I am in love with technology!

The technology in our room is giving us limitless options. We are loving how much we can do with our toys. 

 In this picture, Chloe is filming herself reading. She then will go back and watch herself to see how she can improve her fluency. This is a great tool for them to hear themselves and to set goals to get better.

I was in the library the other day and noticed these smart clickers. I instantly became excited and started listing all of the fun activities we could do with them.  One of my team members and I are going to start making up tests for these wonderful little motivators.  Look below to see how engaged they are! LOVE!!!

Another fabulous toy we have is an app called Splashtop Whiteboard. It is a remote desktop app! It allows us to interact from the I Pad to the smart board! SOOOOO COOL! This week we wrote math problems from it, highlighted rhyming words from the poem of the week. Read our fluency passage as we underlined the words. Ohhhhhh boy, my head is spinning with all the fun we have been having with this amazing little invention. You can read more about it here:  http://www.splashtop.com/whiteboard

Another really cool website/app we have been using is called "Class Dojo".

 

It is a behavior management system that allows you and the kids to keep track of their behavior throughout the day. It seems to be working quite well and we can control it from our I pad and my I phone. here is a pic of what it looks like. 

Last week before the Super Bowl, I had the kids predict who they thought would win. After they predicted who they thought would win they made this guy! 

Last week we also worked on an experiment called "Keep it Clean" Each group of students had four solutions. Dish soap and water with a steel pad, taco sauce, vinegar and salt, and window cleaner. They had to make a hypothesis about which solution they thought would clean the penny the best.

The really like this experiment. Most of the students said that water and dish soap would do the best job. They were very surprised to see how clean salt and vinegar actually worked. If you would like a copy of this form they glued in their science journal email me. =)

This week we discussed "Splash words". We discussed how the words: good, fun, and went, are all so boring. They all pledged to be better writers and use more descriptive words. We put together these charts and I hung them on the wall so they could refer to them when they need to. 

We have been working on our math facts. As you read in a previous blog post we started some timed tests. They seem to be going well and no one seems to stressed out yet. Here are a few of the ways we have been practicing those facts. We throw the ball and say a math fact and the student who catches it answers the equation and throws the ball in the hoop (aka laundry basket). It is a great way to reach those kinesthetic learners! Another way is tossing a bean bag back and forth with a buddy saying our facts. 

Well, I am off to my sick baby. =S He AGAIN has a double ear infection. He is also so lucky to have thrush for the third week and on top of everything else he now has pink eye. I plan for both of us to be back at school tomorrow as long as his fever is down. I hope his immune system strengthens up soon. I am running out of sick days. -)