Do You GoNoodle? & Product Promotion

Before last Friday, apparently I had been living under a rock because I had never heard of GoNoodle (www.gonoodle.com). Do you GoNoodle? GoNoodle has a large collection of brain breaks that you can do in the classroom. It is free for teachers to sign up too which makes it even better!

In the picture above, my class was doing Zumba to the song “I Like to Move It” and they LOVED IT! They also love Boogie Down with the dancing chicken.

Once you sign in, you’ll get to choose an avatar for your classroom and you will be brought to this screen. I started GoNoodle on Friday so I’m still trying to figure out what the indicator on the right means. When my students completed one of the brain breaks, they received points so I assume that is what it’s for.

This is where you will go to find all of the great brain breaks. You’ll soon find out which ones your students love. I can’t wait to explore all of them! If you use GoNoodle in your classroom, share in the comments which brain breaks are your favorite. I’d like to show my class some of the ones that are tried and true in others’ classrooms.

Now for a little product promotion…I have two new Easter items in my TpT store. The first is a freebie named I Am Egg-straordinary It is a glyph activity that your students can use to tell about themselves—something they ALL love to do. I plan on using this item this week before our Easter/Spring Break. Go grab this freebie now!

I love a good Bingo game, don’t you? Easter Bingo is another game in my collection of Bingo games in my TpT store. The first TWO people who leave a comment and their email address will get this game for free.

Two more things…I am finally on Bloglovin’! I invite you to follow me HERE. I would also like to invite you to my weekly Pin Up Thursdays linky parties. Every Thursday, other bloggers and myself will share 4 interesting, educational pins from Pinterest. I would love for you to link up!

Enjoy your Sunday!

Pin Up Thursdays Linky Party (April 10th)

Pin Up Thursdays is a weekly linky party where you share four interesting educational finds from Pinterest. If you need help getting your party on, click HERE! Now, party animals…find your pins, blog about it, grab my buttons, and link back up here on my blog. Here are my pins from the week…

 

Okay so these are chalkboard classroom tables! How cool is that? I think that if good rules are established for when to write on the tables, this could be a great tool…especially in a math class!

 

 

I love these brag buttons! They would be such a motivational tool for the classroom. My first graders love to talk (usually about things that have nothing to do with what we are learning at that time…but, that’s ok lol). These can now be a way for them to work hard so that they can talk about something that has to do with school.

 

These work boxes are used by your students when they finish their work. You can put items in each student’s box based on what their needs are. I guess you could also use these in place of the expensive mailboxes. I have a wooden one that is very sturdy but it costs a pretty penny. Both uses would be great for the classroom.

 

 

Sorry for the blurry picture for this pin, but it is sooo what I’ve been looking for! I’ve been on a search for Easter activities for my kiddos, and I found this pin that I’d like to try. These are mystery eggs, and your students must make inferences about what is inside after they get three clues. Once all of your students make a guess, you get to open the eggs and reveal what is inside. Such fun!

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Let Me Re-Introduce Myself…

Okay, so I’m not re-introducing myself, but I am re-introducing Pin Up Thursdays. I started doing Pin Up Thursdays back in 2012 to share my interesting educational finds on Pinterest. I still write posts about it, but not as often as I should. At one point it was also a link party, but it didn’t really catch on…*sniffles*. So, I am going to give it another try!

I’ll use this post as reference for future Pin Up Thursdays. You can see my older Pin Up Thursday posts by clicking on the yellow Pin Up Thursdays tab on the right-hand side of the site. You’d think I’d be doing it more seeing as there is a whole section dedicated to it!

So, here’s what you do: During the week, pin anything interesting that you find on Pinterest. It could be a craft, an activity, an app, ANYTHING! Pinterest is so cool for teachers because there are zillions (yes, zillions) of teachers sharing a plethora of ideas from their classrooms. My pinboards are full of things that I want to make for my classroom, try in my classroom, or buy for my classroom. If you’re having trouble finding things, I would suggest that you find a few collaborative boards to follow. You can also search Pinterest using keywords like “classroom ideas.”

Here’s a little bit more information for you:

I will host this linky party each Thursday, and I sure hope that you’ll join me.

Now go forth and find your pins and tell some of your friends that Mrs. McClain is hosting a new/old linky party on Thursdays!

Linking Up: Currently & New Products

I’m linking up with Farley again for Currently, so here goes…

I have some cool new products in my TpT store as well. It’s called So Dolchy! and it is a collection of Dolch Word practice sheets. These would be perfect for your students who need extra practice with their sight words.
 
The Pre-Primer and Primer versions are in my store now. I will add the First, Second, and Third grade versions to my store later. Each pack contains all of the words in the Dolch word set and costs on $5 dollars. I will give the FIRST person to comment below with their email a set of both for free. If you miss being first, you can still download the preview packs at my store to get a free practice sheet.


Follow my blog with Bloglovin

My iPad Threw Up! Part One

I am looking forward to a few days off for Mardi Gras. Seriously, Louisiana is a unique state! This past week, I was fortunate to attend our parish’s technology showcase. Each year, teachers from schools in the parish are invited to other schools to see how they incorporate technology in their classrooms. It is a two day event, and each day you visit three different schools. This was my second time attending, and it was an awesome experience (I took a ton of pics…my iPad threw them up below!)

The only downside is that I can’t really come back to my school and use the coolest technologies that I see because they mostly involve iPads…sigh. But I have gained many ideas for WHEN I get some for my room. (Sidenote: I do have one iPad in my classroom, but it is like the FIRST iPad that was ever made. It can be kinda glitchy at times, it can only update to a certain point, and it doesn’t have a camera at all. My kids basically use it to take AR tests. So I do have one but…I need a newer version.)

So I’d like to share all of the cool pictures that I took with my personal iPad during the first day of the showcase.

Today, In My Classroom: Simple AR Tracking

OMG, where have I been? Sorry to take such a big hiatus from blogging. I’ve been in the midst of dealing with health issues, wrangling my active child, and trying to live this teacher life!

I have a quick post for today, and it is about AR or Accelerated Reader. I must admit, my school doesn’t push AR too much and as a result I don’t either. That’s my teacher confession of the day. I know that some teachers love it or hate it. I genuinely want my students to read more, especially considering that I am a first grade teacher. So, I’m going to keep better track of my  students’ progress. I know you may be thinking, “Why are you starting this so late in the year though?” Well…I figure better late than never.

I decided that I should take this slowly, and I am going to start by using a tracking sheet. You see, some of my students weren’t taking tests AT ALL during the week. (Again, bad teacher!) I create this simple, non-frilly, non-graphic-filled (is this a word?) tracking sheet. It literally took me 3 seconds to make but it is a great way to get started. Students simply fill in the circle that corresponds to their number (each student has a number in the classroom based on alphabetical order) after they take an AR test.

So by using this tracking sheet, I make sure that each student tests at least once each week. It also serves as a visual for my students. If they haven’t filled in a circle yet, they know that they need to test on a book. If they have filled in a circle, they know that they have taken a test. My next task is to create a visual for tracking the amount of points the students earn. Hopefully I will find a great system so that I can start the next school year off right.

Do you have any ideas for tracking when students take AR tests or tracking students’ points? Please share! I’m leaving the tracking chart that I created below in a Google Doc for you to grab for free. If you can’t get the imbedded file, just grab it here. Enjoy!

Happy New Year & Collab Blog

Happy New Year to you! I can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2014. One new thing for 2014 is a new collaborative blog that I am involved in called Who’s Who and Who’s New. It features new blog posts every day by awesome bloggers.  Make sure you stop by today because I am the featured blogger. I have a few tips for surviving the first week after the holiday break. Check out my post here!