Tech Thursday {explore.org}

Technology Thursday is a weekly linky dedicated to all things technology related. Check out our Linky Parties page for details on how to link up! This week I am sharing about one of my favorite free time apps/websites.

This website (explore.org)is completely amazing. It offers LIVE webcams of a variety of different animals. My students love to click into the app to see what animals are around the cams at that time. It is the go-to app during free-choice time. My students are so intrigued because you never know what animal will be just a click away. Here are a few screenshots of some animals that I have seen recently.

There are tons of options for live animal cams. It is super easy to switch between the cams because the site has this little tile grid underneath the live video feed. Just click to head over to a different camera. 

Yep! There are kittens and puppies on the website/app too. They are all animal shelters and rescue centers so it is pretty cool to see the puppies and kittens thriving. They also have some options to see oceans and surfing. You can also view "previously filmed footage" from a variety of places (including out of season places). There are polar bears, grizzly bears, sharks, penguins, jellyfish, stingrays, owls, monkeys, pandas, deer... the list goes on and on!

You might be wondering how I use this in my classroom. Every morning, my students do morning work. When they finish their morning work they can get on a device for free choice time. During this time, my students can choose from a variety of apps (all educational). Free choice is usually between 5-10 minutes so I ask that my students be prepared to share one sentence about something that they learned during that time or something they saw. I pick 3-5 students randomly to share at the end of the time. This holds all of my students accountable during free choice time because you never know who is going to be called on.

Correlation to learning? My students are investigating, they are making predictions, they are activating prior knowledge, they are building empathy and awareness of the world. One week our reading series story was all about life in Antarctica. That week, during free choice time, I had students specifically use this app to check out animals that live in Antarctica. They were able to make connections between what we were reading and what they were seeing on the live feed.

**You never know what students are going to see when they click into a live feed. I had a conversation with my students when I introduced this app about "bathroom discussions". Yep. Animals have to go too, but we don't need to know about it. I haven't had any issues with students giggling or freaking out about the bodily functions.**

I have to share two really cool things that have happened this year that we saw. Way back in November, one of my students clicked into an elephant feed and they saw that the elephant was giving itself a bath! Of course I had to pull it up on the projector so the entire class could see. It was so cool to see how they use their trunks to shoot and spray water all over themselves! But even better than that, we saw a LIVE GIRAFFE BIRTH! YEP!!!! How cool is that? One of my students clicked in a few weeks ago to the safari channel and boom. There it was! Happening live. Right in front of our eyes. Definitely brought that up full screen! Yes, it was ishy and gushy, but so COOL. My students were able to look past the nastiness and look at the precious life that was brought into the world. We even checked in on our new friend later in the day to find him/her walking around by his/her momma. Note: I had a parent e-mail me to say THANK YOU for showing that to their child. They said that is one experience they will never forget and it is definitely special. It was the only thing my student would talk about for 5 days straight! Ha. Poor parents!

I hope that you will check out this website and try it with your students! Link up with your Tech Thursday Tips Below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday!

I am linking up with Doodle Bug's Five for Friday Linky! So much fun!! Check out what we have been up to in the classroom over the last week!

My brother-in-law had surgery on his cleft lip at the end of last week. My husband and I traveled with him and my in-laws to Minneapolis for his surgery. It was a long few days, but he is healing very well now. He is always so much fun to be around and I love him so so so much.

This week we were focusing on sequencing events of a story. An impromptu lesson ended up being my absolute favorite thing we did all week. We used fairytales and sentence strips to practice our sequencing skills. My students had such a fun time and I saw tons of engagement and learning happening! You can read more about the activity here.

Okay... this photo looks disgusting. I totally get that. But, it is actually a really cool science experiment in the works. Basically we made a mush out of cereal that was fortified with iron. Then we put a strong magnet in a small bag and the mush in a larger bag and mixed away. After about 10 minutes of mixing small specks of iron started to appear on the outside of the magnet bag! How cool (and messy all at the same time).

We also investigated iron filings. If magnets is one of your standards, this is a must do activity. Take a piece of white computer paper and dump some iron filings on the top. Then lift up the paper and hold a magnet underneath. Students can move the filings around on the paper. When they put the magnet flat against the paper and gently gave the paper and filings a little shake, the magnetic field would appear with the north and south poles.

The last thing we did was investigate water and magnetism. During one of my science lessons, my students were convinced that water has a major affect on magnetism. This nifty little lab allowed for discovery. I had 4 different tubs set up with water and students got to bring in items from home to test out! They had a blast and it brought up some great conversations.

Make sure you head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to see other Five for Friday Posts!!

If you haven't seen it yet, I posted a quick multiplication practice FREEBIE in my TPT store. Click the photo below to check it out.

Superhero Products: Saving one classroom at a time!

Sometimes, a good TPT product can really save the day! Today, we are linking up with Jivey to share some of our heroic products and the fabulous feedback teachers have left on them.

Cassie at Funky in Fourth has been getting some great feedback on her Solar System Unit.

Juliet, the Tech Crazy Teacher, has gotten fantastic feedback on her Treasure Map Project Based Learning activity.

Kristen gets fabulous feedback from teachers using her Word Work for Big Kids vocabulary activities. 

Check out these and other superhero products in our TPT stores, and save up to 28% during the sitewide sale! Each of us will have our stores on sale Wednesday and Thursday this week, with an additional 10% off sidewide Wednesday using the code HEROES at checkout.

Hop over to Jivey's Superhero Product linky to see some more day-saving products from TPT authors!

Culturing Bacteria in your Classroom

Do your students LOVE science? This activity is the perfect thing to teach students why we wash our hands and clean our desks! Plus, it is actually super easy to do. It does take some prep on your part before you start though. You will need a box of gelatin, water and sugar. The growing process takes about a week or so, but you can speed it up by adding a cube of beef bouillon. You will also need q-tips and small containers with lids (or plastic wrap).

{Please Note: I doubled the following recipe to have enough agar for all of my students to grow their own bacteria. You can have your students complete this in groups or individually.}

Agar Directions:
1. Bring 1/2 cup water to a boil.
2. Mix in 2 teaspoons of gelatin and 2 teaspoons of sugar.
3. Stir until it is well dissolved {add a cube of beef bouillon if you want your results sooner}.
4. Carefully pour a small amount of the agar into your containers. You will want your containers to have a lid. You can use small dixie cups and just cover with plastic wrap if you don't want to buy the little mini cups with lids.
5. Chill the containers overnight.

Lab Directions:
1. Label container with initials and test location.
2. Swab the test location with one end of the q-tip.
3. Open container and carefully swab {with the same end} on the agar.
4. Close container and place in a cool dark space.
5. Let the bacteria culture for 3-5 days.

You can make observations as the bacteria is growing. After about a week, you will see definite results. When we first start the lab, I always make sure that my students understand that not everyone's sample is going to look the same. That is my favorite part! All of the samples will grow different colored bacteria and mold at different speeds. Here are some examples of our containers before culturing.

The day before our lab, I sent out a quick e-mail to all of our staff to let them know what we would be doing. My students went anywhere in the school to take their sample. You can see in their labeled containers above, some of them went to their previous teachers, the lunchroom, the superintendent's office and one even swabbed their mouth. I told my students no one could swab the same place as someone else. Other places my students swabbed: keyboard, younger sibling's desk, nurse's office counter, principal's desk, and a toilet. The whole school was up for "swabs"! Then, we placed the samples in my back closet for 2 days before making our first observations. Only a few of my students saw results. A few days later, all of my students had some results!! Here are some after photos.

 As you can see, they are all different. If you look closely you can see little yellow dots on 3 of the samples. This is bacteria. You can also see three different variations of mold! So Cool!

It is so important for students to realize that mold/bacteria could grow anywhere however it needs the right environment to grow. That is why we put it in a cool, dark space. The agar that you poured in the bottom of the containers acts as the nutrition source for the bacteria.

Lastly, my students typed up their Lab Reports! They had to handwrite their drafts and then type them up on the iPads using the Pages app.

My students loved culturing bacteria. They couldn't wait to tell their parents all about it and bring home their lab reports {no... I didn't let them take home their bacteria}. I also e-mailed the few teachers/staff members where my students took samples from at the end of our project. All of the them let my students come into their classroom to read their lab report to their class! It was a great opportunity for all of my students to step out of their comfort zone and read in front of a group. It was low stress because they used their reports and they were "pros" on their own bacteria!

Just so you know, I created this product {STEM Challenge: Culturing Bacteria} to help guide my students through the lab. You could totally do it without though!! Let me know if you try out the lab with your students! I would love to see your results!

3 Little Pigs Project-Based Learning: Tried it!

I am linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper today for Tried it Tuesday! This happens on the second "Twosday" of each month!

Ever had a good idea that just kind of sparked your imagination?

That's what happened here! My friend and fellow 3rd grade teacher, Lora, and I were planning a simple STEM activity to go with a story in our reading series about a house. Lora suggested we do the 3 Little Pigs- houses blown down and all that jazz.  This "little" idea turned into a humongous project that included Project-Based learning, Problem-Based Learning, STEM, literacy comprehension activities, and persuasive writing! All rolled into one! Covering tons of our standards! Not to mention loads of learning fun!

The Launch: Reading The 3 Little Pigs to the students.  We read a slew of different versions!

The Problem: How do you build a house the Big Bad Wolf cannot blow down?  Engineering Design Process to the rescue!

The Solutions: Wow, our kiddos came up with some inventive houses!  Give kids some tape and paper and you are good to go! Obviously a few more materials were provided...

The test: Turning our hairdryers into the Big Bad Wolf!  Can your house withstand 1 wolf or how about 2 wolves (hairdryer on high)?

Not done yet! Students then had to persuade other "pigs" to buy their house with persuasive ads and posters!

They had to answer questions such as: Why would a pig buy my house over another one?  What would it cost to build my house?  What words and images can I use to entice buyers?  Can you all say rubrics?!

We continued the project by reading different versions of The 3 Little Pigs. We discussed sequencing, main idea and theme, cause and effect, fact and opinion, and characterization to name a few!

Tons of fun- oh, and learning- was had by all...well, maybe all except the Big Bad Wolf!

Check out the products I developed for this project! I divided the activities into a Literacy and Project Based products, and of course, a discounted BUNDLE!

          

Have you done anything exciting in your classrooms lately? We love to hear what you all are doing!