Spring into April- Four Free Poetry Apps

Hello Friends! It's Erin from The Elementary Darling, and my peachy friends and I are sharing our favorite new ideas to get you through the month of April!

Today I am here to share four of my favorite FREE poetry apps!

I teach first grade and I was searching for the perfect app for younger students to learn about poetry. Thankfully, I came across these wonderful apps from http://www.readwritethink.org/. They are available for ipad and android so they are perfect for any device. What I like about them is the fact that they are easy for the students to use and the app organizes the poem for the student!

1. Haiku

This app reminds the students to count the syllables, and provides a space for them to brainstorm words.

2. Acrostic Poems

This app provides the student with an example of  an acrostic poem. It then leads them through a brainstorming session, and gives hint words for the acrostic poem.

3. Theme Poem

The theme poem app provides the students with different shapes. The shapes include sports, school, and other kid friendly shapes. The students choose a shape and describe that shape.

4. Diamante 

This app also describes what a diamante poem is and takes the students through the steps to create a diamante poem. It even labels each line and what the student should include in the poem.

All of these apps allow you to save them to the ipad, which would make them easy to save to your computer and print or email! This way, if you only have one device , the students could use this as a center or with a partner! Another great resource for poetry apps is this post from Erintegration! 

Stay tuned for more ideas this month from the Peach! And if you try any of these fabulous FREE apps, let me know!

For even more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to catch all the latest news and updates!

Helpful Harvest: A Google Extension You Need!

Hey friends! It's Tara from andtheyallfalldown. 

I went to the GaETC conference two weeks ago and I learned about a helpful google extension that I wanted to share with you! The name of this extension is ublock origin. If you are on a device that runs chrome - all you need to do is go to the google web store and search for ublock! There are two that come up, but Chris Craft from Palmetto Learning (the presenter I learned about this extension from) likes origin the best.  

Here are some photos of the extension in action.

I love to use youtube in my classroom, but I rarely do - I can't trust what comes up!

So this has been a life-saver for me to play my phonics snippets and videos that I have found. 

I hope this is helpful to you in your classroom! 

For even more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to catch all the latest news and updates!

Helpful Harvest: Make Worksheets Come Alive

We are 21 days into our Helpful Harvest series here at the Primary Peach and I have learned so much from my fellow Peaches!  What an amazing group of educators!!  I'm Meghan from Keeping Up with Mrs. Harris and today, I decided to integrate a technology tip for you that will make your children scream with excitement!  Seriously, go ahead and know that it will be loud in your classroom during this activity!  

YES!  Let's make those worksheets come ALIVE!  You are going to be just as excited as your students when you see this in person!  Checkout the steps below!

Head on over to Quiver Vision's website.  First, I would love for you to watch the video so you can see for yourself the fun that you and your students are in for.  Then at the top of the site, click "Education".  This will take you to the page with the downloadable worksheets that are available.  There are a ton of science and social studies content related pages and some just for fun.  These are perfect for your writing class.  Let them pick their own page for a fun write, read the passage on the worksheet and get them writing.  I say, save the "come to life" part for the very end and just see their excitement!

Students color their pictures with regular crayons or markers!  They can use any colors that they would like to, the app can change between their colors and the real life colors of the object or animal.

Download the app to your iPad.  Now, this is the sad part...it isn't free.  There is a free version, but it only has a couple of worksheets that work with it.  However, I can tell you that the full version is well worth the $7.99.

I let my son color and scan his picture this week for the first time and he seriously dropped the iPad!  When his bug jumped off the page he screamed and then started laughing.  After that, we had to print off nearly every picture from the site just so he could see what they would do.  AND he is only 4!!!  Another feature of the app that I love is that there is an recording of information for some of the pictures as well.  So kids are learning even after their scan!  

Isn't this amazing?  I couldn't think of a better way to be "helpful" than share this with you just in time for the holiday craziness!  You can use this as a time filler during all those stressful moments between now and Christmas.  :)  Enjoy!

FIVE Fun and Free Resources

Could someone please stop time? July is going by way too fast! With back to school on the brain, I thought Keep It Fresh Friday would be the perfect time to share a few teacher favorites with you!

I'm Lyssa from My Mommy Reads and I teach first grade in Marietta. Check out these free resources! Hopefully one or two will be new to you!

Smilebox for teachers allows you to upload pictures and create slideshows, scrapbooks, newspapers, invites, and more. It is super easy and my parents and students love them! Bonus~you can add your own music or choose from their fun selection of jams! Click here to see a few in action! 

I could never have too many Pioneer Valley Press books in my classroom. Bella and Rosie are one our favorite character duos! The nice folks at PVP offer a really cool feature on their site that allows you to build books with your own student's names. You then print them out and have a personalized book in less than a minute! (I staple and make a duct tape binding, too!) These have been a big hit with both struggling readers and your every day, run of the mill, self loving, first grader! :)

My son and my first graders love ABCya Story Maker. You draw and design with many options including paintbrush, pencil, marker, etc (much like KidPix or Pixie) and then type your words. You can save the file or print it. We've made class books, used this during free time and as a choice during writing. 

I do workshop in my classroom for reading and one of our choices is listen to reading. Just Books Read Aloud is the perfect site for this! Students choose a book or if they are feeling frisky they can select "surprise me." From there, a screen appears with the book and it is read aloud to them. Click. Listen. Repeat. 

Ah, Plickers! I'm not sure if I would call it a gaming site, but maybe. I do know it could be used in any grade level! The teacher enters questions and choices and displays one for the class. Students hold up the special card turned to their answer. The teacher scans their cards with an iphone or ipad from a distance-not walking up to each student. The results appear on the screen. You have the choice to assign a student to a certain card so you can track responses OR you can use it simply for engagement and not assign cards. I can't wait to use this to spice up lessons this year! 

Do you have a favorite to add? Please do so in the comments! Let's continue to learn from each other!