Rhyme to Read App GIVEAWAY!

You all know how much I love to find and use great educational apps in my classroom especially during literacy centers.  I am so excited to share with you all a new app that I was lucky enough to "test drive".  It is called Rhyme to Read.

This app has 20 different books in the app that each focus on a particular word family.  Right now there are only short vowel word families, but each short vowel has 4 different word family stories.

Not only does this app have stories with a word family focus, but they also introduce 35 sight words. This is music to my ears.

Here is a little preview of the app:

 This is what the students will see once they get into the app.  As you can see, all the stories are there for them to choose.

Once they choose a story, this is what they will see.  This is book 1 so you can see that the text is fairly simple.

Here is a picture of book 8.  As you can see, as the number of the book gets higher, the text gets more complex.  I had my struggling readers start with book 1 and work their way through the list.  My advanced readers were allowed to choose whichever book they wanted to read.

Want to know my FAVORITE part?  Do you notice the color coding?  This helps with visual and auditory discrimination.  I also love that my students can touch a word and the app will read it to them.  Sometimes my struggling readers like to try to do stories that are just too difficult for them.  With this feature, they have a lot of support if they try a story that is difficult for them!

I was using this app during my Daily 5 time for Read to Self and Read to Someone.  One week it was for Read to Self and the next week they used the app with a partner for Read to Someone.

I have a lot of students who still struggle with rhyming.  After using this app, they were started to get the hang of rhyming words.  I wish I had found this app earlier in the year.  I can't wait to see how my students do with it next school year when they are able to start from the beginning of the year with this app.  :)

Thinking this app would be something you would like?  You have a few choices:  purchase the whole set for $9.99, buy individual books for $0.99 each, or try to win the app for FREE here on my blog!  Just enter the rafflecopter below for a chance to win the whole set.  Giveaway will end on Sunday at midnight.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer:  I received the app for free, but the review is entirely my own opinion!

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Summer Wish List

I know I am little a lot late to the party, but my hubby had surgery and life has just been crazy busy!  I did though want to join in on the fun of Deanna's Top Ten Things I Want to Do This Summer!  I love this idea because I always have this grand idea of crossing everything off my to do list during the summer and I am lucky if I get one or two crossed off.  I am hoping that if I put it all out there that you guys can help keep me accountable!  :)

1.  I want to survive two summer courses!  In order to finish my master's degree next summer, I needed to take TWO online classes this summer.  It's definitely not ideal, but I can do it!

2.  Spend as much quality time (no phones, iPods, computers, or TV) with these two cuties as I can! 

3.  Read at least one non-school related book.  I usually read a ton over the summer, but I have a feeling most of my reading will be grad school related.  I need at least one non-school book.  Any good recommendations?

4.  Spend as much time outside as possible!  We love spending time outside whether it is playing in the backyard or having a picnic in the park.

5.  Get more familiar with my camera.  My hubby has gotten really good at taking pictures with our fancy new camera, but I am still learning.  Hoping to play with the camera a lot to learn more about it.

6.  Get to the gym!  I have been participating in #3weeksnocheats and it has been a great jump start, but I need to get back to the gym.  I LOVE lifting weights and it is inspiring to see Rachelle and Katie and the results they have in their healthy lifestyle journey.  

7.  Enjoy a relaxing vacation in my favorite place:  the Ozarks.  I just love how laid back and quiet it is at my aunt's house there.  It truly is the most relaxing vacation we take!

8.  Sleep in as much as possible.  My kids are starting to sleep in a bit and I want to take full advantage of that fact this summer.  No more waking up at 5 a.m. for this mama.

9.  Have a garden again this year that grows some beautiful produce.

10.  Take a spontaneous road trip with my family.  I would love to head up to Starved Rock again.  :)

Now let's see how many of these I accomplish!  I think I will batting a thousand.  :)

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Bright Idea for End of the Year Gifts

It's that time again....time for another Bright Idea.

We officially have only 10 school days left so I am thinking about student gifts for the end of the year.  I usually give my students a little something from me, but this year I wanted to try something different.  This year my students are going to create gifts for each other (with a little help from me).

Here is what we are doing.  I have each student's name written on a piece of paper.  I call one student back to my table at a time and ask them to tell me a word that describes each student such as "funny", "nice", "friendly", etc.

Once I have compiled all the names and adjectives, I create a poster with the student's name in the middle and all their adjectives surrounding the name.

Here is what the completed project will look like:

I plan on sending these home with a note explaining the poster for the parents.  As a parent, I would love to see my children's classmates think about them.  I think it something that the students and parents will really treasure.

For older students, the students could just write their own ideas on each person's paper, but since I teach kindergarten I thought it would be easiest to write the words that the students dictate to me.  :)

If you enjoyed this bright idea, please consider following me on Instagram or Facebook.

Take a look at all of these other amazing bright ideas!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Fun with Measurement

I can't believe how long it has been since I have last blogged.  I promise I have plenty of good reasons...grad school finals, soccer tournaments, oh and hubby had surgery.  (He is all good now..thank you all for the prayers and well wishes)

I had wanted to share with you all a couple weeks ago about some easy and FUN measurement activities I did with my class.

The first activity we did was comparing objects by height.  My students were paired up with a partner.  Each partner found ANY object in the classroom.  (any object except the ones on Mrs. Pauley's desk ;)  Then they went back to their "meeting spot" and compared their objects.

I would ask for the student with the shortest object to raise their hand, then same with the tallest object.  It was a great introductory activity for comparing.  My students LOVED it!  The best part about it....NO PREP!!

The other fun activity we did was with measuring our own height.  Once again, the students worked with a partner.  Partner A held a piece of string at the top of their head while Partner B pulled the string to the floor and then cut it.  Then they switched.

As you can see, they took their job very seriously.  I loved watching them get so excited about MATH!

Once we were finished, all the students lined in order from shortest to tallest.  If there was any confusion about where someone should stand we just held up their string.  The only prep for this one was to grab some yarn/string from the art closet.

Isn't it funny how students seem to love those easy or no prep activities just as much if not more than those lessons we pour and pour time and prep into?

How do you teach measurement in your classroom?  I would love to hear!  Please tell me in the comments below.  :)

Now I am off to get a good night's sleep.  Tomorrow is our school carnival which means a very long day, but I love it so I can't complain!

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