Tried It Tuesday - Be Funky Photo Editor Chromebook App

Its my first time this summer joining Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday.

Recently I've found out more about apps available when working in Chrome.

I attended a technology workshop in our district during the first week of summer break, and discovered some really cool apps that can be found by searching the Chrome app store.

This week I'll walk you through an easy and fun photo editing app called BeFunky.

This is what the app looks like once you've added it to your Google collection.

It's FREE!

Once you open the app it's easy to download your photos to edit them.

The app walks you through the process with clear instructions.

Once you have selected a photo, there are MANY options for modifying the photo.

You can add edit the photo, add frames, text, funny touch-ups, effects, graphics, and more!

I added a heart overlay to the picture on this one.

This Chrome app was suggested to teachers so they could have students use it in the classroom, but I've had fun using the app to create photos for my blog and TpT products.

You can find more info about the app here:

BeFunky Photo Editor
Be sure to follow my blog for more apps found in Chrome that I will be blogging about soon.

What have you tried lately?  Add it to Holly's Tried It Tuesday linky!

Tried It Tuesday - Shopkick and July Currently

First up - joining  Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday.

Have you heard about the app called Shopkick?

It's the cool free app where you earn "kicks" just for walking into places like Target, Macy's, Best Buy, and American Eagle Outfitters.

You can also earn kicks for scanning products in these same stores.

Once you have collected a certain number of kicks, you can trade these kicks in for gift cards from your favorite places, like Starbucks!

The kicks add up quickly, and you will earn gift cards in no time at all.

You can download the Shopkick app for free by clicking here.

It's the first day of the seventh month of the year so that means it time for CURRENTLY!

I am joining Farley and over 200 other teacher friends at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for this great linky.

I could watch House Hunters everyday!

I had my laundry room made-over and will post pictures soon.

My summer to-do list is growing, and I didn't cross much off today as I spent the day golfing and then shopping.

I really want to go to the TpT Conference but have plans that Friday and Saturday night - darn!

I am jealous of all the plans I hear everyone making.  I was thinking about skipping the Friday plans, and trying to come back Saturday but it may not work out.

I really need to have carpets cleaned but don't want to do it when it's so humid - it takes forever for the carpets to dry.

Every year we watch the fireworks from my friends' boat - it looks like the weather will be great this year!

Recipes - Tried It Tuesday and SALE!!

Have you ever gotten free recipe cards in the mail, and not know what to do them?

Well take them to school, and use them to teach sequencing, reading directions, and a whole bowlful of other yummy things!

 

I got these recipe in the mail multiple times years ago, and they always came with an opportunity to purchase a cookbook or monthly cards - you know, kind of like a birchbox for the chef of the family.

 

I decide to take them to school to use them for a literacy center.

 

As you can see in the picture below, the students choose a recipe, write about the steps, and illustrate it.

They love it!

The pictures on the recipe cards just make your mouth water!

I also let them choose one recipe that they want copied to take home.
It often makes me laugh at the ones they choose - some are quite complicated but sure look delicious.

I got a nice surprise this year when one of my families sent me a picture on a Sunday of dad and daughter making the pie from our recipe collection.

She even brought in a piece for me to try on the Monday after.
Just one of the perks of the job!
 

Is that not the cutest picture?  It made my day.

Be sure to stop by Holly's blog to get some other great ideas from her Tried It Tuesday linky.

 

And check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store this Thursday and Friday for the big sale!

This is my newest product!

 

 

 

 

Tried It Tuesday - Using School Supply Catalogs for Persuasive Writing

Hi All-
It's another cold day for us here in Wisconsin.
We had school yesterday while many around us had the day off.
We were told by the Assistant Superintendent that our cut-off for a "Cold Day"
is a wind chill of -35.
Yesterday the wind chill was a mere -30.
The central office may have gotten some phone calls from unhappy parents, as we were called off for today by noon yesterday.  Hurray!
I had time to work on my report cards.
Uh....er....more time to avoid doing my report cards is the real story.

But I am happy to be back here blogging, and joining Holly for Tried It Tuesday.
Have you been getting as many school supply catalogs as we have been?
I would love to spend hours perusing these catalogs, but the truth is we don't get any kind of money allowance for ordering anything. 
That's right - zilch.
Maybe some of you are lucky to get a budget for your classroom
You are so lucky!

I decided to use the catalogs for a persuasive writing project.
The students had 10-15 minutes in a small group to look through a catalog and choose something that had a few descriptive details with it.
They would still be looking at these catalogs if I hadn't given a time limit.

 

Lily selected the Programmable Rover Robot from the Lakeshore Learning catalog.  Looks really cool!

Next  I had the students glue down the picture to a piece of colored paper, and attach an index card.
On the index card they wrote dash facts from the ad for the item.
We had done dash facts when we worked on an informative piece, so the students were familiar with them.

As a class we brainstormed leads to our persuasive paragraphs.

These were the leads the students suggested. We decided the words that were underlined could be replaced by a word that was connected to the selected toy.
The students chose a lead and then turned the dash facts into sentences about their item. 

Sounds like a real commercial, doesn't it?
They had to end the piece with a sentence persuading the reader to buy the item.
The students were proud to share these at a Schoolwide Writing Sharing Day we had recently.

This week I am part of a giveaway being held by Heather at Learning with Mrs. Langley!

 

You could win this product of mine just in time for the Winter Olympics!

Your students do research on the Team USA website about an athlete, and then the class compiles them into a guidebook.  It's perfect for building excitement for the games, and for watching who wins the medals during this 3-week event.

You can enter the contest, or find it at my TpT store!

Also included in this product are directions and materials for your students to do a more involved independent project on an Olympian.

These are pictures from some of the projects my students have done.

So head on over to Mrs. Langley's site to enter the giveaway, and then check out Holly's blog for Tried It Tuesday ideas!

 

 

Tried It Tuesday - Tootsie Pop Reading Stamina

It's been ages since I joined in on Holly's Tried It Tuesday linky.  We've been doing some fun activities to launch Readers Workshop, and it's a perfect opportunity to share something that went really well.

 

Our mini lessons this week have been about building stamina, which we call "reading long and strong!"

"I Can..." statement charts like these are available in my TpT and TN stores.

Yesterday I took out a tootsie pop, and said I had a connection between the sweet treat and reading.  The students faces looked like, "whaaat?"

I then asked what they knew about tootsie pops, and they said things like:

"they've got a good gooey center"

"you lick them"

"they're yummy"

Someone even said they had seen the commercial where they ask, "How many licks does it take to get to the sweet center?"

 

I then said that a book is like a tootsie pop because sometimes you have to keep reading it until you get to the really good part.

I said it was important to not give up on a book, and that the longer you read, the better a book could get.

 

The students really seemed to understand the connection, and them we did a timed Read to Self to show me how they could stick with their books.

Of course we didn't do the greatest the first round, but they've really kicked into high gear on the second and third tries today.

 

To drive home the point, I said if we made it past 10 minutes they would get a tootsie pop.

I made stickers to put around the suckers.

Of course we achieved our goal, and are going for even longer tomorrow.

Check out more Tried It Tuesday ideas on Holly's blog!

 

Also, remember to check out the Best Seller Linky Party and Giveaway that is being hosted by

Table Talk with C & C!

 

 

Tuesday Tried It - Assignment Book Labels

Happy Tuesday!

I am again joining up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for her Tried It Tuesday Linky. I have two quick items that I've tried that I wanted to share with you.

 

First, like many of you I have taken advantage of the specials that you can get at VistaPrint.  I have purchased two of those Groupon specials where you get $70 worth of products for like $17.  One of the items I created was sticker labels that my students could put right in their assignment notebooks to let the parents know what books they are reading. 

 

Sometimes my third graders are reading longer books that they transport back and forth to school.  The parents didn't always know which books were library books, and which were assigned books for literature circles/book clubs.

Sorry - bad photo

Using these labels helps keep parents in the loop and talking with their children about the books they've been reading.  I hope to tweak these labels with a different picture and adjust the lines this summer.

 

Also, I have created and used an Insect Inquiry Unit that includes the following items:

*Guidelines for implementing the unit

*Suggested Books and iPad Apps

*Family Letter

*Independent Study Project

*Scoring Rubric for Project

*Insect Observation Booklet

*Three Different Life Cycle Assessment Sheets

*Insect Partner Building Buddy Sheet

*Insect Poetry Template

*Insect Bingo Game w/10 Different Game Boards

*Suggested Unit Activities

 

It can be yours for a very reasonable $3.00!  Click here to find it on TpT!  Your kids will be bitten by the science bug!

 

I'm Having A Sale, and Tried It Tuesday

Yes, my tiny store of items on TpT on are on sale today and tomorrow!  Hope you'll check it out!

Clip Art from Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs

I am also joining Holly at Fourth Grade Flippers for her Tried It Tuesday linky.

 

Since February I have been using a responsibility board to encourage proper behavior.  In the winter I had a snowflake with each students' name on the board, and the students had to earn the right to keep their snowflake on the board.  They earned  this through remembering to put supplies away, taking home their lunch box, marking their lunch choice in the morning, having assignment notebooks signed,etc.If they were responsible enough to keep their snowflake on the board until Friday, they earned a Berry Buck (our reward dollars) and some other small reward, like a homework pass.

 

 

Since Spring Break the students have had a flower or butterfly with their name on it posted on the responsiblity board.  I've been looking for new things to use as rewards, and found one last week on Diane's blog at Fifth in the Middle.  She was giving away sheets of tickets for trading desks.  I gave these out on Friday and the tickets have been a big hit!  Those who didn't earn one are now sorry they didn't. You can check out Diane's post and download the tickets here.

 

And make sure you enter Holly's Fourth Grade Flippers giveaway.