What a time to be an educator! With all the uncertainty of Covid-19 and starting schools, it has been a wild ride for teachers! My school district decided on a hybrid model (at this point). We will have two cohorts A and B alternating instruction two days at school, three days at home. It is still unknown at this point what the remote cohort will look like while we have a class of kiddos in front of us. My district has also provided an opportunity for remote only learning.
Many other districts, however, decided on opening the year utilizing only remote learning due to Covid numbers. But how do we build relationships and start the year with primary students remotely? Well... we will need ALL the digital resources!
This is where "All About Me" activities will change. I have created Digital All About Me activities that will allow you to get to know your students, even though they are at home learning! I have created 8 designs that work with many digital platforms. It is created for Google Drive, but can be altered to fit Seesaw, OneNote, and many more.
I think I am still going to try the 3-D route for my hybrid students, unless of course we need to go 100 percent remote.Take a look at the Digital All About Me Activities below! Grab them here! If you want ideas for 3-D All About Me Projects that are not digital, click here! I also have some 3-D activities with the digital version included. How is your school starting the year?
With the school year fast approaching, I have been in back to school prep mode! While I have no idea what the beginning of the year will look like with Covid still rampant, I have decided to prepare materials for the classroom as well as distance learning!
The latest and greatest project is this new All About me 3-D Rainbow Poster! I have had a colorful classroom theme for years now and these will be perfect whenever we are allowed back for "in person" instruction. Just in case we are still distance learning, I also have a digital version included! Check out the rainbow poster below!
Here is an example of the digital "About Me" project that can be used with most learning platforms such as Google Classroom, Teams, and Seesaw.
To grab the poster and digital All About Me Rainbow click here!
No matter what your "back to school" experience will be, I wish you health, happiness and the best of luck in the new school year ! :)
If rainbows aren't your thing, check out these other exciting "All About Me Posters" here!
I'm happy to share my latest in 3-D All About Me creations! For those owl lovers, I have created an owl all about me with pop-up features and feather flaps. I also included a bonus Owl Report resource in the file as a little extra! Check out the owl below and grab it from my TpT storehere.
Here is the All About Me 3-D Owl Poster.
This is the free owl report file included with the All About Me poster.
You can also use the template for a fun art project. Have your students color in nature colors, or create whimsical colorful owls!
Check out the video tutorial below!
Remember if you want to grab the resource, click here!
If owls aren't your thing, be sure to check out my other 3-D All About Me Posters in this blog post!
This past year was a whirlwind! I moved across country from California to North Carolina and embraced all the changes that came with such a big transition. A week after I moved hurricane Dorian hit... it was a little scary... and a little exciting, as I had never experienced a hurricane before. Little did I know that wouldn't be the last of the adventures I would have in my new home of North Carolina!
I applied for a NC teaching license and went about looking for jobs. I was very fortunate to step into a second grade position in October at a wonderful charter school. I LOVED it! The kids were amazing and I had so much fun jumping into another year of second grade. I felt for the students because I would be their third second grade teacher from August-October alone, and I knew another teacher transition would be challenging for these 7 year olds. The students welcomed the new procedures and routines, and before long we had a well-oiled machine running in our classroom. I use a lot of technology and digital resources in my teaching and they grasped the new methods and techniques with open arms.
We had a blast with all sorts of exciting content and lessons and before we knew it, spring was here! Along with spring, came COVID! I heard the inklings of it coming and I sensed a large change to education in our country. During the previous school year I implemented the Seesaw digital learning platform in my classroom and my students and parents LOVED it! I hadn't used it this year because I had thrown so many new things at the class since I took over. But as I saw what what happening with schools beginning to close, I knew I had to STOP everything and implement Seesaw into my daily classroom routine.
On Thursday March 12th, I stopped all of our normal routines and taught the students how to use Seesaw. I put all of our assignments on Seesaw and taught the students how to use the tools. Boy am I glad I did! Little did I know that would be the last day I saw my students in person for the remainder of the school year.
Seesaw was a saving grace during the closure! The students were able to complete interactive lessons that were created by me, along with some that I found in the lesson database. I was able to record videos and embed them into my lessons. I was also able to link external sites to my lessons to make them even more interactive. I could have my students record their reading so I could hear their reading progress. They uploaded videos and digital collages. Although face to face teaching is so effective and ideal, we found a solution that would enable our learning to continue. I even was able to post some items that all students could access while connecting with their classmates who they missed so much!
Not only was Seesaw allowing us to continue learning with high engagement, but it was also a safe platform where my students had access to a password protected journal of their work. Seesaw also has a parent app where parents can see their child's work and progress.
I really enjoyed being able to interact with my students. I could record myself talking and editing work with various tools to show them what they needed to fix or help them grasp a tricky concept. Interactive slides with realtime writing, drag and dropping, and recording made the process very easy for creating engaging activities. Check out the clip below for a preview of an activity I created.
Another thing I love about Seesaw is they offer free accounts. The plus version is definitely worth it for the extra features! If you want Seesaw Plus free for 30 days scan my code below! It offers an activity scheduling feature, drafts and editing feature, and allows you to save more activities in your library! So worth it!
Check out the video of me teaching my students how to utilize the tools in Seesaw!
While we have yet to know what school will look like in the fall, I am confident with my knowledge of Seesaw and I know whether we are 100% digital, 100% in the classroom, or somewhere in between, Seesaw will be an everyday part of my classroom!
To check out Seesaw click here! If you have any Seesaw questions drop them in the comments below!
Sooo.... after one year teaching 4/5 and two years teaching second I am thrilled to announce that I am going back to my favorite grade... First! Each grade level I have been fortunate enough to teach in my 11 years has provided me with an educational balance. I have learned so much from each grade level I have taught, which happens to be all grades K through 5. From varying content, to extremely different classroom management techniques, each grade has special characteristics that have made me a better teacher.
I will say though, that I do have a favorite, and it is first grade! I love the sweetness of the age, I love the growth that the kiddos make, and I love the challenges you face while trying to get things to click for kids who all learn a little bit differently. I am so excited and can't wait for my first graders!
Stay tuned for the fun we have this year in first grade!
Last year I worked at a school whose mascot was a Cheetah. I wanted to do a fun pastel art project and I thought celebrating our school mascot would be the perfect subject matter! I first practiced drawing a cheetah so I could break it down into manageable steps for my second graders. The students used their iPads to look up pictures of cheetahs so they could become familiar with the physical characteristics of the cheetah.
Then I approached the teaching using a directed drawing method. The students were able to transform and adjust their cheetah drawing however they chose. I then introduced the "fuzzy" paper.
"Fuzzy paper" is a velour paper that looks great with oil pastels. The material "grabs" the pastel allowing a wonderful textured appearance. I use black because it gives the pastel pieces a depth and value without having to add additional black pastel for shading. I taught the students how to transfer their drawing to the velour paper.
I then modeled using pastels on the velour paper. Check out the amazing work that my students produced!
I am so excited to try this project again this year with my new school's mascot, the bobcat! I am going to practice my bobcat drawing over the next few days so I am ready to teach the drawing when we get back to school. I will be sure to post pictures of our bobcats soon! For now please enjoy the art from my last year's second graders!
Before we went on break for Christmas our class made the most adorable Candy Christmas Trees! This is the third year I have done this project and my students always have so much fun! I love this project because the kids can get creative and it is much easier to prep than gingerbread houses. I used waffle cones this year because I was hopeful the trees would be bigger than the sugar cones, but looking back I realized the sugar cones were much sturdier. Check out the pictures of the fun we had!
I wish I had a picture of how the we wrapped up the trees. We used cookie bags and placed the trees inside. We used ribbon to tie them up and the kids took them home. Our rule was that we can eat the leftover candy from our cups, but the trees had to be saved for home. I can't wait to do this fun project again next holiday season!
Here is a list of supplies we used:
white frosting and coconut flakes for snow
green frosting
sugar cones
plastic knives
small containers for candy ( I used Dixie cups)
twizzlers pull and peel candy
small candy stars
holiday plates
plastic cookie bags and ribbon for transport
sprinkles
mini m&ms
other candy of choice for decorating
