Hey y'all!  Google Slides are an amazing tool that can be used in soooooo many amazing ways.  If you are able to embed in your Learner Management System...Google Slides make putting information out there in easy ways!  Here is are some quick examples of how to use Google Slides in BrightSpace/D2L that I put together for my teachers.  Get a template of each Google Slide deck in the link under under each example...

Get this template here.

 Get this template here.

Get this template here.

Get this template here.

Get this template here.

Get this template here.

Hey y'all!  I hope you have been enjoying the arrival of Spring!  Like most of the country, here in Georgia, we still can't quite put away the winter clothes yet, but at the same time everything is covered in a thin layer of sneeze-inducing, yellow pollen.

But you know all that pollen is a good thing...it means all around us plants are growing!  I have a resource to share with that will help your students learn about what is happening this time of year.  Introducing the Plant Life Cycle Multi-media Text Set...

In the Plant Life Cycle Multi-media Text Set I have gathered a variety of resources to help your students learn about how plants grow and the steps in the life cycle.  I have included a variety of media including:

• videos--including three really cool time-lapse videos of spinach, beans, and an oak tree growing
• reading
• interactive activities
• unlinked observe block--an empty block for you to integrate your choice of plant observation journal whether you would like to link a digital version or direct your students to their paper copy --->

I made this MMTS to target Georgia 2nd Grade Science standards, but you can also use it with first or third grade.  I also think it would be a fun, independent preview of a plant life unit in upper grades.  My second grade teachers use these either in whole group instruction or assign a certain part at a tech center during reading workshop.  You could also have students complete a variation of a KWL as they explore the resources.

Get your copy of this resource by clicking on either then links of picture above.  Then click on the USE TEMPLATE button.  You will now have a copy of the the Plant Life Cycle Multi-media Text Set in your Google Drive and can remix if you like.

I have been working with the second grade teachers at my school to incorporate more techy, interactive  activities in science and social studies.  In the state of Georgia the social studies standards were revised this year to incorporate a new famous Georgian: Juliette Gordon Low.  To help out my second grade teachers, I created this Google Slide HyperDoc below:

My teachers are using this HyperDoc in a couple different ways.  Some have used the materials whole class while others are having their students make a copy into their Google Drive.  Either method both the teachers and students are loving getting to learn about this amazing woman in this way!

*Note* Due to restrictions in my school system on YouTube for students, all videos have been downloaded into my Google Drive then shared.  Links to the original YouTube videos are in the Works Cited slides if needed.

Students get to learn about Juliette Gordon Low's life in a variety of way including videos, articles, and an interactive timeline.

Students demonstrate their learning by completing activities in Google Drawing including a timeline,

a Venn Diagram comparison with either Jackie Robinson or Martin Luther King, Jr.,

and character trait graphic organizer.

Printable versions of these activities are included in the notes section of the Google Slide.

Students also had the choice between two final projects to complete for the study of Juliette Gordon Low.  They could choose to decorate a cookie box to represent Juliette Gordon Low

or create a badge for Juliette Gordon Low.

You can get your own copy of my Juliette Gordon Low HyperDoc by clicking here or on the picture below:

I hope you enjoy using this HyperDoc if you are a Georgia second grade teacher or would like to study Juliette Gordon Low as part of Women's History Month.  Feel free to share with me what your students do with this HyperDoc!

OK, I'm totally procrastinating here!  I should be creating a test for our novel study of "Love That Dog" by Sharon Creech, but I wanted to share with you a quick activity I made for my class. 

We are currently studying the writing of the Constitution.  We looked today at Federalism and how "We the People" have given certain powers to certain levels of government.  I am in need of another grade to add to my social studies grade book, and I love a good sort.  So I created an activity for my students to complete. 

 Click on the picture above to to download a copy!

 

Basically the cards have a super short scenario.  The student must read the card then determine which level of government has been delegated that power.  It is simply a quick and dirty sort...but it is also a quick and dirty assessment (and grade if you need one like me!).

Happy Sorting!

I have another activity that I created to give my students more practice using and identify prepositions.  My students needed a little more practice with picking out preposition from sentences they write, so I created...

 

I made preposition cards and noun cards and printed them on two different colored papers.  I placed these cards into two different buckets.

 

A student pulls a card from the preposition bucket and a card from the noun bucket.  On his or her recording sheet, the student writes a sentence using the preposition and noun on the cards.  The noun must be used as the object of the preposition.

 

I would like share this activity with you.  Click on the picture of the recording sheet below to download a copy of the recording sheet, the preposition cards, and the noun cards that you can use with your students!

Enjoy!

 

P.S.  Don't forget to enter my 1-year blog-iversary giveaway!  Click on the picture below to go enter!  Only a few hours left!

 

Have you seen the Organized Classroom Blog has a new digital magazine????

Charity has worked hard to include helpful information that all teachers can use including organizing tips (of course) for home and school, humor, books, and even a horoscope just for teachers! :)

You can preview The Organized Classroom Magazine below...

Then head over to The Organized Classroom Blog to subscribe!

Enjoy!

This month for our Random Acts of Kindness, my mom (also a teacher) brought me a great idea, and she told me I could share it with you. She does a Valentine Exchange in her classroom, but she wanted to also have her fifth graders complete an activity that involves a little more than writing their name and a lot more implementing writing strategies. So she created...

 

You know what is perfect about this activity??? The secret part! You know how our upper elementary/middle school students start to get a little squirrelly about Valentine’s Day.

Students spend a week creating their messages to their classmates. They can’t use the overused words of nice, pretty, sweet, cool, or awesome. And the messages aren’t very long...only about a sentence! Then students turn them in for “review.” This allows us to catch and correct any possibly unkind messages (not that my sweet kiddos would intentionally be unkind...but just in case!). On Valentine’s Day, students will cut apart their messages and stealthily distribute them. My mom says her students spend more time enjoying these messages than the other cards they get.

Not allowed to do a Valentine Exchange? Then this may just be a perfect way to get around that by incorporating these messages into your writing class! Add the requirement of a certain number of similes, metaphors, and other figurative language that need to be included in the messages your students create. You could even take a grade on these if you needed one!  

To get your download your copy, click on the banner below...

Prep is easy. Simply print...write your students’ names on the lines...copy (make sure to copy only single sided--this is a reminder for myself too! I just know I will press that duplex button!) Your students will do the majority of the work!

I can’t wait to show you the Valentine’s I am distributing to my students...I just have to make them first!

In science, we have been studying light.  In this study, we learn about reflection, refraction, and the eye.  And to help us review all the concepts we learned before the Winter Break, we had a distance learning lesson with a scientist in Ohio.  (We are lucky enough to have a distance learning lab at my school!)  I am kicking myself right now that I didn't take pictures...argh!

Also, as part of that light study, we learn about tranparent, translucent, and opaque materials.  And since I love a good sort, I thought I would share a freebie with you...

Go to either

         

to get your copy to add to your science bag'o'tricks!

 

Oh...and don't forget to enter for another freebie...your choice of tablet from Teachers Notebook!  Click on the picture below to enter...