Friday, March 30, 2012

Kid's Co-op Linky Party: Post #2

It's a Kid's Co-op Linky PaRtY!! Let's share some kid-friendly fun for the week of March 30th. This Little Blogfish is a happy girl to be a new Kid's Co-op host along with many other great bloggers! I hope that you'll bookmark Little Blogfish and follow me here and on Pinterest too. 


Please stop by again next week and in between too. Join this fun collection of family & kids play-based ideas and more. Scroll down and check out all the great stuff being shared or add your ideas too. 


One favorite from last week was The Artsy Craftsy Mom's Kandinsky's Water Color Circles. Here is what she linked up last week. 




Another favorite was Kitchen Counter Chronicle's Spring Flowers for the Front Door. Here's she linked up last week. 


Be sure to follow the links and check out these posts. I plan to feature some of my favorite kid-centered ideas here next week too. 


I hope that a few of you will be excited to be featured here next week. I look forward to checking out your links and following and discovering some new blogs...even little blogs like this one.


Now, let’s see what fun this week brings. The Kid's Co-Op link up is co-hosted by these awesome bloggers and will show up on their blogs as well.  Don't forget to add a link back to this Kid's Co-op party somewhere in your post and include our button somewhere on your blog. 
Please stop by and like the Kid's Co-op! Facebook page. 
Kids Co-op
<a href="http://www.littleblogfish.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://rainydaymum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/comeplayatkidsco-op.jpg" alt="Kids Co-op" width="125" height="125" /></a>


Enjoy and thanks for joining the "school" at Little Blogfish!


Wednesday, March 28, 2012

How To Add a Pinterest Pin it Button to Blogger Posts Video Tutorial

Would you like to add a Pin it button to your Blogger posts? I have created a video just for you that explains how to add a Pinterest Pin it button to your Blogger posts. I hope you enjoy my video.





If you enjoyed this video, Pin it, follow my blog, and follow me on, Pinterest, of course.
Robin @ Little Blogfish

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Saturday, March 24, 2012

Kid's Co-op Linky Party Fun: Post #1

It's a Kid's Co-op Linky PaRtY!! Let's share some kid-friendly fun. This Little Blogfish is a happy girl to be a new Kid's Co-op host along with many other great bloggers! I hope that you'll bookmark Little Blogfish and follow me here and on Pinterest too. 


Please stop by again next week and in between too. Join this fun collection of family & kids play-based ideas and more. Scroll down and check out all the great stuff being shared or add your ideas too. 


I plan to feature some of my favorite kid-centered ideas here next week. I was so excited to featured on B.Inspired, Mama and Toddler Approved last week. Check out my son's O'Keeffe inspired flowers and tips for making them too Here.

I hope that a few of you will be excited to be featured here too. I look forward to checking out your links and following and discovering some new blogs...even little blogs like this one.


Now, let’s see what fun this week brings. The Kid's Co-Op link up is co-hosted by these awesome bloggers and will show up on their blogs as well.  Don't forget to add a link back to this The Kid's Co-op party somewhere in your post and include our button somewhere on your blog. 
Please stop by and like the Kid's Co-op! Facebook page. 
Kids Co-op
<a href="http://www.littleblogfish.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://rainydaymum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/comeplayatkidsco-op.jpg" alt="Kids Co-op" width="125" height="125" /></a>


Enjoy and thanks for joining the "school" at Little Blogfish!


Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Our School's Georgia O'Keeffe Art Lesson

Art lessons from the classroom: With spring blooming at our backdoor, we tossed most of our textbooks aside for a while and decided it was time for some spring art. We've had fun learning about Georgia O'Keeffe and her artwork. I thought I'd share an art technique with you that will help your budding artists.
Our lesson started with a whirlwind tour of The Georgia O'Keefe museum HERE. I've said it before, but I don't know if I'd make it as a homeschool teacher without the internet. We were able to tour this museum from our home. Now that's great!! I sorted the artwork by category first, so we were just looking at the flowers. You'll need to do the same because not all of her work is for the kiddos. 
We talked about the colors and her techniques. My student was interested and ready to go. 


Next, I armed him with his camera and sent him outside with simple directions. Take pictures of the flowers in our yard the same way a bird or bee  would see them. The images to the right of the post are my 2nd graders O'Keeffe inspired collection of what's blooming in our neck of the woods.

This is the picture that I liked the best. While it's not a flower, my kiddo still followed my directions. This is from a bird's eye view. Can you guess what it is?




With our photos ready, it was time to work on some art of our own. This is a simple technique that can have great results in your classroom.

1. Ask your kiddos to place one dot on their paper. No matter where they put this dot, it becomes the middle of the flower.

2. Now, for the next set of directions. Choose either Wide or Narrow. This choice will determine the width of the petals. My kiddo chose narrow and I chose wide.

3. Next, draw the narrow or wide petals out from the middle of the flower with pencil. The only rule is that the petals must go off the edge of the paper on all four sides. This is what gives us the bird's eye view.

4. Then we traced our pencil lines with colorful permanent markers.

5. We finished up our flowers with your standard water colors. I really loved the results.
My Kiddo's Flower

My Flower
I hope you're able to use this technique in your classroom no matter where your classroom may be.
Enjoy!
Robin @ Little Blogfish


Saturday, March 17, 2012

Spring Education Linky Party and Spring Egg Printable Freebie

Happy Spring! Welcome to the Spring Education Resources Linky Party 2012. I'm looking forward to teaching about spring and sharing some fun classroom and educational ideas. We're gearing up for our local 4-H science fair and already have lots of spring topics on our To-do education list including spring crafts, spring life cycle projects, and glyphs.


Printable Geometric Eggs Freebie
I've been busy working designing more products for the classroom, and I created these printable geometric Easter eggs. Your kiddos can use paint, color, use ink or markers. It's your choice with these geometric coloring eggs. This packet contains 11 geometric eggs created with 2D shapes. Use the eggs to help review shapes in your geometry units and add a Spring and Easter fun twist. Your students can be creative as they color these eggs in their own unique way. Let them try coloring the sections where shapes overlap with one color and the other shapes another color for their own masterpiece. These are free for a limited time. Head on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to download your copy: Click Here As a favor, please follow my store and rate this product for me while you're there, and check out my Kite GlyphBunny Glyph, and Easter Chick Glyph too.


Spring Education 2012 Linky Party: Join the FUN!




Pin It One of the best things about being an educator whether you're teaching in a classroom, online, or at home is sharing with other educators and parents. So, join my Spring Education Linky Party or check out the resources below. If you're blogging about spring and it's educational, please add your link. Add your spring educational products, spring crafts, spring lessons, spring word work, spring math, spring craft ideas, spring art, spring Easter egg hunt, spring printables. If it's about education and spring, link up---I'm not picky! Please Pin our Spring Linky Party so that others can join the fun!

Monday, March 12, 2012

St. Patrick's Day Fun and Linky Party


It's time for some St. Patrick's Day Fun with leprechaun traps, St. Patrick's Day word challenges, leprechaun glyphs, shamrock glyphs, and if that's not enough...add a St. Patrick's Day Education Link Up!!!

Set a Leprechaun trap

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all! Are you decked out in green? Are you prepared to catch a leprechaun?

Here is a fun, free way to enjoy this Saint Patrick’s Day with your children: Create a leprechaun trap!

Sounds fun, right? Avoid hearing, “I’m bored.” Challenge your children to build a leprechaun trap. Arm the kids with the recycling bin, access to kitchen drawers (depending on their age), natural resources outdoors (this could be a green activity), or even craft supplies.  You may want to provide some rope or string if the trap will need to be set by pulling.

Then send your children outdoors. Let them be creative and come up with their own leprechaun bait. What would lure Leprechauns in? Perhaps rainbows, marshmallow cereal pieces, shiny coins, or special shiny rocks would do the trick. 

Then your students build the trap. This is a great idea for a group project or even a team event. Perhaps you could include the concept of using simple machines. Can they design a trap that uses a lever, wedge, or pulley?

Then, set the trap in motion. If no leprechauns show up near your trap, use an item like a tennis ball and see if the leprechaun trap can hold it. Good luck! But I’ve heard that sometimes we never see them. We only see the gold dust or glitter that they leave behind!

Do your kids need some inspiration? Check out these links:

Family Fun
To Catch a Leprechaun

Flickr
Image of Leprechaun trap

Scholastic
Leprechaun Traps (teacher tip)

Have a Word Challenge

See who can make a word using the most letters from LEPRECHAUN or ST. PATRICK'S DAY. Click  HERE to go to my free St. Patrick's Day Word Challenge Freebie. It include letter tiles for each letter in the words above and a record sheet to list the words you make.


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Create a St. Patrick's Day Glyph


Glyphs are great classroom tools that teach students about following directions and using a glyph (or in this case a pattern of a St. Patrick's Day shamrock and leprechaun) to represent ideas. For example, if a child's favorite color is green, their leprechaun will wear a green vest. If it is another color, they will put a yellow vest on the leprechaun. Then, they can work together and use their shamrock or leprechaun glyphs to create graphs. Please come by my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to check out my Leprechaun Glyph and my Shamrock Glyph for St. Patrick's Day.







Click here to learn about my Shamrock Glyph.


Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, Higher Education, Adult Education, Homeschooler, Staff - Holidays/Seasonal, English Language Arts, Computer Science - Technology - TeachersPayTeachers.com


Join the St. Patrick's Day 2012 Linky Party or Check Out More Ideas Below
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Are you looking for an St. Patrick's lesson for the classroom? Would you like to find a St. Patrick's Day craft? Perhaps you're looking for a St. Patrick's Day writing project. Perhaps you have one of these items to offer. If your St. Patrick's item has to do with education, link up. Please add your link or check out a link below. Have fun and happy St. Patrick's Day 2012!


Robin @ Little Blogfish


Click the blue add your link button to get started.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

{FREE} Teaching Short A and Long A Vowel Sounds Game: Literacy Center

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Ready to Learn Short and Long Vowel Sounds

Is your child ready to learn about vowel sounds? Let's start at the beginning and teach about the long A and short A sound. First, the short A makes the sound you hear in words like backbanbank, and bat. The long A sound is heard in words like bake and bay.



Play a Game to Learn the Sounds

I use a dice game that I created to teach more about these vowel sounds.  Download my FREE Short A and Long A Vowel Sounds Literacy Pack HERE from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. If you like this freebie, please follow my Teachers Pay Teachers store and rate my product.





Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, Higher Education, Adult Education, Homeschooler, Staff - Holidays/Seasonal, English Language Arts, Computer Science - Technology - TeachersPayTeachers.com


This literacy game and packet will help your students learn to recognize short A and long A vowel sounds in a creative and fun way. Students enjoy games, so they will have fun when learning. This material is intended for students in 1st-3th grade, and it can be used as a literacy center activity. Your packet will include a letter to the teacher, Teacher Directions, a Literacy Center Folder Cover, Student Directions, one set of Student Score Forms for three students, Dice Pages to print and assemble five playing dice, and one blank Student Achievement Certificate.


Letter Dice A Fun

With your child, toss all five dice. Each of you should work for a set amount of time (depending on the child, set your own time limit), and try to create as many words as possible with the letters that land facing up. You and your child should each write these words on a sheet of paper. Then, to determine who wins the game, each person gets one point for each word. Then, if the child correctly identifies the word as having a long A or short A sound, the child gets an additional point. before the game, plan to play until one player get to a particular point value. We like to play to 25.

For example, if you roll an ACK, AKE, B, T, and V, a child may list words like backbake, tack, and take. He's get 4 points for the words with 4 bonus points for identifying back and tack as having a short A sound and bake and take having a long A sound.That's eight points for the first round.

Extra Practice

If you'd like to work with some long A and short A words before you begin the game, here's the list of ending sounds from the dice. We used these ending for writing practice and spelling tests when we added letters to the beginning.

Short A Sounds
  • ack
  • an
  • ank
  • ap
  • at
Long A Sounds
  • ail
  • ake
  • ate
  • ay
I hope you enjoy this lesson. Be sure to check back to my follow my blog and my Pinterest page for more classroom tools and tips.

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Recommended Fun Read-- Suzy Mule: Teaches Long Vowel Sounds
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Enjoy,
Robin at Little Blogfish
www.littleblogfish.blogspot.com

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Pinterest in the Classroom--Two Pinteresting Classroom Lessons

Is Pinterest an educational tool? Should you use Pinterest in the Classroom? I gave it a test run, and my answer is, “YES.”


 Pinterest is a must for teachers.
• Teachers can find educational resources.

Pinterest is an amazing education tool for teachers. All we need to do is click on the Education category, and we can view little pictures of tons of educational ideas and techniques. Just click on the picture (see the note below), and we’re off to the website where the picture originated from.



• Teachers can network with other teachers.

 If teachers find pins that they’re interested in, the can follow that person’s Pinterest boards. Teachers can begin to follow teachers who may teach the same subject or grade level. While these teachers may not know each other, they are sharing ideas. They are sharing classroom techniques. They are sharing! That’s the key.

So, what about Pinterest for students? How can we make it work in the classroom? Can it be an educational tool for teachers? Yes, it will, but it will take some work.

Pinterest will work for small groups of students with some Pinterest prep work.

 • Choose your categories wisely. I stick to the education category and don’t visit the humor category.
 • View the images, but don’t click on the link until you've read the web address at the top of the pin. I’ve clicked on a picture of rock candy for a recipe and an image of children in Halloween costumes and ended up at adult sites!! This could happen in your classroom too. If I had read the web address at the top of the pin, in both cases, I would have realized where I was headed. Ask students not to click on the links. (Unless you preview where all the links go, I suggest this policy.)
• Follow your friends and other educational pinners. In a previous post here, I’ve asked educators to add their Pinterest education boards to my post. This is a good place to start. Click HERE to locate educational pinners.
• Think small. I suggest using Pinterest in small groups or individual settings. Homeschool is great option since parents can observe their children.
• You may wish to use your account and modify who you are following or set up an account just for your students (it’s still your account, but you limit who you are following).
• Choose to view pins only from the people you follow when students are using Pinterest with students. Preview all of the pins (you don’t need to click them since students will not follow the links, but make sure that the images are student friendly pins.)

 Two Pinteresting Lessons
 Lesson One- What I Want to Do in School

 I’ve moved from the classroom to the homeschool room and decided to try out a small Pinterest lesson with my son. Before our lesson, I created two new boards for my son. They are named My Child’s What I Want to Do in School  and My Child’s Dr. Seuss Project.


We started with what my child wanted to do in school. I follow friends and educational pinners, so I reviewed all of the pins that were coming up. I decided the best option was just to use posts from the pinners that I followed.

Then, I taught my son how to use Pinterest and he scrolled through the page and pinned the pins that he liked and wanted to do in school.

It’s been about a week since he started the board, and he’s asked a few times when we’re going to get to try some more items from the board.

I’ve also installed the Pin it button, so when we are online and he finds something he’d like to learn more about, we add it to his board. I like this activity because it gives me a chance to see what my student is interested in. It also makes him involved in the learning process and gives him input.

Lesson Two— Pinterest Literature Connection

 Next, I tried a more academic approach. I knew my educational pinners would be pinning away about Dr. Seuss on his birthday, so I figured that I could tie Pinterest into our lesson that day.

We read several Seuss books including the Lorax since the movie was coming out. Then we discussed Dr. Seuss’s characters and settings and talked about those items in our books.

Then, I sent my son to Pinterest (I had previewed the pins) and gave him some freedom. I observed but didn’t dictate what he should pin. I asked him to pin images that showed characters from Seuss books or settings from Seuss books.

He enjoyed this process. He even wanted to add some of these items to his What I Want to Do in School board. Technology really seems to get students involved, and we had a fun time learning about Seuss characters and settings using Pinterest.

 So, yes, you can and should use Pinterest in the classroom, but you need to do some legwork, and in this case, small groups or individual learning is the best way.

 Have you used Pinterest with your students? Please add a comment and share. Enjoy and, of course, come follow me on Pinterest:
Follow Me on Pinterest

 Robin of Little Blogfish

I also teach Integrating Technology in the Classroom online through Ed2Go. Learn more about my class here:


Hundreds of great online courses

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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Linky Party for Teacher Pinterest Boards

All teachers (homeschool teachers too) of all subjects, join the Teacher Pinterest Linky Party 2012 and add your Student-Friendly Teacher Pinterest Boards to the Link Up. Anyone who teaches can link up. Just make sure that your boards (list up to THREE) contain material that would be appropriate for students of all ages. This will be a great resource for so many teachers who may choose to let their students use Pinterest too! Join the fun and feel free to share this post too.Pin It

Just click the link below to add  up to THREE of your individual Pinterest Boards--don't link to the main page in case you also pin other topics. Select a few of the boards that are the most appropriate for education and represent boards that students could view too. For example, if you are a science teacher, perhaps you could add your board on a specific scientific topic that you pin. If any of you should happen to run across a board listed in our Teacher Pinterest Board Linky Party that's not suitable for students, please add a comment below so that I can remove the link from the list.

Thanks to everyone! Please follow my Pinterest Board too: Follow Me on Pinterest

Robin of Little Blogfish

Monday, March 5, 2012

Manic Monday Leprechaun Glyph Giveway

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UPDATE.. See the Winners Below

Hi, here's my newest project-- A Leprechaun Glyph with Math and Literacy Connections at my TeachersPayTeachers store. I'm giving away five digital downloads of this product today (03/05/12). Learn more about this Leprechaun Glyph HERE.

To enter the contest, you must follow my TeachersPayTeachers store HERE.  Then fill out the form below. You are only allowed one entry per person. The contest ends tonight at 11:59 EST. Any entries after that time are void. I'll announce the winners tomorrow. 

And the winners are:
parris...
khadd....
nparr....
debbie...
and
melissa...

Congratulations!! I will send your Leprechaun Glyph packet to you by e-mail today. Thank you to everyone who entered!


Free Spring Origami Frog Pattern and Directions


Enjoy this FREEBIE! Click the link to go to my Free Origami Jumping Frog Instructions with  frog pattern. This spring, combine it with your frog studies or even use it to help students work with following directions. You could even use it in math and students could measure how far their frogs will jump or conduct an experiment and let them predict if using a certain type of paper will help the frog jump the most.
Free Origami Frog Image

This link will take you to this FREE  download at my TeachersPayTeachers store: Click HERE to Download your free origami frog pattern. Please follow my store while you are there.

Enjoy,


Friday, March 2, 2012

$10 Off $10 Orders of Tazo Tea and More at Vitacost


After a long week, who doesn't need a nice pick-me-up cup of coffee of tea? How about $10 off your $10 coffee or tea order? To get your $10 credit to Vitacost, head over here to get started. If you are a new customer at Vitacost, with my referral link, you will get $10 off a $10 order. You just pay $4.99 shipping and any amount over $10 on products you choose.

They have tons of items to choose from including coffee, organic foods, gluten free foods, and my favorite--Tazo Tea.  For example, select two boxes of the Tazo Tea that are $3.94 today. Then select two 13 oz. bottles of Tazo Organic Green tea at $1.11 each. (This is the same tea they have at Starbucks Coffee, and I love it.) Your total comes to just $10.10.

After your $10 Vitacost Reward, your total shipped for all three boxes of Tazo Zen Green Tea will be @ $5.09 shipped. I've seen a similar boxes with 24 filter bags run for $4.95 each, so this will save you lots if you love Tazo Tea.

You can also use this $10 credit on other items like Gluten-free products, Kiss My Face, Burt's Bees, Aveeno and lots more, so head on over to Vitacost now. Plus, I'll get a credit too. After you sign up, you can refer your friends too for additional credits.

Robin
--who is supporting her blogging habit with this post :)