Crazy for Christmastime!

We are crazy for Christmastime, Baby Time, & Birthday Time in the Schaab household!  I hope everyone enjoys their holiday break and that it includes a lot of resting and relaxation!   I will be on break from my blog until I return from maternity leave in February, however, I do have some fun posts that will post every so often... so enjoy!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Trick Shot Titus

Today, Meghan shared this video with me... and I'm truly amazed by how awesome this little kid is...

Santa Tracker

Did you know that Google has a Santa Tracker?  Now obviously, Santa isn't out and about yet, however, Google's awesome Santa Tracker comes complete with a cool holiday village that similar to an Advent Calendar you can explore something new about The North Pole on a daily basis.  This would be fun to share with your students now, then possibly post on your website for them to track Santa on the big day.   I hope you and your students enjoy it as much as I do!  Click here to visit the Santa Tracker now!

Coaching Check Ins

As you may or may not know, today (& really all week) I'm holding "Coaching Conference Check Ins" where I've been interviewing teachers who signed up to meet with me.   I know it's a crazy week it being pre holidays, holiday sing, etc. but I wanted to reach out to everyone to at least provide me with input, even if you don't have time to conference face to face with me.  You can fill out the little interview online (click here) or on paper (I guess research shows I'd get more back on paper than online - but who knows).   It's completely optional but would help me gauge if I'm being a supportive coach or not.    

I will be putting the questions in your mailbox after school today if you'd prefer the paper copy, or you can fill out form online (click here).  Or if you'd like, check my schedule (click here) to see if we have a common time we can chat!   If you could get it back to my by Friday, I'd greatly appreciate it.  

Thanks in advance for your participation!   I've THOROUGHLY enjoyed my day today of meeting with teachers and discussing professionals goals as well as teaching in general.  I look forward to following up with you and chatting with you about your responses if you are unable to meet with me face to face!

Santa Fun with Google

While you’re counting down for Santa’s departure around the world, look no further than the +Google Maps Pegman for a skydive headfirst into 6 cities. Santa Maps Dive is built for Chrome using WebGL and a location detection API, so you can say you went “Skydiving in Chrome” when your friends asked what you did for the holidays.   This would look beyond awesome on a SMART Board too!   When I tried it, I learned it was a lot easier to skydive and gather gifts with the keyboard arrows instead of the mouse.   Good luck!

Head to g.co/santamapsdive to sharpen your skydiving skills.

You know I love a good Sesame Street Parody...

As you may know, I love a good Sesame Street's Parody.   Here's a another  great one for you!

Legend speaks of a dessert unimaginably sweet and delicious, and when it was destroyed all that remained was the dessert's powerful recipe. It remained in the hands of a monster named Gobble for a long time, but when it disappeared, all cookies on Monster Earth disappeared along with it. It is up to Cookie Monster to use his memory and remember the recipe in order to bake the cookies in the fires of Mount Crumb.

Connected Classroom Hangout: Danny the Champion the World with Lucy Dahl

Today, Mrs. Filipiak's 3rd grade classroom had a very unique opportunity.   Before Thanksgiving, they were sent copies of the book, Danny, the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl.  Over Thanksgiving Break the third grade students read the book and when they returned, submitted questions in preparation for today's Connected Classroom Hangout with Lucy Dahl, Roald Dahl's daughter, and with Elizabeth Findley who works with Matilda, the Musical, on Broadway.  It was a BEYOND amazing experience for the students who personally got to interact with both Lucy in Los Angeles and Elizabeth in New York.   Lucy had some amazing information to share about her father and the kids and adults involved learned a lot!    Some students even were able to make some very unique and interesting connections with Roald Dahl.  As a big surprise at the end, the students received the book, Matilda, as a thanks for participating gift.  They were beyond thrilled.   Check out the video of the entire experience in the YouTube Video below.  Thank you to +Matilda The Musical Broadway and +Connor Swenson for such an amazing opportunity!   

Room 312's Survival Handbook

Currently, Mr. Mulvihill's 5th grade class is in the middle of their rotation of using the Chromebooks as well as just finished reading the novel, My Side of the Mountain.   Mr. Mulvihill has traditionally read this novel with his 5th grade class and has had the students keep track of different plants and animals that are used as a means of survival, while reading the novel.   This year, with the Chromebooks at Room 312's fingertips, they were were able to take this survival study a bit further.  In collaborating with myself, the Instructional Technology Coach, and Ms. Diekman, we were able to come up with an awesome project ot take their findings a step further.  Ms. Diekman, our wonderful Library Information Specialist, worked with Room 312 showing them how to research and take notes on the different survival items that were in the novel they read. After completing the research with Ms. D, then I went into his classroom to teach the kids how to use Google Sites.  As a class, collaborating on research and collaborating on creating a website, you can see how their hard work has transformed into a wonderful working website.  Please click here to view the website.

This project was a great way to meet many of our National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) while deepening the student's understanding of how different plants and animals can be used for survival.   In addition to meeting the NETS standards for students, this activity also met a variety of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4–5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.6 With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.7 Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and finished work, and provide a list of sources.

Mr. Mulvihill's class did an amazing job on this assignment, and their website looks amazing!   I hope you enjoy reading their hard work and seeing an excellent sample of success from our 5th graders!   If you think this is an activity that you'd like to try in your classroom, please let me know!

Attachments appearing a little differently in your Gmail?

Did you notice something a little bit different in your email today?   You can now view Gmail attachments and save files directly to Google Drive without ever leaving Gmail. The next time you open an email with attachments, you’ll see new previews of the files at the bottom of the email. When you click on one of those previews, a full-screen view of the image or document will appear. You can now also save your attachments directly to Drive simply by clicking the Drive button that appears when you hover over the preview.

When you click on one of those previews, a full-screen view of the image or document will appear. You can read, search for a particular phrase, and even browse through multiple attachments right in Gmail.

You can now also save your attachments directly to Drive simply by clicking the Drive button that appears when you hover over the preview. Of course, if you prefer to download the attachment to your computer, you can—just click the arrow button.

For more information, click here to read the Official Google Blog.

Holiday Fun on ABCYa!

It's the most wonderful time... of the year... 

Good thing I'm typing and not singing!    I wanted to share some of the fun games that ABCYa! has for winter holidays that would be great stations for students, or even better on the SMARTBoard.  Click on the title to be taken to the game.

100 SNOWBALLS - WINTER FUN FOR KIDS

Children love to play in the snow! 100 Snowballs is an interactive activity that gives children the opportunity to have fun by clicking and dragging snowballs around a winter scene. Children can create anything they imagine as long as it only uses 100 snowballs! This activity works well in the classroom on an interactive whiteboard.

Recommended for Grades: K,1,2,3,4,5

BALL ORNAMENTS PUZZLE

Ball Ornaments Puzzle is a fun winter holiday activity. Kids must find as many ornaments as possible by locating matches to the example ornaments shown. The game is over when all 150 ornaments have been found or when the time has run out. Points are awarded by how quickly ornaments are found.

Recommended for Grades: 4,5

SUGAR, SUGAR - CHRISTMAS

The Christmas edition of Sugar, Sugar is a challenging logic puzzle with a physics twist and a holiday theme. Each level of the game is a puzzle that requires planning and strategy. The goal is to draw lines with your mouse to get sugar into the cups. You must fill each cup until the number reads zero. Kids and adults will enjoy it!

Recommended for Grades: 4,5

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS - MATH FACT FUN

It's time to put up the Christmas lights! But wait! Before you can put up the Christmas lights, you must correctly answer as many math problems as you can in one minute. You can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication or division facts. The more math problems you solve correctly, the more lights you will be given to decorate your house!

Recommended for Grades: 1,2,3,4,5

MAKE A SNOWMAN

Fun for all ages! Children click and drag different shapes to make a snowman. Kindergarten to second grade students learn and practice valuable mouse manipulation techniques. Have Fun!

Recommended for Grades: K,1,2,3,4,5

CHRISTMAS TREE FUN

Christmas Tree Fun is a holiday activity for children. The activity guides children through a series of steps to decorate a Christmas Tree, put a surprise in a gift box, and then finally place the tree in a wintery scene. Children can design and place several trees in their scene along with different surprises and gift boxes. Finally, they can visit their scene and try to remember what they put in each box!

Recommended for Grades: K,1,2,3

MAKE A GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Make a Gingerbread House is a holiday computer activity for early elementary age children. Kids learn and practice valuable mouse manipulation techniques while clicking and dragging. Students will also exercise visual spatial skills while positioning the different pieces. Projects can also be saved and printed.

Recommended for Grades: K,1,2,3

HANUKKAH CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ABCya's Hanukkah Crossword Puzzle is a fun and interactive way for kids to test their knowledge of Hanukkah vocabulary words and facts.  The crossword puzzle can be played on the computer or by printing on paper.  The interactive version of the puzzle includes a hint feature, fun animations, and an intuitive interface to making navigating the clues and answers simple.

Recommended for Grades: 3,4,5

Class Dojo Attendance

Last February, I blogged and introduced you to Class Dojo.   Click here to see the original post.  I know that we have a few teachers at Roosevelt who love using Class Dojo with their students and parents.  Now, Class Dojo is offering a new feature!   They now also have a fun way to take attendance!  

ClassDojo Attendance lets you:

• Easily and quickly take attendance
• Spot trends with beautiful, simple attendance data
• Help students be on time by tracking “lates”
• Take attendance from your laptop, iPad, iPhone or Android device

What is ClassDojo?

ClassDojo is a classroom tool that helps teachers improve behavior in their classrooms quickly and easily. It also captures and generates data on behavior that teachers can share with parents and administrators.  Better learning behaviors, smoother lessons and hassle-free data - and its free! 

Do either of these wound like something you'd like to try in your classroom?  Let me know and I'd be happy to help you set it up!

Interactive Advent Calendars

The season of Advent is always filled with eagerness and expectancy. Build some of that anticipation into your school day by allowing students to unlock a new secret on the advent calendar each day.  Use these advent calendars with the whole class on an interactive whiteboard or projector, or set them up as a quick center activity that students can visit.  Use the advent calendars that reveal a story to practice looking for foreshadowing clues, using context clues to guess what will happen next, or as story starters for students own stories.  The Christmas around the world advent calendars are wonderful for teaching students some of the history of Christmas and the way that other cultures celebrate the familiar holiday.

Tips: Each of these advent calendars has some fun goodies and hidden surprises, find the one that best fits your classroom needs.

French Carols Calendar

Click on a new present each day to hear French School Children sing a new Christmas Carol.

Advent Calendar Games

This advent calendar has fun little games and activities to play each day.  The games and activities are quick and easy to complete, building mouse and keyboard skills.  This advent calendar would be a good one for the classroom computers as a center activity.

Christmas Around the World

This is a fun way for students to test their knowledge and learn about the ways that Christmas is celebrated all around the world.  As an extension, plot the places around the world that they are learning about on a world map.  

Bach Advent Calendar

Each day your students can listen to a story about Bach or music

The National Museum of Liverpool

The National Museum of Liverpool has an advent calendar that reveals a piece of art from the museum each day.

The Dirt Dirt

The Dirt Dirt advent calendar is purely fun, each day click on a number and an animation will be added to the tree.

Polar Express Advent Calendar