Tech-infused Valentine's activities You Can Do

I was inspired last Monday to create an activity for a group of kindergarteners for Groundhog's Day. I had just watched a video about a new extension called Mote. (Website - https://www.justmote.me/) I thought it would be perfect to use, if it worked the way that had been explained. It absolutely did what it said - easily inserted audio onto Google Slides.

 I shared the activity via Google Classroom and I got to see first-hand these kiddos doing the activities I had designed. For the most part I was thrilled! But I also saw some things I had not anticipated. I knew I could do better and I wanted to do better! So this week, I sat down and took all of that in and created what I am sharing below.

One of the things I realized very quickly is including audio is a VERY important step, especially if we want to encourage independence. Adding audio in short snippets and locating it in strategic spots is also important. Something else I realized is these kiddos like choice. I try to use a variety of activities that use different skills. I also wanted to make sure there was several activities so the kiddos who can do more have more to do. Keeping each slide simple is also important.

Finally, more than ever, I see how valuable the master slide is for this age group. Being able to put text or visuals on a slide with little ability for students to accidentally delete is critical. I have been intimidated by the master slide for awhile, but I'm embracing it now and loving the benefits!

And ... if you've not yet checked out Mote, don't waste another minute! I cannot tell you how easy it is to use!!! (And it saves directly to your Google Drive - but not in a specific folder, so make sure to organize the recordings right away.)

The slides below are created for kindergartners, but you are welcome to make your own copy and modify it to better fit your students! The links are below.

If you want your own copy, here is a link for a template view: Valentine's Day

Looking for more - or different activities - for Valentine's Day? I've got an entire Valentine's Wakelet collection for them! 

I hope you (& your students) enjoy this or any of the other activities! If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below!

You can also find me on:

Twitter - @kiefersj

Facebook - Sarah Kiefer

email - sarah@TechYouCanDo.com

Gratitude A-Z You Can Do

This week I am taking a pause from Google Classroom because November is quite possibly one of my favorite months! I'll be 100% honest - it IS my birthday month, BUT honest and truly, I love the leaves changing ... I love the fall smell in the air ... I love how some days are warm, but some have a chill ... and most of all, I love Thanksgiving. My mom does an AMAZING Thanksgiving dinner. The entire nine yards. Yum!!!

This year has been a tough year. Yes, all around T O U G H. But here we are. It's mid-November. I can smell the turkey. I can taste my mom's dinner rolls and the pumpkin pie. (I load mine with Cool whip!) Yum yum yum.

While it's been a tough year, I still know I have a lot to be grateful for. I write 6 items I am grateful for each day in my journal. My family is always number one. Our health is number two. Sometimes it's the weather, sometimes it's a co-worker who has been incredibly helpful; it has been that my husband didn't lose his job, my daughter didn't need stitches, we all got to go back to school, and so on.

The activity I'm sharing today is "Gratitude A-Z You Can Do" and has all the slides A-Z in the add a slide area, so it won't overwhelm any student. Instruct students to complete 1 slide each day, or multiple. It's a total of 26 slides. Not sure you can devote that much time to it? Have students spell out their name or "thankful" or another Thanksgiving-related word.

Interested in making your own copy? Click on this link for "Gratitude A-Z You Can Do." Now you can use your own copy to create an Assignment in Google Classroom (or your chosen LMS). I highly recommend using the "Make a copy" for each student.

In case you are looking for more, or even something additional, last year I shared the activity I created for 4th graders in my district. I called it "Thankful Thoughts You Can Do". (Feel free to click the link and explore that activity.) I've also been collecting Thanksgiving-related activities in, you guessed it, a Thanksgiving collection. I hope you and your students enjoy!

Do you know of other good activities? I'd love to add them. You can leave them in the comments below ⤵ or connect with me on the socials - linked above right. 

"Val the Valentine" You Can Do

I did not plan on creating this activity. It is actually not even my idea. But sometimes, hallway conversations have a way of pushing me TO do something I hadn't thought of or planned. 

Many of the templates I create have a pretty cute story behind them. Here is the story of Val. I was walking down the hall last Thursday, and a young student paused and smiled up at me. I smiled back and he stopped, looked at me and asked, "Are you going to come to my class so we can decorate hearts?" 💖

A little background to this question - I've gone into our 1st grade classrooms around Halloween to decorate a pumpkin (thanks to Eric Curts); around Thanksgiving to dress up a turkey (thanks to Beth Kingsley); and Christmas to decorate a tree (thanks again, Eric Curts). 

So really, he already anticipated this activity. We chatted for a bit about how he'd like to decorate hearts and then he proceeded to give me specific dates he'd prefer I come in - he apparently has a vacation coming up and didn't want to miss out 😆.

So thanks to this little one, I designed "Val the Valentine"! It it definitely geared to a younger audience, but older students can add in their own flair if you are ok with that by changing colors, adding in space to write a Valentine note, or search additional Valentine themed images and borders.

Val the Valentine

Here is a link to the template.
If the preview doesn't work, try ↬ Val the Valentine 

Feel free to make your own copy & share out with your kiddos. (I suggest using the "Make a Copy for each Student" in Google Classroom for your littlest ones.) I've also added it to our ever growing collection of templates on "Templates for Teachers". You are welcome to make your own copy of any of them and share/modify to make them your own.

For older students, you might want to check out Valentine's Activities You Can Do, a choice board of activities I shared out last year. There are 6 activities definitely geared toward older students.

Do you know of other Valentine themed activities? I'm working to grow my "Holiday-themed" Wakelet collections and my Valentine's is pretty weak. You can check it out here ↬ https://wke.lt/w/s/eUTHpQ . Would you mind sharing ones you know of? I'd love to grow this collection.

And as always, I'd love to connect! Do you have a question, comment, or idea? Share them with me on Twitter (@kiefersj), via email: sarah@techyoucando.com, or in the comments below.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Celebration You Can Do

I'll keep it short ... it's a holiday after all! 

Maybe this week you are wrapping up your school year -- finish strong! 
Maybe you are enjoying your first week out of school like me -- yea! 
Or maybe you still have some time to go -- you got this! 

I'll be back next week with some summer learning opportunities & ideas.

. . . . In the mean time, enjoy your holiday!

P.S. If you are curious, Memorial Day is an American holiday where we honor all the men and women who have died while serving our country in the military. It's always on the final Monday in May. Interested in a short video (less than 4 minutes)? Check out this one History.com's ↬ https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history .

5 Tech Infused St. Patrick's Day Activities You Can Do

These last few weeks have flown by! We are entering the 4th quarter at school, the sun seems to making more of an appearance, and it's a bit warmer ... finally! Halfway through March means green is everywhere and those tricky leprechauns make their appearance. I've collected/created 5 tech infused activities in the St. Patrick's Day theme.

In the lower right corner of the image, I link to an Encyclopedia Britannica article with a short history of St. Patrick's Day. This article can help on a few of these activities.

St. Patrick's Day Activities

Link to St. Patrick's Day Activities

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTIONS

Breakout! & Word Scramble & Matching Game

Once again, I've used Flippity.net's Scavenger Hunt to make the Breakout! game.

I also used Flippity.net to create a Word Scramble. Theirs is meant to be printed, so I made a Google Sheet to allow students to try to unscramble the words. I also used the Data Validation tool in Sheets to change the cell color to a shade of green! Don't forget to have students look at the second tab -- I've provided space & directions on how they can create their own word scramble! 

I also used Flippity.net to create a Matching Game that matches pictures to St. Patrick's Day words.

St. Patty's Puzzles

I linked to a website containing several St. Patrick's Day puzzles - with varying difficulties - that I think students might enjoy. 

St. Patty's Pixel Art with Google Sheets

The final activity I've included is a pixel art challenge. The more I share creating pixel art with students, the more I see they absolutely love it! It's a wonderful chance for them to express & try out their creativity while also having a very low learning curve. In this activity, I have provided several traditional St. Patrick's Day images students can select from and copy & paste on a tab in the sheet to create their own version, pixelated.

I also find it's a great way to expose students to the power of Google Sheets. Many of the same tools they are used to in Slides, Docs, and Drawings are available in Sheets. 

I hope you and your students enjoy these activities. Next week starts my spring break and I plan to share "7 Chrome Extension You Can Do". I look forward to sharing 7 of my favorite and most useful Chrome extensions!

Have a question or comment? Feel free to connect with me on the "socials" ... or comment below! 

Valentine's Activities You Can Do

My job has many different components - which I thoroughly enjoy - and the top two pieces to my job is when I get to work directly with teachers and when I get to work directly with students. I have been fortunate enough to be working with one group students regularly for 2 years now. 

Most of the time, I've got a targeted lesson to tie into something they are working on in class or something their teacher has asked we work on ... but I surprised them Friday with a Valentine's Day themed selection of activities.

These students know Google Slides. They have been working with Slides since 2nd grade, so that's nothing new. However, I published this slidedeck to the web, so they got to see it in a different light. (At first they didn't even recognize it as Slides.) I used the Jourdain presentation template from Slides Carnival and they "oohed & aahed" over it. Since it's "choice activities", I explained they had 6 different activities to choose from and they were free to switch at any time. Then I stepped back and let them explore.

http://bit.ly/valentinechoices

Non-bit.ly link for Valentine's Choice Activities

Looking for a link to make a copy of the choice board? Here you go: Valentine Choice Activities template

💖 Valentine's themed hangman game using Flippity.net's template

💖 Chrome Music Lab to create music

💖 Make your own Valentine's Magnetic poetry in Google Drawing (thanks, Eric Curts!)

💖 Valentine's Day Breakout using Flippity.net's template

💖 Valentine's word search - 2 levels - in Google Slides

💖 create your own Word Cloud with WordClouds.com

These kinds of activities are fun, holiday themed tech activities and I try to provide a variety of activities to allow students to explore things they may not otherwise get to see. To my surprise, this group focused on 2 activities - the Music Lab and the Breakout! There was some good music happening and a group of students worked together to "breakout". When the classroom teacher saw how many were drawn to the Music Lab, she went across the hall and grabbed the music teacher to join us for a few minutes and I learned who Kandinsky was!