Friday Treats: 2.24.2012

As I've discussed before, I send out Friday Treats to my staff each week.  Today I thought, why not share them a little more widely, so I hope you enjoy them.  I've kept the links from where these awesome ideas originally came from* (they are infrequently my own).

Bloom’s Taxonomy for Parents- has explanations that parents could understand for the levels & some activities.  This might help with continuing learning at home- maybe with literacy?  

This is an interesting article about how you might be able to foster creative thinking by doing things differently.  Their example is pouring milk before cereal when making breakfast.  Let your kids see you doing things in different ways…maybe they’ll start seeing the world + learning differently. J 

Finger painting without the mess…

 I squirted two primary colors into each of the three Ziploc freezer bags, put a white piece of paper under them, and taped the whole thing down with painter's tape. Then I let the eager boys have at it!

This site Freeology.com has all sorts of free printables. 

I liked this one:

I thought this was a nice behavior tracker…kids start at the middle and can see where they want to go-

 

…although I think I would chance the top one to Parent Contact, too.  Why not contact parents when kids are really great too?  I bet they’d love to hear that their child is amazing!

Along those same lines, you could cut 4 x 6 paper, have the kid decorate one side about their accomplishment, and you could write on the back and send it in the mail as a postcard to the parent. 

Brown Bag Book Club…such a cute idea- grade level classes could get together to discuss a book and snack on a healthy snack too (you can buy plain popcorn & brown bags- just put the popcorn in the bag and microwave…no need for oil or butter & is way cheaper than the ‘microwave popcorn’

(the info is…Title, Characters, Setting, Main Idea, Author’s Purpose)

How cool is this? Brown Bag Book Club! Glue the graphic organizer/response to the front of a lunch bag- after the students complete the form and then get into the groups to discuss the book, fill the bags with popcorn! Tasty fun!

Printable Cat in the Hat (the hat) as activity…

 

Free Printable for a or an…

Enjoy your weekend…

*I did not create these, nor am I taking credit for them.  See the links above for the person who owns the rights to them (where applicable)

Wordle: Beyond the Novelty

I've always enjoyed a good Wordle...they get right to the point, they're very visual (like me) and frequently colorful.  It's always nice to see them around school.  I always thought (as do most people I know) that Wordle was a great 'creative' tool for kids to see their work in another way or to design sharp-looking printables.


Basically, Wordle takes text from the location  you point it to (pasted text, a website, a delicious link) and makes it into a sassy Word Cloud (the level of sassiness is customizable), but more importantly, the more times a word shows up in the text, the larger it shows up in a wordle.  So in this Blog entry, Wordle is going to be the largest word since I typed Wordle many, many times.

Lately, however, I've realized the great possibility of Wordle.  One fantastic use that I got emailed to me was feedback from adult training sessions.  Rather than sending a long email with 30 people's comments (that would have largely been echoing similar sentiments), I received a Wordle, that let me see what people thought quickly and easily.  


I was thinking last week that when students are researching a topic, a Wordle might be just the tool to use to help them get at the main point quickly.  Students freqently get overwhelmed when reading a large volume of information online- especially when they are exposed to it for the first time.  If they copied and pasted that text into Wordle, they would be able to see the main points of the article (since they would be the largest words), and could focus their attention there.  


How else do you use Wordle (with adults or kids)?

Very Pinteresting, Indeed.

I love Pinterest.  


I never thought I would.  My good friend @leedawn82 tried to persuade trick me into joining Pinterest for weeks before I actually joined last summer.  Shortly after setting up my first Board, I learned that it is true what the critics say...it IS a HUGE time eater.  But I disagree with those who categorize it as a time waster.  I would counter that it saves me a great deal of time.  Let me explain...


I like to send out Friday Treats to my teachers.  I think it's a great way to make new things available to them in a low-stress way.  I just send out an email called Friday treats with all sorts of items (printables, lesson ideas, apps, funny images about comma usage...).  It's a nice way of letting them know that I appreciate their work from the week and here's some resources you might be able to use.  I use Pinterest to find roughly 99% of these items.  In my off-time (or in less-than riveting meetings), I'll pop onto Pinterest and start pinning away.  I know that many of the things I will find on Pinterest will be high-quality, useful to my teachers and quick for me to understand.  So, rather than spending 4 hours on Google, sifting through natural male enhancement and security warnings about malicious sites, I can get all of my Friday treats squared away in 10 minutes.  That's a win for me, and for my teachers.  I know the Friday treats are valuable- I see them getting printed and laminated around my building.


Aside from work, Pinterest offers me a great opportunity to try new things.  There are recipes, sewing patterns, craft ideas, all sorts of stuff.  The good thing...no, the BEST thing is that you start out by seeing an image of it. I don't have to click some mystery link only to discover the link is to something completely unusable.  Before I investigate, I know (mostly) what I'm getting myself into.  


Pinterest is searchable, so instead of just trolling around, I can usually find exactly what I think I'm looking for in under a minute. Time Saved? Check.


Do I frequently go home and while 'watching' a movie with Mr. Technology, spend three hours pinning furiously?  Yes, frequently.  Do I think that's a negative?  Not a chance.  


I've been reading this week that Pinterest has changed the internet forever. Do I think that's true?  Probably not.  But if just a little of Pinterest's wonderfully visual organization model can rub off on the www, I'd be a happy lady.


Off to send those Friday Treats...


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Try out my new iPad Pinterest Board.


If you are interested in Pinterest and would like an invitation, leave a comment below asking for one & I'll send you one.

Out of the Classroom

So, a lot has happened since last year.  Foremost on that list?  I'm out of the classroom. 


I can't lie...I'm really happy.  I am absolutely loving my new role helping teachers (and doing everything else).  I'm excited to go to work and excited to figure things out.  I do miss my students, but I get a great deal more career satisfaction in my new 'life'.