Classify App {Plants & Animals}

I am always on the lookout for engaging, educational apps for my classroom and when I can find one for FREE, well, that's a extra bonus!  I'm here today to share one of our favorites with you!  If you have some to share, post them on Instagram with the hashtag #appyclassrooms so other teachers can find them!

This app, called Classify, is perfect for any classroom that teaches plants and/or animals.  Here's a brief peek at how the app works.

There are three levels.  I start my students on Level 1 - it's not TOO easy, so it's perfect for them.  Students will start on Level 1 and as you can see, they will have to unlock other levels.  If students reach a certain score, they will unlock the next level and can move on.  However, the ultimate goal is to "master" a level to earn the Creature Card for that level.  You can see in the picture above, that I have unlocked Level 2, but have not mastered it yet.

Here's a peek at the first board in Level 2.  Students will be looking for "living things that are mammals."  They will grab the red circle and swipe it to the right to flip over the cards on the gameboard.

Once cards are flipped over, students will simply click on all of the cards that fit the category.  If they click on a card and change their mind, they simply click again to deselect it.

Cards that are selected change colors, so students can review their answers before hitting the classify button to submit their answers.

After submitting their answers, students are immediately able to see which were correct (green check) and which were incorrect (red x).

Then, it calculates their score.  They have a chance to replay it (if it wasn't mastered, this would need to be done to earn the creature card for that level), or go to the next board.

From the home screen, students can view their collection of creature cards.  They love to tell others when they've earned a new card!

I hope this is an app that you can use in your classroom!  It's FREE, easy to navigate, engaging for students, and educational at the same time!  That makes for #appyclassrooms!

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Be Inspired in 2016 with TPT

It's time for a huge TPT sale. This is a great way to start your 2016 on the right foot - prepared, inspired, and amazing.

Looking to find some great timesavers and resources for your classroom. Our Owl-Ways Be Inspired authors want to share a must-have resource from their store.

Courtney from Swimming into Second would recommend her Comprehension mini-lessons bundle. 

 Do you love using picture books to teach comprehension concepts but need some help developing your lessons? If so, this bundle is for you.  Included in this pack, you will find 15 text based mini-lessons on drawing conclusions, making inferences, cause and effect, and main idea. All lesson plans and materials are ready for you. Just grab the book and go!

Jennifer from Teacher's Open House is sharing her "Cactus Hotel" resource.

Use this resource to teach science, desert habitats, through literature. 

Linda Kamp from Around the Kampfire wants you to know about her fabulous "What Does the Shape Say?" pack. 

Shapes activities for working with attributes, shape identification and writing about math. This pack includes plane and solid shape activities for Kindergarten, first and second grade. 

Angelia from Extra Special Teaching recommends her "B and D Confusion" pack.

Do your students have trouble distinguishing between the letters B and D while reading? If so, these activities can provide your students practice in identifying the letters B and D and determining which letter is used in words. 

Amanda's new "Fun Facts through the Year" pack is a must-have from Teacher's Clubhouse.

Do your students LOVE learning fun facts during units of study? Do you LOVE having something handy for early-finishers? The Fun Facts Series was created to meet both of these needs! This set is the perfect extension to have on hand all year long for those early-finishers or brain stretches! 

Stephanie from Falling into First has these amazing Flash Fluency cards.

These Fluency Phrase cards and pages help students practice sights words and fluency together in a meaningful context! This pack includes the first 100 Fry Sight Words. The themes in this pack can be used all year long!
Themes: School kids, Space, Bears, Rockstars, Magic, Zoo, Baking, Detectives, Wild West, and Dinosaurs. 

Kelley from Teacher Idea Factory recommends her "Sentence Writing Warm-Up" pack. 

Daily sentence writing practice that is levelized to meet the needs of all the different levels in your class?? Yes, please! This fun Sentence Writing Warm-Up packet was designed to target basic and detailed sentence composition in a quick and easy to implement manner for the ENTIRE month of January. There are 25 sheets for each writing level . . . 75 sheets in all! 

Gladys from Teaching in High Heels is showing off her Chinese New Year pack.

Teach your students all about Chinese New Year with this literacy unit. This 92 page unit is perfect for supplementing your Social Studies curriculum, it includes graphic organizers, vocabulary cards, a projectable class book, a mini-reader and much more! 

Ginger from Ginger Snaps wants you to know about her "Fact or Fiction Files (Insect Edition)." What kid wouldn't love this?

This non-fiction mini pack includes six articles regarding common myths and little known facts about some of the most well-known insects. These articles are sure to grab the attention of your students!

 

Fern, from Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas, is sharing her "Winter Color Your Answer" bundle.

 Winter Math: Winter Fun! Color Your Answers Printables - Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division Basic Facts Color Your Answers Printables for Winter Addition, Winter Subtraction, Winter Multiplication and Winter Division...perfect for winter time in your classroom.

The Teacher Talk's Jessica is showing off her fabulous resource for text features. 

his product is a complete unit of activities that can be used with non-fiction books of your choosing. The purpose of this unit is to introduce the features to young ones! Instructions to use the materials are included as well as ways to differentiate the activities to fit your learners.

Features covered: title, table of contents, labels, bold words, graphs, maps, subheadings, captions, photographs, index, glossary. 

Jamie from 2nd Grade Stuff wants you to know about her "Perfect Paragraphs" bundle. This is great help for those struggling with teaching writing.

This product is designed to help primary students write perfect paragraphs with five main parts: an introduction, three details or reasons, and a closing statement. The students are asked to complete the parts in a step-by-step approach in a logical order that makes sense and is easy for students to grasp. They will also review and discuss their peers’ writing and provide feedback for revising and editing.

These activities can be completed as morning work, homework, early finisher activities, part of your writing block, or any time as needed to reinforce the structure of writing a paragraph.

Jen from Teacher by the Beach offers another great writing product, "Writing with Rubrics and More!"

 This writing pack includes everything you need to help your students become writers!
Included:
4 different writing prompts for each: narrative, expository, opinion, and friendly letters
posters for each type of writing
2 different rubrics for each type of writing (teacher and student version)
planning pages for each writing
TONS of different writing paper options - in 3 different style of writing lines (blank versions with no clip art and 8 different clip art versions for each "set"of writing paper)
Word Bank folders - Fry's 1st and 2nd sight words
Picture Word Bank Folders - fall, apple, Thanksgiving, Halloween, patriotic, community words

Dana from 3rd Grade Gridiron is sharing her "Base Ten Bash" to help your kiddos with tens and ones.

 This 23-page pack has several activities to help your kiddos master tens and ones. The pack includes print/go activities, centers, games, and assessments. 

Alisha from The Bubbly Blonde loves her "We Heart Math" pack. This is perfect for teaching math in February.

This unit provides many opportunities for students to practice 2 to 3 digit addition with and without grouping and 2 to 3 digit subtraction with and without regrouping

Each center is differentiated to help you meet the needs of ALL of your learners! All centers include two sets, which are easily labeled with a 1 or 2! Game cards are also labeled to help with sorting and storing.

Halle from Across the Hall in 2nd Grade wants you to know about this fun Valentine's day pack.

The Day It Rained Hearts" is one of the sweetest Valentine's Day books there is! This unit was created to accompany it, but is adorable all on its own for Valentine's Day or Spring.

Happy shopping, friends!

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Using an ABC Line (freebie)

Hi everyone! It's Angelia from Extra Special Teaching with a quick tip that might help some of your struggling learners.

Do you have students that ALWAYS forgot to capitalize the first letter of a sentence? Or students that have a hard time coming up with the uppercase or lowercase version of a letter (even though they do know all their letters)? Or students that have a hard time with ABC order?

I have students that struggle with all these things, so I made some ABC lines. I keep these in my small group area and pull them out whenever I see students struggling.

These ABC lines seem to be just what my students need to remind themselves of the correct letter they need when writing. It's also been very helpful with ABC order. If they can help your students, you can download it by clicking {here}.

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Listening Center Response Idea {Freebie Included!}

Hi, Owl friends!  It's Dana from

  Prepping from the Primary Gridiron!

I love using my listening center during Guided 

Reading.  The kids absolutely LOVE it!  It offers 

them a chance to read along with a fun & exciting text.

When they finish listening to a book, they fill

out a listening response form.  Here's a glimpse:

It's nothing super cute or fancy, but it 

covers several important skills/concepts.

Some of my ELLs have trouble spelling and

writing out sentences at times, so I also allow

them to illustrate certain parts of the activity.

When finished, the kids used to put the papers

in their finished work pockets.  That got a little

annoying because the papers are half sheets and 

I would have to dig in the pockets to find them.

So........

I started asking my kids to complete the activity

and then glue it into their Reading journals.  It's

a regular composition journal where they also

write their reading responses.  It's the perfect way

for them to go back and reflect AND for me not to 

go digging around in their finished work pockets!

If you think your kiddos would enjoy this, you can 

download it HERE or by clicking the picture below.

I hope your kiddos enjoy their listening 

center books and activities!  

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January Desktop Calendar

Hey there! It’s Megan from I Teach. What’s Your Superpower?  I’m here with another desktop calendar for you.  I hope you have a wonderful new year full of adventure and surprises as well as time to rest and relax.

These gorgeous snowflakes are by Paper Sphinx, and they are beautiful.  Even though it’s January, and this calendar is probably as close to snow as I’ll get this year in Houston.

Enjoy!

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