Digital Storytelling in the Classroom = Building Better Writers

Hello everyone!  It may have been awhile but I wanted to pop in today to show you a fun app that my daughter and I have been playing with during the break..

I am an avid educational technology lover! If it can be used in a classroom, I'm the first to buy it! I use all sorts of techie gear in my room..IWB, document camera, iPods, an iPad and whatever else I can get my hands on!

I have an iPad app called Puppet Pals. It is a wonderful storytelling app in which students can use puppets to tell a story and record it to play back as a video. I think it would great for my ESOL students! Writing is a very difficult task for my kiddies. I have some students that are unable to write more than a paragraph. However, when asked to verbally tell a story, they really shine!

This app is SO much fun! In class, I hope to have students use the app to tell a story. Once their story is told, they can then go back and listen to and write their own story! It's almost like dictation! I'll bet thatMy kids  willbeg to use it during writers workshop. It really helps with generating ideas and keeping a story organized.

As a special treat, here are some stories created by my little one.  If you are looking for a great addition to your toolbox, look no further!

Aren't they fun? The app is free and comes with a few characters but the downloadable content is fantastic! I hope you find the app as fun as I do!

Best wishes,

And pop in to my TeachersPayTeachers store for even more!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Teachesthirdingeorgia

Snap It Up Saturday! Chalking Up Another Week!

Howdy ya'll! Another week back in school and I'm beat! The nerves are a little frazzled due to a bunch of new things that I have taken on but I feel like it may all straighten out pretty soon. I guess I need to drop that procrastination off somewhere and start jumping in as soon as something new strikes. We've been SOOO busy at school I thought I would share a few things that we've been doing this week, along with this week's Snap It Up Saturday! Giveaway.

First off, in math we've been working on remembering our addition with regrouping skills. It seems like those disappear during the summer between second and third grade. Most of my class jumped right in and had no difficulty pulling those old skills back into their repertoires. I still have a couple that need some intervention, but we'll get to that during our flex math block. This week, we grabbed up our iPods and went to work with some QR codes. I have a lively class and they aren't quiet for very long but the iPods held attention like a dream and they worked diligently. All you could hear was the random YES!!! when they solved a problem correctly.

I also pulled out an old Science lesson that I did last year with my kids to show them how water pollution affects animals and how difficult it is to clean up.You can read that post here. The different this year was that I had them put feathers in their pond to represent birds. We polluted our water with cooking oil and the kids had to rescue their "ducks" and attempt to clean them off with paper towels and cotton rounds. Needless to say, the kids realized that their "ducks" died from being covered with oil and that it was next to impossible to get all of the oil out of their pond. Here we are having a bit of messy fun in the classroom!

 It was a good week! We had a field trip to our local recycling center on Friday morning. The kids loved seeing how everything gets sorted (by our state prisoners) and remade into other products. But, even with all of that educational loveliness, their most favorite part...The flocks of vultures that seem to love the area so much.  

Now on to today's Snap It Up Saturday! giveaway. I whipped up a little set of chalk-esque frames for you today. There are nine and they have transparent backgrounds so they can be layered over just about anything. I think they look pretty cute against black and green backgrounds. Maybe you'll find some use for them!

As always, have a great weekend and thank you for following. And just so you know how happy I am to have a 3 day weekend, here's how I feel...

See you next week!

Snap It Up Saturday! Fun Font Freebie!

Hello everyone!
Week Two of summer vacation is here and I am LOVING it! I have gotten so much done here at home that I think I might actually get caught up! I've been cleaning out and decluttering the house, working on some TPT projects, and feeding my newest addiction! FONT-MAKING! You can tell from this week's freebie that I have gone a little overboard.

I love fonts! I just hate having to credit for every single thing, but I still do.. I downloaded an awesome app for my iPad called iFontmaker. It is super easy to use and well worth the couple of bucks that I spent on it. Starting right after breakfast the other day, I went to work! And you'll notice my font titles are all breakfast related. It was the only thing on my mind at the time.  This week's Snap it Up Saturday post is a set of 19 (YES 19) fonts that I created. They are commercial use and only require a linkback to my TPT store.

Click image above for download.

I really hope you like them. There might be one or two in there that you'll be able to use. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Randi

Snap It Up Saturday! Furry Friends from the Archives

Hello everyone!
I hope you are ready for yet another installment of my fun and fabulous "Snap It Up Saturday! series. This week has been a whirlwind of activity so as a freebie, I've dug into the archives and pulled out some never published Furry Friends just for you! Maybe they can find a good home in one of your fabulous products! I hope you enjoy them!

Click the image to download.

On a side note, in case you haven't noticed, I haven't been producing very much clip art or curriculum based material recently. I've been hard at work though. Currently, I am building a 180 Day Spiral Review Product that I am hoping to release in a few weeks. As soon as summer hits, I'll be finishing that one up! I cannot wait to be finished. Redundancy is not my friend.

And since she is here with me, I thought I would share something my dear daughter whipped up using the iPad and a fun little app called Puppet Pals. Some of these zombies remind me of myself...especially on a Starbuck's free morning!! 

Have a Fantastic Weekend!

9 1/2 Days of School Left

The Countdown is ON!!

Randi