You Oughta Know About Skoolbo

Ahoy, there blogging friends! It is that time of the year again for me to link up with Jasmine McClain from Buzzing with Mrs. McClain for another monthly "You Oughta Know About..."

And this month, I really wanted share with all of you a free online CCSS educational game called Skoolbo that is fun, engaging, and educational for students. 

Skoolbo was created by educators and game developers with the purpose of creating accessible learning solutions for kids. It focuses on ELA and Math Common Core State Standards and the games are broken down by each standard and skill. 

Students get to create their own character and by playing the "games" they earn points to buy their characters new accessories and vehicles the character uses for each game. 

I was contacted a few months ago by Skoolbo to pilot the program in my classroom to see how my students and I liked the software. 

As a teacher, I like how I am able to assign each student the skill and standard I would like them to focus on; making it differentiated for each students' levels and needs. Most importantly, I am able to track their progress and share the reports with their parents.

Best of all? It is FREE for teachers, students, and parents. Parents are able to download the game to their desktop or laptops at home and students are able to continue practicing their skills outside of the school setting. I love this part because as teachers, there is only so much time my students are allowed to go on their one on one laptops and use this. Allowing it to be accessible at home, increases my students' options for extra practice of skills in a fun and engaging way in multiple settings.

But, you don't have to take my word for it. Here is a demo video of what students get to see when they play one of the educational games:

An InLinkz Link-up

You Oughta Know About . . .Vocabulary Go Fish!

Ahoy, there fellow bloggers! I am SO super excited to be linking up with Jasmine McClain from Buzzing with Mrs. McClain for her "You Oughta Know . . ." blog hop. It is my first and ever blog hop. Woo-Hoo!!! I feel so honored to be a part of this blog hop and community of teachers!

This past year has been a huge blessing for me in the teaching world. I was able to get a teaching position in an awesome school district closer to my home while still teaching my favorite grade, third grade! Oh, I should also mention that I have some cool TOAs (Teacher On Special Assignments) in my school who bring back a wealth of strategies and knowledge to share with each school site's teachers. The Reading TOA in my school, Wendy, is just truly UH-MAZING! I tell her I need something or want to try something and she is on it! No questions asked. 

Well, this past week, I told her I wanted some new vocabulary games I wanted to incorporate during Team Tasks with my kiddos. I usually use vocabulary match, vocabulary bingo, vocabulary Headbandz (which I blogged about back in September), and vocabulary charades. But . . . you know, after 10 different selections stories, the games start to seem the same. Even though my kiddos are perfectly content with the ones I already introduced, I will tell you that I was NOT! I, myself, was getting super bored and just wanted something new that I did not know about or have heard of before.  Well . . . ask and it shall be delivered! She introduced me to "Vocabulary Go Fish" and printed all of my current theme's vocabulary in color & in card stock. 

NOW, we all know the original game. BUT, in case you don't, I got you covered!

Step 1: Each person gets 5 cards, you call on someone to see if they have a card that matches yours. If they do . . . wonderful . . . you get to put down both cards. If you don't however, the person you picked says "Go Fish" and you take a card from the middle pile. The person with zero cards left wins the game. 

(Below is a picture of my kids distributing 5 cards to each person on their team and placing the remaining extra cards on the middle of the table)

Step 2: You call on a classmate in your team. You ask them for either the definition to a vocabulary word you have OR you ask if they have the vocabulary word to the definition that you have. 

The SMART part that Wendy, my wonderful Reading TOA thought of: "How do kids know if they matched their cards correctly?"

Step 3: YOUR role: facilitate and make sure that students are playing fair, following directions, and actually using the definition and vocabulary words VERSUS just looking at the emoticons/emojis.

 Step 4: I usually walk around with a clipboard to make anecdotal notes of my students. In this scenario, I use it for teamwork, knowing their vocabulary words and their definitions, and participation.

 Step 5: If a student happens to have a word and the definition in their own deck of cards, you have them share it with their tables and ask them to read and define the vocabulary word. The table checks the matching emoticons and the kid is good to go! (This came up when we played).

Why do I spend so much time on vocabulary? I think that I grew up being told that the more words I recognized and knew, the more I would expand my reading skills and speaking language. As an ELL student myself, I found this to be true. I may not have remembered every single vocabulary word that my teachers and parents have taught me, but it came in handy during my SATs and during college courses when I remembered seeing and hearing them. It eventually went from being in my short term memory to my long term memory. Now, with the invention of text messages and a world full of hashtags; more so than ever, I feel like my students need to be exposed to their vocabulary words more than just for their selection tests. 

AND, please please please don't forget to hop on over to fellow teacher bloggers for some  more "You Oughta Know . . . "

An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday . . . Why Are a Bunch of My Kiddos Out with the Flu?

Just call me sickle cell Kristin because that is exactly what my sorority sisters wanted to nickname me before my pledge sisters thought it would be more appropriate to call me "Ross" from Friends. I seriously JUST got over my fever this past weekend and now I am sick again with the flu. My body aches and my throat is hoarse. I had 6 kiddos gone the last 3 days from my classroom. A few more were called today to go home early. I am currently writing this blog in a drowsy Nyquil state of mind. But don't mind me, because it's been a few Fridays since I linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party.

**Be forewarned that you have been advised. Any typos are a product of my Nyquil induced state of mind.**

Adam Glendon Sidwell, the author of Fetch & EverTaster came to my school for a book signing and an assembly on "The Art of a Story". It was such a fun and interactive assembly! Sidwell uses elements of telling a story that all writers must have in order to publish a good book. He uses academic language such as "rising action", "climax", "moral or theme", and he talked about how his books weren't written in just one day. He had actually spent 8 months writing EverTaster and revising and editing until he was proud and content with the end product.

He also does graphic animations for movies like Tron, Toy Story 3, King Kong, Thor, and many other ones I can't think of. Visit his website to learn about his assembly and his work. Below is a quick snippet of his book that was turned into a movie:

The assembly tied in perfectly with how my students JUST finished sharing their Published personal narrative pieces just last week. They took turns coming up to the document camera and sharing their stories. As a class, we all got to give each other constructive feedback according to the rubric that was presented to them before they started writing.

This past month I joined Jameson at Lessons with Coffee for my first ever Slant Box. I have been exchanging e-mails with the ladies that have been paired up with me. One of them I make a Slant Box for and the other makes one for me. I just feel so happy getting to know new fellow bloggers. I am lucky to have been paired up with really talented and hard working ladies. (Obviously I am no dum dum and won't be posting a pic of the contents in my box in case the person I am sending it to reads this)! 

I was recently contacted by Jasmine McClain from Buzzing with Mrs. McClain to join her blog hop. First of all, I was SO honored that I just couldn't turn it down. It'll be my first ever blog hop so please keep a look out for some "You Oughta Know..." posts & my specific topic from myself and other wonderful teacher bloggers out there.

Last, but certainly not least . . . it is World Series time and even though my team is behind by 2, I have complete faith that the SF Giants can pull it off! Tomorrow is another day. #OrangeOctober