Stylus

So, I was visiting my techy friend and look at her new purchase for their ipad. I couldn't resist and bought one for myself. This will be much nicer than all those finger prints on the screen and will also help printing neater. I'll keep in touch and let you know if it's another one of those worthwhile tools to use.

And then there's the wonderful gift my son gave me for Christmas. I LOVE this. I'm not sure if I'll share with the students at school--well, at least not yet.

Gingerbread Apps

The last week of grade one before Christmas break will focus on all things Gingerbread.  Here are 2 apps I found that we will be exploring.

App Happy!

Wow!  Today a colleague of mine stumbled upon a comprehensive list of apps geared for children with asperger's syndrome.  This list looks fantastic for the primary classroom or for any children with special needs.  I LOVE how the list shows a picture of the app, names the app and gives a brief summary of what to expect.  The list is also organized into many sub lists such as writing, reading, games, art, music, communication and so much more.  I think my Christmas holiday will be spent exploring many of these apps!  Check them out too and feel free to leave me a comment about the ones that you think are excellent!

http://www.asperger-manitoba.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/iPhone-iPad-and-iPod-touch-Apps-for-Special-Education.pdf

Fun with Fingerprints

I stumbled across 4 new apps by fingerprints.  3 of them were books.  We did not log in to access all the parent features, we simply took the guest option, but my own children had fun with the 3 stories.  They were educational and asked comprehension questions as the story went along.

Then this morning I check out the finger print play maker.  After creating an avatar with my fingerprint and recording my voice to it, I was able to play letter recognition and number recognition games.  My voice recordings cheered me on, or let me know when I had made a mistake.  Very cool!

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/fingerprint-play-maker/id478120893?mt=8

These apps are free for a limited time...... check them out!

A teachable moment... just go with it!

Today was one of those throw the lesson plan out the window and just go with the teachable moment kind of days.  As we checked the weather on idress, it told us it was -18C.  Cold yes, but a true northern girl like me knew it just had to be colder.  So we quickly opened up safari and went to Environment Canada.  We discovered it was a whooping -29C with the wind, almost indoor recess weather, but not quite.  So it was time to talk frost bite and making sure we wear all those winter clothes that idress has hanging in our icloset!  As we talked I thought....... we should write about this!  And write we did!  We got out the markers and wrote an interactive story about dressing for the weather.  The kids decided it should be a rebus story so we would see the pictures of the clothes.  Then we decided if it hung in the hallway, all the kids would know why they need to wear the right winter gear!  So here it is......

Notice our app to app pictures posted around it!  The kids just love when it is their turn to do the weather, only 3 left and everyone will have had a turn!  I guess tomorrow we will go back to the short vowel o lesson I had planned on doing today.  I just love those teachable moments!