Casey Crumbley

31 March 2015

Tech Tip Tuesday- QR Codes!

I am linking up with Techie Turtle Teacher for Tech Tip Tuesday to talk about QR Codes!

I love using QR Codes for math stations, literacy centers, listening centers, and even during writing for research.

Yes, you have to have a tablet, iPad, iPod, or phone with a camera in order to use QR Codes. I have written many DonorsChoose projects to get the ones I use in my classroom, but you may want to consider sending a letter home to parents to donate old phones, etc. that have a camera capability that you could use in your class. You know everyone has to have the next "new" thing when it comes out and they may have their old phone of device lying around. Smart phones are basically small computers and can do many things.
Look how this school system posted about a Smartphone Giveback Program.

Now, let's talk about how I make QR Codes. I use QRStuff.com and this site is super easy to use and FREE!

On the site you have many options to choose from.

I usually use either plain text or website url depending on what I am want my students to accomplish with the QR Codes.

I use the plain text option for quick answers to questions that they will solve and then use the QR Code to check their answer.
I use the website url if I want students to view a specific website. I always use safeshare.tv before creating a link for students to view youtube videos etc. Safeshare will allow you to view the site without commercials. There is nothing worse than when you are trying to watch an educational video and suddenly a beer commercial pops up on the screen! ugh! So, as a side note, safeshare.tv is also great to use when you are just viewing videos projected up on the screen for the whole class not just for qrcodes. :)

My most recent products and uses of the QR Codes have been this set of QR Codes for Researching Zoo Animals! This is perfect for the little ones and allows for "guided" instead of letting them loose on the entire internet, the QRCodes take them to specific videos about the animal they are researching When I introduced these QRCodes and this activity I first modeled how to find the QR Code Reader App on the iPad (I use i-nigma) and then we talked about while listening and watching the video you can pause the video to take notes and write down interesting facts you learned. They really enjoyed this activity! I am now on my way to making more sets with different topics we can research!

The link to the product is HERE!

Here are some other ways I use QR Codes in my class:

HERE

New Milestone!

Woohoo! I just reached a new Milestone of having 200 TPT Followers! I realize this is nothing to some of you out there with thousands of followers, but ya gotta start somewhere!

In celebration, I just added a new FREEBIE to my store.
An Addition Subtraction Egg Hunt!

I use this type of Egg Hunt every year, but I just now made the equations all cute for you (and me of course).
We often have our Egg Hunt in the classroom and I have all the boys go in the hallway while the girls hide the eggs and then once they have found a set amount (10 each) I then have my girls go in the hallway and the boys hide the eggs. They almost like hiding the eggs more than finding them and they giggle the whole time! I love giggles in kindergarten!

I hope you enjoy these cards that you can cut apart and place in plastic Easter eggs to hide. My Dollar Tree had packs of 18 eggs for $1. You could also ask parents to send some in.

Click HERE for the FREEBIE!

New BLOG Design!

I'm super excited about my new Blog Design by Alexis from Eat Laugh Learn!

Let's Celebrate by having a Giveaway of $50 to my TPT Store. Click HERE to see my store :)

Enter using the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You have until April 5th to enter. Share with your friends and colleagues as well!

Five for Friday- 3/27

Whew what a week!

We started our unit on plants this week and for fun to go along with this we drew faces on the outside of eggshells and then planted some grass seeds. Our little Egg Heads will soon have hair.

I also made a new "Picture of the Day" Product to go with our Plant Unit.

My students have really enjoyed this real life photos and it seems like such a great way to increase vocabulary, speaking and listening skills as well as integrate science into writing.

Click HERE for the link to my store.

My husband teaches 7th grade science and sometimes we car pool....not very often. He is a morning person and I NEED my coffee!!!

I am the ELA Innovative Educator for Kindergarten in my county for the 2015 School Year. This week we had our first meeting and they gave us each an iPad mini to use in our classroom. :)

I absolutely love reusing items from around the house. Did I mention that I love coffee? So of course I have a million coffee cans. I made each student a take-home Uh-Oh Sight Word Game to play at home from these old cans and they turned out pretty cute. I will upload this game freebie to TPT next week. It is on my school computer and I'm at home, so you'll have to check back for it.

DONORSCHOOSE ROCKS!

Just in case you did not know. Here are the latest additions to my classroom that are from DonorsChoose Projects that I've written and random companies and kind people have funded them by giving tax deductible donations through the donorschoose website. Make an account! If you don't try, then you definitely won't get one funded.

We now have a tablet charging station and a new classroom rug!

I hope you enjoyed my randomness from the week!

Tech Tip Tuesday- Blabberize

I am linking up with Techie Turtle Teacher for Tech Tip Tuesday

A great way to publish writing is to use Blabberize!

My students love it! They get so excited when I say we are going to make their pictures TALK!

I recently read If I Had Animal Hair by Sandra Markle

Students then wrote about which kind of animal hair they would want and why. Afterwards, they illustrated a picture of themselves and I used the website blabberize.com to record their voice and attach the voice to their image and shared it on my class website.

Here is one example:

We also used this site this year when we learned about Pilgrims and they told the story of Pilgrims coming to America after illustrating a picture of a Pilgrim.

I used Blabberize in third grade after studying American Heroes, students created an illustration of the American Hero and I recorded their voice reading facts about the American Hero that they researched.

So many options for this great site! Please let me know if you use it and how you used it with your class.

Five for Friday- 3/20

Do you GoNoodle? We had some rainy days and we enjoyed indoor recess with GoNoodle. My students thought the Chillax video was hilarious!

Animal Research with QR Codes! Such a success!

The paper in the pic was just a rough draft, I have since made a more "presentable" Zoo Animal Edition in my TPT Store HERE

STEM Challenge: Create a bridge a Troll (toilet paper roll they decorated) can fit under and 3 Billy Goats (the three cubes) can balance on. We had lots of fun with this today. I also had students retell the story using these props after creating the bridge.

New Picture of the Day Product where students can compare similarities and differences of animals in real photographs. HERE

Setting up for our Monday PL day with another school. We have another school coming over to see some math and literacy center/stations. As a grade level we tried to pull all kinds of things to share.

So much info in one place!!

Literacy Centers:

Recognizing Letters