iPad, youPad, weALLPad

You may have heard rumblings about a shiny new friend in our classroom last week, those rumbling might have sounded like this "AHHHHHH ASKJAJKDLKD iPAD!!!!!" Or maybe that was just the response in our classroom when I brought our new friend Paddington, or Learny, or Techie Ted, or PadPad (the jury is still out on the name I'm leaning toward Learny Paddington the Techie Pad-Pad but we'll see) the iPad in.
My reasoning for getting the iPad was that we have so many students who work at different paces, some finish REAAAALLY quickly and others need extra time, my go to response when one of the students asks what they should do next has always been "Read a book" but at this point in the year many of the kids have read and reread and rereread the same books during that down time and I realized that while they were doing something productive and using those reading skills, they weren't  really gaining any knew knowledge or being challenged. I tried find more practice activities for them to work on but I wasn't really happy with that as an option because it felt like I was punishing them for being quick workers so that went out the window very quickly.

Enter the iPad, I did some research on the best apps for classroom use and found that there are so many more than I would have ever thought. Now I watch for responsible students who are working hard and following directions and I put them on my list to use the iPad during seatwork time, when they have finished all their work. Usually the time is limited to about 10 minutes a person to try and share with as many of the students as possible, of course not everyone will get it everytime but I am making it my goal to make sure everyone gets some time with it each week. I have even used it in one of our reading groups when we did some super stellar reading and finished way early.

I know that some of you have your own iPads and tablets at home so I wanted to share with you a few of the apps we are using and invite you to let me know of any your student enjoys that I might want to check out.

1. Money Math












I like that this app has a variety of activities from practice adding coins, to making change, and using the least number of coins. This one appears to be only available in itunes.

2. Scholastic Storia
I like this app for our room because it takes ebooks to the next level with activities, questions, and games in the story. This helps with comprehension skills.

3. Phonics Genius
This app sorts words  by their vowel/special sounds and displays them as it reads them.








There is also a feature that allows students to record themselves reading the words to compare their reading to the readers on the app. I haven't yet figured out how to use that function yet.

4. Happi and The Pirates
This game uses spelling, math, and puzzles for a challenging game to find buried treasure.






5. Stack the states
Even though we are just learning about the states and we haven't gone into too much detail about them yet this app helps them learn to recognize the states and provides interesting trivia along the way.




We have a few more apps that we haven't been able to explore yet but the kids have been so eager to play the games even the challenging ones. I am really encouraged by their excitement.

Have a blessed weekend.

Why are short weeks the most exhausting?

Seriously though why are they?
We had a blast this week and I do have a confession to make...
I broke some rules. YEP!! but more on that in a few minutes.
Tuesday was a busy day getting back into routine and what not; but Wednesday was our fun day!!

First I had my very first First Grade lunch in the classroom!!

Tyler was seat dancing and making me crack up. I think Emily thought he was pretty funny too.

Miss Lauryn telling us about her horses.

 Of course after all that fun at lunch I was excited to get a little crazy with the rest of the class too.

So we pulled out our dry erase markers and...

I hope you're sitting down...

WE WROTE ON OUR DESKS!!!!

Since we were using the same spelling words from last week I needed a "fresh" way to review so we spelled as we wrote the words and then, after all the words were written, we spelled as we erased the words. The kids really seemed to enjoy this even after my terrifying warning speech that "This is the only time that writing on our desks is allowed DO NOT do this at home or during school unless we are doing this as a group!!"

 We also did some small group work this week which ended up tying in pretty well with our secondary Bible lesson on the Tower of Babel.
We broke into groups to sort items in groups of 10, 11, and 12 and each group was given cards to label their piles. We learned A LOT about the importance of listening to directions and communicating with our groups. I will definitely be working more with the class on team work in the coming weeks.

 

Today as a reward for working hard all week and as a reminder of our Noah's Ark Bible lesson we began creating a Noah's Ark craft. Unfortunately because of our schedule and some last minute changes we didn't get them all finished and the rule in my room is "No one takes it home until everyone can take it home" so we'll be finishing these up on Monday and I'll post more pictures then.

Lauryn patiently waiting with her raised hand even while her crazy teacher takes a picture.

Kira helping me glue her pieces together.

Jasa's finished project!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Be praying for your teacher on Saturday! For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to sign up for a 5k, yep ME, the teacher who is ready for nap-time after the "Good Morning" song every Friday. Well you know that they say...

"I can do all thing through Christ who strengthens me" ~Phillipians 4:13

First post of the year!!!

Woooohooooooo!!! Sorry it took me so long I needed the extra time to come up with a catchy and sassy title. As you can see I was unsuccessful, oh well. We've been having some fun in First grade!!!!

Lauryn

This year our class "motto" is “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34. We have been talking a lot about being "Bucket Fillers" after reading "How Full is Your Bucket" we have also been talking about Random Acts of Kindness. The other day I challenged my friends to commit and act of kindness at home and they LOVED IT!!! They couldn't wait to tell us about the kind things they had done for family and friends, and they thought it was hilarious that I sat in their seats while they shared. Let's take a look at some of the new faces in Miss Bailey's room.

Luciana

Ben

Simon

Tyler

 

I am so happy to have such great "bucket fillers" and I really want to keep this up through the year including some doing some big Random Acts as a class (handing out bottles of water to our school staff, "adopting" a soldier, planting trees, etc...) If you have any ideas for us please share them with me. Also if your family does any random acting on your own please be sure to take some pictures and have your student share this with the class.

This week we studied the Creation Bible truth and we wanted a fun way to help us remember the days of Creation, so we made Creation mobiles to hang up at home.

We did LOTS of Cutting...

On the first day God separated the LIGHT and DARK!

On the second day He made the SKY

 

On the third day He GATHERED THE WATERS and CREATED THE PLANTS!!!

 On the fourth day He created the SUN, the MOON, and the STARS.

On the fifth day He created the FISH in the sea and the BIRDS in the air.

On the sixth day He created the LAND ANIMALS and PEOPLE.

On the seventh day He RESTED so that we would have a day to rest and worship Him.

 Of course we had some free choice time and these first graders sure do know how to have fun!!!

We've also been singing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" with silly animals and vowel sounds. Today during Phonics I turned the kids into a human beat box machine using our blends. I'll try to get a decent video of it tomorrow, it's pretty adorable. 

Parents if you asked for your student to be included but don't see them in this post please let me know during these first few days it's very easy for papers to get sent to the wrong place I want to make sure to include everyone who wants to be!

I am looking forward to a great year with this group of smarties!! Please keep us in your prayers throughout the year that we will be shining examples of God's AMAZING LOVE.