Alphabetimals

This is a fun little website that has an interactive alphabet book, ABC song video, name typer, free printable resources, and even an app you can download to your iPad. Super cute for the primary grades.

www.alphabetimals.com

I have to be honest and say I absolutely love creating words and names with Name Typer! This can also be an engaging way for your students to practice spelling words and typing skills at the same time. You have the option to print it out or share by email. I also like creating cute names like this for myself and using it as my email signature. It is amazing how many more teachers read my emails when I have something cute on it!

 

You can also have students read the interactive alphabet book. There is an animal that is shaped like each letter of the alphabet. Students can click to hear an audio sound of what the animal sounds like or hear the word pronounced.

 

Remember to also check out the ABC video song, free printables, and iPad app. Also, if you are lucky enough to have an interactive whiteboard, this would be great to project and have students interact with it.

I took a little break from blogging this summer so check back often because I'll be posting a lot more fun, interactive websites for the beginning of school. I have so many I can't decide which ones to highlight first :)

New Blog on the Block!

I am happy to announce that one of my best friends, who is super talented, just started her own blog. She is a technology specialist and always has great ideas and resources to share. So if you get a chance, stop by and check it out.

www.teacherplayground.com

Lovely Blog Award

I was excited to learn that my blog was awarded the Lovely Blog Award by Primary Possibilities. So if you haven't checked out their blog, you should head on over there. It's now my turn to pass on the award to other lovely blogs!

Once you receive the award, you must follow 3 rules:
1. Follow the person that gave you the award
2. Link back to the person that gave you the award
3. Pass the award on to 15 new bloggers

Here are the blogs I'm passing it on to (sorry if some of you have it already):

QR Cubes

I stumbled upon the idea of QR cubes a while back and thought there were so many possibilities of how they could be used in the classroom, I just wanted to share. They are so simple to make and it is a great way to bring technology into the classroom. 

I have actually built quite a few now because they have been quite addicting. For example, I created one for writing prompts. The students would roll the cube and then with a QR Reader (I'll list some below) scan to see what prompt they would be writing about. Some other ideas you could make cubes for are:

• Content questions for review
• Warm up questions
• Wrap up questions
• Story elements that a student would have to identify after reading a story
• Quick Facts
• Rewards/Incentives
• Positive sayings
• Vocabulary
• As a way of grouping
• Math problems for students to solve

Here is a link to my Writing Prompt QR Cube if you would like a copy. All you would need to do is just print it out and assemble the cube!

Directions to make your own

If you would like to make one, I have detailed out the steps below. I suggest creating all of your QR codes first and saving them to your documents. My favorite QR generator is QR Stuff but you can use any QR generator you prefer to create them. I just love that QR Stuff allows you to change the color of the codes, whereas a lot of others only create in black.  

1. Go to QR Stuff and choose plain text for the data type.
2. Enter in your text you want the students to read when scanning.
3. Choose your preferred color.
4. Then under the preview box, click download QR code.
5. Choose the location where you would like to save it, name the file (for example my naming scheme usually is writing 1, writing 2, and so on because it'll make things easier later to locate and identify) and then of course save!
6. I repeat the first five steps until I have all six QR codes created for the cube's sides.
7. Next, open up the cube template. Click HERE if you would like to use the one like mine. However, any cube template will do. (For some reason they file looks blank on Google Docs until you download it but it's really there).
8. Now from the template (opens in Word), choose insert picture and navigate to your first QR code.
9. I simply resize and move the QR code to fit the template and continue the steps until all of my QR codes fit nicely on there.
10. I then save the file and print the QR cube file out on card stock. You can do it with plain paper but I find card stock holds up so much longer and it's easier to glue together.
11. Voila! You have your QR cube.

Also, here are a few QR reader apps I recommend. You can search for them on iTunes or Google Play for Android.

i-nigma

QR Droid

NeoReader

RedLaser

Please Vote for my LiveBinder as Top 10!

My Math Interactive LiveBinder has been nominated for Top 10. Please go vote for it by clicking below! It is #27 listed last. Also, be sure to check out my other LiveBinders for additional subjects. They are really useful, especially if you are looking for ways to be more interactive with your students.

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=409361

If you are not familiar with LiveBinders, they are great resources to explore for classroom ideas for any subject and even professional development ideas. The site has thousands of binders for you to search from or you can even create one yourself to share. It's basically just a three-ring binder for the web. I love to use it to bookmark my favorite websites because I can access them from anywhere at anytime. Plus, I have the option to share it out or password protect it. When you get a chance, go explore the website. I always find lots of treasures there.

Animoto for End of the Year Slide Shows

Need an idea for putting together an end of the year slide show or presentation? Animoto is the way to go. I absolutely love using this site. All you would need to do is gather your favorite pictures or video clips and Animoto will do the rest. It gives you a professional looking slide show and you can set it to music by choosing from their own collection. Educators can also apply for a free Animoto Plus account (http://animoto.com/education) and create videos up to ten minutes in length. The free version account only allows you to create 30 second videos so I would highly recommend applying for an educator account.

You can choose a theme for your video style. Check out their sample videos for inspiration.

http://animoto.com/

You also have the option to choose your music, upload photos or video clips, add text, and arrange them in any order you would like. It really is such a simple, easy process.

Once the video is created, you can share with students and parents my email, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or upload it to YouTube. The videos look so professional and is such a great way to share memories of the past year. Also, be sure to check out the Animoto mobile app to create videos on the go.

I know a lot of you have already discovered the awesomeness of Animoto but for those few who still haven't yet, it's a must for checking out. 

Roy the Zebra

I came across Roy the Zebra a few months ago and thought it was a wonderful website to use with students to reinforce their reading skills. It has a lot of reading games that can be used on the interactive whiteboard or as an extension to support your reading lessons during computer time. 

www.roythezebra.com

Some of the skills Roy the Zebra reviews is alphabetical order, long vowel phonemes, words that rhyme, consonant blends, and high frequency words. A lot of the interactive games are free but the website does have a few that are paid. Of course, I only use the free interactive games because there are plenty of good free ones where it isn't necessary to purchase anything. It is still worth checking out because the games are user-friendly and the students will love them.

In the activity below, students help Wellington the turtle clean up the sea by matching the correct double consonant blend to the beginning of each word.

  

Roy the Zebra mainly focuses on high frequency words such as days of the week, months, and colors. Students can help Tom get ready for bed by clicking and dragging the days of the week in the correct order.

Students can choose rhyming words by hovering over the apples to reveal a word. If it rhymes with the given word, they can drag the word into Belinda's house.