Web 2.0 Tool-Final Reflection

I used bitstrips to create a short reflection on what I learned from this course. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Final Literacy Project

I had so much fun creating a cute and fun Storybird story with my Pre-k students. As a whole group, we had a quick discussion about what we might want to write a story about. The students came to an agreement that the monster pictures were cool. We then chose ten different monster pictures to use for our story. We talked about the fact that the pictures were not all of the same character. We decided that our monster would be a monster that was always changing. The name Marcus came from a class vote after a few other names were given. I then had my students break into their small literacy groups, and each group either helped me write one or two pages. When all the pages were completed, we came back together as a whole group and finalized our story. The kids loved making the story and it was super easy and fun!! Take a look and let us know what you think!!

I Love Diigo!!

I absolutely love my Diigo Library! I think it's a great way to keep track of tons of great websites and articles; especially if you are gathering information for a project or for new ideas in the classroom. I found it extremely helpful when finding websites to add to our class wiki project. I will continue to use it as a bookmarking tool for both professional and personal uses. I have been tagging all the sites I add; but when I have some free time I would like to make more lists to find information even quicker. I showed my teammates at work how to use it and they too have started to really enjoy using it.

Digital Storytelling Project

For this project,  I had my PreK class and Kate had her First Grade class illustrate pictures about what friendship means to them. We then wrote down each child's thoughts about friendship. Being a good friend is a social skill that we both are working on in our classrooms. I showed my students the video today and they loved it! We had to watch it twice; and my students are now so excited about helping me to make more videos. They really enjoyed seeing their illustrations come to life on the Smartboard. It was a fun project, and I can't wait to make more digital books for my class. Check out the video and let me know your thoughts.

Cute Dr. Seuss Books on Video

I came across some Dr. Seuss books on Youtube that I will share with my students this week and wanted to share them with you.

Dr. Seuss Ideas..

Seussville is a great website for learning more about Dr. Seuss. There is a section to find out more information about the books he has written and the artwork he has created. There are some short videos to watch as well. There are a ton of printable activities and some games to play online. If you need some ideas check out the site and let me know what you think. Also, if you have any great ideas for craft projects or activities to celebrate Dr. Seuss Day, please share them!


(Image Courtesy of Google Images)

How Young is Too Young??

I use lots of technology in my classroom each day to enhance my students' learning. I have a Smartboard in my classroom so we can do a lot of whole group activities using it. I use a site called Starfall all the time with my students. It's a great site for building early literacy skills. My students love to read each little mini book that goes along with the letters we are learning. PBS Kids is another great site for building early literacy, math, and science skills. We play letter recognition games, rhyming games, counting games, matching games, etc.. You can go on and do a search for the type of game you are looking for and go from there. Another resource I use for free book videos is through Barnes and Noble. Many times the books on there have the actual author reading the story; very cute! I teach PreK 3 and 4 year olds and they have no problem playing the games or listening to the stories. I feel they learn a lot from the games and also the stories. The students are also allowed to play the games we play on the Smartboard on the two classroom computers during center time. After taking this class, I will also be doing more with Animoto, digital stories and Storybird to enhance student learning.

Looking for New Literacy Ideas...

(Image is Courtesy of Google Images)

I found a post from Judy's Blog titled Literacy Shed and thought I would check it out, because the title caught my eye. The site has so many great visual literacy resources for the classroom. Some of the resources are geared for older students, but I found the picture book shed to be something I will use with my own students. One story I read every year is Owl Babies written by Martin Wadell, and this site has a great movie version of the book. What a great way for me to really grab my students attention, and for them to be able to listen and watch the story at the same time. If anyone has any other great sites for free read aloud books that I could play on my Smartboard please let me know, I am always looking for ideas!

Idea for Digital Storytelling Project

(Picture Courtesy of Google Images)

 

Kate and I are planning to do our project together, however, with all these days off I have not had a chance to start working on it with my students. We were thinking it would be fun to see what children think about friendship and create a book about their ideas. We were thinking the title might be, Friendship Through the Eyes of a Child. Working together we would be able to see how PreK and First grade students view friendship. We were going to have all the children illustrate their ideas and write down the words they told us that describe their illustrations. We would then go back and record the child talking about their illustration. We thought we would show the child's illustration while they said their words. For background music, we were thinking we would play the instrumental version of the theme song to the Toy Story Movies-You've Got a Friend in Me. Anyone have any suggestions for us??

Valentine's Day Ideas

(One of the many cute idea on the site.)

I came across a really cute blog a few weeks ago and have been following it now using google reader. The site has many cute ideas for Valentine's Day that would be appropriate for PreK and Kindergarten students. There are lots of free printables as well. Check out the blog, and if you like it add it to your google reader list.