March Madness

March Book Madness is an “online bracket style tournament” where books are paired against each other and the winner is determined each week by student votes. The “games” begin on March 4^th and students have 6 days to vote for their favorite book. Each week a new winner is announced and a new game begins. The first day of April the “Championship Game” participants will be announced and a winner will be determined on Tuesday, April 6^th.

Cooley Springs Fingerville students in grades K-2 will follow the brackets for Picture Books and students in grades 3-5 will follow the Middle Grade Novel Bracket. Each bracket features 16 books from 2014 and 16 books from Pre-2014. Our school joins other schools across the globe as we focus on the joy of reading, and “empowering and engaging students as readers.” I look forward to discussing these books with our students each week and helping them discover new books they can be passionate about.

Read more about March Madness and the brackets at: http://marchbookmadness.weebly.com/

ChatterPix

Over the weekend I went to the South Carolina International Reading Association annual conference in Myrtle Beach. I always love hearing fantastic speakers, meeting authors, and learning from other amazing teachers. I learned so much from listening to some of my former coworkers share the amazing things they are doing in their rooms. Katie Kruger, Evangeline English, and Marissa Lane of Boiling Springs Elementary shared the many ways they integrate technology in their classrooms. 

One of my favorite apps they introduced was Chatterpix. 

ChatterPix Kids & ChatterPix

ChatterPix Kids and ChatterPix from Duck Duck Moose are simple apps for students to use. Both allow students to take a new picture or use a picture they have saved to the camera. Students can easily draw a mouth on any image by simply drawing the outline of a mouth on the picture. Tap one button to record audio, and the mouth then animates with the recording. It can record up to a 30 second audio clip.


It is always great to learn new things, see how teachers use technology in their rooms, and share some time with friends. I look forward to helping our teachers use this app in their rooms.

Scholastic News and Time for Kids

Teachers,
I am excited about our new resources we have in the Core! In January we started receiving our monthly subscriptions to "Time for Kids" and "Scholastic News" for each grade level.  Both of these magazines offer grade specific content for students to read, learn, and enjoy. Each issue includes lesson focus for the teacher and printables for your students. These would be great for students to use as morning work, in stations, or working with small groups.






Issues can also be accessed online so you can show the same issue to students from your promethean board. The Whiteboard editions include links to photos and videos. I promise your students will love it! I used both magazines when I was in the classroom and know you will also love using them. Please email me for log in information.

View my flyer from Smore below

The Fourteenth Goldfish