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Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Almost Summer Book Reccomendation

My school may be one of the last to get out.  June 26th! Yep, there are still 4 days and 3 half days of still left but who is counting?  Thanks to 10+ mom volunteers this morning my library looks amazing and is ready for next school year already. NO ONE can touch the shelves... just kidding...kind of.



While scrolling through Instagram I came across Ramona Recommends' IG page and she had this great idea for Linky party. Since school is still in session, I'm not traveling, but I am on the hunt for a good book to read to get the students excited for summer and of course, summer reading.  I decided to hit up my library and find something new, something we did not have in our school library and I found "Beach" by Elisha Cooper.  This will be on my purchase list for next year. It is also a great book for Mrs. Jump's We Love Books linky.


The beautiful watercolors in this book help tell a great story of a day at the beach.  Anyone who has spent time at the beach can easily relate to this book.  A reader who hasn't spent time at this beach can quickly get the feeling of being there with the clouds, waves, and sand; its like you can almost feel the breeze in your face.  Throughout the book you read and see events that occur throughout the day such as sandcastle building or playing in the waves.  The book ends with the day ending and everyone having to go home.

I cannot wait to start reading it to the students and share beach stories. Our summer reading theme is summer is Rock, Roll, and Read.  Hopefully this will help get them excited.


Wednesday, May 29, 2013

New (to me) Tech

I'm always patrolling the web for new tech. Usually I'm looking for new ideas for the classroom but sometimes I come across things that just entertain me.  Here are a few new ones, at least to me.  I'm sorry if I'm late to the scene.

Artisan.com Picture Book Maker

This is the best picture book maker for the younger students I have found so far. With a cover, back cover, and 6 pages, the students writes and design their own story.  This website has premade images
and backgrounds for the students to choose from for their pages.  There are 8 backgrounds, 4 different characters that can be scaled and switched to look like it performing a different action, and 20 extras such as fences, trees, clouds, skateboards, soccer balls, and more. With the pencil tool students type in their words and can scale those as well. While I do not love the typing part, the illustrations are fun and in the end you can email a link to the final book.

Take a look at my sample book: http://www.artisancam.org.uk/flashapps/picturebookmaker/captures/stf/index.php?incomingNum=17299

Croak.it

This is a free website that allows you, the user, to record up to 30 seconds of audio.  This user interface is one of the easiest on the web.  Click the large croak button on the page, record 30 seconds or less of audio, and select Proceed.  Name it, Tag it, and tou can share via a link, directly share it to Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, OR you can get an embed code to put it on your website.  They even have a mobile version for iPhones and Androids.
Coming soon: the ability to mix to croaks.

For the classroom this could be fun to download on the iPads and have students work on quick facts to add my website.  Or book recommendations to add to the website.  As I mentioned before I LOVE using QR codes and so do the students so I can have students record information/recommendations about books, link the croak with a QR code and add it to the cover a book.  As a classroom teacher students could record answers in groups and record quick answers for me to check later.

Wonderopolis.org

This is fun and great for getting students more interested in Information Text.  Wonderoplois is a website where the answers to things you are naturally curious about are answered.  There are short passages of non-ficiton text as well as video and interesting topic to keep any students interest.
This would be fun for a quick research project in between the large projects. 

Wonderopolis


Todaysmeet.com

The last few large meetings and conferences I have attended have had Today's Meet up and running. It is a great tool for backchannel talking in large groups.  Once a room is created people with the link go in, and with no registration need, can post ideas and questions.  The entire conversation can be saved.  This is a great way for students to interact with each other in the classroom as well with students in other classes nearby, in another state, or anywhere around the world!


a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery - See more at: http://wonderopolis.org/about/#sthash.Dg7X2GPB.dpuf
a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery - See more at: http://wonderopolis.org/about/#sthash.Dg7X2GPB.dpuf
a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery - See more at: http://wonderopolis.org/about/#sthash.Dg7X2GPB.dpuf