Showing posts with label activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label activities. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

200 Followers and a Freebie!

I can't believe I have 200 followers! It took some time but now we are here! Time to celebrate... anyone want in on a giveaway??
Side story- We had a Chinese New Year parade today... anyone else do that? We don't have a big Chinese population and we don't have parade for any other events (besides Halloween) so I'm not sure I like it too much! Luckily, today was a nice, cool day so we weren't sweating as we were wearing our dragon hats. =)
Anyway, since I'm in such a great mood because I'm at 200 followers... here's a freebie! We've been working on our best estimation skills and I have to say, they are pretty good at it! There are some, of course, who don't realize the difference between 100 and 40 but besides that, we are all good. Here are some shots of my kiddos in action...We used the Sunflower Estimation sheet where we estimated how many seeds would fit in the middle of the flower. The other is the Marshmallow Mouth... how many marshmallows will fit in the mouth? You may notice that in one of the shots there are circles drawn in the center of the flower. In my classroom, everyone gets what they need and not all students are quite ready for estimation so their job is to glue the seeds in the circles and count them. The same goes for the marshmallow mouth except there is no picture. 



Want the Estimation Sheets?? You can snag them on TpT by clicking the picture OR leave a comment with your email letting me know that you'd like a free copy... today only! =)
If you're interested in being a part of my 200 follower giveaway, please let me know also... leave me a comment or shoot me an email: vanessa.escobar17@gmail.com

Thanks friends!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Lock those apps & candy corn...



Hi friends!
It's day 2 and I've made it to sit down and blog... yay! I have been super busy with school & birthday parties & an upcoming wedding on Friday & my sister-in-law's baby shower on Saturday & you know, life! Phew! Still, I find such comfort in reading blogs, writing my own and, especially, reading comments.
Ok, ok, that's enough of that, on to the good stuff!
I found this pin floating around, clicked on it, followed the link and it made me SOOOO excited!
Enable “Kid Mode” on iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch with Guided Access in iOS

The link takes you to step by step directions on how to LOCK your ipad/ipod in a specific app! REALLY!? FINALLY!!! I thought of all of the times that I say, "We're playing this game today," only to find out that someone was taking pictures, playing Draw Free, etc., etc...
You can read the step by step directions by following this link OR keep reading...
1. Update your ipods/ipads with the new software, iOS 6
2. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility
3. Under the Learning section go to Guided Access
4. Switch Guided Access to ON
5. Set a password
6. You may want to Enable Screen Sleep, I did.
Now you have the settings all ready!
What's next?
1. Open the app you want to lock
2. Triple click the home button
3. Click START
4. Do a happy dance!
5. To get out of the locked screen, triple click the home button again
6. Enter password and click END
Things to know...
*Volume control is also locked during the locked  screen
*The home button will not work unless you triple click and enter password
*If you do not Enable Screen Sleep, you cannot put the device to "sleep"
*Sorry I didn't take pictures! I meant to and forgot!
Look at these kids...learning... having fun... staying engaged... where are the rest of them? lol. There are 3 kids missing from this group... lol.
They are playing TeachMe:Toddler. In case you haven't heard of the TeachMe games, look them up! They go all the way up to 2nd grade  and they are awesome! They track all of the questions asked and give little sticker prizes to the kids for each 3 questions they answer correctly. If they answer incorrectly, the app gives a reason why it is incorrect. For instance, she'll say, "Find the letter D" If they press B, she'll say, "That is the letter B, find the letter D," and so on. I am using the Toddler version right now because it goes over Letters, Letter Sounds, Numbers, Shapes and Colors. The Kindergarten version goes over Spelling, Addition, Subtraction and Sight Words; not where my students are at this point. I have some students on the Kindergarten version and that is the beauty of having the Guided Access on... they can't resort to the "easy" one! Everyone gets what they get and gets what they need! Oh and another thing about the Teach Me apps, you can lock the players as well so the kiddos cannot create new games/characters each time AND it allows up to 30 students to have their own game...30! I love that app...

I wanted to share another Pinterest inspired activity... CANDY CORN! Candy corn means everything Fall, don't you think? So the original pin had tissue paper squares but one of my kindergarten team members said that cutting all of those tissue paper squares was just too much! (I agree! We divide and prep materials for each of the 4 kindergarten classrooms so that was just too much work!)
Instead of using the tissue paper squares, we used ripped construction paper... look at how cute they are... 
Look at how messy that is!

They will still cut them out but I think they look adorable! I am kinda cringing looking at these pictures because everything looks so messy but it was a really fun activity and they cleaned it all up! lol.

Ok friends, adios! I'm going to work on my aunt's wedding gift =)