Smart Exchange

http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0

Great resources to use in the classroom. You can sign up for a free account and search through the lessons to manipulate on your Smart Board. I have used this site for Halloween activities, Valentine, Everyday Math lessons and much more.
Happy Hunting.

Crayon Art

One of my craft projects for my daughter. I thought it would be a good Christmas present and a great reminder that she needs to remember to be who she is.

What you will need:
Vinyl Lettering
Canvas Board
2 Boxes of crayons 64
Hot glue gun
Hair dryer
Trash bag
any kind of embelishments you want to add

I first glued the crayons on the canvas. I made sure that I made the crayons all going the same way and the lettering all matched. (Be careful, as your gluing the crayons can go correct)
I then cut the letters out using contact paper and a cricuit. I placed them on the canvas. They won't stick completely but as your melting the crayons just be careful not to blow the letters off.
Place the trash bag under the canvas. when the crayons start melting it gets everywhere.
Turn on the hair dryer, hot setting low. Don't get alarmed when the paper turns oily that's what is supposed to look like.
Work the hair dryer like a paint brush. Angle the canvas and move it while the hair dryer is going so that you can get the swirls.
After the crayons are melted to your desire let it set for about 15 minutes.
Using an exacto knife unpeel the letters. (you will be able to see them)
Add your embelishments.
:)

Fun Websites to use in the classroom

http://www.abcya.com/third_grade_computers.htm

http://www.math-play.com/3rd-grade-math-games.html

http://www.aaamath.com/grade3.html#topic3

All great resources to use in the classroom.

Homemade Thermometers

http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/projects/thermometer.html

Cool intro site to make your own thermometer for the classroom. This would be a great lesson to introduce thermometers and then you can show what other ones look like. I think I am going to use these in the classroom and then keep a running record of the daily temperature outside on my windows using dry eraser marker. Great for data collection.

Top 10 Reasons to Use Wordle/Tagxedo

It's 4:30am and I'm struggling to sleep. I thought hmmm, why not get this out there and discuss why I think you should use Wordle/Tagxedo in the classroom!

1. Word Wall; start and continue to add words to it throughout the year. Even though you are not able to save and add on it is good to dedicate it to students to recreate and print a new one every week!
2. Book Report; quick easy and you can eliminate words that are over used ie; the!
3. Mother's Day present!
4. Father's Day present!
5. Famous person report...more with tagxedo. Research a famous person and create a word cloud using that persons image/picture.
6. Math words/vocabulary.
7. Lifeskills poster; assign a lifeskill to each student and have them come up with ways to use that lifeskill.
8. Advertising; have students create a product they would like to sell and in 50 words or less sale that item.
9. Wedding present; (more for adults) Using the wedding couples last name, incorporate family words (love, family, life, etc) then send to Kinko's to get printed to card stock of choice and frame!
10. Working with words....create word families!!

I am sure there are many more but these are some of the few that I like to use!!!

Classroom doohickies....

So today we went to the Sunflower Store in Topeka, KS. If you don't know what that is it is teacher heaven....all day I could spend in there looking through so much material. Got some great ideas for the classroom this year. I was going to buy this poster board thing for Anchor Activities....but after much debate I have decided to make a bulletin board.

* What do I do? I'm all through!~~~Title
then some fun little things under it so that my early finishers can select from a multitude of different learning activities.
**They can Create, Finish, Read, Write, and Explore!!!
I think this can be an interesting bulletin board....now to just make sure I keep it updated. :)

~~Starting this up~~

So I decided that I am going to start blogging whatever my random thoughts are!
Yes I have plenty of them! :) Somethings you might see in the near future:
* Training for a half-marathon
* School year and learning with technology
* My Family
and whole bunch of random ramblings...