Creating Classroom Communication

Here is my first attempt at creating a GOOGLE FORM.... it was very easy! I thought this would be a great form that any teacher can put into their classroom webpage.

This form is geared towards a kindergarten classroom where the family members come in and drop off/ pick up the students.

Do you think you could use this in your classroom? What changes or add-ons can you suggest?

Diigo... Where'd You Go?

I have been having problems with Diigo. In the beginning it was easy (isn't it always?). With a few simple steps, I was able to add Diigo to my toolbar. I clicked away, adding sites here and there. I especially liked blogs created by fellow kindergarten teachers. I continued for about two weeks. Then, while reviewing Diigo in my EDUC519 course, I realized I had been doing it wrong. I had been clicking the Diigo button when I was on a site I liked. But I was unaware of the following steps regarding labeling and saving.....All of my sites were gone... or never there to begin with.


So, here is my new Diigo account. It is slowly growing again. Hopefully it will help out teachers who are looking to find more creative ideas for their classrooms, or in search of educational information. Enjoy!

A Digital Day

I am creating a digital story for my classroom. I wanted to make something that could be used more than once, so I decided on
 " A Day in the Life of a Mount Olive     Kindergartener." 
 I can use this digital story during orientation for the parents and then during the first days of school for the students. It can also be edited to update pictures and present again at the end of the year for graduation. 

A few slides need to be added. It is missing slides for the classroom door, name cards, math, guided reading, read aloud, parent pick up, and a goodbye slide.

                                        It's almost complete!  Check out what I have so far:

Hip-Hop-Hooray for Animoto

It's finished! My first Animoto is complete. It is different from my original idea for three reasons:

1) My orginial concept of "Kindergarten Rules" is still in the works, but I did not feel like it was long enough to produce yet.
2) My classroom students have decided they would like to learn about planes and trains and automobiles; so a "Transportation Study" is in full effect. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce new transportation vocabulary to them.
3) Searching for the perfect musical accompaniment.


What were my road blocks on this Animoto journey? Well trying to find a different mode of transportation for each letter in the alphabet... not easy. I resorted to using some other forms of vehicle-vocab to fill in the harder letters; such as O, U, E, K, N, Q, V and X.

I decided to look for a hip-hop song because I think my students would get excited and move to the beat while learning! I purposly looked for an instrumental-only song so the words/lyrics would not distract them. Also, I want them to be able to call out the names of the differents forms of transportation while the Animoto is playing- making it more fun and interactive.


Here is it.... Enjoy!

(If Animoto does not play, click here Transportation Animoto.)

Any more suggestions for letters O, U, E, K, N, Q, V and/or X???

My Problems = Your Benefit

I will share a couple of the issues I encountered with Animoto. Hopefully you will read this BEFORE you start Anomoto-ing. It may save you some time... and sanity.

ANIMOTO ALERT: Do NOT click "produce" button until you are 200% sure you are in love with the final product. This is why my newest Animoto is now titled: Copy Of Transportation. I forgot to add a title slide, so I had to go back and fix it- inerasable damage.

ANIMOTO TIP: Some teachers may believe the songs in their Animotos are distracting to the students. Loud singing and fast tempo lyrics may take the focus away from the student's learning. Search YouTube for hundreds of songs with and without lyrics. Go to this  Online Video Converter website to copy the hyperlink of the video. It will download to your computer, then you can upload it into your Animoto- and it's FREE!

Please share any other tips & alerts that may help future Animoto creators...

S.O.S. for RSS

RSS is a new concept for me. I tend to make alot of lists and carry around post-it notes. I am slowy changing my ways, and RRS can help. This is a easy-read webpages that details what RRS is.

Here is a great site for TEACHERS to "subscribe" to in your Google Reader, or whichever RRS floats your boat. It has RSS subscription links to hundreds of educational webpages, news links, and other great informational sites. Enjoy!

Animoto's Making Me Cry!

I came across an Animoto that brought tears to my eyes. It inspired me to develop another great Animoto for my classroom (after I finish my first one of course)!

I would love to have my kindergarten students write sentences about their grandparents, choosing one grandparent, or as many as they would like. Possibly using sentence starters like:
My grandma is funny when _________________.
My favorite place to go with my grandfather is _______________.
My grandmother's favorite food is___________.

For the photographs, I think I would have a classroom throw-away camera that I would make available for students to take home. Or have parents email me the pictures.
What an amazing keep sake this would be for them to reflect upon as they get older! I want to make one myslef with my Grandma.

My Grandma and her twin sister just turned 85. She has recently ditched the New England weather and is living it up in Curacao for the next 2 months. You go Grandma!