No Technology Required

It's that time of year again.  I am starting to think about Christmas gifts for my class.  The past few years I have made personalized scarves.  They always love them. 
Here is how I do it.....
I found the blankets at Walmart for $2.50 each.  They vary in patterns and designs. If you are careful when you unroll it, it is probably folded so that if you cut it on the sides/folds it will make 6 long strips.  I just “eyeballed” it and cut.  I don’t know what the measurements are, it’s more fun to “WING IT”!! :)



Then, cut the edges off.  The edges that have the thread on it. You can unravel the thread first, before cutting. Sometimes I was able to find the right spot and cut the thread so that it would unravel.Then, I cut the slits on the ends, to make the fringe.  I didn’t measure it, just “eyeballed” it and made them as long as I needed to make a knot.



Then, tie the knot.  I stretched them out a little so they would lay nicely.



I will put their names on them.  Last year, I used glitter paint.  This year I plan to use my Cricut machine and use HTV (Heat transfer vinyl).   THIS PART REQUIRES TECHNOLOGY!

More Bee-Bots

The students are loving the Bee-Bots.  They are asking to use them and are very exciting about learning. 
I have mats for rhyming words, beginning sounds, and shapes.  You can see a sample of them working in the below photos.

BEE BOTS

We now have Bee-Bots in our classroom.  Slowly but surely the students are learning to love technology as much as I do.  They understand that Bee-Bots are a learning tool that make learning even more fun now.  They love to push the buttons and tell the Bee-Bot where to go.  We started with beginning sounds.

I made a mat using real pictures of animals.  (It will help us make real-world connections because we are going to the zoo as our field trip in the middle of November.)

These are the animals that are used in a phonics program that we started using this year.  Each one has a sign they do when they say the sound.  They have to pick a card, say the letter and sound, then code the Bee-Bot to the animals that start with that letter.

They are using their critical thinking skills as well as problem-solving skills to get the the correct animal.  They cheer for joy when the Bee-Bot does it correctly.  Sometimes we would forgot to press "clear" before coding to the next animal and they would need to put it back and do it again.

I look forward to making more mats to use in the future weeks.

MORE GOOD NEWS - CLASSROOM CHAMP

GREAT NEWS!!

Recently I was honored as a Kroger Classroom Champ sponsored by Kroger and Dynamo. I was given a gift card to Kroger, a grant, and tickets to the Dynamo game on Sunday, October 22, 2017. We were introduced on the field during halftime. There were 250 submissions and they chose 5 teacher to honor.

It was an amazing experience to be recognized for my hard work and dedication. Thank you Kroger and Dynamo for doing great things for education!

Excellent Educator Award

At a recent staff meeting, the principal announced that I received the Excellent Educator Award.  I was nominated by the librarian, Mary Cook.  She wrote, "Ms. Herring is an outstanding teacher!  She has an excellent relationship with all her students and each student excels in her classroom.  They are well prepared for first grade!  She is always looking for professional growth and attends many workshops.  She is very experienced with technology and is using it all the time to enhance her lessons.  She is so deserving of this award!"  I am very honored to receive this award!!  A big shout out to my co-worker for her kind words!  It made my day to be recognized!!

Slides Made Fun

We are practicing letters and sounds continuously.  I try to find something different each week to "keep it exciting".  It is something that we have to do, so I wanted to make it fun.  

My kids are still loving the panel and willing do anything as long as we are using the panel.  They think it is super cool and loved just watching a slide show with letters.  They were trying to beat the panel before it changed the letter.  It was great to see how excited they were to learn!  

Science Anchor Charts

#happyclassrooms

So far this class loves to sit together and make posters.  They say "yeah" when I ask them to... sit in front of the panel and let's get smarter!  :)

While doing "properties" we decided to divide things into two categories - light and heavy.  They came up with some good ideas!

As I do each step on the panel I describe it to them.  I try to be very detailed and now a few of them say some of the steps with me.  I have told them about the different icons and why we click on them.  When we research for a picture, most of them say "GOOGLE!".  They laugh!  It's really cute.  We ask GOOGLE to translate things for us several times a day, since we have two students that don't speak any English.  One student speaks Vietnamese and the other speaks Portuguese.   Thank goodness for TECHNOLOGY!

This week we were working on our names again.  We have practiced them with a dry erase marker, in shaving cream, and with the panel.  Guess which one they liked the most?  Actually, they loved using it.  We tried writing two people at a time.  They were really fascinated with how that works. 

Science Anchor Charts

#happyclassrooms

This was our first full week of school. My class of 21 struggled with getting into a routine and so did I. They were sleepy and started to get irritable in the afternoons due to the not-so-friendly schedule we have this year. Thank goodness for my panel. We are learning to use it for all sorts of things. I do believe their favorite is watching our learning videos. Our science topic this week was WEATHER and SEASONS.

We also used it to make anchor charts which we will then print and put in our science notebooks.

(I forgot to take a picture of our completed chart.)

#happyclassrooms
My district is awesome! The technology department (I LOVE THEM) bought all our campuses a PANEL! They are doing a pilot program. ONE lucky teacher at each campus gets to try the panel for the school year!
GUESS WHO gets to use the panel at my school....... MMMMMEEEEEE! I love it! We tried it out in my class! The kids are fascinated with it! We tried writing our names..... it was a blast!! 

(Disclaimer: I do have permission to take photos of the students in my class for educational purposes.)