Sight Word Practice

I've been asked by a number of people if there was a website that students could use to help them review their sight words. And the answer is a resounding 'YES'! A Canadian educator, Kathy Cassidy has put together an incredible page of sight words. There are four sets with 5 sub-sets. The best part is the ability to move the mouse over the word and have the word read to you by a child. How cool is that? Check it out at Mrs. Cassidy's Sight Word Sets

When you click on a link, you will have a slideshow appear that will allow you to listen to the word by hovering the mouse over it. The first set contains the 100 most common words found in children's books. The second set uses the Dolch words, minus the 100 most common words found in the first set. There are a total of 590 words in the four sets of words.

Teachers and Parents: Click here to get a list of the words in each set and sub-set.

Want to Meet me Halfway?

Just spent the better part of the last hour presenting and sharing with Discovery Educators from around the U.S. Someone shared the following website that allows you to type in your address and the address of the person that you plan on meeting halfway. You then can choose from a variety of places to meet, such as 'coffee' or 'pizza'. The result is a place halfway between the two of you, it shows the location on a map and gives a whole list of either coffee shops or pizzarias, etc. where you can meet.

And their web address is to-the-point: www.a.placebetween.us

Kids Say the Most Amazing Things!

I have to admit, I am learning SOOOOOOOOOOOO much from my Kindergarten students. The first, and not surprisingly, is that they take your questions literally. Case in point: I was going over the four main parts of the computer. To introduce the mouse I showed my class a stuffed toy mouse and asked, 'Is this a computer mouse? Raise your hand to tell me either Yes, No and Why'. One little boy raised his hand and when I called on him he answered, 'Why'. Hey...in his mind I had given him three choices. These are the moments that make me stop, laugh like crazy inside, and basically add a little more sunshine to my day.

If you check the my webpage, scroll down to the link for 'SmartBoard Projects'. There you'll see the examples of the students in Mrs. Rosselli's class writing their names. I can't wait to re-do this activity with them at the end of the year so they can see how much they 'grew'!

'Stay Tuned and Stay Connected!'

An Article Worth Reading

Connect with Kids has posted an article on their website entitled, 'Computer Vision Syndrome Affecting Kids'. Definitely an article worth reading.

First Pep Rally of the 2007-2008

Last Wednesday, the Elementary school celebrated its first Pep Rally of the school year on the football field. It was a beautiful sunny day, our K-4 students were a wonderful audience, while some of our more courageous teachers took part in some of the races. Check out the photo below:



(revised posting on 9-19-07)

Look What the Kindergarten Students Will be Working On

One of the skills that I need to make sure that my Kindergarten students know is 'mouse control'. They need to be able to 'click', 'double click', and 'click and drag'. Now how to make this relatively simple task something that will be fun for all? Easy! I took pictures of all the Kindergarten teachers, uploaded them to my Jigzone.com account, and 'VOILA'! a lesson Mouse Control ('pest control'???LOL).

Here's a sample of one of the jigsaw puzzles using Mrs. Rosenstock: (OMG! I just 'looked' at it on the blog and it's even BETTER than I could have possibly imagined!). We'll be doing the 'Mouse Control' lesson the week of September 24th. At that time, I'll probably upload ALL the Kindergarten teachers to this blog so that my students can practice mouse control even outside of school.

To get this going, simply click on the image and a pop-up window with the puzzle pieces will appear. What was your best time at putting Mrs. Rosenstock back together again?

Here's the NEW Me!

It's Saturday and it's raining so I'm doing what I LOVE to do -- checking out all the cool websites on the internet. I ran across one that lets you make your own avatar (basically a computer generated image of a human, supposedly yourself).

I thought the selections were a little limited -- I couldn't find a hairstyle that suited me, nor did they have the option of selecting the color purple (my favorite) from the color pick choices, but other than that a quick and easy way to create an avatar. You're given a few options for code for posting to your webpage, blog, or social networking space -- one allows for full body avatar, the other for just a headshot, and the final for a small cropped headshot. Here's my full body shot:


Check it out at: www.doppelme.com

So...do you think this looks like Mrs. Sharoff? What changes would you make to the avatar?

First Day...and a GREAT Day at That!

It's 8:30 and if I weren't so excited about putting together the two slideshows below I would be snuggled under my covers! I don't know about the kids (or the parents! LOL), but I'm EXHAUSTED!!! I think between the fact that I could not fall asleep last night, that I woke up waaaaaaaaaaaaay before my alarm went off, that I was the 2nd person in the building, that I think I must have been just as excited and nervous as the kids, if not more so, and the fact that I think I was on 'Full Speed Ahead' the entire day, well I'm just pooped! BUT.....I got some great shots of opening day for our 1st - 4th graders, as well as some great shots of some of the teachers that I just HAD to spend time downloading pictures and putting together this slideshow.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. BTW, on the first slideshow, check out the PreK parents sitting at the desks and filling out forms!

***SLIDESHOW REMOVED

Here's another slideshow I put together of some of the teachers on opening day.

***SLIDESHOW REMOVED

OK....now I'm off to a well deserved sleep....wait...maybe just a LITTLE more surfing on the web to see what's new and what I can bring into our school.

'Stay Tuned and Stay Connected!'

(revised posting 9-19-07)

We're Baaaaaaaaaack!!!

Well, at least the teachers were today! And tomorrow our students will be arriving. It's all very exciting, I've got butterflies in my stomach (yes, even teachers get 'butterflies', although in my case it might be 'dragonflies'! LOL), and I'm not sure that I will be able to fall asleep, but you can be sure that I'll be up waaaaaaayyyyyy before the alarm clock goes off. Although my pile of 'things to do' keeps growing on the desk next to me, I'm surfing the internet to add websites to my 'technology treasure chest'. I'll be sharing many of these websites with you on this blog so 'Stay Tuned and Stay Connected!'.

In the meantime.....

Myspace Graphics at WishAFriend.com

(revised posting 9-17-09)