I use You Tube videos in some of my lessons, but I have been bothered by all the distractions on the You Tube page.  I looked around to see if there was a way to watch the videos without all the distractions and buffering and I found it.

Go to   http://quietube.com/
Drag the quietube box up to your bookmarks toolbar. 
Open a you tube video and then click on the quietube button on your toolbar.
The you tube video will open in a new window without buffering or ads. 

You can also click on the full screen button in the bottom right hand corner of the video for a larger picture:)

Todays Laugh

Today was a very busy day.  The kids were chatty and I was repeating my directions over and over again  I told my first graders they were driving me crazy and I was going to end up in the nut house.  One little girl piped up,  "I hope you have a coupon for that.  I heard it's expensive."  I couldn't help but laugh.

Easter Crafts

Put a piece of Styrofoam in the 4 inch pot for filler to about the bottom of the rim. Fill to the top with paper Easter grass. Glue a 3" pompom near the edge of the pot. Glue a 1 inch pink pompom off center towards the edge for the tail. Cut 2 footprint shapes for the feet from white fun foam. Glue a pink oval from fun foam for the pads of the feet. I also use a hole punch to punch 3 circles of pink fun foam for each foot for toes. Glue the Keep Out sign to a toothpick and stick in the styrofoam. I didn't have a photo so I drew a sample.  The real ones a much cuter.

Lunch Count and Attendance

This is a screenshot of the SmartBoard activity I use to take lunch count and attendance for April.  When students arrive they move their train car to indicate what they are having for lunch.  I know who is absent at a glance by noting who has not moved their car.  This is one less thing I have to do in the morning.  It gives me more time to talk to the kids when they arrive and I can get a feel for what kind of day they will have.

Symmetry

This is my first post so I thought I would show you some of the symmetrical designs my first graders did during a unit on Indians. Some of the kids really grasped the idea, some extended it and others, well they need a review.

Memory Matching Game

This is a memory matching game with 20 of the cutest little boy and girl graphics. Younger students can use fewer cards to test their memory and older students can use all 20. Great for a learning center activity. The cards can be stored in a library pocket when not in use. Graphics are by Thistle Girl Designs. They are copyrighted and may not be resold. I am a licensed reseller. Click on each picture and print 2 copies.

Spelling Test Forms

This is one of the forms I use for my students who have trouble with spelling tests. It is what I do to differentiate instruction for spelling tests. I make a form each week that has a space for each letter in the spelling words. If word #1 has five letters the #1 answer has a dash line for each letter. If word #2 has 3 letters then #2 has a dash line for each letter. These students also have a shorter list of words that they are responsible to learn. If the class has 11 words on their test, my Title students may only have 6. This has worked well for me and it satisfies the Title teacher for differentiation. A set of 40 spelling forms can be purchased on my TPT site. These forms have spaces for 20 words. We never have 20 words, but some classes do. We just use the number of lines we need. My graphics are created by ThistleGirl Designs. These graphics are copyrighted and can not be changed or shared by anyone that is not a licensed reseller.

Contact

You can contact me privately at
kestnerg@gmail.com