bumpy.  All that was left in the cup was sugar water.

 The egg that was in the orange soda was pretty stained.  The soda started to eat through the egg.  There was a syrupy, sugar mixture left in the cup.

 The egg in the cola was stained.  There was a syrup left in the bottom of the cup.

 The egg in the Diet Pepsi was gross.  That's the best that I can describe it.  It looked like it was burned and charred.  The liquid left in the cup was a filmy, mucky mess.

 The egg shell that was in the Energy Drink was eaten through.  There was a lot of sugar left in the cup.

The egg in the Gatorade had most of the shell gone.  This is the egg that we noticed the biggest change in.  There was only sugar left in the cup.

We determined that the Gatorade was the worst thing for our teeth, followed by the Grape Juice and Energy Drink.  We threw out the egg that was in the V8 juice after week 1 because the juice became a thick mess covered in mold.

We learned that if we can't brush our teeth soon after drinking one of these beverages, we should at least rinse our mouth out with water.  Hopefully after doing this experiment my kids will keep in mind what could happen to their teeth if they don't brush them.

We really enjoyed writing in our journals after we made observations of what was happening.

I highly recommend doing this with your kids.  Mine loved it and we had great discussions.
Sara