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Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Lines That Wiggle

The only thing better than finding a new book to read to your class, is when you find one that works with several grade levels and results in different projects. This summer I ordered "Lines that Wiggle" and it did not disappoint.

This week I tried the kindergarten lesson that I titled "Rainbows that wiggle" and it was well received. Late I will be trying the "op art" version with my older students. The lesson plan with worksheet and step by step examples is available here.



Tuesday, September 1, 2015

My throat is thankful

I don't know about anyone else, but over the summer my throat gets really lazy. So when called upon in August to deliver for seven hours straight, it goes on strike. Usually in the form of a sore throat the second week of school. My first week's lesson plans are all literature based. All of them. All 28.  I love to read to my students and use contemporary storybooks but I knew what reading for six hours a day would do to my throat. Thinking about the iBooks I downloaded last week with audio I decided to record the books in Garage Band for playback. Now I can walk the books around so everyone can see the pictures while the story is read aloud and my throat takes a nice little rest. Side benefit, I now know exactly how long it takes to read the book so I know how much time is left for the lesson.

Technical notes: I exported the vocal from Garage Band into iTunes and made a playlist of books. I have a bluetooth speaker and plan to put it in the middle of the room and carry my phone in my pocket so I can "pause" if we need to talk about something going on in the book.