Giraffes and Owls

We have so much fun with our directed draws. All the students know the directions and procedures when we complete a directed draw.

1.  Get your paper
2. Get a marker
3. Write your name and flip the paper over
4. Draw when Mrs. Farkas lifts her marker
5. If you make a mistake, make it work
6. No talking

We have had a lot of successful artists this year and their art confidence has increased a ton due to "making it work". In previous years, my students would tend to get stuck on perfection. When using a permanent marker, we avoid perfection because we can't erase. We have fun together because I even make mistakes and let the kids know I need to make it work.

However, we broke all the rules when drawing the owl. This year, the owl was completely new to me and since I usually am able to find an idea on the internet and draw from that, I don't have typical directions to follow. So, when drawing the owl, I had many mistakes and just thought I could make it work. But as we finished the owls, we realized what a disaster they were and we all wanted a redo.

Once we discussed what we needed to do differently, we found a new piece of paper and began again. We learned again what making mistakes and learning from them can do for us. Round 2 was AMAZING!

 

We also FINALLY completed my favorite animal! The kids have been begging to complete giraffes. We used a wax resist technique with our giraffes and patterns. We added patterns to the background and the giraffes spots. Then we used watercolor to finish up.

 

 

 

Adventures with iPads

Our adventure with an iPad began this year when I was able to purchase one with my own money that a friend had won as a gift. It was so exciting! It was the best Christmas present to our classroom EVER!

Our first and most favorite app: Twitter
We have Tweeters of the Day so every child gets a chance to tweet often. We have continued to grow our tweeting purpose as well. At first, we just explored tweeting in general. Now we are trying to expand and show what we are learning and why it is important. We also have added a check-off sheet to make sure our Tweeters are tweeting often. It still is a "earn on the go" process, but what a wonderful way to connect with parents, teachers and other students.




After our first initial iPad, I was hooked. I applied for a small grant, and WON! So, we were able to add two more iPads to our classroom and with the help of our PTA, we added the cases and headphones. This opened the door to many other uses for our iPads. Here are a few of our other favorite apps at the moment.

Chatterkid
Allows students to take a picture of anything and give it a voice. We have used it to bring our art projects to life and also biography projects we have done. The students think it is hilarious to be able to make anything talk, even their desk.





Playground
This app encourages the 4Cs as they collaborate together to be creative and design bridges that will hold either cars or trucks. They can score points based on their structure, how much it cost, and the effectiveness. They also explore what bridges are made out of, the cost of materials, and how to build a stable bridge.







SushiMonster
This app by Scholastic allows practice of addition and multiplication skills. We use it in our classroom after we have mastered the math strategies to add and multiply. Students can work together to solve or can play independently.








Currently, we are trying SO hard to add more iPads to our classroom. We are about 1/2 way to raising enough money to add 2 more iPads, cases and headphones through Donor's Choose. If you would like to support us or know a friend who would like to... we would be SO thankful. www.donorschoose.org/mrsfarkasclassroom  It is so amazing to see the transformation in learning when technology is used in a purposeful way. I have students begging to stop and read so they can record their stories using an app called Audioboom. It melts my teacher heart.

 

We would love to connect with you if you or your class is on social media.

Connect with us on Twttter:
Classroom: @tweetingin3rd
Teacher: @JennaMFarkas

Thanks for stopping by. If you have any questions about the apps I talked about, please feel free to comment.

I also need to give a HUGE shout out to a fabulous teacher friend of mine. She has been my lifeline in adding more technology into my classroom and I am SO thankful our paths have crossed. Whenever I have ANY questions she is so willing to help me no matter the time. Even if I bust in when she is teaching. :-) Please hop over and check out Mrs. Delzer's blog. She will rock your world and make you want to add all sorts of tech to your classroom as well as change your décor.

What apps do you love for your classroom or at home?

No More Labels

I am so excited about my new discovery. Sharpie oil based paint pens! They are AH-Mazing. I no longer have to tape on name tags. I can write on their desks with the Sharpie pens. It stays on even through custodial cleaning. At the end of the year, I just have to write over it with a dry erase marker and it comes right off. Brilliant!

I write on everything now. I also use them at my house and have written quotes on my fridge. You can also use them to leave special notes for the people you love. A teacher friend of mine likes to steal my markers and leave me notes.

 

Want to get some for yourself? I purchased mine from Michaels, but you can also get them from Amazon. Click the picture.

 

Finally... Owl Pellets!

We have finally begun our adventure with the human body. We have counted bones, looked at movement through jumping rope and assembled a Mr. Bones character. We even tried to label as many bones as we could on a skeleton. We finally have started to find another skeleton inside an owl pellet. We use Foss Science kits and part of our kit is to disect and discover an owl pellet.

What is an owl pellet?
 When an owl eats it prey, it swallows it whole. Then an owl's body does something really amazing and digests everything but the fur and bones. It then throws the leftovers back up, thus producing an owl pellet.

We were a little grossed out at first, but once we realized we can wash our hands afterwards, we dug right in. We are in the process of animal identification and placing bones in the right place.

Be a Hero... Donate Blood

We had an assembly last week to kick off our annual blood drive. We learned there are many different types of heroes: firefighters, soldiers, doctors, nurses and so many more. But we also learned that anyone can be a hero if they donate blood.

The flyers were sent home last week and are due on Tuesday, March 17th. Please consider being a donor. The blood drive will be held in the Bloodmobile in our parking lot on Monday, April 13th from 1-6pm.

If students recruit a donor, they will receive a neon watch when that person donates. Plus, the class with the most donors will receive a pizza party. So let's donate some blood!

If you want to help but can't make the date.... check https://www.bloodhero.com/ for more information.

NDSU Bison Visit

On Wednesday of last week, we were so lucky to get to have some NDSU football players come to our school and read. The kids but mostly the teacher were super excited to get to listen to an awesome role model read them a book. What a fabulous experience! GO BISON!

Research Probes = Motivated Learners

We have begun a new adventure into research probes. These are new to my classroom and the idea came from a teacher friend of mine (thanks Miss Goetz) who has used them in her classroom in previous years. As soon as I heard about them, I fell in love. I was just hoping the kids would love them as much as I did.

So our adventure began. We started with our first probe, All About Me. We worked together using a matrix to organize our information about ourselves. We use small sticky notes to add our keywords. Once we collected all our information, we pulled all the sticky notes and laid them out in a paragraph. We used our red light (red pen) to add our periods on our sticky notes. After that we were able to write our paragraph. Then we repeated those steps for the rest of the categories of our matrix. Add a picture and a border... and voila! A masterpiece I was not expecting. Everyone of my students did such an amazing job!

Here is a picture of the steps we follow to complete a probe.

 Here are some matrices. See the sticky notes? That is how we organize our information.

Once we finished our All About Me probes, we moved onto researching an animal. Again, the kids did such a fabulous job and are becoming such awesome readers and writers. We have now started our next probe in which they got to choose their own topic. We have everything from animals, sports, dancing, and even some famous actors and singers. Every free moment, the students are ASKING to work on their probes. Yep... that's right! They are wanting to research, read, and write. My teacher heart is overflowing with pride.

Here are some examples of what the students have created:

 Giraffes by Avery

 Lemurs by Taelyn

 Flamingos by Abby

Whales by Zedan

 Here is the start of a probe on Taylor Swift.