Free App Friday

Yeah...it's Friday!! That means Free App Friday time!! I am visiting my family down in Kansas and it has been a great week! I have the best family ever! I wish I could spend more time with them!! Did you have a good week? I am so jealous of all you people getting your classrooms ready :( Ok enough of my no job pity party...on to the apps!

Alphabet:

This app is called Alphabet Match.

This app is like the Number Match I shared with you a few weeks ago. It's basically alphabet memory. What I like is that when you click on the card to turn it over, it tells you the letter. This is great at the beginning of the year, or during small group with those low kids!

This app is called Alphabet is Fun.

This app is from the same people I showed you in math last week. There are four free games for you to play. If you want to play more, then of course it costs money! The games you can play are magnetic letters, letter tracing, letter identification, and letter matching. The part I like the most is the letter identification. This one has different parts to make it easier or harder! The game will show you and tell you the letter, then you can turn those off. Another great tool for the beginning of the year, or with those struggling kids!

Math:

This app is called 10 Frame Fill.

It is a great math game that works on combinations to 10. To start the game it gives you so many blue chips. Then you have to count how many more you need to get 10. What I like is you can count the empty squares, or you can use the yellow chips to help you fill the frame. This is great when teaching combinations, and it's really great to use in small group interventions! 

There you have it friends! Have a great weekend, and get lots of sleep and relaxation in for school starts very soon! 

Remember to leave some comment love!! 

Free App Friday

Happy Friday everyone!! Do you have any big plans for the weekend? I am so excited to watch the Olympics! Women's Gymnastics and Swimming are my ABSOLUTE favorites to watch!! So lets get to some free apps shall we?

Word Work/Work on Writing

I know a lot of people are implementing Daily 5 into their classrooms this year. My kids loved using this app to practice writing their sight words or word families.

This app is called Doodle Buddy.

My kids loved being able to change colors, they could also rainbow write. Bonus for those paper conscious schools....SAVES PAPER!! The part that I loved the most was the tic-tac-toe boards. We would use these during a random five minute filler or while we were lining up. They would pick two words, then we would see if we could win! This is a great app!!


This app is called Glow Draw.

This is another drawing/writing favorite! They like the bright colors and the black background. It doesn't have as many options as the doodle buddy, but it is still fun! There are also several versions of the app, but they all essentially do the same thing!

Keeping with the Daily 5 theme...here are some apps I like for listening to reading!

This app is called I Like Books.

There are a TON of these books! Some cost money, but most of them are free. Inside the app are 5 pages of books. You can choose from Read to Me, Read to Myself, or Autoplay. I love how it is differentiated. I just recently updated it and now it has an even better feature. Under read to myself...you can actually record what you read! HELLO!!!! That is awesome!

Well there it is! A Daily 5 version of Free App Friday! Are there any apps you would like me to find? What kind of apps are you needing in your classroom?

Remember to show some love and leave me a comment!!

Free App Friday!!

Welcome to the third Free App Friday!! Sorry about the lack of Free App Friday's...but life got in the way! I wish I could tell you in was because I was offered a job...but sadly that is not the case :( Come on LPS give this teacher a JOB!!!

Well enough of my unemployed whining...and on to the free apps!

Lets have Language Arts first!!!

Phonics 

First up is an app called ABC Alphabet Phonics

This is one of my FAVORITE apps!! It starts by showing you three letters and calls out one of those letters. You then touch the correct letter. The app gets progressively harder by adding more letters for you to chose from. What I really LOVE about this app is...you can very it depending on your students level. It starts by identifying capital letters. If you want to make it more of a challenge you can add capital and lowercase letters. You can also add animals and letters to choose from! LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! 

Up next is the app called Letter of the Day. It's by Lakeshore...so of course it is good!!

First you have to choose a letter. Then you can choose from many different activities. There is a chant for you to listen to that talks about something that starts with that letter, and the sound. After that you choose another activity that shows you three pictures. You have to choose the one that begins with the sound that you are working on. If you touch the picture it tells you what the picture is. That helps the ELL kids with vocabulary! You can also practice writing the letter.

Now onto math!

Math

First app in math is called Number Match. 

The app is just as it sounds! You tap on the card and it tells you the number. Then you have to find its match.  My students really liked playing this game. It was very helpful in learning those teen numbers!

Next math app is called Math is Fun 4-5.

With the lite version you can play three different games. The first one is a candy counting game. You count how many candies are in the jar and then you match the number. The next game is domino addition. You count the dots on the domino and put the total number in the box. The third game is a train game with a missing number. You are given a sequence of numbers and have to drag the number that is missing up to the train. I just found this game a few weeks ago, so I can't wait to use it when we get back to school. I think the kids will really like it! I like that I can use it with a wide range of students in small groups!

Well there you have it! This weeks Free App Friday! Have you been downloading some good apps? I hope you all have a great weekend! The hubs and I are off to Omaha to go to the Brad Paisley concert with some friends! I am very excited!!! 

Free App Friday!

Here we go...round two of free app Friday! Did you find any good apps this week? Did you download AppsDeal Fire? There have been some great apps this week!

Well let's get to it! Here are this week's apps!

Phonics:
First up in Phonics is the Beginning Phonics app. 

This is an app I just found! Sooo I don't know much about it, and I haven't used it with students. Here is what I LOVE about it! You match pictures to letters using the beginning sound of the picture. What makes this really great for Kindergarten and especially the ELL students is if you touch the picture it tells you the word. I found when I worked with my ELL students; they didn't know what the picture was. How are they supposed to know what the beginning sound is, if they don't know what the picture is! This was also great for helping them build up their vocabulary!

You can use this app only on the iPad.

Next up is Short Vowels Lite. 

Usually apps have two versions, a full version and a lite version. The lite version is generally free. It's not as good as the paid version, but you can usually get just as much out of the lite version! With this app you only work on the short /a/ and short /o/ sounds. There are three levels, and each one gets harder. 

You can use this app on iPhone, iPod and, iPad.

Math:

First up in math is count-a-licious. It is titled a toddler game, so it's great for the beginning of the year! 

This app is full of great colors and pictures. The app counts for you, and then has you count pictures to match the number. Talk about some GREAT number sense! My students loved this as a beginning of the year math station. It also worked wonders for my ELL students. It kept them very engaged, and really helped with their counting to 20. 

You can use this app on the iPhone, iPod and, iPad

Up next is Fun of Shapes. I know it doesn't make sense, but if that is what you type into the app store you will find it! 

In this app you hear a story that identifies shapes, then a game that sort pictures by shape. Each time you do an activity right, you earn a sticker. I love that the story shows shapes in everyday life. Again this is a great app to start your year off, and is great for ELL students!

You can use this app on iPhone and iPad.

There are your apps for the week! Have a great weekend!! 

Do you daily question?

First let me tell you about my exciting life!! The highlight of my week...NO JOKE was going and getting a public library card today! HAHA!! I know I am sooo exciting! On to daily questions!

Do you ask your students a daily question? How do you do it? What kind of questions do you ask?

As part of the Math Investigations program at my school in Kansas, daily question was something we did EVERY day. My kiddos LOVED it...so here is how I did it at that school.

I asked them a lot of questions using environmental print. It took me a LONG time to build up my environmental print...I also asked parents to send in boxes and wrappers of what their student liked! Here I have Velcro taped to a cabinet.  Each morning when my students would enter they would get their picture (a 2.5 x 2.5 square with their name and picture on it) and go and READ the question. At first I would stand there and have them read it to me. Eventually they became responsible of holding each other accountable. I would change the wording at the top Do you like, Do you have, I like...etc. I loved how it helped them with so many skills, while making them feel incredibly successful! We started this the second week of school. They couldn't believe they could read on just the second week of school!


When I went to my new school in South Dakota I was introduced to something that would change my world! A SMARTBoard!! I don't know how you ever taught with out one! I know not everyone has one, and I think that is a shame! They are so amazing and can be used so many ways! So I took my daily question digital! I still used the same wording and used pictures. What I loved about it more was I could use ANY picture I wanted! I could make it go with our theme that we were learning about. For example...its hard to Velcro a dinosaur to our previous set up!

I also liked that I could do multiple answers. I could ask three different questions. 

I also liked being able to use the word or in the questions. 

Last year I also went into observe another teacher who is awesome (Shout out to Miss Dunker) and she also used a daily question. She then introduced a thesaurus to her class. They looked at different words for yes and no. I LOVED this idea! I can't wait to use it! Do you use a daily question in your class? How do you use it? I would love to hear about it!!

Have a great Thursday! 

Free App Friday!

Hello friends!! I was luckily enough in my previous school to be given an iPad! It seems that is a growing occurrence! When we moved I had to give my iPad back :( So my hubby decided to surprise me and buy me one...one I get to keep!! Woo hoo!! I love how much he loves me!!! Soooooo I thought I would start a weekly post about some apps that I have stumbled upon or use regularly!! I was thinking about two or so each time, a math and a reading app. Best of all the ones I share are FREE!!!

Does that sound like something you would like to see?

 So here is what my iPad screens look like......

as you can see....I have A LOT of apps! Do you know how many I paid for...NONE!!! There are so many wonderful and free apps out there. How do you sort through all of them? Well I hope this will help you. The apps I am going to show you are based on my own opinion.


The very first app you NEED to know about is called appsfire deals

This app is awesome. You can detail it to meet your needs. You need to add education to the list of apps that you want them to notify you about. What it does is tells you about apps that usually cost money are now free. Apps become free for many reasons. Sometimes they want you to try it, and rate it. Other times they are celebrating the release of a new app, so they are giving old ones away for free. I have found a lot of apps that I like through this app. I have found math games, and story apps that read the book to your students...can you say listen to reading station!!

You can use this app on iPhone, Ipod, and iPads.

The next app is called beginning sounds interactive (if you type it in just like that you will find it)

It is made by Lakeshore so you know its going to be awesome! It lets you choose three different beginning sounds, and then shows you pictures to match with the beginning sounds. My students loved this game! We used it in small group and as a station.

You can use this app on iPhone, iPod, and iPads.

So what do you think? Do you have any apps that you love? Do you like this Friday post idea? Any other things you want to know about the iPad or iPods? I am a novice, but it is something that I enjoy learning about!!

Have a great weekend!

Made It Monday!

I am linking up with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics...she is hosting the first Made It Monday linky party!

How cute is this button!! 

Well since everyone was making the teacher toolboxes...I think I know what I will be doing soon! Seeing everyone's adorable tool boxes made me have toolbox envy! 

Well....I already had another project started...and I just finished it!

Here is my inspirations....from Pintrest, of course!! 

source: http://www.dots-n-spots.com/ via Angel Prescott on Pintrest 

Sooo here is how I turned this....

Into..... THIS!!!!! 

SWOOOOOON!!!!!

Here is how I did it...step by BRUTAL step!

First I had to take everything apart, which was not hard at all! Then I tested the paint on the underneath side. To be honest...I was not so sure it would work! Well it did...so here's what it looks like after one coat of paint. I decided it needed another coat...so imagine it a little darker! 

Then I painted the inside middles...if that makes sense?!?

I really wanted to make the part where the students put in their papers bright and colorful. Sooo I thought paper and modpodge! Look at that....not so pretty! My husband said...why don't you just paint it black. BRILLIANT!! I forgot to take a picture of that...so just imagine the part below...black! 

Now for the brutal part! I covered the WHOLE thing in zebra duck tape (I got it from Michael's)! If only I would have know! This part took...DAYS!! I did each piece individually. It ended up using less tape, and I was able to keep it straighter. 

This is the back...its covered on both sides so when you put the paper in it you see the zebra print. 

Top

Side

Looking into it! 

I am seriously in love with it! It was a LOT of work, but I loved the way it turned out! My husband keeps asking me to take it to the garage, because its in the middle of our tiny apartment living room! I just want to stare at it!! I love it and I am pretty proud of myself! So now I have check one of my summer to-do's off my list!! 

Make sure you link up and show off your hard work!!! 

I am off to Pintrest to decide on what I want to do for next Monday!!

Did you hear? Midwest Meet-Up?!?!

Tammy from Live, Love, Laugh posted about a Midwest bloggy meet up!  Say WHA?!?! Since I just moved to Lincoln, I am sooo looking forward to meeting more people around here! Tammy and Dee Dee Wills have been talking about it! If you are interested make sure you go over to Tammy's blog and tell her!! I would love to meet EVERYONE of you!!

Have a great day!!

Hopefully I'm back and a Pintrest Linky Party!

I won't bore you with all the details about where I have been...and what is going on in my life! The short version...someone hacked into my e-mail, signed up for a bunch of dating sites...blah blah blah! It took google and some very strongly worded conversations and e-mails to let them know I was not the one doing those things!

Then my husband received another job transfer. He moved in January, and I waited until school was over. So between juggling two homes, and packing, moving and, all that I didn't have much time!!

Soooooo now that all that is done, I am hopping to get back to blogging. To do that, I am excited about some of the summer book studies that are happening. I have my books, highlights, and Dr. Pepper ready to go!

On to the Linky Party. I am joining up with Kinder Kraziness for her What I'm Pinning Wednesday!

Do you love Pintrest?!? I know...everyone does! Blogging and Pintrest have changed my teaching! 

I have been working on better organizing my boards, and I made a Summer To-Do board.You can click {here} to see it, and maybe follow it! 

So on to the party....Here are a few things I am really thinking about!! 

1. Morning Meeting Activities 

At my school in South Dakota, we used Responsive Classroom. In the program you have a daily morning meeting. These are some great activities, so I need to print them, laminate them, and hook them on a ring! 

source: http://www.bainbridgeclass.com/morningmeeting.htm via Amy Korpieski on Pintrest

2. Behavior Clip Chart

I really debated about this last year. Now I am kicking myself for not making it! So this summer it is at the TOP of my to-do list!

source: http://first-grade-fever.blogspot.com/search/label/classroom%20management on Pintrest

3.  ORGANIZE!!!!

I really need to get organized! When I moved this time, I did take more time to pack smart, and organize as much as I could! Now when I unpack I want to use these labels to sort and organize my materials. There are a few other things I want to do to organize myself too! 

source: http://kindertastic.blogspot.com/search/label/freebies?updated-max=2011-06-29T22%3A52%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=20 via Carisa {1plus1plus1} on Pintrest 

Source: http://kindercraze.blogspot.com/2012/05/fancy-up-your-sterlite-drawers.html via Tammy Lee on Pintrest 

Well I think that is about all for now!!! I better start getting busy! Make sure you go and link up!!