Taking over Instagram

Hello friends-

If you haven't heard, every Tuesday Teachers are taking over Instagram!

Check out our posts today...

If your not on Instagram...You're missing out!

Teacher Appreciation Sale

We know how important it is to feel appreciated and are thrilled to announce that we are helping to spread the appreciation by joining the TPT Teacher Appreciation Sale.

Our entire TPT store is on sale from May 7th to May 8th.  Please feel free to check out our products and shop away.

WE APPRECIATE YOU!
Damien and Kelly

Apps in our Novel

Hello buddies-

For the past five years I have been reading the first two Harry Potter books as my whole group novel.  As much as I LOVE the Harry Potter Series and I LLLLOOOOVVVVEEEE IT!

See proof here: England Update
Here: London
Here: Magic Wands
And Here: Welcome to Hogwarts

I needed to do something a little different this year, call it the 7 year itch. As part of our Harry Potter character unit we took the theme of: What if Hogwarts had technology?

                What if Hermione could Google Nicholas Flamel?

                What would Harry Tweet after a Quidditch Match?

                          What Apps would be on Ron's I-Pad?

This new twist really allowed my students to really connect with the characters.  Most recently we spent some time designing our own Apps for Hogwarts students.  My kids created games, studying Apps, and a digital Maruader's Map for their I-pads. 

Take a glance below: 

Students had to write a description of their App
like one that would be found on I-Tunes

They had to draw a icon image for their I-pad

My kids ABSOLUTELY loved this activity and the Apps they created were AWESOME!  Look below for the final product

Class iPad with our voted Apps

App description

Each kid gets to make a mini-iPad with their apps. 

Our hallway display

My App activity is available on my TPT store: Apps in our Novel

Enjoy!
Damien

#TeacherTalkTuesday

Our Tuesday...in Instagram Pictures

Instagram- #TeacherTalkTuesday

We are joining the party!

The Instagram party....

We (and by we I mean me b/c I'm not sure Kelly knows what Instagram is) are VERY new to this but we never want to miss a party. 

Here's our Instagram info below and we can't wait to Tuesday to share more!

Follow us using the username TheReadingBuddies

Here's our first post (is it called a post?) of our Earth Day activity. 

We look forward to sharing a glimpse of what's going on on Tuesday.

#TeacherTalkTuesday

-Damien 

Administrative Professional's Day

Hello all-

I was inspired to create this card for our school secretaries when I saw they on Pinterest.

All you need is some fun color post-it's and a file folder. Each student took a post-it and wrote a personalized note to each secretary. Using post-it's allowed each student to haw time to write something personal-instead of rushing to sign the card. (It also stopped us from making 20 separate cards). Best of all, it didn't take forever to complete.

The post-it's and file folder seemed appropriate for the secretaries. I added a cute saying (or cheesy pun depending on your viewpoint) and we were good to go.

Best kid post-it: "going to the office is usually a pleasant experience, thanks for that". Love it!

Check out the pictures below.

Damien

Earth Day with the Lorax

This year, Kelly and I had to celebrate Earth Day a little bit early due to a poorly timed PD workshop for me.  

Our inspiration for this year's festivities came from two locations 
1. What we did last year
2. The fact that we had a scheduled early dismissal day

That meant scaling down a little bit, which is something that we don't do well.  Take a look at what we did last year here Earth Day-Last Year.

We started with a digital reading of The Lorax found on YouTube.com

Everyone was very engaged and could see the pictures when we project
the story on the SMART Board.

This was on Youtube and was a pretty good reading. 

After that we had our students work with their buddies to discuss what they thought happened after the little boy was given the final truffula seed.  After some pair and share time they shared their predictions with the whole group.  We then discussed that Universal Studios created a movie version of The Lorax and they had to ask themselves the same question.  We then watched the ending song of The Lorax the movie "Let it Grow" and talked about whether we agreed with the studio execs or not.  This video was also found on YouTube.com- You can find it here Let it Grow-The Lorax the Movie.  It's really cute and very catchy! (read-it's still stuck in my head).

This is a picture of the SMART Board file we used for our next activity.  We had previously gotten together for Grinch Day in December and discussed all things The Grinch. (Check out previous Grinch Day post here: Grinch Day 2012)  The kids were given a graphic organizer where they were to discuss who they thought was the worse villain and provide support.  

We had some great answers such as:

-The Grinch because he did it on purpose where the Once-ler's actions were accidental. 

-The Once-ler because he can't fix what he did and the Grinch did.

My personal favorite from an adorable shaggy-haired second grader:

-The Once-ler because you can live without Christmas presents but you can not live without oxygen from the trees.  (LOVE HIM!)

This was a print out of the SMART Board file graphic organizer

If you looked at last year's Earth Day post you saw the Land of the Lorax that we made.  Adorable right!  Well this year Kelly saw an idea on Pinterest about make truffula tress out of pencils and we added that this year and it made a world of a difference!  They are SOOOOO much brighter and visually appealing than the colored version we made last year.

Working on decorating our cups

Prior to planting

Planting

How adorable are these.  The tissue paper truffula trees are absolutely adorable and add sooo much to the project.  The kids used markers to create the zig-zags around the pencil and crumpled tissue paper to make the tufts.  The cups were decorated with tissue paper in Earth colors and glue.  We planted grass seed and they now line the windowsill in my room and look FANTASTIC!  Everyone who walks into the room is absolutely in love with them.  

I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees!

Have a FANTASTIC Earth Day, buddies.

Damien and Kelly