Free Apps and Websites for Your Classroom

Today I'm here to share some free websites/apps with you that I used in my class last year.

Behavioral

Class Dojo - Well, technically, I didn't used it this year, but my daughter's teacher did. She had enabled it to send weekly reports to us so we could see how she did during the week. As a teacher, I was not aware that this could be done, so maybe you didn't know that either! Look at my perfect angel ;)

Go Noodle - I love the stretching exercises for the morning. All of my students were bus students, so some of them were a little wound up by the time they got to school. They rolled their eyes at Maximo, but I know that deep down they loved him ;)

ELA

Spelling City - I've used SC for a while now, and I've always upgraded to the premium account so that I could give my students more game options and track their progress. One day I was messing around, and I noticed that THE LISTS FOR WONDERS ARE ALREADY ON SPELLING CITY! How did I miss that?! I published the on-level, had the kids take a practice test then tell me which level they want to do that week. Then with a few clicks, I took them off of the on-level one (if needed) and assigned them to the approaching or beyond. What a time saver!!!

Computer Skills

Typing Web - This was recommended to me by my team, and I started using it with my class. It was really easy to set up, and I liked that I can see in real-time what everyone is doing on one screen. Here is one of the reports that you can get (I cut off the student names).

I obviously had some kids that were keyboarding at home!

Code.org - I absolutely love this site, and so do the students! I worked with a group of great kids on Course 2 of the K-5 courses. It was just the right mix of challenging and motivating. My room was completely silent for a solid half-hour. Once in a while I heard "This is hard", but absolutely no one gave up. They saw it as a challenge to solve. There are some off-computer lessons where we talk about algorithms, programs, looping, and debugging. The site can be a little tricky for teachers to navigate just because there are SO many options, but this might be the most engaging thing that I've done with technology all year.

Here was my group's progress:

Math

Front Row - This is a nice alternative if you don't have an IXL account. It's even a nice option if you do! This assigns my kids randomly to a "team", so when they solve problems, they earn points for their team. Like IXL, it lets the kids progress at their own rate. You can also have them practice specific math strands. I couldn't get a decent screen shot without having to block out a bunch of names, but there are also some really nice grouping features and reports.

XtraMath - It's for mastering basic facts. Set up was pretty easy. You can print a certificate of accomplishment whenever a student masters an operation, so that's pretty motivating. I also gave them a brag tag for mastery.

Cross-Curricular

Kahoot - You know those bar trivia games where you look at the screen and try to be the first to correctly answer a question? That's Kahoot! All you need is a device to project the game and devices in the students' hands to answer the questions. I use my laptop, and they students use either our Chromebooks or iPads. When I've created a quiz, I launch the game and project it. Students go to kahoot.it and enter the special code for that game. Then they choose a team name (and you can easily delete any that are a little questionable ;) ), you start the game, and then the fun begins! After a few uses, then I have had the kids write their own Kahoots and share them with me so I can project them. Some are better than others, but they are so proud of their quizzes.

If you have discovered any wonderful websites, please feel free to mention them in the comments!

End of Year Tip

Although I think that many of you are already done for the year, I still have a few more days. I'm going to share one of my ideas that will help you get your classroom organized as the end of the year draws near.

Often I have ideas on how I want to do things the next year. Either something was awesome and I don't want to forget, or I have ideas on tweaking what I've done. Since I'm a visual person, I like to take pictures to remind me. So I had plans to change this board:

At the time I took this picture, I knew that I needed to have more No Name and Absent clothespins since I was going to be teaching half of the fifth grade students (this was before I got my new job and changed districts). I wanted to move the Missing Work to the other board in my room, and I wanted to remove the NLWC because I ended up doing that on a bulletin board.

So I took a picture, put it in Word or PPT and noted the changes I wanted to make, and saved it on my computer in a folder labeled Next Year. Or, I could have also created a pin of the picture and noted the changes in the description and pinned it to a secret board in Pinterest. Gotta use those secret boards for something ;)

Hope you're having a great end of the year!

Mustache Testing Poster

I don't know about you, but when we finish spring break this week, my district goes right into testing mode. We have our state tests mid-April, so the next three weeks will be review, review, review!

Whenever your tests might be, here is a {freebie poster} that you can display on your door.

Snow - Love It or Hate It?

I usually love snow, especially early in the season. Now I'm just over it. I made these when I was first messing around with papers and such. If you need a new banner for your classroom, print out on cardstock, cut, and laminate. I clip mine to a clothesline, but you could punch holes in the top corners and string them up or tie them together.

Snow Globe Creative Writing and Craft

This snow globe writing and craft activity was a from a combination of sources. The gist is a five-paragraph creative writing activity about how they got in the snow globe and their attempts to get out. We got a few ideas from watching the {Knick Knack Pixar short}. The kids were pretty creative! They chose a scene to recreate a snow globe, which included a picture of them, fake snow, and a clear plastic plate. This wasn't as messy as glitter (which is forbidden in my room), but I underestimated the static electricity-ness. (I did the snow and gluing part. Since the plate had ridges, I had to make sure that snow wasn't going to leak out.)

If you want to pick up this activity, I put it as a freebie {here}.

Order of Operations Freebie

I know that the Olympics were last year, but here is a freebie with winter theme that will get your students practicing order of operations. This freebie is differentiated into three levels - bronze, silver, and gold. Bronze is the easiest and gold is the most difficult. I hope that you find it useful! Click on the image below to download your copy.

Throwback Thursday - Highlights of My Break

I've shared this before on this blog, but now we have a lot more followers so it's worth sharing again. This is something very easy to prep this week before you take off for break. Think of how nice it will be to have something ready for those first few crazy minutes back!

I'm sharing a freebie that I use right away when we come back to school from break. It allows students to quietly share as they fill out the organizer and then "get it out of their system" so we can return to our regular lessons. Students draw or write about something fun, something new, something surprising, something special, something crazy, and something else. I give them about five to ten minutes to do this or longer if needed. Then I draw a stick and have the student share one thing from their paper. Click on the picture to go to my TpT store for the download.

Turkey Talk ELA Center Freebie

Today I have a freebie for you from my Thanksgiving ELA centers. In this center, students identify the point of view and practice their editing skills. I have also included a blackline version for those of you who can't print in full color. Click on any of the pictures or {here} to download. Enjoy!

Early Explorers

Studying early explorers anytime soon? Grab this fun QR code review activity to get your students up and moving!

Sentence Type Freebie

This product was recently in the TpT newsletter, but in case you missed it, I'm sharing here. This is an activity that can be used as a review in a center. Students arrange six words to make the given sentence type. Here is a peek:

Click on any picture or {here} to take you to the download!

Constitution Day

Constitution Day is quickly approaching! This is one holiday that sneaks up on me every year, and then I frantically look for something that I can use in isolation while I'm right in the middle of my Native American social studies unit.

This year, I'm going to address Constitution Day in reading instead of social studies. I wrote some close reading passages about the Constitution with second read, third read, and writing response activities. They are at {TpT} if you would like to do the activities with your class. I also included a basic how-to on close reading if you've never tried it with your class before.

I hope that it will come in handy for your last-minute Constitution Day planning!!

Close Reading

Close reading is kind of the new buzz word in education. Our AEA gave us some training in it this past spring, and it just makes so much sense - to me and the students. We were able to close read sections of our basal text and make a lot of connections and observations that we would have normally missed. It's very worthwhile.

I ended up making copies of a few pages of the basal that we would be close reading. That way they could write on the story itself and make those connections. Anytime I tell my students they can use a highlighter, I have immediate buy-in ;)

That experience inspired me to make some differentiated nonfiction texts to use with my students. I also created some pieces to use in our interactive notebooks. I decided to go with a monthly theme, but I avoided all of the obvious holidays. For example, my August close read texts are about s'mores, swimming safety, Hawaii (they joined the Union in August), and state fairs. If you are interested in taking a closer look at close reading in general, you can get several freebies in my TpT store. There are also full topics in the previews of some of my paid products. Just click on the picture below to get there!

Classroom Management - NOISE

I am so glad that we are getting this collaborative blog up and going again! Today I'm going to share with you a strategy that worked for my class when they were getting too loud.

If the picture is too small to read:

Every class starts out with NOISE (I trade classes throughout the day). As the talking gets to be too much, I start taking down letters, starting with the E. If they get to NO, they don't earn a sticker towards a class game day (or whatever you want the reward to be). If they lose the O, they owe me one minute after school (or recess, or whatever the consequence is). If they lose the N, then it's 5 minutes (or whatever you decide). It's available as a free download {here}.

Lunch Notes

A little something I whipped up today! Click on the picture to pick it up in my store!

My Visual Dictionary

I just created a freebie for you to download that can be used for vocabulary in any subject area. Enjoy!

Highlights of My Spring Break Freebie

Just a quick post to hop in on some freebie sharing! I created a fun activity to use after winter break, so I swapped out some clipart so that you can use it for spring break! Click on the image to get it!

Be Mine Pennant Banner

Here's the link.

Diane
Fifth in the Middle

Coloring Pages

 

OK, this is not one of my freebies, but this blog has the best coloring pages for older kids/adults. Abstract Doodles did a bunch of great winter ones, and now they just put up a set of free Valentine's doodles to color. Go {here} to get them! FYI - the correct download button is the blue one under the image.