Showing posts with label Digital Resources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Digital Resources. Show all posts
Friday, August 26, 2022
NOW on EASEL- Back to School Digital Escape Room!
It's Back to School time! I love going back to school with all of the eager faces and changes that have taken place over the summer. Teaching is an amazing and evolving experience of not only what you teach, but HOW you teach it.
Let me show you how EASEL is changing my teaching! You might think, yes I have used Easel or maybe you are new and have no idea what it can do. I want you to watch the video below of how Easel can be more hands-on for your students.
I have created this Back to School Digital Escape Room, but have utilized it so that it can be used as a traditional escape room or by students on EASEL. Students are tasked with solving clues to different areas within the school to help their teachers prepare for the first day. You can use the link provided for the Back to School Digital Escape or you can use EASEL and assign students this escape!
- dragging objects to solve clues
- categorizing information to solve clues
- drawing on the screen to solve clues
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| Click and drag to solve the sudoku & get a color code! |
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| Click and drag to solve the number logic problem. |
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| Click and drag the balls to solve & get a letter code! |
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| Solve math problems and use direction arrows to solve. |
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| Draw on the screen to find the words and solve the clue! |
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There are many amazing resources for Easel, but I wanted to show you how I use Easel with more interactive elements.
Happy BACK TO SCHOOL time!
Monday, April 4, 2022
Digital Earth Day Activities
It's April! The weather is warming up here and flowers are starting to come up. April reminds me that Earth Day is around the corner. Caring for our Earth is so important and there are so many easy things we can do as citizens to help it. Educating others about the Earth is one way to help!
I am super excited to post my NEW Earth Day Digital Mini Escapes on The Importance of Plants and The History of Earth Day, as well as some other resources for your classroom.
Here are some great websites for your students to learn more about Earth Day what they can do to help the Earth every day! I love that these digital Earth Day resources are easy to use.
- 52 Ways to Invest in Our Earth: This website gives you tips about the small ways you can help our Earth.
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- Kids Discover: Has some great content about Conservation broken up into different areas such as, Landfills, Recycling, Habitat Reconstruction, and Sustainability. You may need to sign up for a free account to view some of the content (not affiliated or sponsored).
- Animal Conservation: Animal Conservation has Disney and National Geographic Explorers in these short one minute videos showing work being done with different animals.
- National Geographic Kids: I like this website because it breaks up the information into different areas. You may want to review each section before students read to make sure there is not TOO much text to be overwhelming.
Earth Day Mini Digital Escapes
What makes a digital escape mini? In a mini escape, there is a focus on a shorter piece of text and only ONE lock to open. In these Earth Day-focused escapes, there is a non-fiction text, a short video, interesting facts, and a puzzle to solve with ONE lock.
Benefits of a Mini Escape:
- NO Prep: Just give students the link and then let them get to work!
- Shorter text: Students can focus on one topic of information
- Less time: Time is something you need, so these escapes can easily be completed in a class period or short amount of time.
- ONE lock: Having only one puzzle to solve also takes less time to complete.
Earth Day Digital Escape Room
If you have a longer class time or have time to break up this Escape Room, this one covers a lot of different topics. The Earth Day Digital Escape Room has FIVE different sections and locks. The non-fiction text covers the topics of:
- History of Earth Day
- Plants
- Water
- Recycling
- Animals
Each section will have a reading comprehension non-fiction text, video, fun things to explore, and the clue to solve. I like to use this escape during Earth Day week and do a section per day. Doing one section per day allows me to have time for reflection and other things during our Language Arts or Science time.
Here is a great preview of the Earth Day Digital Escape Room.
I love some good FREEBIES, so I have made these writing prompts to go along with these activities. I like to use these during our writing station time, just use the prompt for journals, partner writing, or even assigning students to do the writing at home. It's up to you how you want to use these!
I do have these as an Easel Activity so they are ready to go for Digital Writing!
Last, I also like this craft activity because it reaches all age levels! You can have younger students draw pictures with a word or two and older students write more content under the flaps.
Remember Earth Day is Every Day, so help our planet stay healthy!
Monday, March 28, 2022
April Fool's Day Teaching Resources
April Fool's Day is this Friday! It's the first day of our Spring Break so the kids won't be in school. I think this is probably for the best, but do love some good pranks. April Fool's Day is a day that you might not have on your radar or maybe you don't have any activities to do for this day. I wanted to do a post about April Fool's Day and activities that you can quickly add into your plans.
April Fool's Day Activities Print and Digital
An easy writing activity for April Fool's Day is to have students write jokes, idioms, or alliteration! Check out this website on writing tongue twisters using Alliteration for April Fool's Day.
Give each child a ‘spinner’ page and paper clip. Then kids spin a paper clip to find a 'name', 'who', 'where', 'with what' and 'describing word' to use in their sentence. Kids write the words from the spinner in the correct boxes on the ‘sloppy copy’ graphic organizer planning sheet. They then write a sentence using words from the boxes. The describing words make the sentences more interesting and colorful. After the kids finish, check the sentence on the sloppy copy and provide a final page for the published sentence. The kids illustrate their sentences and then share them with the class.
Some books to use for April Fool's Day with Alliteration or just good tongue twisters!
1. Fox in Socks picked this one because you could incorporate a sock day at school for this fun read. Any Dr. Seuss book is a tongue twister, but some are longer than others and are easier for students to read. I think this one is a better option for April Fools Day!
2. Animalia- Hands down this is my MUST have for Alliteration. Any age can relate to writing for this text. I have my younger learners pick words that are going to be a little easier to work with. Maybe we will do a class one if kids are super young. I LOVE this one for older kids because it is a challenge to see what verbs and adjectives they can come up! Have them work in pairs, in small groups, or individually Makes a cute class book if they all pick an animal.
An3. Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut- The "p" repetition is a fun read and is the story os a pampered princess who lives in a pink palace with her pinheaded parents, her three plump pussy cats, and her prize puppy dog.
April Fool's Day Mini Digital Escape
An easy activity for April Fool's Day is this interactive digital escape. It has idioms for students to match, riddles to solve, and games to play. The mini version is great because it is a ONE lock escape and takes less time to complete than longer escapes. A great introduction to escapes if your class hasn't experienced one yet. I like this one because it is a NO prep situation! You just share the link and assign it to students.
Here's a great video about April Fool's and the history! Have your students watch this fun video for the history of April Fool's Day. This video is also in the Escape Room above.
Check out some of these additional resources for April Fool's Day!
Have fun with whatever prank or activity you choose!
Sunday, March 27, 2022
Fairy Tale Digital Escape Room
It's later in the year and during tis time, I am rolling out longer units of study and some more in-depth learning. My kids are starting to zone out as we do more testing and it's time to find something fun without them realizing they are doing the work! Fairy Tales are a great unit for this time of year! My younger students love listening and reading the picture books and older students can get a more in-depth look at the fairy tales and their literary devices.
First, I start my Fairy Tale unit by thinking about what my focus is going to be. At this point in the year, my focus is on the literary elements such as theme, characters, setting, plot, point of view, and style. You can choose to break up each of these elements or combine them as you read specific fairy tales that you read.
Here's a list of some fairy tales that I like to use:
- The Three Little pigs
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears
- Little Red Riding Hood
- Chicken Little
- Frog Prince
- Little Red Hen
- Sleeping Beauty
- Jack and the Beanstalk
A link to Grimm Fairy Tales: http://www.grimmfairytales.com/
A link to Hans Christian Andersen http://visitandersen.com/fairy-tales
I personally love to also focus on just teaching Cinderella or choose a few fairy tales that have different written versions. They are GREAT to compare/contrast ALL of the devices!
Here's a free Venn Diagram with and without lines and a Story Elements freebie to get you started! This Venn Diagram is also an Easel Activity so you can assign an students can type on the lines. There are also other Venn Diagrams to compare and contrast if you need to review that concept.
Here's a few books I like to teach with Cinderella. I use Cinderella because they are so many different versions and it is easy to compare and contrast the characters, plot. setting, and problem/solution. Of course you can use any fairy tale to teach the story elements!
A mockey of Cinderella as told by the jealous and wicked Stepmother. Great for Point of View!
A telling of Cinderella from Algonquin Indian folklore. The "prince" in this tale is an invisible being and in order to marry him you have to prove that you gave seen him.
There are SO many different cultural Cinderella retellings. I like students to work in partners and fill out a Venn Diagram comparing to a traditional retelling.
What are Mini Digital Escapes?
If you have done any Digital Escape Rooms you know that sometimes they can be long and as a teacher you only have so much time in your day. Mini Escapes allow for students to learn by reading, watching videos, and solving clues. I am starting to make fairy tale digital mini-escapes so students have more time and there is a specific focus to teach or review.
In the Jack and the Beanstalk Mini Digital Escape I used to review Point of View. The great thing about this escape is that it has narration if you want it, a fun video to watch, and best of all it's short so you have time to fit this whole Fairy Tale digital escape into your day!
Want to review Genres?
If you are wanting a longer escape room to try with your students or as a beginning escape room to get used to the format try this Genre Escape Room. It will help with review of types of genres, including fairy tales above. I use the writing prompts below when we are reviewing genres. This is a great activity to leave for a substitute or even to put into a writing station. There is no prep with the Genre Digital Escape Room and very little prep with printing off the prompts if you want to include them.
Use these free writing prompts any time of the year for review with your students.
Whichever story elements you decide to teach, make sure the kids are ENGAGED and having fun!
Friday, March 18, 2022
Women in History Month Biographies
Did you know March is Women in History Month?! We have been working on Biographies A LOT, because it is such a great and easy way for kids to have CHOICE in their writing/research. See my last few posts about Biographies! If you are not on the Biography train, don't worry. You can still celebrate some AMAZING Women and their contributions to history.
I have these amazing Women in History Bubbleheads. Over 50 women to choose from to write research and use character traits. A character trait dictionary is included. You can use this to supplement research, as a culminating project, or a partner quick research. Those are just some ideas on how to use this. I left some resources below on websites, books, and dates.
The bundle below includes a lapbook for women in biography research that you can use to help assist you in looking for all the facts for your project. I love the lapbook because it aids students in the process and they know which steps they need to complete.
I love this book series for biographies. It is the Who Was... I call it the Bobblehead series because they look like bobbleheads on the front of the books. These books are awesome for a print source for research. They won't have every biography, but there are alot out in print.
Some great websites to try!
- https://www.womenshistory.org/ (A great website about different women and their contributions to history!
- https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/womens-history-month
- (Great resource for elementary students to explain what it is and how it started!)
- https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/topic/women-heroes (Great biographies on Women Heroes!)
Some Important Dates for this month:
- The National Woman's Party was formed in March 1917. The group was dedicated to getting women the right to vote.
- March 1st: Title IX was passed in 1972
- March 3rd: The first major march on Washington by suffragists happened on this date in 1913.
- March 8th: International Women's Day Itwas established as a holiday in 1911.
- March 22nd: The Equal Rights Amendment was passed in 1972.
Have a great month celebrating women and all their accomplishments both past and present!
Sunday, February 20, 2022
Digital Math Games
It's almost March! Just one week away until the month that seems to last forever before Spring Break. I love March because that means that the weather is starting to turn into spring, even though it's warm one minute and cold the next! Tomorrow where I live it's going to be 60 degrees when yesterday is was a high of 20. CRAZY!
Let's talk Math Games this week! I know a lot of you are still teaching virtual, looking for classroom activities that are fun and engaging, or curriculum you can put on your personal sites so students can access them.
Math games allow students to have fun, use thinking skills, BUT are still able to review and learn concepts. These games below are great, because they show the students the wrong answer and once they do get it correct, it takes them to the next level. I post these on my website and have students complete. You can have them show their work on problems, use it as review, or have students work together or as a whole group.
If your students want more of a challenge, I use this Fraction Escape Room. It's longer, but it really CHALLENGES the students. I use it in January/February because I have already taught fractions or am getting ready to. My students love seeing which level they have passed in the game.
Check out the video preview below! Students can watch video embedded into the game on making equivalent fractions and ordering and comparing fractions. They then find the correct answers and match them to different space adventures. Once they find the answer, they get a code word they need to punch in for the LOCKS page to take them to the next level of the escape.
What are your students interested in? Whatever you are teaching in math, try some math games in your classroom. I love trying some new things in my classroom to break up these LONG winter days.
Sunday, February 6, 2022
Biography Black History Resources for DIGITAL and PRINT to use in your Classroom!
February is Black History Month and it's always my go to month to introduce a research project. Students have learned most of their writing skills to begin a project like this and it is great for ANY age level. You can tailor the research to be as in depth as you would like.
Here are the steps I follow for Biography Research. If you want to skip ahead to the resources, I totally get it! BUT here's a quick guide if you need!
1.THINK about what you want the END product to be for your students. Would it be one paragraph of writing, a paper with multiple paragraphs, or a culminating project at the end? Maybe it is a combination of all three, but you will want to think about this before you assign your project and/or research.
2. INTRODUCE the project and have students choose their biography focus from a list! I have a HUGE comprehensive list in my Black History Bubbleheads packet.
Here is also a list of a few: https://theundefeated.com/features/the-undefeated-44-most-influential-black-americans-in-history/#introduction
3. GATHER materials for research! Local librarians can pull books for you, as well as your school librarian if you have one. I ALWAYS like my students to have a PRINT resource AND a digital one (minimum) for any age.
I LOVE this book series for grades 2-5 depending on reading level! It won't have all of your research people, but it's a great start!
Here are some other websites that you may like. Remember your school usually subscribes to some databases for you, so ask about those, as well as local library!
(A great website for information! You can search by person! It gives you a SHORT bio, as well as the source information for you. Better suited to older kids for the amount of text)
(Great website! Visit Explore- History- African American Heroes if it doesn't take you there. Great for little kids with short text! It doesn't have everyone, so you may want to see who this website has first!
Great website for some video research information! Check out the Elementary video section that has videos on certain people! It's quite a few!
Great list of other books that you may want to check out for read alouds!
Short list of Black History Biographies, but breaks information down into sections! Again, not everyone is listed, but an option for you depending on what access you have to a database. You could even have students research one person together as a class (for example Martin Luther King) to see what information you want them to gather!
Here is a FREE graphic organizer I found:
You could use this as a template to tailor it how you would like students to take notes and print it OR use as a template in Google Docs.
5. CHOOSE a project! Check out the Bubbleheads for an EASY project during or after the biography research. You can have them focus on character traits for their Black History Biography.
Another project that is a little more prep, BUT will guide them through step by step is the Lapbook. It has all the parts that they will find research for. I have these both bundled together below as well.
For younger students they may also like this Reading Contract for Biographies to use. It has all the graphic organizers for taking notes in each area, as well as comprehension pages and reading strategies while they take notes and read their biography.
I love Biographies and whatever time of year, it's great for students to have CHOICE in their research! Happy February!
Sunday, January 30, 2022
Resources for the first TWO days in February!
February is upon us! The snow and cold are definitely here where I am; it's been below zero and snowing! There are two important days within the first two days in February- Chinese New Year and Groundhog Day. I am going to highlight some resources for these two special days. Chinese New Year - also known as the Spring Festival marks the beginning of the New Lunar Year! Chinese New Year is celebrated all around the world.
Chinese New Year is February 1st, the year of the Tiger! Find out more about this tradition with the Mini Escape Chinese New Year. There are comprehension pages, a short video, puzzle, and pictures. You may not have time do incorporate this as a full lesson in your classroom, so this is perfect for a station activity. You can add one of the books below to read at the station as well! Since this is a MINI Escape the possibilities are endless for how you use this in your classroom.
Here are two great picture books that your students may like for Lunar New Year/Chinese New Year!
I love the tradition of Groundhog Day! It's exciting to wake up and see if the groundhog will see his shadow or not. The kids love predicting whether or not the groundhog will run back into his hole if he sees his shadow or whether he will stay outside for an early spring. Everyone watches each year to see what Punxsutawney Phil will do in Pennsylvania. It's a tradition that started in 1887. Groundhog Day is February 2nd! Celebrate by doing this Mini Escape to read about this special day and about groundhogs.
Check out these two great reads for Groundhog Day!
Here is a fun game for Groundhog Day! This a fun game I found on Highlights that might be something to just post on your website for kids to play on their own at home or when they are done with station work.
Check out these FREE resources for Chinese New Year and Groundhog Day!
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