Back to School -- IN FULL SWING!

Wow! Our first quarter is quickly coming to an end.  It is hard to believe how fast time zips!   We are up and rolling along, sometimes hitting speed bumps that slows us down.  We have been busy learning how first grade works and exploring IPAD  apps.

Our favorite online site, as well as an app, is SpellingCity.com.  We are lucky to have the premium edition which gives the students more activities to learn their spelling words. I love it as a teacher since I can go into the site and see what activities the students have been using and the length of time of engagement. 

Skoolbo is an app available but it has a fee.  The kids are able to create their own avatars and play various activities in reading and math.  They play against their fellow students as well as other students around the world.

We are looking for our buddies using Flat Stanley. com as a resource.  At this point in time, we have not made a connection yet, but some of the schools in other parts of the world are just getting started.  We are hopeful to have a connection soon. 

We celebrated International Dot day on Sept. 13th.  We played twister, made giant dots on the playground with chalk, created a human dot and decorated and cookies with M&M dots. We sang the Dot song at morning assembly to get everyone motivated for the day.  We had fun making our mark and seeing where it took us!

Our next project is planting tulip bulbs and connecting with our schools around the world using the IEARN tulip bulb watch program.  IEARN is  a fee-based way to connect with schools around the world.  The cost is $400.00 for an entire school or $100.00 per classroom. There are numerous projects available for all grade levels to connect their classroom globally. We are involved in the Holiday Card Exchange. We always look forward to receiving the unique holiday cards from around the world.

We use JenProjects but we are saddened to hear that at Christmas she will be no longer be involved in creating programs.  Jen has been fighting cancer and it has spread to other parts of her body.  She will be in our thoughts as she battles her disease.  One of our STEM projects is the Oreo stacking.  The students see how tall they can build their tower of oreo cookies without holding them up.  We count to get an average, submit to the project and see how we compared.