Archives March 2024

Here is a new Gimkit Set with analog clock faces for every hour at :00 and :30. This is a great activity for developing the skill and ability to instantly recognize those times. Click the image below for the link.

Even better news is that I made a special Gimkit map for your youngins that they should be very capable of enjoying. The enemies powers have been scaled down to make it “beginner mode”. Click the image below to link to this fully custom game. If this is too easy let me know and I can adjust it.  It should be a quick game which your class could play a couple rounds of in a session.

Here are some visual vocabulary activities for your Pre-K students.
This includes PowerPoint slide shows as an entire huge slide show or divided into smaller categorical groups.

There are also interactive Lumio activities which can be completed whole group or even should work out assigning individually in Google Classroom if you have computer lab or Chromebook access. Lumio lets you have 10 activities on a free account.

Click the Google Drive link below to access the PowerPoint slide shows.

These activities are broken down into groups of ten to 20 items so they should be quick experiences for your students. These might be good individual practice after going over a presentation as a group. They also stand well on their own.

	Super Sort Activity: Food vs TransportationStudents sort images into the two categories to play out a pirate ship battle.
	PK visual Vocab Monster Flash CardsTurn over the flash cards one at a time and SHOUT the visual vocabulary term.
	PK Visual Vocabulary Memory Matching GameHere is a memory matching game using a set of ten terms.

https://sites.google.com/view/mrbrowndigitalescaperooms/spring-flowers

I just finished this FABULOUS digital escape room over the timely concept of Spring Flowers in Texas, the arrival of allergy season, and Author’s purpose.  

The April Showers are her in March and the May Flowers are already blooming. Love may not be in the air but pollen is and allergies are out of control in this digital breakout. Learn about Flowers of Texas while you practice your skills and test your knowledge with Author’s Purpose.

TEKS E1.8a, E1.8b, E1.8c, E1.8d, E1.8e, E1.8f, E1.8g, E2.8a, E2.8b, E2.8c, E2.8d, E2.8e, E2.8f, E2.8g

Make organizing and finding your files easier by mass renaming them when it is helpful. In the video I use image files but it will work on any file types in any folder location. Goodness, you don’t even have to rename them all. Just group the ones you need. You’ll get it just watch for like 90 seconds. It’s a very valuable skill to have.

Gimkit has always been awesome and engaging. It’s level of awesome and engaging has multiplied by unmeasurable magnitudes!!

With Gimkit Creative’s custom map and game designing tool I was able to build a map that is a replica of our own Mattei and Southard Middle Schools!

This game, World Bosses 3: Southard Mattei, incorporates actual STAAR reviews for all 4 core content areas. When you play this from your account you can use these Gimkit sets (linked below) or attach your own sets. I upgraded my Gimkit account so I was able to publish these on their public “discover” database of custom maps.

8th grade US History STAAR Review Gimkit set
7th Grade Writing STAAR Review Gimkit Set
8th Grade Science STAAR Review Gimkit Set
MS Math Vocabulary Review Gimkit Set

Links to all three versions of World Bosses are available below.

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I love these types of programs which not only teach children about budgeting and financial literacy but they are just fun, engaging, and student centered. They are a way to transform your classroom for the better while teaching the most relevant real world skills. You assign responsibilities to students as jobs. There are default jobs built in or you can add custom jobs.

Students earn a salary with their job and use that salary to pay their bills. There are fines for undesired behaviors. More importantly students can earn bonuses so you can reinforce positive behaviors!

Students can spend some of their salary on rewards in the class store. Those can be as simple as special privileges or physical prizes you keep in your class.

There is an awful lot available for free without the pro subscription. Below are the extra features you can get with a pro-plan. Those features include giving a student job access to run the bank and rewards store. Most of it looks rather automatic though with the salaries and bills. It should be easy to catch up on fines and bonuses every now and then.

Here are a few ECR prompts for your students to type responses to in Teachermade.com. Hopefully your students will find these engaging and fun to develop creative responses to.

Writable is a web based writing program that will help your students develop their writing skills. It offers daily practice activities as well feedback tools to drive revision. There are also assessments to monitor students goal progress.

Writable uses AI to assess student submissions for you and provides the students with feedback to accelerate them toward achieving their goals. This is a game changer for you and does not require any difficult set up. it is all built into the program.

The second video in Topic 1 walks you through connecting your classes to writable. You will roster your students through our LMS (Learning Management System) which is Google Classroom. You will be able to push out Writable activities through Google Classroom.

Below are two super quick videos from Writable about the program. Please take a few minutes to watch these.

Then start High Fiving your kids!!!