Five for Friday 12/11

Man oh man has December flown by! Here's a sneak peak of what we've been up to!

In the hours and hours of spare time I have ;o),  I LOVE to decorate. Did a red buffalo plaid theme this year and I love how it turned out!

Our gingerbread man unit is coming up next week, so we kicked it off by disguising our own gingerbread people. They turned out too cute!! Here are some of the books we will read for out unit:

Then there is this...which my co-worker and I thought was a great idea last spring. Hah! It will be grand and were so excited, but a little overwhelmed about it!! We love our tech!

Our first little one handed in her BINGO project this week! We showcased it for the class to get the other excited about our iPad BINGO!  Our students take their iPads home and although we love a zillion selfies after each weekend home, we came up with a way to make taking iPads home a little more educational! 

Speaking of iPads... we found this AWESOME app this week! NFL Play 60 gets the kids up and moving while using their iPads. It is a great way to take a shake break and the kids loves to start the morning with it! It is a MUST have for an iPad classroom.

Well that was my week, how was yours? :o)

Five for Friday 11/6

How is it Friday again already?! These weeks are FLYING by! Last Friday, we had so much fun dressing up and making our healthy snack (thanks Pinterest).

Is this not the best costume ever?! Edward Scissorhands is spot on!

 

We only have enough time for one craft, so we painted pumpkins, which were generously donated to us. I did NOT expect one of my little friends to paint it completely orange. Hilarious.

At home, we dressed up as the decades. I'm, not a huge costume person so forgive my sad expressions of the 20s era. Oh. And Murphy was a squirrel.

Halloween also brought us a foster pup! He is seriously teeny tiny for a boxer and is OBSESSED with people! <3 him

I met with our technology team for the 2nd time this week. They already have projects completed for me! We developed a survey to give to the teachers.  We wanted to find out what the teachers needs with tech are so that the team could help teachers develop their tech skills!

Well that was my week....how was yours?!

Five for Friday Once Again!

Happy Friday all! We only had a three day week this week, which totally threw me off!

I did better on taking pictures this week and we squeezed all our tech in so we could finally take the iPads home!! Whooty-whoo!

 That brings us to #1 - packing up the iPads! We have been working on iPad literacy (appropriate use, handling, icon meaning) for a bit now and the time has come for the kids to take their iPads home for extended practice and exploration! Each of the kiddos gets a case, bag, and charger, which we VERY carefully packed up this afternoon!

They get to choose to either get the case in their bags or wear the cases. I actually took these pictures and more so we could show our Cali-buddies how to do it!

 We were able to meet our 1st grade Cali buddies for the first time this week! Their teacher, Mrs. Battaglia and I connected a few months back on social media and we decided to give virtual pen pals a shot! We are going to make a tutorial movie on how to take iPads home in the next few weeks. EEE I love integrating tech!

Speaking of connecting on social media... we also got to Tweet one of our favorite book authors! We had been exchanging Tweets for a few days and Mrs. Rosen Schwartz (The Three Ninja Pigs) ending up sending our classroom some ninja pig stickers and book marks! 

 Our kiddos were excited to get to "chat" with a real live author! It gave us some wind in our sails during writing this week.

We LOVE to read! Look at these two little cuties curled up with a good book. I love that the girls could sit there and read with their own books peacefully. I wish I was sitting there read a book with them too - it looks so natural!

 

Last these week is the most serene picture from last weekend...can I just blow this up please and plaster it on my classroom wall? Gooooood bye dull walls! Seriously though...I am really thinking of going for it. 

How was your week? Any fun tech projects to share? 

Five for Friday 10/9 - I have no pictures!

Does anyone else have this problem? I get to the end of the week and realize I have like two pictures from the entire week and they are selfies with a kid who needed a break. 

Pshh.

It's hard! I am not a picture person, I just don't have the time. BUT I am trying!

 First up, let's address this. We have been studying fairy tales and started reading some fractured fairy tales this week. Ninja Red Riding Hood was our first crack at it and my kids were enamored with the story, rhymes, and ninjas they got to make after reading.  So we tweeted the author to ask if she had other books AND SHE TWEETED BACK! So cool! 

 Next, lets address password cards. Our kiddos have a number of apps which require passwords. Last year I did not put anyones face on their card - which was a MAJOR mistake. Especially at the beginning.  Now I have my kiddos faces, names, pictures of the apps, and the passwords.  One set for folders, the other sets for the classroom. They work pretty well and keep us organized!

 We had our first Google Hangout date with our pen pals from California! Super excited! Mrs. Battaglia's class is a first grade class whom we are so excited to learn with and about! Our next date is next Thursday but I haven't told the kiddos yet - oops! Can't wait!

 Aww, this is a sweet one. One of my grandma's from last year saw our class at the book fair and bought a little eraser for each of the kids on our class. She was so thoightful. Then she took some time and kind words with one of my little behavior friends. It was definitely the light that I needed in the day! 

 Last is really a re-cap from last weekend when my sisters in law and husband did the Ditka Dash in Chicago! It was a fun and chilly little 5K on the lake front.  I am always amazed at the beauty of our city! 

How was your week? And more importantly how do you find the time to take pictures mid week!?