Giving Back

 
     As we move into the holiday season, I always start reflecting on all the important things in my life. My incredible husband and my three beautiful children are definitely my most wonderful blessings. I can't imagine my life without my sweet loves. Even though we're by no means wealthy, we've never gone without our basic needs. I have a roof over my head, food in my pantry, and clothes on my back. And for those things, I am so grateful.
    So when my church began a project in Tanzania to help the Shalom Orphanage, it really touched my heart. These sweet babies are across the ocean without so many of the things that we take for granted everyday. Many of them have incredible stories of survival. Here are some of their faces:

 

      The little boy on the right is “Goodluck”.  He was found by a Good Samaritan, and his whole body was buried, from the neck down. His parents don’t even know his birth date. When he was brought to Shalom Orphanage he was approximately 5 months old. After many prayers and close attention, Goodluck is doing fine, by the grace of GOD. He is now 3 years old.

     
       To read more stories from the Shalom Orphanage Center, visit:       http://www.goldsboroworshipcenter.com/Their-Stories.html 

   I've been pondering how I can give back to this project for some time. This month I'll be donating a portion of all my TpT sales to The Tanzania Project which will provide a stable income to support these, and many other, precious children. If you'd like to give back please visit my Teacher Pay Teachers store for some budget-friendly resources or visit the link below to donate directly to this incredible project.

http://www.goldsboroworshipcenter.com/Tanzania-Project.html

Thank You!

Soaring Through the Solar System

    

       

       My students soared to the stars during our solar system unit. Many of the science concepts are abstract and therefore tough for third graders to wrap their minds around. To help my kids out, we watched The Magic School bus take an adventure through our solar system on Discover Education (streaming videos). We also explored deep space on our ipads with several apps (FYI: We scored all these apps absolutely FREE through the "Apps Gone Free" app).

 These are some of our favorites:

Britannica Kids: Solar System is the prefect app for exploring the secrets of the Solar System in a fun and engaging way. Learn and play at the same time through a variety of games like Memory Match, Jigsaw Puzzles, and the Magic Square among others. Explore the solar system through a wealth of amazing images (which you can e-mail to friends!) videos and informative articles. And as it’s from Encyclopedia Britannica, you can be sure it’s appropriate and safe for the whole family.

(review from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eb.kids.solar_system.en_US.google&hl=en)

Interactive Minds: The Solar System
This app is one of my absolute favorites for exploring solar system concepts! The kids can visit all different aspects of our solar system (and beyond) with real satellite images and deep space video snippets. The visuals are stunning! Check out the video below for a visual tour of some of the app features.

                  


            


KIDS DISCOVER: Galaxies
Kids Discover is always creating new apps on a variety of topics. Keep a sharp eye out for these little goldmines in the Apple Store! They usually have 1-3 free apps available at any given time. Once they cycle off sale, they'll cost you. I love to use these apps as research tools. We can easily generate written responses or research writing on a variety of solar system related topics.
This is just one of the great apps I have from Kids Discover (there is also a super "Sun" app available).


     

                                                                          

Each Kids Discover app will open with a dashboard like this one. Students can click directly on the subtopic they wish to see, or they can scroll through all the contents one screen at a time.

                                

                 

       NASA has a large number of apps, but my top pick is the Space Place app for kids.

http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/menu/space/

      The "Planets" app is a great tool for teaching constellations and how the patterns in the night sky move. In the past, I've tried to use small planetariums (you can find these at Walmart, Hobby Lobby, etc.). However, it's next to impossible to darken my classroom enough for the stars to be very visible.  This was a little easier option for me, and the kids think it's cooler since it's on an ipad. ;D I usually project the app onto my Promethean Board via a VGA adapter cable or by mirroring the image with my Apple TV.

                         

                                 

If you're interested in using this app, check out this video tutorial created by the app creator:

                                     

There are fantastic new apps coming out ALL the time so feel free to comment below if you have any recommendations!

  We're also orbiting around solar system concepts in the great outdoors (okay, it's our school parking lot). Once we got our inflatable solar system set blown up, we took them outside and explored orbiting. We started in the center of our solar system with the sun. Then we traveled to the edge of our place in space by naming each planet.  As we traveled farther from the sun, my students used sidewalk chalk to draw each planet's orbit around the sun.
 

After we practiced orbiting, we talked about how the planets also rotate on an axis as they travel in their orbit. My students traded places and the new group demonstrated their rotating skills. 

It's not as easy as it looks to rotate while orbiting!

Pumpkin Planets are a fun project idea if you want an extra extension to get your kids interested in solar system research. I saw a huge number of pumpkins that had been decorated as book characters for Book Character Day. It inspired me to use these seasonal squash to tie in some science concepts. Students can research a planet of their choice and then use a pumpkin to create a 3D model of the planet. 

Next year, I'll recommend using varying sized pumpkins for larger/smaller planets so the models have a little better scale to size.

       If you're interested in more engaging solar system activities for your classroom, 

check out my science products at TpT.

 Thanks for stopping by!

Solar System Flipbook

Pondering Planets

Tech Tools: TED, Tellagami, Gooru, Bitly, & PhotoFunia

Create Lessons Worth Sharing around YouTube videos

Check out this tutorial on how to flip your classroom with TED:

http://www.ted.com/

Tellagami

What is Tellagami?
Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated message called a Gami.









Ready to give it a try? Check out this short tutorial to get you started on this new tool!

Classroom Applications: Let students create gamis to share what they've learned and/or present information to their peers.

*I'm planning to try this out when we study historical events and to bring student biographies to life online!

Imagine a teaching tool that streamlines your class preparation process. With Gooru, a free search engine for learning, you can quickly find topic-relevant, standards-aligned resources and organize them into teachable and sharable “collections” — all in one place. 

http://www.goorulearning.org/#discover

bit.ly allows users to shorten, share, and track links (URLs). 

Reducing the URL length makes sharing easier 

(especially for younger students who have trouble typing in long address links)

Read more: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/bitly#ixzz2k6axI8UK
Follow us: @crunchbase on Twitter | crunchbase on Facebook

Get Started!

Classroom Tip: Use Bitly for student research links
 (I like to post mine on my class Edmodo page and my school website page for parents and students to access as needed)

PhotoFunia is the best way to add a spark to your photos, make them special and more original. In only a few seconds an amazing photo collage is ready, absolutely free. PhotoFunia is so straight forward to use, that anyone, at any age, can use it with ease.

How did you use these techie tools? 

Leave a comment below to share your awesome ideas!