Read across America -- March 2, 2014

Read across America is fast approaching. Click here for more information about read across America.  I wanted to provide all of you with some fun and interactive resources. These sites can be used on your interactive whiteboard or computer station in your classroom. Here are some of my  favorites:

• Seussville - For all things Dr. Seuss

• Seuss Lorax : Save the Trees game - You are in charge of the Truffula seeds. And Tuffula seeds are what everyone needs! Catch 10 little seeds in the bucket and then you can replant the Truffula forest again! 

• Catch a Thing Game that requires keen hand-eye coordination. Move the arrow keys to catch the "THINGS" that keep messing up the house!

• ABC Hide and Seek Each letter flap has a picture behind it. Click on the letter that the picture begins with. 

• Cat's Concentration Game  Multi-level concentration game. Level 1 - Match the Dr. Seuss character pictures. Level 2 - Match characters from Dr. Seuss books to his story titles. 

• Sing Along A Sing-a-long with lyrics scrolling in the background. 

• Dr. Seuss Patterns (Sticker Game) Drag an image to complete the pattern. Patterns are pictures. Color clues are given. Characters are from Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish - Two Fish - Red Fish - Blue Fish and Dr. Seuss's ABC's. 

Looking for more Dr. Suess fun? Click here for more interactives. What will you read with your class on read across America? 

Has it been 100 days already?

Good morning! I don't know about you, but the 100th day of school is fast approaching if it hasn't not occurred already. Below are some interactive activities to do in your classroom all around the number 100. 

• Count – interactive book from starfall count to 100 

• Hundreds chart- Count along to 100 with this hundred chart

• Splat - splat the squares to 100. Paint the squares with a splat of paint as you count to 100

• Bones - Can you find the 10 missing bones as you count to 100? 

Looking for more? Here are some more activities for the 100th day of school. 

Freebie Friday

Hello everyone! I thought I would  post some free resources for you. What are some of your favorite freebies, please add a comment below! 

• Free apps - Today only find some free and discounted apps. Today's freebies include puzzles, interactive stories, math, and science apps.

• Free ipad apps - Here is a list with descriptions of each app for your classroom. I would suggest subscribing to this site! It is a great resource.

• Teacher's guide to free apps - Another resource for free apps complete with descriptions. Some of my favorites are talking tom, popplet, and puppet pals. 

• Free Olympic printables - Great printable resources from Scholastic 

• More free Olympic printables - Some printable worksheets, coloring pages, and activities from ABC teach.

Goin' for the Gold!

Go for the gold in your classroom with these interactive Olympics inspired activities.

• BrainPOP - Olympics - Learn about the origins of the Olympics from Tim & Moby, with plenty of cross-curricular interactive activities that will bridge Ancient Greece to 2010

• Tim Learns About The Olympics is a short story that provides audio support for the text.

• nice interactive from the International Olympic Committee — click on the name of the sport, and it will show you a lot of multimedia related to it.

• Internet Scavenger Hunt - All based on the 2014 Olympics 

For more Olympic fun check out these activities here. 

Have some Olympic inspired activities that you use in your classroom? Please share! 

Literacy apps for students who are deaf or hard of hearing

Students who are deaf or hard of hearing differ in many ways especially when it comes to academics. Some of our students are right on par with their typically developing peers, others are functioning below grade level, and some are gifted learners. Attached below is a checklist to feature match apps. 

Literacy apps

App name	Website	Description	Cost
iWriteWords	http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iwritewords-lite/id308152258?mt=8	Learn how to write letters and words	Lite - free,  Full version  $2.99
StoryKit	http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/storykit/id329374595?mt=8	Create an electronic storybook.	Free
Sentence Builder	http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sentence-builder/id344378741?mt=8	Sentence Builder is used to help students learn how to build grammatically correct sentences.	$5.99
See.Touch.Learn.	http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/see.touch.learn./id406826506?mt=8	A picture learning system that can be used to make  individual  lessons.	Free
ABC Tracer Lite	http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/abc-tracer-lite-free-alphabet/id327036079?mt=8	Animates  how to write letters with strokes in the right order on the traditional red-blue guiding lines	Free
MindMeister	http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mindmeister-mind-mapping/id291226775?mt=8	Create, edit and share mind maps	Free
Danny the Dragon meets Jimmy	http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/danny-the-dragon-meets-jimmy/id383272257?mt=8	This is a story that not only provides text but also shows the reader sign language.	$2.99

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

Greetings! 

Hope you are all staying warm. I don' t know about you but I am tired of all this snow! I found some great activities related to snow, that you can do on your computer as an individual lesson or interactive whiteboard for whole class instruction. A few favorites are listed below, but more activities are listed here:

• Stickers for all seasons Choose the winter season and have fun placing stickers on the winter scene
• Build a snowman - Make an interactive snowman complete with hat and scarf! 
• Snowflake workshop - Create a cute snowflake in the snowflake workshop!
• Make a flake - Make your own snowflake with the scissors and paper.

Have some fun winter interactive resources to share? Please add a comment! 

Valentine's Day Activities 2014

Lookin to share some love with technology this Valentine's Day? Check out some great valentine's day activities here.  But here are some of my favorites:

• Valentine's day with Clifford - Make a Valentine with Clifford the big red dog!

• Clifford kisses- Who will get a kiss from Clifford? Match T-bones balloons.

• Make A Valentine using Starfall interactive site

• valentine concentration - valentine concentration 

• Valentine's day puzzle - Valentines day puzzle, put the candy back in the box. 

• Valentine counting - Put the heart with the same amount of dots that match the bag. 

• online coloring pages - valentine online coloring pages

5-5-5 Challenge...Accepted!

Hi everyone

I want to apologize for the hideous, as I was working to finish up my PhD.  I just got back from PETE&C and I am rejuvenated and ready to start up this blog again. Therefor, I want to share something that I learned from PETE&C.

One idea I learned is something I plan to put into practice not only in my professional life as a student but as a future instructor.  This idea is 5-5-5 and was done at the end of Aaron Sams' presentation  (yeah that's right Aaron Sams from flipped classroom). He got it from somewhere else, but I'm going to try my best to adapt it. The only thing I found closely related was here.

The 5-5-5 concept is geared towards adult learners. It talks about giving adult learners a challenge at the end of a presentation or lesson.
1. What do you plan to do with the information you learned in the next 5 days?
2. What do you plan to do with the information in the next 5 weeks?
3. What do you plan to do with the information in the next 5 months?

As Barney from How I met your Mother would say, "Challenge accepted".
In the next five days I planned to start this blog up again and share information I come across. In the next five weeks I plan to post to this blog t at least one time a week. In the next five months I plan to build this blog up to something I can share with students as a resource to use during their teaching.

 I challenge you, have you been to a professional development session lately? a conference? a webinar? If so:
1. What do you plan to do with the information you learned in the next 5 days?
2. What do you plan to do with the information in the next 5 weeks?
3. What do you plan to do with the information in the next 5 months?