iPad Power with Menus!

Throughout the year in my classroom I introduced many apps to the class.  We used these apps at stations and to create final products for our research and personal writing.  After the class was familiar with the apps, I created some menus so they could choose the app they would like to use and sometimes even the culminating activity they wanted to complete. This was a big hit...especially with the GT group! 
Here are the menus we used and some of the extra resource pages that were helpful in getting their thoughts organized.

Research Menu

 

Research Page

 

 

Book Club Menu-Fiction

 

Book Club Menu-NonFiction

 

 

Here's one more menu that my husband made. Check out his blog HERE!

 

Blackout Menu

 

 

Here's a few pages that we used to organize our thoughts before creating the final project.

 

Chatterpix Character Traits

 

 

Chatterpix Summary

 

 

One more thing!! 

Here's a fun way to use the iPads right away on the first day of school!  I did this last year and it was a big hit! The kids pair up and interview a friend.  They use this page as a guide.  They use the Tellagami app to insert a picture of their friend and record the new facts they learned about them.  We shared them with the whole class when we were complete!

 

All About My Friend

 

 

End of the Year Activities!

I have just enough time to post a few activities that we are using during this crazy end of the year time!

Our school theme this year is "Sweet on Success."  Everything is decorated with candy...so that was the inspiration for this activity. 

I'm A 2nd Grade Smartie!

 

The students wrote some things they learned this year in school to be a "smartie." 

 

I'm a Smartie

 

 

Here's an example I made:

(This download includes pages for - 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade smarties.)

 

My Bucket List!
 

We are also thinking about what we want to accomplish next year, so we made a bucket list!  This is a list of goals or activities we want to accomplish next school year.

 

Bucket List

 

 

Here's an example I made for the class to see:

 

(This download also includes pages for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade bucket lists.)

 

One last activity...

 

We read the book, Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss.  We talked about our goals for the summer, next school year, and even the future.  We also discussed how to reach those goals.  On this page the kids wrote the places they'll go (their goals) and what they needed to do to get there!

 

The Places I'll Go!

 

 

That's all for now!  Have a great end to your school year and a relaxing summer!

 

Favorite Apps and Activities!

Here's a few FREE apps that we use a lot in class and some ideas of how you can incorporate them into your curriculum!

30 Hands

FREE!

 

This app allows you to create slides and add pictures.   You can narrate each slide and create a final presentation!

 

You can use this app to...

*Create a final research project

*Summarize a story

*Narrate a published story

*Literature Circle final projects

 

We used this app to record our research on Thanksgiving.  Here's an example!

 

 

 

Tellagami

 

FREE!

 

This app is a favorite in our classroom!  This app lets you create and share a quick animated video called a Gami.

 

You can use this app to...

*Create a final research project

*Interview a friend (beginning of the year project)

*Summarize a story

*Discuss character traits

*Literature circle final project

 

We used this app at the beginning of the year as a getting to know you activity. Each student interviewed a friend.  Here's an example!

 

 

 

Chatterpix Kid

 

FREE!

 

This app was a huge hit when I introduced it to the class!  We laughed all day when we first used this app! You can take any photo, then draw a line to make a mouth, and record your voice. It makes your object or person talk!  So cute!

 

You can use this app to...

*Create story summaries

*Discuss character traits

*Create a final research project

*Object poems (make the object of your poem talk!)

*Literature circles final project

 

We used this app to summarize a familiar story.  Here's an example!

 

 

 

 

I hope this gave you some ideas for your classroom.  I have a few more ideas on how to incorporate the iPads and other apps into the classroom that I hope to share with you soon, so check back!

 

Non-Fiction/Fiction Text Features

I'm a little behind on posting to this blog!  I finally found some extra time to post a few things that I used for our non-fiction text features lessons.

Here's a few things that I used to check for understanding.

Fiction/Non-Fiction Sort

 

 

Fiction/Non-Fiction List

 

Non-Fiction Text Features Quiz

 

Click HERE to view a previous post that has more non-fiction text features ideas.

 

Reports of Problems with Downloads

I have noticed many comments regarding the ability to view and download my files.  All the files are stored in Google Drive and are listed as public. We have tested with different accounts and browsers.  With some browsers, the ability to view may not work, but the download option does work. It may be due to the browser version.  Sorry for any inconvenience, but I'm not sure what else I can do from this side since they are already public files.

Main Idea

We had lots of fun learning about main idea this week!

Here's a few activities that I used.

We used the following notes page to understand main idea and what we can do as reader's to figure out the main idea.

 

Main Idea Notes

 

 

We played a game with these main idea bags. Each bag had three pictures that went together. I split the class into groups. Their job was to write the details (pictures) and the main idea for each bag. 

 

 

Main Idea Bags

 

 

The groups recorded their answers on this sheet. As an extension, the groups wrote a story on the back that went with their main idea.

 

As another extension, I gave the groups a blank square to draw another picture that would go with their main idea.

 

This was fun!  I think the class really enjoyed this activity!

 

 

We also practiced finding the main idea and details during a read aloud.  We wrote our main idea and details on this flipbook and added it to our reader's notebooks. 

 

Main Idea Flipbook

 

I created these main idea hamburgers to add to the listen to reading station so the kids wouldn't forget about main idea!

Main Idea Hamburgers

 

 

 

Folktales

Last week we started our unit on folktales.  This is a super fun unit!

I started by introducing the different types of folktales.  I used this awesome chart that I downloaded from Teacher's Pay Teachers.  You can get it HERE.   This was created by a librarian. You can visit her blog to view some great anchor charts. She also describes how she teaches the folktales unit. Click HERE to visit her blog.

In the download you also get this version, which I made for each of my students to add to their reader's notebooks.

Each day we studied a different folktale and read stories from each type of folktale.  As we read the stories and decided which type of folktale it was, we added the title to our folktales flipbook.  This flipbook is in our reader's notebooks.

Folktales Flipbook

 

 

 

I also made this cut/sort review for the characteristics of each folktale.

Folktale Cut and Sort

 

Here's a short quiz for folktales.

 

Folktales Quiz

 

Next week we are going to compare different version of each type of folktale!