Whooo is ready for St. Patrick’s Day Linky Party

I am married to an Irishman who moved across the pond for me. Every March I enjoy making a fuss over St. Patrick’s Day for him.

Clip Art: Sonia DeHart, Giftseasonstore

 

I did Irish themed activities with four grade levels. I’ve blogged before about the Tagxedo word clouds that my fifth grade classes made using traditional Irish songs.



Most of the fourth grade was on an overnight field trip, so a few of the remaining students helped me to make Paper Strip Shamrocks.



I love they way they came! I used straight pins to hang them on the giant board outside my rooms.
My kindergarteners made rainbow puff paint pictures. It was a two day project. They started by painting tempra paint rainbows on cardstock.



Once that was dry, they filled in the shamrock with puff paint. I was inspired by this pin.



If you have not tried puff paint, you should! All you do is mix equal parts of shaving cream and glue. To make it green, you add food coloring. The “goop-ier” the paint, the better the puff when it dries. It is pretty neat!

For my first graders, I found instructions on how to draw a shamrock on this post. My husband always makes a point to include shamrocks and not four leaf clovers in our decorations, so I decided to go with it.

The first day we used white boards to practice drawing the shamrocks. I went step by step and then let them practice until they were comfortable with it.

Next, students drew shamrocks on tagboard and outlined them with black or green crayons.



The next class, we painted. They first covered the entire page with light green paint. Then, they used dark paint to paint inside the shamrocks.



All together they make up an impressive field of first grade shamrocks.

So, there you have it! These are the activities I have done this year with my STEAM classes.

Do you have a favorite St. Patrick’s Day activity to share? Please link up and tell us about it!  If you do link up, please leave a comment with your e-mail address and I will send you a copy of my Sully Shamrock font. The linky will be open until just after St. Patrick’s Day.

An InLinkz Link-up

Thursday Throw Down: Google Forms

I’m joining my blogging friend Erin from I’m Lovin’ Lit for her Thursday Throw Down Linky.



I know I'm cheating just a little. I don't have notebooks in my class, so I can't really enjoy all the interactive notebook goodies, but it is as interactive as I can get in the lab!

I’ve been waiting since October to start a cardboard arcade inspired by Caine’s Arcade. This pile of cardboard has been taunting my students for a month or so.



That big box in the back has a sign on it. It reads, “Not trash. Not a TV. Just a Box.”  They have been begging to get started.

I have 18 classes. I needed to find a way to have each class vote on a photo booth prop and a game. I handed out little slips of paper for the first class, but it took WAY too long.

During my planning period I created the shell of a Google Form. When my fifth graders came, we filled in their ideas for the photo booth and the same.



I sent the finished form to the student computers. Each student completed the form and then rushed back to the carpet to view the results on the SMART board.



I refreshed the results to the sounds of cheers from the winning group. If I had longer than a 50 minute class period I would have used this information for a teachable moment about data. Instead I printed out the information for teachers who wanted it.



I’ve been using Google forms a lot lately. It is so quick and easy to gather and use the data.

Now we are working on our projects. This is a treasure chest in progress. In the background are a robot and a claw machine.



This one is ready for paint and decorations.



Can you tell what it is?



My classroom is over run with cardboard projects and smells like paint, but we are having a blast!

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I hope that you will join me Saturday for my first ever Linky Party. I’m married to an Irishman, so St. Patrick’s Day is a big deal in my house - and my classroom!

Clip Art: Sonia DeHart, Giftseasonstore

I have a few St. Patrick’s Day art projects I plan to share. You can link up any post, new or old, with a St. Patrick’s Day theme. To make sure I don’t end up “Jenny no mates” as my Irishman would say, I’ll e-mail my Sully Shamrock font to anyone who links up.

I’ll leave the link up through St. Patrick’s Day, so be sure to link up your favorite activity! Hope to see you then!

Sunday Funday: Tagxedo Word Clouds Using Irish Songs

I’m linking up today with Molly and Deirdre, two of my favorite bloggers. This linky is going to be perfect for me as someone who frequently can’t make it in time for a Five for Friday.

My classes are working on computer projects right now, but being married to an Irishman, I wanted to include some Irish art in the STEAM lab.

I loved this pin I found on Pinterest. I got it in my head that I should add a design to the background. Almost as soon as it started, I was regretting the decision.



We are adding green puffy paint. I’m hoping the finished product look fun and elementary. I’m afraid they are going to end up looking like a political statement. My how times have changed!

While I’m still unsure about my kindergarten project, I am in love with the project I did with my fifth graders.



I have never done word clouds, but after playing around with Tagxedo, I knew I had to find a way to make it fit. I’m thrilled with how it has come out.

I started with a Google Doc that I shared with my students. The file contained a list of Irish songs my Irish husband put together. We were careful to take out the drinking songs and the overly religious songs. Working in teams of two or three, students signed up for the song that they wanted to use. It was our first time using Google Drive, so they were impressed that you could see the other students signing up in real time.

Once each group picked their song, they searched online for the lyrics. The computer part of the lesson was actually using the keyboard short cuts to cut and paste. It sounds simple, but it was a much needed skill.

After watching this tutorial, the students pasted the lyrics and designed their word cloud. We talked about making sure that the design matched the song.

 “Ireland’s Call”

I’ve had a color laser printer in my classroom since August, but it was not connected to the student computers until Monday. Once I approved the design, we printed it on cardstock. The students wrote the name of the song and signed the design. We also posted a thumbnail to our 5th Grade STEAM Lab Gallery Padlet page.

“MacNamara’s Band”

The part of my position that I’ve had the hardest time adjusting to is timing. I see each class for 50 minutes every three days. Adding to that, a number of students are pulled out for SAI instruction for reading and/or math. The students who get extra support in reading only come to my class when it falls on a Thursday or Friday. The students who get extra support in math only come to my class when it falls on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Those who get help in both never come to me. I see a slightly different group of students each time. Add to that the fact that the computers are not set up yet to allow students to save any work, and it is hard for me to do activities that last more than one class period.

One of the students who gets reading and math support came to me after school and asked to make a word cloud like the ones that they did in class. I guess it just shows that they do pay attention to what I put out in the hall. She is going to make her own Monday after school.

I keep thinking of “should have done that” activities. I would have loved to have done more with the songs. We only got to listen to one or two songs. It would have been great to talk about word choice and so on. I keep telling myself that next year I’ll have a better feel for things and how to fit more into my 50 minutes.

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Have you used Tagxedo? I am thinking of having my fourth graders create a word cloud using a content area they are studying back in class. Any other fun ideas?

Irish Loves and Tried it (Techie) Tuesday: Padlet

What a lovely start to the week! With one month to go, we broke out our St. Patrick’s Day gear. Yes, they are sticking out their tongues. At 2 and 4 that was the only way to get them looking at the camera!



The Irishman and I were both off work. We have no babysitters, so we try to take a date day for the two or three days in the year when day care is open and we are off work.

We spent the first hour or two working on a project for school. After a quick trip to Costco, we’d planned to go see a movie. Instead we decided to crash on the beach with Shamrock Shakes. Bliss!



I had my first Shamrock Shake on my first visit to Ireland. This was back in our “long distance” “You’ve Got Mail” days.



On the topic of Ireland, my husband just booked our flights for Ireland this summer! My in-laws are SO excited that we are coming! We haven’t been in years and never in the summer.

Anyway, back to the Tech Tuesday…

I have my student create a lot in my room. Due to the nature of my class, student might draw, build with Legos, create block structures, or design something online. They always hate to clean up when it is time to go.

I had this vision of creating an online gallery of their creations. At FETC I’d been on the lookout for possible sites to use that would work. Last week I started with Padlet. So far I’m loving it!



I’ve set up one gallery for each grade level. Right now our computers are not set up for students to save photos, but in the near future they will be able to create their own posts that I will moderate and approve.



In looking at the ELA standards for technology, there is an emphasis on publishing and sharing starting in K-1. I love this as a quick easy way to publish electronically.



There is a character limit on the writing, but I'm hoping to use this to get them started for some collaborative work in the STEAM Lab. 

We are also looking at possibly creating a board for the Minecraft club to post screen shots of their creations from the server. (I might be the club sponsor, but I’m still learning…a lot! I’m just hoping that my statement actually makes sense!)

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Be sure to check out the others:

St. Patrick’s Day Flash Freebie!

Telling time has been rough for my kids this year. To help, I came up with  QR code game to help my students practice. My class used it twice, but I never got it posted.



Because I’m Irish by marriage, I have posted this as free in my store for today (St. Patrick’s Day) only. Enjoy!

In other news, I have recently surpassed 100 followers and am thinking of doing a giveaway at the end of the month. I am still working out the details, but that is my plan!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!