Badge Update 5 Nov 2021

This is the first year we have seen such strong representation by secondary campuses in the top 5. I am very excited to see that.

via GIPHY

Numerous badges for Mrs. H and Mrs. Neal solidified Southard’s lead at the top of the badge chart.

via GIPHY

The next 5 campuses are all very close to each other with only a badge or three separating them.

via GIPHY

We know from years past that Lacy and Lowe can bring the badges when motivated so I don’t expect this ranking to be the same next month.

via GIPHY

I’ll be coming around with badges and prizes today!

via GIPHY

Veterans Day Activities

Veterans Day Activities

https://sites.google.com/view/veteransdayactivity/home

Follow the link above to reach a website based lesson I created for Veterans Day. This lesson includes 5 activities starting with creating posters for an Honor Wall in your school.

There are 4 other web quest type activities that cover the history and purpose behind Veterans Day; Veterans of the American Revolution; WWII veterans; as well as stories from Afghan war veterans. Each of those four sections is also accompanied by a YouTube video.

Student responses to the Google Forms on the webpage will come to me but students will get an email confirmation of their submissions and scores if you find it necessary to take a grade on the activities.  ​

​Please notice the strategy I used to create this activity of embedding the Google Form directly in the web page.  That is a good idea to use with your own lessons.  That can be easily achieved with Google Sites.

These activities, I think, do a good job of educating students about veterans and veterans day as well as using skills students need to be successful including reading for understanding, multi-item select questions, analyzing graphs and charts, and exploring primary resources.

The honor wall posters are also available below. Please email me photos of your Honor Wall and share them on social media to honor those local veterans. Making our Honor Wall was something my students and I always loved doing.

I have also added a printable packet of all the questions from the embedded Google ​Form if you would prefer to use that and have something for your students to turn in.  

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1StFnR0Lb6JXNcLgYdcPiPZATst_PY-wLPRQSYGnjWDg/edit?usp=sharing

Here are copies of the Google Form Files if you want to be able to assign them in Google Classroom.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/14Fq2oXYcdcDleyxeg-ta9vfmpdSMEiVKXUvLcPVUa4s/copy

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10eni2aQiHsE6-yqJi5safuFJDv-d7O480887YU1hFXU/copy
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12351eOiBzjRkNCuTIfx1Wi75TYJU6bnE92TdaBQx62U/copy

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_eAfarQPNVuVw8ath2H4ahC1g-ce_fA2GkVTbJPrWnU/copy

I just completed and added a Google Doc activity about the veterans onboard the USS Indianapolis during WWII. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bhOuENHi6lm82MhTnMALAeJHlK2BWC1yVhjPRTuAa0c/copy

USS Indianapolis (CA-35) - Wikipedia


Gatorland Math Activity

Now you have probably heard of or been to Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, and even Legoland, but have you ever been to Gatorland!? It doesn’t get more “Florida Man” than Gatorland. GatorLand is Central Florida fun at it’s best. Where else in the world can you see giant 14 foot long alligators launch themselves from the murky swamp into the air to snag a raw chicken?

Use this activity to explore a little of the history and facts about Gatorland while applying math skills in a “mostly” practical and relevant way. This activity is made in Google Slides and designed to be assigned in Google Classroom. There is an answer key included.

Math Skills include: Rate, speed, distance, chronological/number order, addition, multiplication, percent and fractions, average, dimensions, pricing with sales tax.

You can even follow one of America’s favorite YouTube families through Gatorland with this YouTube video.

Kinder Mouse Activity

Assign this Google Drawings file in Google Classroom to have your students practice their basic mouse skills. Save a copy. You can edit and change the panthers to something else.

Nearpod

Let’s jump into Nearpod and learn what is so amazing about it. Nearpod is a fantastic interactive presentation tool that helps you keep kids engaged and check for understanding as you go.

https://app.nearpod.com/?pin=1DC3AB725328BA820432802D04187D07-1

Math Facts Websites

https://www.coolmath4kids.com/quizzes

This website lets you choose between addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. You can have 10, 20, 0r 30 questions in your quiz. Time options range from 5 seconds per question to unlimited time.

https://www.multiplication.com/quiz/multiplication-self-correcting-quizzes

I took the Post-Test on this website which covered it all 1-10 times tables. There were 40 questions. It told me the total time it took me to complete it as well as my score and which ones I got right and wrong. This option has a large onscreen key pad for answering which would be great for a touch screen.

https://www.mathmammoth.com/practice/multiplication

This option lets you set it to a one minute time limit so you can challenge your students to answer as many as they can in the one minute. If you are trying to get your students to complete 25 questions in one minute this might be your best option. Students can even email you their results straight from the website.

Education Galaxy Follow Up

Pixton Comic Creator

This tool is an absolute blast to use. We all made our Pixton Avatars around the office and created a class photo. We made practice cartoons as well. You could use this tool in so many ways with your students.

They have built in lessons and plenty of ideas to get you started if you aren’t already bouncing around 1000 ideas in your head like I am.

Author’s Purpose Activity

Here is a wonderful quartet of reading selections followed by a multiple choice question each. The question asks students to choose the best intent statement for the author’s purpose. The stories cover engaging topics including, vacations, puppies, tacos, and videogames. I promise you won’t be disappointed by it.

Mote Voice Recorder

Here is a fantastic little Chrome extension that helps you to record feedback into a Google Doc, add narration to a Google Slide, Record directions in Google Classroom, and even record an audio message in a Gmail.

https://www.mote.com/

Textfree by Pinger

Here is a tool that you can use to send text messages to parents without using your personal cell phone number. You can use Pinger Text Free to send text messages from your web browser or via the app on your phone. Pro-Tip when making your list of numbers for a group message be sure to include a comma after each number before copy pasting the numbers into the to line. Also I didn’t find a BCC way to send to a group.

Prefix and Suffix Practice

Here are a couple SMART board activities I made for you to practice prefixes and suffixes. If you don’t teach prefixes and suffixes give the activity a try anyways to experience this type of activity that I made quickly with the Lumio SMART templates.

Prefix fill in the blank activity

Suffix memory matching game

Flash Cards (Digital, Pre-K)

Here are some great options for premade digital flashcards for your Pre-K students.

https://supersimple.com/content-type/flashcards/

https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/teachers-area/classroom-toolkit/digital-flashcards

eLearning Flash Cards

Google Chrome Web Browser Themes

Here is one of the most useful productivity decisions I have made. Check out this super quick video to see how I use Chrome Browser themes to organize my work space more efficiently. If you use more than one Chrome login on your computer, this is for you.

StudyStack

StudyStack.com is an amazing website that lets you create digital flash cards and many other interactive study games as well as awesome printables.

Headless Horseman Comic Activity

Here is a headless horseman comic activity for you.  It is in Google Slides and can be assigned in Google Classroom.  There are preloaded backgrounds and comic strip characters for students to use.  The assignment is for them to recreate scene 7 (from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Read-Aloud Play by Storyworks) as a comic strip.

Digital Periodic Table

Here is a cool digital Periodic Table with some interactive elements to it. I have created a 20 question activity to accompany this resource. The activity is a Google Form. The questions are all short answer and self grading. The button below will download your own copy of the activity that you can assign to your students to get their results.

Pin Resource to Shelf on Chromebook

Here is a quick guide on how to pin a website to the shelf on your Chromebook. It’s a little faster and definitely cooler than just saving something to your favorites. This will open a browser directly to the resource you want your students to access. This is a very cool idea. Thanks to Mrs. Nelson and her math team who are creating a Google Site of resources for their students to pin to the shelf of their Chromebooks. This is basically the same thing as pinning a program to the task bar or desktop on your windows PC.

Hurricane of 1900 Galveston Storm

I am very excited to present to you this activity that I think is UhMazing, but I am biased. This activity was created in Google Docs and intended to be assigned digitally in Google Classroom. There are preformatted answer boxes following each question for students to put their answers in. Of Course it could be printed and handed out as well.

This activity is amazing because it covers so many content areas. It is an ultimate cross curricular activity. ELAR, plenty of exciting and engaging reading. Science, weather and hurricanes of course. Social Studies, history, as well as maps and charts, primary source pictures. Best of all Math, all of the questions that follow the article are math based questions asking students to use counting, subtraction, multiplication, area, volume, and more.

Education Galaxy Add Teachers

Principals. You may need to add Special Populations teachers with out a homeroom class to Education Galaxy. If you do this is that super fast and easy process.