Collaborative Math Padlet

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Spring into April: Hands-on Earth Day ideas

Spring into April with some hands-on Earth Day ideas. Click on the image below to check out my post over at The Primary Peach.

App Smashing with Buncee and Seesaw and Freebie

Seesaw is the go-to app in my kindergarten classroom and we're always looking for new ways to use it. About four months ago I discovered a presentation tool called Buncee that you can use on the web or download as an app.  

Buncee functions somewhat like Powerpoint in the way that you can add slides- but a more kid- friendly version. They have numerous templates that can be easily adapted and uploaded to students' Seesaw journals. The images shown below are just a handful of the many educational templates available.

  You can also build your own slides using text, animation, videos, stickers, drawings, QR codes, etc. I absolutely love the multimedia choices that are available to add to presentations. 

Here is a acrostic poem template I created this year. It literally took 5 minutes to make! I simply uploaded it to their Seesaw journal and they used the draw feature to add words and illustrations.  

  

I also used Buncee to give my students and their parents ideas for their Flat Stanley project. I used one of their backgrounds, but then added my own text and pictures. 

                          

Since this was a slideshow I used the link option in Seesaw to upload it for my students. 

You will see this option in Seesaw, then it will prompt you to add the URL link.  In Buncee, after you finish your slide(s), you choose "Share" and then copy and paste the link provided.

I also used this appsmash in reading. For a simple assessment, I created this template and dropped it into their Seesaw journal.  After reading the book Flat Stanley students were prompted to draw their favorite part of the story.                                                                                                                                                                     

Math is another area where I used the Buncee/Seesaw combination. In the second half of the school year, we began tackling word problems. However, I soon noticed that some of my students still needed practice with smaller numbers, so I used Buncee to create differentiated word problems.  
Then I uploaded it to Seesaw and added my voice to give them directions. Like PowerPoint, you can duplicate slides in Buncee. So I created two slides to differentiate for my students. 

These are just a few ways that you can use Buncee in your classroom. I would love to hear how you are using Buncee and Seesaw with your students.  Check out the Buncee website to create your own account. If you don't have Seesaw, it is an absolute game changer.  Go to their website for more appsmash ideas and to sign up for FREE.

Poetry and Sharing Reading in Kindergarten

 

Shared reading is definitely one of my kinders' favorite part of each day. They love poems and songs, so I use them to help my students: make connections, build phonics skills, identify text features and love reading!(Rog, 2011). Each week we have a sight word poem that we read multiple times and every time we interact with it we have a different focus.

 

When I introduce the poem to the students, I read it aloud modeling appropriate fluency and expression. We also discuss the big ideas in the poem and make personal connections. When I read it the second time, the students echo me after each line. 

Stikki Wax is a popular item in my class and we love to use it highlight specific words. During this reading of the poem, we find rhyming words, sight words, long vowels, short vowels, etc. Then we use the Stikki Wax to identify these special words. 

Of course, we read the whole poem again, but this time I have parts of the poem in a pocket chart on sentence strips  I use words, phrases and sentences and students will take one of these and match it with the poem on the Smartboard (see picture above). 

This time when we read the poem, I have a student lead the tracking and of course they get to pick the pointer of their choice. Students are invited to identify sight words, rhyming words that they recognize in the poem. One of our favorite activities is the guess the covered word.  I cover some of the words with sticky note and students will try to predict the word. If it is a high frequency word then we try to spell it, like the child in the picture above. 

Each week, students will take the poem home in their Sight Word Poetry Journal. They will read the poem with/to an adult, identify their sight words and add an illustration. 

This has been a weekly literacy activity for four years in my class and every year the students love it!

Writing Celebration

We use the Lucy Calkins' Writing Units of Study and I truly believe that it challenges our kinders to be better writers. At the end of our how-to unit, we asked parents to help by taking pictures of their child showing something they knew how to do.  Then they brought the pictures to school and during Writer's Workshop we added the written directions. We shared these for our Writing Celebration and our students loved being able to teach our guests how to do something.

      

Make a slideshow

Sharing Sunday-April

The authors at the Primary Peach are back this month to help you get a head start on planning for April.  I've included some newly discovered Earth Day ideas and resources as well as some that were a big hit with my kinders (Shaving Cream art). Click on the images below to download the PDF file. In the PDF file, all of the images are hyperlinks and will take you directly to each resource. Happy Planning!

Head back to the Primary Peach for more April resources.

Using Microsoft Sway in the Classroom