A Wee Bit 'o Fun With EpicPals

Our March EpicPals primary and intermediate collections

 are ready and waiting for you. 

This month's primary board again includes a Read To Me Flipgrid selection! Flipgrid, coupled with a Read to Me book, is a great way to give your struggling readers the opportunity to participate in EpicPals independently! Of course, ANYONE can participate on the Flipgrid response and students don't have to use the Read to Me function for the book selection. Personalize the experience for your students how you see fit for their needs!! The Flipgrid videos are fully moderated by me so please give me a 24-48 hour turn around time to approve them. Please also talk to your students about appropriate digital citizenship when creating their videos. Videos that include questionable language, gestures, etc will be not be approved. 

Also new this year is the ability for students to leave likes on other students' posts on the Padlet boards. Encourage your students to read others' posts and if they like their post, have them click on the heart at the bottom of the sticky note. Being reflective and having an authentic reason to like something is a great first step towards leaving meaningful and authentic feedback. 

We encourage you to have conversations with your students on what constitutes a good post and how to be a good digital citizen when working online. You can find several resources to help you with these conversations on this previous blog post. My hope is to add the comment feature to our Padlets later this year as students' reading, writing, and reflective skills improve.

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If you ever have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. You can find both of us on Twitter- @smalchow (primary boards) and @bhopteacher (intermediate boards)

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New to EpicPals and need some additional information? If so, head on over the the #EpicPals page at the top of the blog for additional information.

Tech Bytes~ Feb 26

Is your class taking part in Read Across America Week or celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday? If so, there are several resources this week that you may find helpful in this week's Tech Bytes newsletter. Don't forget about the Read Across America Flipgrid resource that was highlighted last week as well~  https://flipgrid.com/drseussbirthday

Malchow's Tech Bytes~ Feb 26th

One of my long time favorite apps is Padlet. If you follow them on Twitter, you probably already know of all the fantastic new upgrades that have recently been released. If you haven't heard about these new features, you definitely need to take a peek! Lots of great new features that will make this tool even more accessible for our youngest learners and provide a variety of on board tools for all grade levels!

Flippin' for Read Across America 📚

I ❤️❤️ finding and creating opportunities for students to connect and share their learning outside of the 4 walls of their classrooms! This year for Read Across America week I've put together a Flipgrid that has multiple topics to give each of your students a place to share their ideas and learn together. If you're looking for an opportunity to amplify your students' voices and have them share their love of reading and Dr. Seuss books, then please come and take a looksie! 

If you've never used Flipgrid, let me be the first to tell you that it is SUPER easy for students to use and I've used it successfully with both kindergartners and 1st graders! So if you've ever wanted to try Flipgrid here's your chance!  https://flipgrid.com/drseussbirthday. I'd love to have you join in and connect with us and others!

Here's a link to download a copy of this image so you can print and post it in your classroom. 

Read Across America Flipgrid Poster 

Simply have your students open the Flipgrid app and san the QR code shown with the built in QR Reader OR have them enter the Flip Code: drseussbirthday

SNOWpinions

I had a blast over the past couple of weeks helping the first graders with their special SNOWpinion writing pieces. After talking with the first grade teachers, it was decided that we would have students type their pieces on a collaborative Google Slides document in order to get some authentic keyboarding practice while also exposing them to working on a collaborative document. This was the first time these kiddos have experienced working on a collaborative document and with a little careful planning, and a pinch of patience, everything went off without a hitch. Having an index slide definitely made this endeavor super easy.

 Headache Saver:  Make sure that all of your students are on their slide and that the cursor is blinking on the frame they're going to write on. We had a few deleted slides and kiddos working on others' slides in one class as they didn't click on their frame before starting.

After everyone finished their writing, we saved the file as a PDF and then printed off the file so each student could display their writing in the hallway along with a snowman art project they had created.


During our planning time, the teachers also shared that one of their objectives was to have students present their pieces as they wanted to focus on presentation skills such as voice volume, clarity, and speed. After some discussion, we decided that we would have students use DoInk's Green Screen app to share their piece to add an element of authenticity and fun. Students choose the background they wanted and then bundled themselves up to create their SNOWpinion presentations. The end results were adorable and the students did a fantastic job practicing and preparing for their speeches. As students finished, they uploaded their SNOWpinion to Seesaw where they were able to share it with their peers as well as their parents. 

 Green Screen Tip:  Have all of your background images saved to one iPad so you're ready to go. We did all of our videos "live" right in DoInk with the background image already inserted. As you finish each recording save it to the camera roll for ease of uploading it to Seesaw, YouTube, etc later on. 

 Add-on Alert:  After all of the students' were finished, I imported their DoInk movies into iMovie. (This was super easy to do because all of the videos were on one iPad!) I added a title frame from our shared Google slide deck and some background music and then shared the finished movie with the teachers for them to share with their students as well as parents via Seesaw. We also talked about how this video could be used at conference time by having it playing on an iPad on a continuous loop outside of their classrooms for parents to enjoy while they are waiting for their child's conference. Here's what the finished video looked like:

Tech Bytes! Feb 19-23

Hard to believe that February is wrapping up and march is just around the corner which means, Read Across America Week! Believe it or not, March 2nd is NEXT Friday- YIKES! You'll find several ideas this week that you may find helpful as you plan your week!

Malchow's Tech Bytes- Feb 19-23

Here's a Seesaw Activity to also go along with Read Across America week and Dr. Seuss' Birthday

Tech Bytes~ Feb 12-16

This week's Tech Bytes brings you an awesome site for virtual field trips~ Learn Around the World, which if offering a virtual field trip to Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home.  Definitely something to look into!
Another great site that I learned about last week, MashupMath, is also featured. This site has a variety of mathematical critical thinking activities for your students. You'll even find Star Wars themed activities that I'm sure a lot of your students will flip over!

Malchow's Tech Bytes~ February 12-16

💋 XOXO Seesaw Activities!

Have you tried the new Seesaw Activity feature? I can't even begin to tell you how much I ❤️ LOVE❤️ this feature!!  There are SO many positives- like being able to share an activity with an entire class and knowing who has completed the activity with just a quick glance. What an amazing time saver for a busy teacher. 

What I truly love though is the ability that ALL students now have to share their voice and what they know despite fine motor, spelling, or self esteem issues. Being able to use the microphone tool to share their knowledge versus the frustrations of putting a pencil to paper is an incredible feature for our youngest learners. Don't get me wrong, these young scholars still need to be able to share their thoughts through writing, but providing this tool opens a door into their thinking as they work on solidifying their letter/sound knowledge.

So in honor of Valentine's Day, I'm sharing the Seesaw activity ❤️ love....here are a couple of Valentine's Day activities that you can try with your kiddos. 

Candy Heart Graphing

Acrostic LOVE poem

Tech Bytes~ ❤️ Valentine's Day Edition ❤️

Malchow's Tech Bytes ~ Valentine's Day Edition