Saturday Apps #7

Apps make the world go round....well not quite, but they do make our mobile devices go.  I stumble upon apps, I find apps on Pinterest and Facebook and seek out FREE apps on AppsGoneFree. 

I'll share an app or two with you and include pictures or even a video.  I would love it if you would either:  share an app with us  or try out the app I've recommended and let us know what you think.  

If you share, please tell us:

* the name

* the price

* what devices it works on (iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc.)

* how you use it

* why it's worth downloading

This week I'm sharing: TypeDrawing

I found this app thanks to AppsGoneFree and it's been free since Tuesday August 13th.  It's normally $1.99 (which I wouldn't have paid for) but since it was free...  This app is meant for your iPhone but can be used on the iPad if you tap on the 2x button to zoom in. 

In a nutshell, this is a concrete poetry creator.  Concrete poetry is when you use words to draw pictures.  

First you type in your word or words, then you can change the font and color and finally you draw on your blank canvas and watch your words come to life.  You can change words (fonts, colors) whenever you want and you can change the entire background color as well.  Plus, you can insert an image and draw on it!

This GoRgEoUs view is only 3 minutes from our house!

   

Obviously this app is a fantastic tool for kids to be introduced to and write their own concrete poetry.  But I could also see this being used to practice spelling or vocabulary words.  I have to say that this simple app is very fun and kind of addictive!

 

Monday Made It, Outer Space Freebie & B2S Giveaway

My motto is 'Carpe Diem' and because of this I'm very ADHD because I try to get lots of stuff done and cram everything I can into every waking moment (when my 2 little ones are napping, occupied or sleeping).  While writing this post I'm literally bouncing back and forth between making baby food, blogging and texting with my brother-in-law about hooking up our built-in speakers.  I bite off way more than I can chew, but it seems to suit me :-)

Here we go:

Feels great to link up once again with

I made something for my classroom that I saw on a recent blog post.  

When I read it I laughed out loud, thought of my 5-year-old and then knew it would be cute on my desk.

Hee, hee, hee...

I also made something for our new home!  This marks the first thing I've made (that is not for my classroom) thanks to inspiration from Pinterest.  I had to convince my husband though, which was easy because we made a deal: he got to hang a painting his grandmother did (in a spot I wasn't a fan of) and I got to do whatever with our mudroom!

BEFORE

AFTER

You can use a dry erase marker to write on these frames
(which have scrapbook paper on the inside).

Our daughter starts Kindergarten in 2 weeks and our son still goes to daycare, so I wanted to do something with this room to make sure we're all on the same page about our days.  The artwork was something we had and was perfect because we're like a "herd of elephants" trying to get out of the house on time in the morning!  I LOVE PINTEREST!

Finally, I didn't time dinner well tonight because the baked potatoes were almost done and I had just put the chicken in so....my daughter and I made 'chocolate covered graham crackers' on a whim.  She is a bit obsessed with having them every time my husband takes her to a coffee place (and it seems like you can only find them at coffee places, WAY overpriced).  So we pulled out ingredients and I literally made up the super simple recipe.  I added peppermint extract to the chocolate just because we had it and it was delicious!  I stuck them in the freezer and they were ready in time for dessert :-)

This one is a 'person'.

My classroom has an Outer Space theme and I revamped our 'Classroom Rules' signs this past week and put them up in my classroom.  You can find them by clicking below

Now go over and check out all the other freebies at

I'm soooooooo excited and thankful to be doing my first blog collaboration!

I recently discovered Crystal's blog over at The Library Fox and am a fan of her cute clipart.  So we're doing a joint giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Spread the word! 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/NDBjNGQwZDU5ZWIwNjA5NDk5YTk2OWQyZDhmOTgzOjI=/

Thanks for hanging in there for that whole post...that's what I get for not blogging this weekend (which was dedicated, somewhat, to catching up on a year's worth of scrapbooking for 2 kids, yikes!)

Let's try this again!

I got an idea from Kristen Smith over 

@ A Day In First Grade

She's releasing a new product and is giving away a free copy of it to someone who leaves her a comment and is chosen at random.  I'm sure many of you either do that on your blogs with your products or have seen it before but it's new for me (blushing).  I'd like to do the same thing but with a TwIsT...

I'd love for you to check out this new resource by downloading a preview over at my TPT store.  But I'd also love to give a few away....yep, a few!  

So here's what to do:

1) Go on over to my classroom website.

2) Figure out "Where in the world did I get engaged?"

3) E-mail me your answer: firstgradebloom@gmail.com

4)  I'll give away 10 of them (the first 5 who e-mail me and then draw 5 randomly) and e-mail it to you!

I'm excited to see how this works :-)

Rock Stars & Birthdays

Can you imagine if teachers were rock stars?

Well we kind of are.  We are on stage everyday with an audience.  

We love what we're doing but it's tiring and we put in long hours.

I saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers tonight in concert and it was AWESOME!  I listen  to them while doing long bike rides and runs.  And although I was enjoying myself and shakin' my head to the music, two teaching thoughts ran across my mind:

1) I would love to do my job on a big stage with awesome music and just dance all over the place!

2) I found my mind wandering away from some songs and focusing, instead, on the great visuals that were taking place on a huge screen behind the band...I bet that's what some kids do in our classrooms too :-)

Now to introduce my 5-year-old to their music...hee, hee, hee!

And I'm still thinking about birthdays because I finished something I've wanted to do in my classroom for years but only got about 25% of the way with it.  I've created a "Birthday Bag" pack that includes photos of what mine looks like and all the directions, labels and pages needed.  The reason I suddenly worked on it and finished it is because I found a treasure at Lakeshore this summer, which I'm using at the actual Birthday "bag".  So check it out if you're so inclined.

And I have a question for everyone out there:  What/How/When do you celebrate summer birthdays?  I've done half birthdays and I've also done "Last Week of School Summer Birthday FIESTA", but I'd like summer birthdays to get to take home the Birthday Bag too.  Plus, my little guy is turning 1 on August 17th, which (in a few years) means he won't get to celebrate his birthday at school and will be a summer birthday kid :(

So how do you do it?

The Day the Crayons Quit

Last Thursday night I was grocery shopping late at night.  Typically when I do this kind of a grocery shopping trip it's a Friday night, I'm in my jammies and I'm listening to French radio & music...very fun and comfy for me!  But this time it was a spur of the moment thing and I started off by returning something at Customer Service.  As I was waiting in line, my eyes started to wander and I spied a random end cap of children's books.  Without thinking, I got out of line and went over and grabbed this book

I started reading it and was cracking up, out loud!  The premise of this book, by Drew Daywalt, is that Duncan's crayons go on strike and each one of them write him a letter to complain about something.  What a genius idea for a book!

So I immediately started thinking of ways to use this book the first week of school and created a little literature response pack for it, and it's FREE!

I found this treasure 2 days after completing this

  

and wasn't able to add it, so it's a FREEBIE!

One of my favorite things is stumbling upon really good books for my classroom!  You need to go find this book and read it and LOL like I did :-)

Now go on over and check out more FREEBIES at

Birthday Books

Today is my un-birthday!  You remember that scene from Alice in Wonderland, right?  Well I watched that movie with my 5-year-old recently and that must've put a bee in my bonnet because I'm working on something I've always wanted to do in my classroom: A Birthday Bag.

I've almost finished getting it ready for TPT & TN but I need some help:

What book(s) do you read to your students -or- your own child on their birthdays?

Please leave a comment to let me know :-)

P.S. Happy Birthday to my little brother Jason :-)

Saturday Apps #6

Apps make the world go round....well not quite, but they do make our mobile devices go.  I stumble upon apps, I find apps on Pinterest and Facebook and seek out FREE apps on AppsGoneFree. 

I'll share an app or two with you and include pictures or even a video.  I would love it if you would either:  share an app with us  or try out the app I've recommended and let us know what you think.  

If you share, please tell us:

* the name

* the price

* what devices it works on (iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc.)

* how you use it

* why it's worth downloading

This week I'm sharing: BUMP and Photo Collage Free

I have been using BUMP for a long time and it's so nice to be able to either bump phones with my mom or husband to share pictures or, most often in my case, bump my phone to either my iPad or Laptop (or BOTH as was the case in getting pictures for this blog post).  

It's free, works on both iPhones & iPads and I use it for any classroom pictures I take on my phone (which serves as my primary camera) that I want to put on my website.

I'm also sharing Photo Collage Free

I was surfing the app store on my iPad this week trying to find an app that allows you to write on your photos....still looking for one by the way :-)

Instead, I came upon this one: Photo Collage Free.

   

1) Choose a layout, 2) Tap to choose photos, 3) Voila a collage!

This is the before and after of setting up my desk.
I got to work in my classroom today for the first time this school year!

This is from a 5K I did this summer in the Bahamas, while
we were on a Disney Cruise.  Best race EVER because I jumped
right into the ocean afterwards!

This app is free and is available for iPods, iPhones and iPads.
I think the first project I'd like to do with this app is to take pictures on the first and last days of school and put them into a collage and give them to students as end-of-the-year presents.