Introducing QR Codes to Little Learners {A Freebie}

Have you even wanted to introduce your little learners to QR codes, but you're not sure how? 


This year, we're working on creating introductory lesson plans for all of our go-to apps, and Qrafter happens to be one of them! QR codes are wonderful for students because they get kids up and out of their seats, are a quick and easy way to get information to students, and the novelty of QR codes never really wears off!  

This is the perfect lesson to introduce primary students (1st and 2nd are ideal- this would work with 3rd and 4th as well though! Kinders may be too little to do the reading; but you could DEFINITELY make it work with big buddies or parent volunteers!) to QR codes! 

Students get practice scanning and opening QR codes. There are two sets of QR codes included. 

The first set includes QR codes with a kid-friendly and silly joke. When students scan the QR code, they'll find the answer to the joke. 

The second set includes QR codes to review rules & procedures (perfect for the beginning of the school year.... OR anytime of the year! ;). Students scan a QR code and a question about your classroom rules or procedures will pop up. Students answer the question on the recording sheet! 
Find complete teacher lesson plans, directions, helpful rescues, teacher tips, the QR codes, and recordings sheet {HERE}!

How do you introduce QR codes to your littles? I'd love to hear in the comments! 

Enjoy! 
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Acceptable Use Policies for Students- Updated FREEBIE!

A loooooong time ago I wrote a blog post and shared the Acceptable Use Policy forms I used in my classroom to teach students rules and expectations for using our class iPads. You can read the post {HERE}!

***Oh my goodness! I just realized I wrote that post FOUR years ago!!!!!*** 

Needless to say, the forms were in need of a little makeover. {HERE} are new posters with updated fonts and graphics! Click the picture to download for free! 



You can use them with your students, send them home for students to go over with parents, and use them as a tool to help teach iPad (or device) rules and hold students accountable... Because we all know that without clear expectations = free for all cluster on the iPads- especially with the littles ;) 

If you're looking for editable AUPs or need them to say something else, you can find the editable set of updated AUP forms {HERE} in my TpT Store!





If you'd like me to do the work for you and create a customized AUP just for you and your class, you can find that listing {HERE}! 




If you're looking for more tech tips, tricks, and lessons, click the Tech Projects tab at the top of the page to explore! 

See you soon! 

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Tired of Tattling!?

Are you tired of tattling at school? Learn how to create a Google Form to help minimize tattling in the classroom! Video tutorial and step by step directions!
Part of my job is to do professional development with teachers this year! I always learn so much on these days from the amazing teachers I work with. And this idea came from a Google PD we did a few weeks ago! 


It's the Tattle Form! 

For all of the little tattles, that students just love have to share with you, because to a seven year old, when Billy accidentally sneezes on you, it's pretty much the end of the world.... 



Students can scan a Tattle Form QR Code which will take them to a Google Form that looks like this: 

Are you tired of tattling at school? Learn how to create a Google Form to help minimize tattling in the classroom! Video tutorial and step by step directions!


Which they can then fill out.... And you can assure them that you will handle it immediately. ;-) 

It gives the students a chance to feel heard and validated, and it also gives you a pretty spiffy record. A record of who's doing all or most or lots of tattling, AND who is being tattled on. This can be helpful when meeting with parents, or deciding what steps to take next, as you have a written record of the tattling! #winwin

The new Forms gives you some pretty neat data too!

You can see who's doing all the tattling:

Are you tired of tattling at school? Learn how to create a Google Form to help minimize tattling in the classroom! Video tutorial and step by step directions!

You can see who the tattlees are: 
Are you tired of tattling at school? Learn how to create a Google Form to help minimize tattling in the classroom! Video tutorial and step by step directions!

You can see what happened: 
Are you tired of tattling at school? Learn how to create a Google Form to help minimize tattling in the classroom! Video tutorial and step by step directions!

And what your class needs to work on: 
Are you tired of tattling at school? Learn how to create a Google Form to help minimize tattling in the classroom! Video tutorial and step by step directions!

Here's a quick video tutorial on how we created this form! 


 
Hopefully this will help eliminate *some* of the tattling as we head towards Spring Break! Have a great week! 

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Leprechaun Sneezes (& Other Fun St. Patrick's Day Activities!)

I'm so excited about St. Patrick's Day this year! 

Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

Maybe it's because I have this little leprechaun to hang out with...


(This was a year ago already!!!!!! Eeeeek!) 

After he was born, we started calling him Lucky because we were so lucky to have him.... and the nickname just stuck. Anytime something good happens (like an awesome parting spot, finding five dollars in the washing machine.... We say it's Cade Luck.) Everyone we know calls him Cade Luck... And we're so lucky to have him ;-) 

Anywaysssss... 

On to a few fun, hands on and engaging activities you can do with your students! (OR kids at home!) 

Kaboom is such a fun game that students always love, and can be played to practice any subject area- math facts, sights words, etc.! All you need are popsicle sticks! Just write your sight words or math fats (or whatever you'd like your students to practice!) on the popsicle sticks and place them in a cup. On a few sticks, write "Kaboom". To play, students choose a stick and read or answer the question on the stick. If they answer correctly, they get to keep the stick. If they answer incorrectly, they place it back in the cup. If a student chooses a "Kaboom" stick, he/she must place ALL of their sticks back into the cup! 

When you add gold coins to the popsicle sticks, or write directly on the coins, it turns it into a festive fun activity! Write "Unlucky Day" instead of Kaboom to make it even more festive! 

Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

Gold Coin Toss is also a fun game that involves gold coins.... Just label bins, hula hoops, baskets, (whatever you have!) with point values, and let kids toss their coins into the pots. They'll practice adding their sums and have a blast playing this carnival-like game. You can allow them to toss however many coins you'd like, and can change the point values depending on your students. It's always a good idea to use coin values so kiddos can practice adding the sum of coins! 
Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

I found the green pots {HERE} and the gold coins {HERE}.
For St. Patrick's Day, you can use Skittles, Rolos, even Trix cereal!

Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!
This activity always leads to more learning that I expect- since students can count by 5s, 10s, even 100s to add up the amount together. Students can even practice creating arrays to make piles of 5 or 10 to count them! Then they can find the difference between their estimate and the actual amount. Hello Number Talk! 
You can play Make 100 with any deck of cards (just use a Sharpie to write numbers on the cards, or add zeros), but the leprechaun cards make it a little more festive and fun! This is a memory match game, and students flip cards to make the desired sum (whether it's 10, 20, or 100....or anything else you want!) Find a sum of 100, keep the cards. The person with the most cards at the end of the game wins! This is great for building number sense!  
Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!
What kid doesn't love the challenge of creating a leprechaun trap! This gives students the chance to be creative, to use their hands, and to work together (if you choose!) 

Check out these fun leprechaun traps on Pinterest! 
Again, add fun food to any activity, and the kids will love you forever. 
Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

Data and graphing at it's finest with Lucky Charms! 
Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

This stuff is SO. MUCH. FUN! And all you need is 1 part water, 1 part white glue, and 1 part liquid starch! (Recipe found at Little Bins for Little Hands and it's the best (and easiest!!!!) recipe I've seen!) The possibilities with this are endless... Students can predict what will happen when you add more/less of an ingredient. Students can write or draw the directions in the correct order. Students can write a story about the leprechaun.........

You can download the leprechaun slime freebie below! 


Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

If you are needing recording sheets and student directions to use in your classroom for these activities, feel free to hop on over to my TpT store to check them out

Check out these fun, hands-on, and engaging activities to do during the month of March to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day! These are great for the classroom or at home! Includes activities like Leprechaun Slime, Gold Coin Toss, Your *Un*Lucky Day, and lots more!

I will give the entire pack (80 pages of St. Patrick's Day center resources!- Student directions, teacher directions, station signs, back & white recording sheets, AND parent volunteer forms) to FIFTEEN people who pin any picture from this blog post. Just leave your email with a link to your pin. :)   

Make sure to hop on over to Pinterest to check out all of these fun St. Patrick's Day ideas too! 
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Amazingly Unique & Easy End of the Year Video

An incredibly easy, different approach to put together your end of the year class video (or open house video!). And it only takes a second!
Raise your hand if you've spent hours upon hours trying to put together the perfect end of the year video for your students..... Picking out the perfect pictures, making sure all the students are included equally, hunting down parents for pictures from field trips, searching external hard drives for those pictures you *knew* you took at the Christmas party in December, finding the perfect music, cutting the music, waiting for 35 DVDs to burn.... All the night before the last day of school.....? 

Me too. 

Here's a quick, easy, unique alternative that is incredibly touching and different. And it'll only take a second (or two) everyday... 

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Left Over Candy Hearts?!

Do you have a ton of left over conversation hearts from Valentine's Day!? 
Not sure what to do with all of them!? 
Do you have lots of left over candy hearts from Valentine's Day and aren't sure what to do with them? Here are some quick and easy ideas on ways you can use them for math review in your classroom! Free recording sheets included!
Here are a few ideas on ways you can use them in your classroom during math time! 

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All Things Valentine's Day {At School}

Can you believe it's almost Valentine's Day!? I've rounded up a few of my favorite Valentine's Day resources for the classroom! Enjoy! 
Fun Valentine's Day ideas for the classroom! Includes lots of free printables and ideas!
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President's Day QR Code Reading & Writing Freebie


This is an oldie but a goodie! If you have devices to scan QR codes, make sure you read the blog post about this engaging activity HERE!

And download the updated activity HERE

A fun and engaging President's Day reading and writing activity! Students can scan the QR codes to learn all about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the President's job today! FREE!

Happy {almost} President's Day! 



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All Things Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is right around the corner (February 8th!). Here are a few ideas to celebrate and learn with your class! 

Chinese New Year resources, activities, app suggestions, literacy stations, book suggestions, and chopstick ideas!
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Don't Click On That!!!!!!! Tips for Getting Students Started with Online Research {FREEBIE}

The internet can be a scary place for both students and teachers. Help young students begin online research and navigate the internet with these free resources. Website suggestions, QR codes, digital citizenship videos, graphic organizers, and best practices included.

As a digital learning coach this year, we get lots of requests to help come into classrooms and help get kids started researching. The internet can be a big scary place, for both teachers and students, and sometimes it's hard to decide where to even start students when they want to use the internet to learn about something. 

These are a few resources I've compiled along the way, and a few tips to help get your students started on researching. 

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Ringing in the New Year with Cotton Ball Poppers

Hi everyone and Happy New Year! My wonderful friends and I over at See Mama Teach are linking up for a fun New Year's blog hop! 


We're sharing ideas and freebies to help you ease back into January (and work)! 

Welcome to stop #4! 


About two months ago, I started a TpT project- a New Year's Party Pack (kind of like my Pumpkin Party Pack and Valentine Party Pack) with all sorts of fun activities you can do with your students or your own kids to celebrate the New Year and also do some learning! 

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