Apps We Use

Some of you asked for names of some of the apps we use in class for various purposes. The picture below shows the home screen of each child's iPad. The top two rows feature mainly the creation apps that we will learn and use throughout the school year. We have learned two of these apps so far - Kidblog and ShowMe. A button to our crew blog is also included on these rows to provide students with easy access to our blog but it is not a creation app. Below this photo are screen shots of apps inside each of the folders on the bottom rows. Ask your child to tell which apps are his or her favorite. All of these apps are free or were free at the time we added them to our iPads.

Notes: Epic is free for schools but not for home use. You can get a 60 day free trail, though. Storia is our Scholastic online book account, email me if you would like the password for this account.

Be sure to visit the Resources page on our crew blog to see some websites that we use for learning, too.


Homework ~ Read a good book or two. Check out a Bedtime Math story.

Padlets

Another technological tool that we use in our classroom is called Padlet. On Padlet, I pose a question and students answer the question by adding a text box with their answer. Padlet can be used on a computer or an ipad. One example of a Padlet is below. More Padlets can be found on the Resources page of our crew blog.

Created with Padlet

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 7.2 Shapes

Online Research

Earlier last week I wrote about how we are doing some research on our favorite animals (here). On Friday we tried doing some online research using our ipads. We used one of our online book sites, Epic, to read books about our animal. We used apps that had facts about zoo animals and we visited the National Geographic Kids Animal Facts site. Most of us found many more facts to use for the books we will be writing. We still have some more researching to do but now each student will be able to choose whether they use books or online sources.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 6.6 Measuring in Centimeters

Important Dates
2/13 No School - Professional Development Day for Teachers
2/16 No School - President's Day
2/26 Winter Voyage ~ Day 1 - not an overnight trip so no Day of Rest (Day 2 will be in April - also not an overnight trip)
3/18 Student-Led Conferences for First Grade
3/23 - 4/3 Spring Break

Other Apps and Websites We Use

Today we will finish off our series about apps and websites we use in class. Of course, we are always learning about and adding new apps and websites to our devices but this will give you a good idea of some that we like to use.

Apps on our iPads

Websites on the Resources Page of our Crew Blog

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 4.3 The Foot-Long Foot

Library
We have library tomorrow. Please help your child remember to return his or her books.

Math Apps and Websites

Last week I shared some of the apps and websites we use to read ebooks. This week I thought I would share some of the math apps and websites that we use. Our favorite apps are Hungry Fish and Marble Math Jr. but we have many that we like. We are just learning to use some of the apps in the math tools folder to help us create some great ShowMes. Check out our Kidblogs to see who has begun to try to use these new tools.

The Resources page of our crew blog also has links to some great math games and activities. Your child can access these from home by visiting our crew blog and clicking on the Resources page. Our favorites on this page include Give the Dog a Bone and Making Tens.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 3.15 Unit 4: Family Letter ~ Measurement and Basic Facts

Digital Books

We use a variety of resources to find good ebooks - both iPad apps and computer websites. I thought I would share some of those with you in case your child would like to read a digital book from home. In the future, I will share some of the math tools and apps that we use online, too. (Click on the pictures below to see a larger version.)

The picture below shows the home screen of each child's iPad. The top two rows feature mainly the creation apps that we will learn and use throughout the school year. We have learned two of these apps so far - Kidblog and ShowMe. A button to our crew blog is also included on these rows to provide students with easy access to our blog but it is not a creation app.

The newest digital book app that we have is called, Epic - Books for Kids. We have left it out on the home screen so that the crew will remember to take a minute to visit it. It has many, many great books that the crew can read and some that can be read to them. They recognized many of the titles from our school and classroom library on here.

The pictures below show some of the apps that are in our Books folder on our iPads. Ask your child which apps are his or her favorite.

On the Resources page on our crew blog (see the tabs at the top of the blog page), you will also find several reading websites that the crew uses. Tumblebooks is a subscription service that our school district subscribes to so this one won't work at home unless you access it through the Douglas County Public Library and enter your library card number. The rest will work just fine. While most of the sites are just books to read or listen to, Starfall also has some other reading (and Math) activities that the crew enjoys.

Students can also access their blog at home by going to the Resources page of our blog and clicking on the Kidblog button under Writing. If they can't remember their blog password, send me an email and I will email the password to you.

Hopefully these sites will give you and your child some more resources to use for reading at home.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 3.10 Dimes

Library
We have library tomorrow. Please help your child remember to bring back his or her books.

Crew News April 18, 2013

Tech Skills
The first grade has paused our Expedition so that we can prepare for All School Meetings (both first grade crews host  this month) and Voyages. We do have days here and there that aren't filled with preparation for those things so we are taking some time to learn a few new tech skills. We started today with learning to take screen shots on the iPads. This will allow us to import photos of things we are working on and learning about into ShowMe or other tools so that we can share our learning. Be on the lookout for some new things in our Kidblog blog posts. We will resume our Expedition right after our Voyage. Below are some random screen shots of things we are doing on our iPads. These are just some examples of things you may see on our Kidblog posts in the future. We will import these photos into ShowMe and other new apps to use the audio feature to explain what you are looking at.

Using Base 10 blocks to add and subtract

Identifying fractions

Our Scholastic Storia e-reader bookshelf

Inside pages of one of our non-fiction e-books

Inside pages of a Ready Freddy e-book

Our Kidblog Page

Marble Math Jr. - a math game that requires problem solving

Hungry Fish - a way to practice basic math facts that also uses problem solving skills

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 8.7 Equal Parts

Crew News March 21, 2012

iPad Apps
During our recent conferences, some parents have asked me for iPad app recommendations. I do have several apps on the iPads we use in our classroom but I haven't done an exhaustive search for apps at all. I much prefer apps that have kids creating something so my current favorite apps are Toontastic, ShowMe and ScreenChomp. (ShowMe has been having some "bug" issues recently so we are waiting for those to be fixed. They app creators are emailing me with ideas and suggestions. Another similar app that I just found is called Educreations. We may switch to that if I can't get the ShowMe issues figured out.) I also have links to our crew blog and to our Kidblogs so that students can blog on the iPads as well. I do have some apps that help our crew practice basic skills in math, phonics and spelling. Below are some photos of the apps that we have on our iPads if you are interested. If you have some great recommendations of some free apps for us, we would love to hear about them. (You can click on the picture to see a larger version of the photo.)

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Practice basic addition and subtraction facts using fact triangles or some other method.


Library
No library this week due to TCAP make-up testing. All library books are due before spring break.