4 Pics, 1 Word

Are you playing 4 Pics, 1 Word yet? It’s a free app available for iOS and Android, and the whole idea is to generate one word that would apply to all four of the pictures. I will admit it. I’m obsessed. As I was up playing last night, way past my bedtime, I kept thinking about ways that I could use this with my students. The game asks you to make connections, interpret pictures, find nuances, and have a grand command of vocabulary. How is this not awesome for kids?

 

So, how could I use this with kids?

• They could make their own! This would be a great way to teach students about open source images and Creative Commons searches. If each student made their own based on a set of vocabulary words, you could display them as a “real” or virtual bulletin board for students to solve one another’s challenges.
• Make some for your students based on their vocabulary words or spelling words, and they would have that list to use as a bit of a word bank.
• Save the app on your own device, and put it under the document camera for all of your students to see and help you solve, especially when you are stuck in that moment of having 5 minutes before lunch or dismissal and you want to keep them busy.

 

I will make the quick disclaimer that I haven’t seen any inappropriate pictures, but I will not say that there aren’t any at all!

More Dr. Seuss

What else can we use for Dr. Seuss’s birthday week? How about access to some of the short animations created over the years to showcase his work. And some people say YouTube is only full of cat videos and crashing skateboarders!

 

Wacky Wednesday and More – Dr. Seuss

As you might be planning for Dr. Seuss activities this week and beyond, here’s an idea for Wednesday… Wacky Wednesday! You can view the book as a scrolling option, as a slideshow or as a book. I can’t wait to share it with my kids on our projector screen for our book of the day. I’d love to hear their owns versions of a Wacky Wednesday!

View this document on Scribd

 

And what is even more awesome? They also have…

Oh! The Places You’ll Go

Green Eggs and Ham

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Cat in the Hat

Dr. Seuss Non-Fiction Reader

The Sleep Book

 

 

 

 

New Facebook Template

I’ve done posts before about using Facebook templates for your students to create engaging and thought-provoking projects. Considering the focus in the Common Core State Standards on characterization, understanding point of view, and writing across genres, this really lends itself well to addressing these concepts. I just wanted to share this NEW Wonderful Free Facebook Template that I discovered this week!

Here are just a few ways that you could use Facebook templates in your teaching and learning…

- historical figures

- scientists

- biographies

- elements of the periodic table

- fictional characters

- states

- countries

- monuments

- national parks

- geometric figures

Mythology for Kids

We are getting ready to start an integrated English/Language Arts unit on mythology, folktales, and legends. Our fifth graders have had a lot of exposure to folktales and legends over the years, so we are going to focus more heavily on the mythology component. I’ll admit it. I loved studying mythology as a child, and I love that one of my twins is devouring the Last Olympians and Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordin. Heck, my little one’s current favorite movie is even Disney’s Hercules. I wanted to go ahead and start organizing information for our unit, so I thought I’d share some of the favorite things I found.

 

RESOURCES

Cute idea generator for writing your own myth

StoryNory provides many of the Greek myths as read-alouds

Understanding mythology as the religion of the Ancient Greeks, and others

Quiz Your Noodle on mythology/Percy Jackson

Symbaloo of major Greek myths

Introduction to Greek Mythology

Literature for Children: Myths short video from DE Streaming

Clickable Painting of the 12 main gods as research

Brain Pop of Greek Gods

 

LESSON IDEAS

Greek Mythology Unit with readings and activities

Webquest type activity with questions, lessons and pacing – good for an extension project!

A few activity pages, including one of designing your own urn

Crosswords and Word Searches

Greek Masks and Coloring Pages of the Gods

 

 

Dr. Seuss Day Is On the Way!

It’s hard to believe, but Dr. Seuss’ birthday is coming up in just two weeks. If you are not an elementary school teacher, you may not realize that this holiday rivals Christmas and Valentine’s Day for the craziest holiday of the year. It’s hard to be upset though, when this one is based around a love of reading. Today, I thought I’d share some of my favorite resources for teaching about Dr. Seuss and his books!

Story Online

Last night I posted a video of My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, as read on StoryOnline by Melissa Gilbert. A friend had shared the particular story with me, but I was excited to find all of the other offerings shared by StoryOnline on YouTube. I love a read aloud. I don’t care how old you are or how old your students are, they will love being read to. The only thing that changes from that story time moment as a young child is that they aren’t so ready to admit that they like it! Students can learn about reading, writing, listening and speaking with a well delivered read-aloud, and who better than professionals to share these?!

So, why a video read aloud? What does this offer? Here are a few reasons that I love this as an option…

1. If a student is absent, it’s a built in make up lesson that they can do on their own time (at home or at school).

2. I am freed up to walk around the room with my students, or I can just sit and model good listening skills. I can also pause the video and model meta-cognitive skills that good readers do.

3. It shows people they respect and admire as role models of being good readers. It proves that reading is important and that you can love reading, even if you are not a kid.

4. There are lots of men reading these books. In a situation where the elementary teaching profession is primarily women, I love that my students can hear a strong, passionate man share a great book and talk about how he, too, loves to read!

5. For reluctant readers, using videos of books is a  great way to teach reading skills, like story elements and mood, without the student having to struggle through words. They can master a concept and not have to be struggling with that and the reading, itself.

Here is another favorite. Check out Bad Case of Stripes!

But wait…

I know I’ve talked about it before, but if you are a subscriber to Discovery Education services, don’t miss out on the offerings by Weston Woods. The folks at Weston Woods Publishing have put together videos of some of their most beloved children’s books that are true to the integrity of the books. The best way to find these books is to just type “Weston Woods” in the search bar after you log in to your Discovery Education account. Good luck! And happy reading!

My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother

I love Patricia Polacco and I love this book! I was thrilled to find it tonight on YouTube as a read-aloud by Melissa Gilbert. She does an amazing job, and I love that this is just one in a collection of stories shared by Story Online. I can’t wait to dive in here further!

Learn Zillion

Do you feel like no matter how much you accomplish, you always have a zillion things to do? You do, but I’ve recently been checking out a great way to help with that. Learn Zillion!

There are tons of great things out there to help with the transition to the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics, but they are often overwhelming. As I’m learning the standards and making their labels part of my daily language, I want a resource where I can go for lessons, learning, clarification and sharing. That resource also needs to be read-able after a long week of work with my students, my own children and everything else that life throws at me. I love the clarity of organization and tools!

If you are flipping your classroom, this is also a great place to go for lessons and ideas!

I’d definitely encourage you to check it out!

Civil War and Readers’ Theater

Right now, we are doing an integrated unit for Language Arts and the Civil War. We wanted to figure out a way to bring in speaking and listening in a more direct way, so we thought it would be great to build in some Readers’ Theater. My kids LOVE it! We are using the scripts as fiction and non-fiction reading with a special focus on prosody and point of view. At the end of the unit, we are having the kids write their own monologues from the point of view of one of the historical figures from the Civil War. Here are some of the awesome scripts we’ve found!

• Civil War Readers Theater

http://www.civilwar.org/education/teachers/lesson-plans/readers-theater-lesson/civil-war-readers-theater.html

 

• Ballard of Abraham Lincoln

http://printables.scholastic.com/content/collateral_resources/pdf/09/TEAJAN09_004.pdf

 

• Will the Real Abraham Lincoln Please Stand Up?

http://printables.scholastic.com/content/collateral_resources/pdf/09/TEAJAN09_002.pdf

 

• Abraham Lincoln: Holding the Nation Together

http://printables.scholastic.com/content/collateral_resources/pdf/09/TEAJAN09_003.pdf

 

• Causes of the Civil War

http://www.rosalindflynn.com/pdf%20files/CivilWarCause%C9t.pdf

 

• Civil War Events

http://www.rosalindflynn.com/pdf%20files/Civil%20War%20Events%20RT%20Script.pdf

 

• The Civil War Through a Child’s Eyes

http://www.nylearns.org/module/content/pyb/resources/11725/view.ashx

 

• Gettysburg and Mr. Lincoln’s Speech

http://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/system/assets/uploads/files/25/gettysburg_readers_theatre_script.pdf

 

• Women in the War

http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/manswar/