Happy Father's Day!

Wishing all Grandpas & Dads a very HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Father's Day came quick! Sometimes I wish the end of the school year wasn't so close to Father's Day. I can't seem to find enough time to dedicate to this event with the kiddos as much as I want (like Mother's Day). Maybe I should have gotten an earlier start? Less procrastination? Lol! Still...we were able to put together our Father's Day cards as well as sweet video messages for our WORLD'S BEST GRANDPAS & DADS!

Father's Day Card
Our grandpas and dads are our heroes! Superheroes even...as the kiddos would say! So what better way is there to let them know than to write about how we view and feel about them? Just a little something for our grandpas and dads to cherish forever!

Similar to the Mother's Day cards, we wrote letters and placed them inside a suit card. Each student decorated the suit (construction paper) and added a tie. Check out the cards made by the kiddos...

Father's Day Video Messages
Each student used "Chatterpix for kids" app on the iPad to take a photo and record the message - "I have the world's best dad/grandpa because _____."

I helped by turning those individual messages into a class video. Check out a little sample of the video...

End of the Year

"We have loved, laughed, played, learned, and enriched our lives together this year. We have grown close and became a family! I wish we had more time together, but I'm sure each of you will be moving on to first grade...being successful and ready! I'm grateful and feel privileged to have had the wonderful opportunity to get to know, teach, and learn from you. It's amazing to see your personality and growth unfold day by day..."

Wow! This year sure flew by fast! We just ended Kindergarten last Friday and it was definitely a bittersweet feeling. I had an amazing time with my kiddos this year! I would like to share some end-of-the-year gifts I made (with the help of the kiddos, of course).

Kindergarten Memory Page
This was a fun experience for the kiddos. They started by decorating one memory page each - "We came as strangers. We leave as friends!" After they were done, I shuffled all the memory pages and each of the kiddos got to pick one out that wasn't made by him/her. They then all went around to stamp their thumbs and sign their names on all their friends' memories pages.

I helped by adding their first day, 100th day, and last day of school photos on the back. In addition, I added a class photo and a little goodbye message. Of course, I also laminated each memory page! Teachers all love to laminate! :)

Kindergarten Memories - DVD
Creating an end-of-the-year video sure took some effort and time...
1. Record each student - What will you remember? What/Who will you miss?
2. Choose and add photos (This was super difficult as I loved taking photos of my kiddos. There were way too may to choose from!)
3. Add music (You've Got a Friend in Me, Friends Forever, We Are Family, We're All In This Together)
4. Thank you message to the parents
5. Review, review, and review! I must have listened and watched for mistakes a billion times!

This year, I took it a step further. Not only did I add the end-of-the-year video but I also included all their iPad projects too! miDVD Pro is great to use for combining multiple videos. It's extremely easy to use - just drop videos in and burn!

GOODBYE KINDERGARTEN 2014-2015!!!

After all this...I definitely needed LOTS of coffee the next day!! It was all worth it though. :)

All about Plants Digital Book

I guess I've neglected this little blog for a bit. End of the school year was crazy! It's officially summer vacation!! So...I'm going to try and share some activities we've completed before the school year ended!

I'm SUPER excited to share with you the amazing work my kiddos have produced! They collaborated on an end-of-the-unit digital book project as a final ending to our plants unit. We brainstormed ideas, discussed topics, typed/recorded our work, and published wonderful books for everyone to read!

The project started with the group planning process...

Next, the kiddos worked on their group pages on the iPads. This involved group discussions based on each question given. They had to do some critical thinking together! It's always fun and interesting to see how they share ideas with one another. As you can see from the photos, it was hard for me to get into the groups! They were super engaged!

They then separated and focused on their own topic. Each student drew, labeled, and wrote about the topic he/she chose - needs, parts of plants (plus how each part helps the plant), life cycle, and how to plant.

Book Creator on iPads - When everything is entered and typed into the book, they began the recording process. They took turns recording responses on the group pages as well as reading their own individual page. Creating books like this, I can see such a great progress and improvement in their reading! I think their favorite part of this particular book project was that they got to change the background and text color. They definitely made it their own!! Check out their amazing work...The books are officially published!

I must say, the Book Creator app is awesome! We use this app frequently and the kiddos absolutely LOVE it! They were just talking about how fun it was to create books on the iPads as one of their favorite Kindergarten memories.