Win Win with ESGI!

Welcome August!  I guess I need to embrace August and just beg it to go slowly.  There are still so many things I want to do, and August seems to fly by! 
I went into school over the weekend and put up the three bulletin boards that I do at the end of our primary wing.  The first one was inspired by I Wish You More, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  The other two were inspired by Pinterest ideas... :)                                        

I also entered all of my new class names into ESGI, so I am ready to go for this year!  If you haven't tried ESGI yet, now is the perfect time. 

Even Donald and Hillary know that ESGI is the only way to go- and you know that when they agree on something, it has to be great!

So... let's make assessing great again!

Not only can you get a FREE 60 day trial, but if you use the  PROMO CODE B1119 you can receive $40 off your purchase for the first year. The price is usually $199 a year, but with the promo code, it will be $159 for the first year. Many times your administration will purchase this for you, too, if you ask. They can also get the discount for each subscription they purchase.

AND if you sign up NOW, ESGI will enter you in a raffle to win one of ten $50 gift certificates to TpT! SO- try it free for 60 days, and when you love it, ask your school if they will purchase it for you.  Even if they can't, it is well worth every single penny for the sanity it saves you! 

Pre-Kindergarten - 1st Grade Classroom Tools

ESGI is so amazing throughout the entire year because it addresses our many assessment needs that arise at different times during  the year. Here's a quick post to show you how I use ESGI to start my year.

Before using ESGI, I assessed each student's letter ID and sounds on a paper sort of like this-  I had papers and "data" everywhere.  The trouble was, I was always rifling through papers to try to find what I needed (and by the time I found it, the child probably knew 5 more letters!)

I am not a techy person.  I actually think I tend to avoid much technology because I think it's simpler not to use it sometimes.  So for ME to say that I don't ever want to assess without using ESGI on my iPad ever again, says a lot.  It says that ESGI makes it SO EASY and SO QUICK.  And then gives SO MUCH assistance to teachers to help with students' areas of weakness.

ESGI has every sort of assessment you could want available to easily choose from and add to your assessments- OR you can create your  own.  For example, if your sight word list is a little different than those available, you can simply make your own with our words.  I made many assessments- so you know it's easy to do!

I can quickly call up my students one at a time, and get to spend a little one on one time "playing" with them on the iPad, while I see what they know!

Here's a sample of a number recognition assessment.  See how clear and easy it is to see and score?  You just hit the Y or N at the bottom.  The children don't even know you are assessing them.
                             
For all of the beginning year assessing we teachers do, ESGI is great- because all of our data is stored and organized for us right online.  Not only organized, but graphed and really useful for so many things as I start the year... grouping and RTI right off the bat!

I  print out flash cards for the letters each individual student missed, to use for RTI  and to send home with each student. Later on in the year, we move to sight words.  I use the sight word flash cards a LOT with my kids, too.

 ESGI  creates parent letters,  so parents knew exactly what skills need to be practiced at home.

I don't send any parent notes home this time because it's the beginning of the year, and the kids pick up letters quickly when we get going. I just wanted to show you what they would look like.   I do send home parent notes after we work on letters for a while,  if a student is stuck on certain letters.

You can also edit the letter to parents.

AND- I did not have one  stack of papers to flip through- not even one sheet of paper.  It was all right on my iPad.

Another favorite part of ESGI to start the year is the Class Management tools.  I can print pages for name tracing, cubby names, table name plates, class lists... you name it! What a time saver this time of year!  I have several students who just plain need name writing practice.  I can print out name pages for those students to practice with one click!  So easy.

 

As the year goes on, there are more and more benefits of ESGI.  If you want to learn more about ESGI and to get a free 60 day trial of the software, click here and try it out for yourself!  It's so easy to show your administrator the benefits of ESGI so they may purchase it for your grade level, too. Many schools are  encouraged to use more and more technology, and ESGI is perfect for that.

ESGI has a great explanatory video with all the details.  This Intro Webinar (17 minutes) is a very thorough explanation of the program. Once I watched these videos, I was all set to go.

Our RTI Team was just discussing how we needed better data collection and a more clear picture about the students coming to our RTI Team.  It doesn't get more clear than this!

If a district uses this program, every student can be entered.  The data and progress can be saved from year to year.  Groups can be created, so that only those in that group are compared.

I posted ALL about the benefits, bells and whistles,  and some examples of what ESGI offers HERE.  If you like using it and want to purchase the program, you can use my special PROMO CODE B1119 and receive $40 off your purchase for the first year. The price is usually $199 a year, but with the promo code, it will be $159 for the first year. Check with your administration because they may be able to purchase it for you. They can use the code and get it for $159 for the first year, too.  It's a great time of the year to try it out. 

It has made me actually enjoy assessments now, because I know I'm not going to be wasting time. It's quick and neat. The results are easy to see and the materials for RTI are already made for me!

So- go ahead and give it a try FREE for 60 days, and be entered to win one of the ten $50 gift cards from TpT! You will be so glad you did.



Pre-Kindergarten - 1st Grade Classroom Tools Thanks for stopping by!

Five for Friday February 13

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting, Kacey! Happy Friday the 13th! 

These are my latest bulletin boards.  I got tired of snowflakes.  I loved the pretty paper snowflakes, but real life snow is getting old.  So- time for some magic.  This saying is from the new Cinderella movie. 

 I had a left over star, so I just gussied up the minion a bit.

The saying in the top bulletin board is from the new Cinderella movie coming out in March that I cannnnnnnot wait to see.  She has always been my favorite, and it looks just wonderful.

            

I sort of want this bed now would have LOVED this bed when I was little.

It was our 100th Day of School on Thursday!

We made 100 cups structures.

We each brought in 100 of something to eat and made a delicious trail mix! Yes,it was as delicious to a five year old and as sugary as it looks...  

We wore our 100 day hats.

 We collected the names of friends we have been with for 100 days. 

We also did our writing about what I will do at 100 years old and what I would do with $100.  Such a fun day!

The children also had a lot of fun this week retelling stories during small group time.  I put together props for several of my big books (or just fun favorite books).  After we read the story,  I had the children act it out in a whole group with props.  Then, during the week at center time, the children could choose a story and act it out with the props.  These aren't great pictures, but it's If You Give a Moose A Muffin, just to show you some of the little props we used.

Finally, do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and think and rethink?  This is so me sometimes...

 This was my devotion a while back, and I just need to remember it.  I loved it.

Have a happy, healthy weekend. Thank you for stopping by! 

Five for Friday November 28

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting, Kacey!

    

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We did! We went to my sister's house, and her family had a perfect meal. We had a great time and were all together.  I am so thankful!

Does anybody else feel like this?

Here was a favorite school Thanksgiving moment this week.  Deedee Wills shared this wonderful Thanksgiving Math book at her blog, Mrs. Wills Kindergarten.  I loved to see how my boys were careful to color the Pilgrims the "right" colors, and my girls decked them out in fancy outfits.  

I posted some of my FAVORITE substitute ideas HERE. I also put together some FAVORITE games for all ages.  You can print this out, laminate it, (or print it on card stock) and keep it on a book ring for extra time you may have or for those extra moments a substitute may have- really for anytime because the games are fun and the kids love them!

Eight inches of this happened.  This is our back yard by the pond-

And we were lazy about a day late putting away our deck furniture.  Seriously, we KNEW it was going to be winter... it comes every single year...

I can't even complain about 8 inches of snow, because my friend in Buffalo is still trying to get over 8 feet!

This was snow on her screen door-

The snow was really beautiful, but  I'm sort of over it already.  I hate driving in it or having my kids drive in it.  And I don't like cold.  Again, it happens every year- I get cold and don't like it.  And don't move where it's warm, so I am going to bundle up and embrace the beauty of it.  Here's my town all lit up for winter.  

These are my new winter bulletin boards for the end of our hall.  I needed a chance to use my brother-in-law's gorgeous snowflakes that he made for me again.  Olaf just made me happy.
                                  

Everything  in my TPT store will be 10% off for the Cyber Sale- plus the 8% more at checkout when you use TPT special code TPTCYBER. Thank you, Michelle, The 3AM Teacher,  for this wonderful banner!

My  Prezis are all on sale :

Learning is Fun!

Letters and Sounds

Common Core Math Prezi Bundle (4 Prezis)

 

 

Primary Writing

Get Up and Move

Beginning Reading

Eric Carle

Fun in the Fall United States

Fun in the Fall- Canada

The Five Senses

Discovering Great Artists

Bird Nests

Perspective and Optical Illusions

Authors Prezi

Plus, I have lots of free Prezis-  Frog and Toad, My Favorite Things, Back to School, Power of One, Character Education, Play Every Day, and Kindergarten Websites.

                                     

My writing prompt sets are also on sale. The first set, Author Studies,  has 160 different writing prompts for 100 books. These authors are also featured on my Author Prezi.  The great thing about these prompts is that they work equally well for K-2, because the students write to the prompts at their level.  If they can write only one sentence to go with a picture, that's fine.  If they can write more details, even better!

The books in this packet are all by 8 authors:  Eric Carle, Donald Crews, Kevin Henkes, Laura Numeroff, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, David Shannon, Mo Willems, and Karma Wilson.  Once we start reading books by one author, my kids love to read more and more, so we do lots of mini- author studies.  That is how I use this set. Although, some days, I will just copy off a  prompt for a favorite Kevin Henkes book and have a great lesson with that.  Here is a more up close look at the individual author sections.  

My other packet, Writing About Books,  has 170 prompts for 102 completely different books.  These are some all time favorites in all areas.  

Here is a closer look at the books in this packet:

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!  Thank you for stopping by!