iPad, Reading Horrors, Word Work, Out of the Minds of Babes

Let's start with the iPad. Do you have any idea how cool it is to snap photos of your students learning and then send those photos to parents via Edmodo? (if you do not know Edmodo, google it and check it out!) It's a thing of beauty. And blogging? I'm trying it out for the first time via the iPad. I can snap photos, grab links, add video....all with one piece of technology. beeeeeeYYOOooooUtiful! Find a way to get one. All teachers should have one.

 One of my firsties comes wailing to me across the room like a hysterical siren. All I could get out of him were the words "dead" "animals" and...well, I guess I really couldn't make out the rest. After a few minutes of hugs and dectective work, I discovered that the little guy had made a discovery of his own, and it is called Natures Monsters - Endangered Reptiles. The is what had him going:

 
And then there was this





 Yes, it is the rock star teacher that looks through her books for appropriateness before launching them into her class library. For the record, this was a book I got from Scholastic.

 I needed an activity for spelling that really got my kids engaged. All it took was some sharpies and blank cheap puzzles from oriental trading. The word that the puzzle focuses on is written onthe puzzle pieces, one letter per piece. It is written multiple times, each in a diffent color ink. Each color is sorted and the word put together before assembling the entire thing. Each time a word is put together the student has to write it in their Working with Word notebook. I put each puzzle in its own ziploc and numbered it, and wrote the word on the bag. Some puzzles had many different words on it.

 

And lastly, check out what one of my firsties brought for share. I do a big chicken egg unit, which i would have blogged about had I not been so tired. We incubate eggs, and the kids are put of all the processes. I taught them how to candle eggs, and the learned what to look for. This child made his len egg at home to show how candling works; he filled a plastic easter egg with stickers, and then used a flash light to candle it. Can you imagine the possibilities? This could make an amazing word work activity but putting words/segments/sounds in the eggs with wikkies or sharpie.




 I am feeling refreshed knowing that we have only this week left of school, and that there is a big shining light at the end of tunnel (and it isn't going to be a train).