Coloring Squared

Coloring Squared is a website that has free printables for practicing math facts. 

The printables come in addition, subtraction, multiplication division, fractions, decimals, and more! When a student solves the problem, they color in the square, creating a pixelated picture in the end. Kind of a color-by-number with math problems! 

My Cute Graphics

Thanks to Emily W. for passing along this adorable clip art site! 

My Cute Graphics is an extensive online library of clipart! 

There is so much to choose from! She has general everyday clip art:

School clip art:

And even backgrounds!

This is definitely a resource I'll be visiting again!

Election Resources

I've seen several resources for bringing the election into the classroom over the last few weeks. Here are some of what I thought were most kid-friendly:

"Every Vote Counts" : A mini unit on the Presidential Election

This unit from Teachers Pay Teachers has something that could be adapted for every grade level. Click the link to download it. 

Gallopade has an Elections for Kids site:

Scholastic also has an Election 2012 site with information and games. 

I thought this game in particular on Scholastic was interesting for 3rd or 4th grade. You are a "party" and are trying to get the 270+ electoral votes needed to win the election, and you choose which states you are going to "win". Of course as I was playing I was thinking about the population of each state, so it might be a good way to put the electoral college in perspective for students. Maybe play it as a whole class and generate a discussion!

PBS Kids also has The Democracy Project with activities.

How about just taking a tour of the White House?

Welcome back!

Welcome back to a new school year! With our first week only halfway over, I hope the kids are settling in (and so are you :)

This week's resources aren't particularly techy, but I hope you find them useful as you start your year!

First, I found this picture on Pinterest of a Classroom Timeline. Throughout the year, you can take pictures and add captions to it for special events and activities you do with your students. And, it's a great visual for them to learn how to read a timeline too!

Next, this teacher posted a link to her Sub Binder Templates.. and how perfect that we all got our sub folders to update today! Check it out and see if it's something that you can use to help subs navigate your classroom in your absence. 

I also found this blog post about getting ready for Curriculum Night. She has cute freebies of the pages she uses for explaining her curriculum, classroom schedule, and parent volunteers.

And lastly, I saw this free Data Binder on Teachers Pay Teachers. What a great way to get organized right away in the year as you get to know your students!

Poetry Month

Since April is poetry month, here are some fun resources to bring into your classroom to get your students excited about poetry!

Shel Silverstein's website has activities for kids and a teacher/parent section with ideas, lessons, activities, and more. 

This blog post has hands-on project ideas that are creative and unique- like this newspaper blackout poem.

Squidoo also put together a list of 12 of the best poetry websites for kids- all of which are interactive and free! They look like so much fun!

Pict-Lits is also a very cool site. It is a creative writing site that matches beautiful images with carefully selected keywords they provide in order to inspire you. The object is to put the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture- but that "right" place is all up to you! Below is an example pict-lit and what it looks like when you are creating your own.

Font Freebies

A common question I get is "where can I find cute fonts"? I found a website today that has so many cute, free fonts! It is very easy to download and install free fonts on your computer. Here are the steps to take:

1. Download the fonts you want from a font website. Some great ones are Free Scrapbook Fonts, FontFace.com, and DaFont.com

2. When you find a font you like, download the file. It will save on your computer as a zip file, so "unzip" it by double clicking on it. You will have two files that look similar to this. (You can put the zip file in your trash - you don't need it anymore.)

3. Next, if you go into your Applications folder, you have a Font Book. Double click to open it, and you will see a window like this:

4. All you have to do to "install" the font is drag the unzipped file anywhere into the column labeled Font. And voila! Your new font is now installed on your computer and ready to use! You can preview what it will look like in your Font Book also. 

Enjoy and have a fun spring break!

Fun with Web 2.0

Looking for a little bit of fun amidst all of the testing? Check out some of these fabulous websites and give your kids a brain break while still learning!

Teach Hub posts weekly video writing prompts. Each week they post a video and then offer suggestions for writing prompts based on grade level, K-2, 3-5, etc. What a fun way to get your students writing! Some video examples include ones for Leap Year, Groundhog Day, the Lorax, and yes, even Angry Birds. You could have it be a writing activity that you do once a week as they post them or once in awhile. 

As an example, here is a Muppets video writing prompt:

Wordia is a new website that you can play the games they have, or create your own (it is very easy to create your own vocab or spelling game!) There are spelling, geography, science, and other subject areas to choose from. For one "Spell it Right" game, they used children from around the world to say the words. I thought that was very unique and would provide another opportunity to bring cultural awareness into your classroom.

I also really like WeGiveBooks.org. While the site does require teacher signup (and then you could post your login for students to use), I think it is well worth it. Created by the Pearson Foundation, We Give Books has several leveled books that students can read on the computer. Every time they complete a book, a book is donated to under privileged children. You could read the books whole-class on the SmartBoard or use it as a center. And, to tie some math in, you could create a chart to show how many books your class has donated to a great cause!

   

If you're looking for a way to perk up your students before testing, I found this cute printable note, and others here.