Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together: November 2014

I took a class a few weeks ago to learn more about QR codes. I have been having so much fun with them ever since. I made a QR Code Sight Word Video Read the Room Packet that I have loved!

Here is how I am using it. I made 36 sight word cards, each with a QR code that links to a video to go with that word. I put each of the YouTube videos on ViewPure, so that there are no ads, comments, or distractions. The words I included are: a, all, am, an and, are, at, be, can, come, do, for, get, go, he, I, in, is, it, like, look, me, my, no, of, off, on, see, she, the, to, up, we, what, who, with.

I also made 12 cards with QR codes that link to sight word songs which have lots of sight words. This picture shows some of the words with the codes and some of the songs with the codes:

I printed the cards on card stock. You could also laminate them, but I was ~~too impatient to wait~~ wanted to use them right away. I cut the cards apart, because I put 4 words on a sheet. Then, I chose 12 cards to put up around the room- eight sight words and 4 sight word song video cards. I am using this as an independent center for one of my groups. I have 4 students in a group, and one with five. Each student has an iPad (I have 5 in my room.) and a clipboard with the recording sheet. The students find a sight word, scan the code, and watch the video. Then, they record the word they watched, and go onto another word. They also watch one or two of the sight word song videos. On the recording sheet, they fill in the star beside the video they watch. They LOVE this! It is independent, quiet, and FUN! WIN WIN WIN!!! After a few days, I change the words that I have up. The children can keep the same recording sheet, or get a new one. I printed the recording sheet front/back to make it easier to manage for the children.

Another way you could use this packet is to put the pages together in a binder so the children can scan and watch throughout the day, any time they finish early or have extra time.

You could also print these sight word cards out and send them home for extra practice at home.
Parents can download the free QR app and watch the videos at home!

My favorite QR Code app is called QR Reader for iPad by TapMedia Ltd. It is free, and the thing I like best about it is that to scan the code, I the children only have to hold the camera over the code- not click anything. It is really sensitive and picks up the code quickly so it isn't frustrating at all.

I also made a Math QR Code packet that my children love. What a perfect way to reinforce those standards! It has 40 math songs and makes a wonderful learning center!

Thank you for stopping by!

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.