MRS. GROOMS' ROOM: August 2015

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Back to School Blog Hop

Hey everyone!!

Can you believe it is Back to School already? I am so glad to be linking up with Tammy from The Owl Teacher!!! She has an awesome giveaway that you have got to ENTER!!!! And even though I was late to the party today... I feel like I am in ~~beast~~ PREPARE mode.

I have a Back to School idea for you!!

My Back to School idea is about student birthdays!!!

One thing that I have found with student birthdays is that
1) Birthdays are the most important day of the year in a kid's life besides Christmas.
AND
2) If you do something with one student no matter what it is, you have to do it with the rest of the students. They totally remember!!!!

One thing that I am preparing for this year is BIRTHDAYS. I don't go CUHRAZY for birthdays BUT we do do these three things: We sing, "Happy Birthday," my students wear a cute little bulletin border crown, and they get a Birthday Bag.

The Birthday Bag.

It's like a plastic baggie with a few sweet candies, a couple of cute pencils and some coupons. BUT to my students its like PURE GOLD. (So cute and so funny...I love how proud they are about it.)

(Don't laugh...its an older version of the birthday bag.)

So here is my hot mess...

The office at my school calls out the birthdays of all our students every day, and when they call out your name, you get to go to the office to get your pencil and lollipop.

It's GO TIME for me!

NOW imagine ~~whirlwind~~ ~~CUHRAZY~~ ME trying to get everything together in five chaotic minutes...a crown, birthday pencils, coupons, erasers, and candy together in one little plastic bag for my little darling to surprise them as they come through the door and we sing "Happy Birthday!"

(Faints!)

I drove myself CUHRAZY because I didn't have my birthdays ducks in a row. That had to change. NOW? Birthdays are a breeze!! Now...I prepare all of my birthday bags at the beginning of the year!!! And it has made my life a thousand times easier!! I simply have the crown ready to staple, and I go to my closet and put the Birthday Bag on my student's desk. No hot mess or chaotic whirlwinds. I have no stress, I am prepared, I have a procedure and a tradition that my kids expect and love.

What do I do? I buy enough pencils, erasers, and candies to do enough Birthday Bags for an entire class. I go get erasers, pencils, prizes, candy, and coupons. I simply sit and make them like I do treat bags.

Now for the coupons! You can use these cuties to put inside your bags. Your students will love them!! There is one to wish your student a happy birthday, one coupon for NO homework, and a free time coupon. Cut and stick them in your Birthday Bags...easy-peasy and your birthdays are ready to celebrate!!! (By the way, my kids LOVE iPad time for their free time coupon...plus it makes for a great birthday morning.)

Please click HERE to grab your free birthday coupons!

What do you do for your students' birthdays?

Remember to enter the giveaway at The Owl Tree!!! There are some awesome prizes to WIN and some fantastic blogs with freebies, ideas, and tips for you!

Have a great year!!!

The giveaway!! You can enter below or you can click on The Owl Teacher's button!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, August 2, 2015

WIN an iPad Air 2!!!!!

Hey Y'all!!
How are my favorite friends? I am so excited to tell you all about our giveaway at iteachfirst! Just for you, we are giving away an iPad Air 2, a case, AND an iTunes gift card!!!!!!! (SO SO JELLY!)

I am so excited!! Can you imagine getting a gift like that?

I have one iPad for all of my students and I use it all the time in small group, as a center, and as a reward. There are soooo many apps out there! It can be daunting to find the perfect collection of apps for your students. So I have made a list of my top 9 apps just for you. In fact...you can actually see them on my phone...yes...I have minions on my phone....I can't help myself...BANANAS!!!

Apps for you....

I love my camera at school!! I use it all the time!!! I take pictures of students to send to parents, pictures of work that we have done in our classroom, and pictures of my students as they work. I don't just use it in the classroom but I also take pictures of ideas I see around me, student work that I need to keep in my records, parent notes that I might need later, or notes that we may bring up in our grade level meeting. I know that we all have that app but the use of an iPad or an iPhone camera in the classroom is definitely worth the mention.

Level It is the app I call on when I am leveling my books. I have several leveling apps but this is the one that most likely has the level I need. But you may use another one just like I use this one. Hey...that's okay! There are several out there to LOVE!!!

Also, Class Dojo is WONDERFUL. (I wish there were caps on those caps!) My parents love it, my students love it, and I love it. The thing that I love most is the cute little monsters....okay okay...that is true but what I really love is the fact that you can find patterns of behaviors and show parents that this particular behavior is a behavior issue or a great reason to go out for a Sonic shake.

Another thing that I love is that I can record behaviors on my phone while in my reading groups, and it shows up on my Smartboard. My students NOTICE that I NOTICE! When I see see good behavior and I record it, you can feel the pride, people, when they hear the ding and see their name.

Epic!

Apps for reading...
Another favorite app of mine is Epic!! Not only can you use this app on your iPad, but also on your laptop or computers. It is fantastic to use for reading centers!! There are so many choices, students have their own profile, and the best thing about it...it's FREE for teachers! Remember to keep a file on books that you happen to find for free in the app store.

Apps for writing and spelling...
Especially for the littles, apps like Little Spellers, Sight Words, and Little Writers are all great apps to help students learn how to write and identify words. Little Writers is a tracing app that show students how to form their letters. Sentence Maker helps students to form sentences.

Ten Frame Fill

Apps for math....
Sushi Monster is a great app to practice addition and subtraction. One of my favorite apps to practice adding and subtracting with a tens frame is called Ten Frame Fill. I love that is such a specific skill to practice and it's FREE! Animal Math for First and Second Grade are also wonderful to use to practice ALL kinds of skills from adding to patterns to skip counting. As of now, the First Grade version is FREE!

Toca Boca

Apps for free time or rewards...
One of my favorite apps for students during free time or as a reward is Nighty Night , Toca Boca, and Pepi Play. They are a little quirky but encourage creativity, curiousity, and they are so FUN! I love to play them all and shhh...sometimes I do.

My niece and I made an iPhone for her out of construction paper. She was going to text me but she can't seem to get a signal. : )

Apps from YOU....
What awesome apps have you found? Got a great one you can share? I would LOVE for you to leave the name of the app in the comments to share with everyone. :) I am always looking for the next great app!

Remember to click on the picture to enter the giveaway!! Good luck!! I hope YOU win!!!

http://www.iteachfirst.com/2015/08/BacktoSchoolGiveaway.html

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Educents has a Bundle for YOU!!!

To go to the direct link CLICK HERE! Or click on the picture above! :)

Many of us are in back to school mode already!

So some friends and I have teamed up to load you up with resources to make teaching a bit easier!

You will get 72% off First and Second Grade Curriculum. 16 instant downloads with 682 pages of materials including interactive notebooks, craftivities, centers, printables, and more!

Stock up on curriculum that you need! This download includes 682 pages of materials covering everything from reading to math and even some great science too!

Full retail value of $71.98 and only available for a limited time. $19.99 which is 72% off!

Extreme value alert!

Includes 19 instant downloads and materials including printables, lap book, reading curriculum, easy to play games, and much, much more.

Academic Concepts Covered

nouns
decoding
addition with regrouping
geometry
adjectives
comprehension
spelling
and more!

You get 16 (YES!! I said 16!!) great products in this bundle!! That is paying less than $1.50 for each one!! And one of these are from me!!!!

From me you will receive:

Wordy Bird: A K-2 Student Dictionary by Mrs. Grooms' Room. Are you ready to make your student writers more independent? These student dictionaries are WONDERFUL to use for any writing assignment. You will find a page for every letter that includes commonly used words that begin with that letter, and extra lines to write newly learned words. This ink-friendly dictionary comes with other words lists, like colors, foods, animals, and family members. Just copy your dictionary, plus the extra lists that you want to use, and bind them together . Your writing assistants are ready to help! The regular price is $3.00 and 46 pages are included.