GAME ON!

I am feeling pretty lucky in my new position as an Academic Interventionist that I get to spend time having fun and playing games with my students. I have always loved making games a part of education because often students have so much fun they forget they are learning!

 In the 6th grade exploratory I used to teach the whole class was centered around a game. We spent time thinking of and researching  questions and answers related to things they were learning about in Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Science, and other Exploratory classes. Then we took those questions and entered them into our clicker software and invited their classroom teacher to the library to challenge them to play 'Are you Smarter than a 6th grader.' It was always fun to see how the teachers and students did against each other. The kids were always amazed at how much their teachers knew! It was a lot of fun and each semester the game got better because we could learn from past mistakes on making sure the answers we accurate when we were searching. It was a great fact checking exercise for everyone. And the kids learned the library has amazing resources to help them extend their knowledge in class. Looking back it was one of the projects I miss the most with the kids.

When I spent some time in the 6th grade classroom I loved to use my Smartboard to create review games. My favorite was a mini golf course I set up on the Smartboard where each right question was a 'hit' closer to the hole and the team with the lowest 'hits' was the winner. I also pulled out the Connect Four board on the Smartboard quite a bit and split the class in to two teams. If you answered a question correct then you got to place your checker where you wanted on the board. The first team to connect four was the winner. I had a pretty tech savvy teammate as well and he and his former teaching partner had received a grant to get Classroom Jeopardy, so that was pulled out a few times a year for Science reviews.

Now that I am working with K-2 students for only 20 minutes at a time, I find that games are a great way to grab their attention and get a concept across in a short amount of time. I have a great Title 1 teacher at my daughters school to thank for helping me realize this when I was subbing for her. After her lesson with the kids she always ended with some sort of game and I found the kids left happy and wanting to come back the next day. It was great to see them smile, so I have adopted this as I work with my students now.

My favorite game I learned from here is Alphabet Twister. All you need is an old twister board and some sort of manipulative with letters on it. She had bears with upper and lower case letters on their tummies. I had some old poker chips around the house so I drew letters on them with a permanent marker. You place these manipulatives on the circles of the twister board. Then the kids spin the twister spinner and if they land on yellow they pick up a manipulative from that circle and tell you the letter. If they are correct they keep the letter and get back in line. If they are wrong they put it back and get back in line. You play until time is up (or they get a little restless) then you count how many letters each student has. (sneaking a little math in there too!) The student with the most letters is your winner! So easy and so much fun.

Another game I learned from subbing at my daughters school was Pop for Sight Words.  I liked it so much I bought it for my girls for Christmas. You can find it on Amazon and I am sure any teacher store around. Each kernel of popcorn has a sight word on it. As you draw from the popcorn bucket you say the sight word. If you get it right you keep your popcorn. If you get it wrong you put it back in the bucket. There are also some POP kernels in the bucket. If you draw one of those you have to put ALL your kernels back and start over. The person with the most kernals at the end is the winner. The kids at school told me it wasn't fair because I knew all the words - but I could usually find a popcorn to give all my pieces up - just my luck! We play quite a bit and I asked if it was okay if I borrow for a day to take to school to play this week. (One of them said yes and the other said no.)

A game I plan to play with my kindergartners this week is ABC Hopscotch. I found the foam alphabet puzzle pieces on sale at a local store and added them to my collection. I plan to assemble it like a hopscotch board before the kids arrive. Then they will have a small bean bag to throw at the letters on the board. They will then hop to the letter the bag lands on. As they hop they will have to say the letters (or sound of the letters) they hop on as they make their way to pick up the bean bag. The same goes as they turn around and hop back to the beginning. If we can we will try to count the number of letters they get right and the student with the most correct at the end is the winner. If that gets to be too much we will just hopscotch for fun! I can't wait to see how it goes. Wish me luck!

There are many file folder games, flash cards, and teacher made games in the room. And I have also found many fun games on Teachers Pay Teachers, Pinterest, and just by doing Google searches.

But perhaps my favorite classroom game has nothing to do with learning - it is just a fun way to end the class when there has been good behavior or you need to kill 5-10 minutes because your lesson went better than planned. It is called Silent Ball and whoever invented it is a genius! The class forms a circle around the room and says 1-2-3 Silent Ball. Then the teacher gives the ball to the first student and they through it around the circle to someone else. If a person drops the ball or (and this is the genius of the game) is NOT silent they have to sit down and stay silent. The game continues until only one person is left standing. There are many variations to rules, such as you can't throw to your neighbor until there are four people left in the circle and when you get down to four people you usually add another challenge like stand on one foot or throw with your opposite hand. (This usually ends in a little giggling, but is okay because the game in almost over) I am always amazed at how fast a class can quiet down when you say lets play Silent Ball!

Before you close the page - Please share your favorite classroom game to engage students in learning. 

Create a story bot and more!

I cannot say enough good things about a collection of apps from Storybots on the iPad. I stumbled across Starring You Books on Facebook one day and knew my girls would love it. This app allows you to create a character with your child's name in the story and a picture of their face placed on the body of the main character in the story. They essentially become the story. Even my two year old laughs and giggle when she is part of the story.

The apps are free in iTunes and you have access to one book about dancing feet to try out, which we did for a month. I wanted to see how much my girls would use it because the subscription is $4.99/ month which is about $60 a year so I didn't want to jump in without trying first. With the subscription you get access to all their great apps like Math Racer, Starring You Videos and Books, Coin Flip, Share Timer, Learning Videos, Kid Quoter, Tap & Sing, ABC Videos, Kids Radio, and Beep and Bop and a couple holiday specific Starring You Family Videos. If you think about it that is about 40 cents per app, which is not such a bad investment for a child's education.

I was ready to jump in after watching my girls have fun reading with the app, but I also just bought a Kindle for my daughters so wanted to know if the apps were available in Android version. I emailed Storybots and not only did they give me a quick response that they are working on Android apps, but they also let me know as an educator that I could get a free subscription - yes I said free! I just had to fill out this form - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/educator-network-referral I filled it out and they sent me an acces code to get started. They also followed up with an email to see if everything worked and was going well. It was very great service. So big props to them!

Here are some ideas on how you could use the apps in your classroom, library, or at home with your kids.

Take pictures of your students and show them how to add to Starring You Books. Then they can read the books during free reading time or read aloud to other students during center time. Or you can read the books together as a bedtime story. My 2 year old even likes to watch her character dance across the screen even though she can't read the words.

Take pictures of your whole class and put them in the Starring You Videos and show the videos on your Smartboard (or even just your screen or whiteboard if that is what you have.) I guarantee there will be giggles! 

Start your circle time with a different ABC video to grab everyone's attention. Share the learning videos to compliment your curriculum. Turn on the kids radio during work time as an incentive to help keep the class quite and working. 

I have not had a chance to use some of the apps, but this is how I think you could use them. Use Mather Racer as a center during Math time. Use the Share Timer to keep track of rotation during centers if you rotate. Use the Coin Flip to decide who is your helper for a certain job or where students will go to centers. Use Beep and Bop to keep track of classroom behavior. Use Kid Quoter to keep track of fun things students say to share in a newsletter or at conferences. Create a book at the end of the year for the class or each student. 

Just have fun and play around with all the apps and see what you can do! The possibilities are endless.

This is my toddler enjoying the ABC song video on the Storybots website. (She was giggling before I made her stop watching to look at me for the picture.) 

Before you close the page - how could you use these apps in your classroom? Please share below. 

Share the Love on Donors Choose

I found out about this contest and thought I would share for anyone w/ an open Donors Choose Project right now. I donated to two great projects on the Caring Classroom page to help bring audio books to students who are wanting to listen and learn! 

If you don't know about Donor's Choose it is a wonderful site where teachers can post projects they feel would benefit their students and find donors to make the projects happen. I have had three projects funded in the past to help with purchasing audio books, comfortable reading furniture, and hands on K'nex sets to bring Science research about renewable energy to life. I currently have a project to help create a mini recording studio for my 1st and 2nd graders working on fluency. Be sure to click to check out my project! 

I would appreciate any donation you could give. I kicked it off w/ $10 and in the first week if you use the code INSPIRE then Donor's Choose will match the donation! Pretty inspiring to me! 

Check it out today and you might even find some more deserving projects to share the love with as well! 

Before you close the page - what are things you do to bring fun and exciting activities in your classroom? 

Bookmark and Share your Favorite Websites with Symbaloo EDU

If you are like me you love all the resources available on the Internet, but keeping track of all of them can be difficult. There are many different ways out there to keep track of and share websites and I use and have shared some like Thinglink and Pinterest, but another one I like to use is Symbaloo.

Symbaloo has a website (an extension in Chrome - and probably other browsers, but I mostly use Chrome as I recently purchased a Chromebook) and an app so saving sites on your mobile devices is easy as well. You just copy the website you want to keep - go to Symbaloo - find the webmix you want to save it to - click to add a new tile - paste in the website - make any choices you want (you can also put in a title - change the color - pick an icon to display for each URL) - save the tile and it is there. Same procedure for the mobile app - just open the app and use the above steps.  If you use the extension in Chrome you just click on the extension for Symbaloo - do all your choices in the window that opens up and it magically transfers it to Symbaloo for the next time you are there. I wanted to include a Snapguide to show you these easy steps, but my new Chromebook and my iPad are not cooperating with me at home. I think it may have something to do with my internet and wireless connection - so I am working on that. I love technology and using, but there are times it is a little maddening - especially when it doesn't work like you want it to.

Symbaloo not only lets you store your websites, it also lets you share them with others. You can share in the public gallery of webmixes for everyone to see, via email to a few friends, with a link or embed on your site for visitors all in a couple of clicks.

Technology EDU webmix



Before you close the page - what is your go to place to bookmark your websites to use later?

Link things with Thing Link

I came across this awesome Web 2.0 tool that I have to share - Thinglink is what I would call a visual learners dream come true.

Thinglink allows you to take an image and link other information to it. You can use the search box inside of Thinglink to find YouTube or Vimeo clips, SoundCloud or Spotify audio clips, Amazon books, items for sale on Etsy or Ebay, public photos on Flickr or Instagram and Social media like Facebook or Twitter and much more. Click here to see a Slide Share to explain more.  If you know of a great website you can click anywhere on the picture and link it. You can even just include some interesting information in a text box to share.

I can see endless possibilities of how to use this with students. The first thing that came to mind was when I used to collaborate with the art teacher and the students created a report to share information about their environmental issue they airbrushed or artist the interpreted on a birdhouse. With this resource we could take a digital picture of the artwork and students could link information they found on the Internet and even to a Google Doc version of their typed report and tada it is an all digital report to share!

Another idea I had would be for students doing a biography report as we did in 6th grade Language Arts. The students could find a picture of their famous person then link videos of the person giving a speech, an online encyclopedia or magazine article with more information about the person, books about the person, a recipe they like to eat, or even a song they sing or like and a Google Doc of their written report. Another tada for a digital sharing piece!

If you do a million dollar scrapbook in Math you could use a picture collage site like Smilebox,  Photovisi , Fotor, or PiZap to create a collage of all your items then load to Thinglink and create links to online catalogs and websites with prices and descriptions of the items.

I could also see students using it for ecosystem presentations by finding a picture layout of their assigned ecosystem and labeling the different parts with information about why they are important to the life cycle in the system. Or adding videos of animals that live in the ecosystem and websites for environmental websites to protect the area.

Students studying different cultures around the world could find a picture of a celebration in that culture and link to videos or other photos of the celebration, items purchased to celebrate, websites about customs that happen during the celebration, and social media posts from people during the celebration.

Students studying advertising could pick a picture of a product and link to commercials, the products website, information on the history of the product, customer reviews of the product, and stock or price information about the product.

Students reading a book could draw or pose for a picture of the characters in a scene from the book and link to video clips of book trailers (or make their own to link to), other photos that depict happenings in the book, sounds or songs that go with the mood of the book, merchandise the characters might have, or reviews of the book.

Here is an example of the first one I created for a teaching tool to use with the Dewey Decimal System mural in the library.



Before you close the page - share some of your ideas for using Thinglink with your students....

Have The Shelf Elf help with library classroom management

As I was spending too much time on Pinterest the other day, doing some research for creating our own version of the Elf on the Shelf at our house I was reminded of The Shelf Elf from Upstart. Click on The Shelf Elf to see the book and you can search other items like bookmarks, books with lessons and posters. I also found a link to this PDF with ideas for using him to teach library etiquette and skills. The Shelf Elf is suggested for K-2 students, but I think you could use with older students as review too.

I started thinking this might be a good way to handle classroom management in the library as well. So I wanted to share some ideas on how this might work.

I would start by purchasing or seeing if a volunteer could make a Shelf Elf doll to keep in the library. There are many ideas on Etsy. Here are a couple I liked -

 Knitted Elf Amber's Elves

I would read The Shelf Elf by Jackie Mims Hopkins and discuss what Skoob does to be a good library student and take care of the books.

I would introduce the students to our shelf elf and explain that he would be making appearances throughout the year to check in on us. He will be watching to make sure we are being

• Respectful - following instructions - listening to teacher and other students when teaching or sharing
• Responsible - returning books back on time and materials to class - getting assignments done well and on time -being on time for class
• Have good Relationships - helping classmates - listening to other opinions
• Being Safe - using library materials properly (including electronics) - online safety 

(These are the words we drill into our students as part of PBIS so I wanted to keep the terms, but they could be adjusted to fit your school.)

Throughout the year the shelf elf would show up and give coins to students who are 'caught' following these expectations.

Students could turn the coins in for prizes at different times of the year. Prizes could be almost anything, here are some I thought of -\

• Bookmarks
• Homework pass
• Books
• Trinkets
• Lunch in the library (with friends or for a personal pan pizza)
• Guest appearance on morning announcements
• Extra Credit or Add 10 points to an assignment score
• Extra technology time

You could even have The Shelf Elf come out to help promote new books, award homerooms with having no overdues, contests for reading minutes, and like the Elf on the Shelf at Christmas time he could show up and do some silly things throughout the year like -

• Rearrange some books on the shelf (kids could help put them back for practice)
• Take selfies with the kids and favorite books to post on library website
• Spell out messages in books (or chalk, scrabble tiles, candy, shaving cream)
• Set up a scavenger hunt for books 
• Leave a note in books at random for prizes
• Change screen saver on computer to a picture of him
• Get stuck in display case, between books, magazine boxes, computer monitor, kleenex box, ect

The ideas are endless and could be a lot of fun depending on time you have to spend, which we all know can be sparse depending on how many fixed classes you teach or libraries you cover in your district. 

I even found a tutorial on how to make an elf coat from recycled sweaters on Etsy. Which could be fun to wear if you are helping the elf.

I sometimes like to take an idea and make it my own, so instead of the Shelf Elf you could find any stuffed animal to live on the shelves in your library and watch the students. For example my former school's mascot was a hawk so maybe he could use his keen hawk vision to keep an eye on the students in the library. I think he could even be used in the classroom if needed.

 Stuffed Hawk

Before you close the page - What are your ideas for classroom management in the library?

May the Odds Ever be in your Favor - Suzanne Collins in The Hunger Games

Unless you were unlucky enough to be reaped into The Hunger Games, I am sure you are aware of the trilogy by Suzanne Collins about a society that places two children from each of the 12 districts in an arena to fight to the death on live television in order to keep the citizens from rebelling against the all powerful Capitol.

For the second time we have decided to bring this book to life for students and the second Hunger Games Competition was held as a joint event with the middle and high school students who chose to take the challenge.

I went to a competition about four years ago at the college I attended and had a blast helping with the first aid station, so I came back and told my fellow high school librarian that we needed to have one too.
After we did one a few years ago when the first movie came out the kids told us as they left we needed another one when the next movie came out, so here we were happy to get them engaged again!

For the first competition we went to work searching the book and many websites to come up with the activities for the games. The announcement and posters hit the hallways and teams were formed. As part of the competition the teams were asked to bring school supplies to donate to our Back to School Fair for an entry fee. We had seven teams sign up and participate in the Cornucopia Challenge followed by these stations -

• Trivia
• Face Painting (Camouflage)
• Poison Berries
• Scholastic Online Hunger Games
• Dark Room
• Obstacle Course 

As we tallied scores to see who won the students decorated cupcakes in honor of Peeta. The winners left with some movie tickets and posters and door prizes were drawn for more posters or books. It was great to hear them talk about all their adventures as they left.

This time we again went to work searching the book and websites to come up with activities. Teams were formed and as part of the competition were asked to bring canned food to donate to the local food pantry as an entry fee. We had fourteen teams sign up and participate in the Cornucopia Challenge followed by these stations -

• On Fire Trivia
• Duct Tape Doll Dresses
• The Human Knot
• Water Drop
• Dark Room Pool
• Paper Airplanes 

The students were treated to a survival mix as points were tallied and winners left with their choice of  movie tickets or a book about the movie and door prizes were drawn for t-shirts, bookmarks, or posters.

Here are some pictures of the students who came through my trivia station and the prizes at the end of the competition -

A digital slideshow by Smilebox

Of course this competition could not have happened without the students interest, the teachers and volunteers who came to help run the stations, and the students who participated as design team leaders to help lead the teams around to the correct station. So we thank all of them for taking the time to help. It is wonderful to see a community of readers excited by their love of the story. We already heard some comments about next time...

If you would like any information about the stations or how they worked feel free to contact me, I am happy to share!

Before your close the page - Does your school have any competitions to help bring books to life? What are they? I would love to hear all the ideas!