This will be my last Five on Friday for the year.  Beginning next week we start SOL testing and I will be babysitting computers.  Even though our bandwidth has increased, I will abstain from hunting down and checking out sites.  

1.  Have you completed your internet safety requirement for the year?  If not, it isn't too late yet.  Don't forget that the ITRTs have composed a portal that is full of ideas and lesson plans.  Feel free to access it here.

2.  Are you looking for resources to share with parents to help students maintain their reading over the summer?  Check out this game for primary students called Teach Your Monster to Read.  In this gameification learning task students create a monster and then teach their monster to read as the two of them travel through a magical world.  It fun and totally free!

3.  Another idea that would help students over the summer is to make a STEAM box for each one of them.  Best of all, it will help you clean up as well.  Have your students empty their pencil boxes out.  (I remember how those boxes were full of pieces of crayons, small bits of paper, and pencils too tiny to see, let alone use.)  Inside each pencil box you can put things in such as left over pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks, construction paper, paper clips, yarn, etc. Be sure that they have a glue stick! Tell your students to use the materials to make something over the summer.   Tuck an note inside promising to reward the students if they bring their creation back to school the next year to show you.  make sure you have a sticker or other small treat to give them when they do.  Great way to clean up your room while giving your students something to do other than video games.  Plus, it may mean that you get a sweet hug at the beginning of the year from your special little grown up people. Actually, this would work for any age student!

4.  Sketch toy is a fun website!.  On this page you have the students create a drawing but when they press the save button it gives them a link...if it is a Chromebook they can click "go to the link" ....if it is a regular computer they would have to copy/paste the link into the address bar ....but it allows the students to see the creation of their drawing come to life "like a movie"  Way cool!  Check out my drawing!

5.  Friday at the Movies!  Usually I share a video that is designed to make you laugh or one that could be used a a hook or part of a lesson.  Today, I just stumbled upon a new device that I would love to play with.  This is totally cool!  I am putting this on my wish list.  What would you do with one of these in your classroom?

I hope you all had a wonderful spring break.  I know I did!  I did lot's of cleaning which makes me feel very accomplished.  Took care of some basic car maintenance.  And most importantly, spent lots of time with my family, especially my two amazing grandsons.  I feel well rested.  What I did not do was send out a Five on Friday last week.  I figured you all were doing the same types of things as I was and didn't have time to read it anyway. I do have some cool stuff to share this week though.

1.  First, how would you like to use your Google apps to create customized sticky notes?  I love sticky notes!!!  Well, here is a blog I stumbled upon which explains just how to do that and even gives you the template to use.  I hope you find this as amazing as I do!  After all, we all have tons of those notes stuck inside out desks, right?  Why not create personalized exit cards, etc. There were specific folks in each of my buildings that I immediately thought of when I saw this.  Have fun!

2.  Chrome has a new extension created just for you math teachers!  EquatIO takes the pain out of creating equations, formulas, and math quizzes. With EquatIO, you don’t need to know any of that complicated math code. It understands what you’re typing or handwriting, instantly turning your expressions into clear, accurate on-screen formulas. And it works on Windows, Mac and Chromebook.  After 30 days you will be asked to upgrade to a premium version.  You can decide at that time if you want to pay more or just continue to use the basic features.  

3.   Create a Google Slides presentation with images with a click of a button. Gather images in a folder in Google Drive. Open that folder in Drive and run the DriveSlides extension. DriveSlides creates a new presentation and drops each image on its own slide. The slide show can then be opened and edited by adding text or a design to the presentation.  I love it!

4.  Docs will let you type with your voice. In a Google Doc, go to Tools > Voice typing … and click the microphone. It will dictate what you say. (This also works for typing speaker notes in Google Slides.)   What a great way to help students who struggle with handwriting yet have great ideas for stories.

 5.  Friday at the Movies - We have worked a 4 day week and you know that always feels like an 8 day week so here is something that is non-educational just to make you smile.  And if Madea doesn't make you smile, just remember . . .we only have 5 more weeks!

1.  Last week I shared a blog from an educator that showed how to put a digital sticker on a Google Doc.  This week I would like to share a site that Gail Moore sent me on Monday.  This site allows you to create badges that could be used as stickers for those Google Docs.  Way cool!  Check out Makebadges.es

2.  I have some primary folks asking for an idea to do with students as we are ending our year.  I have created this template from a poem that I found in an old Mailbox Magazine.  The poem is called Happy To Be Me.  Primary students in grades K & 1 do not have access to Google Apps but you can still put them on the apps.  How?  First, make a copy of this slideshow.  Secondly, in your copy, duplicate the slide so that you have one slide per student.  Next, on your student computers you will need to log in as yourself and pull up the slideshow.  During reading  you can open the computer as a center and have the students complete the task.  Remember to log out of your account at the end of reading time.  I would also take a picture of each student if I were doing this and insert it on to their slide.  If you could find a color printer, this would make a cute Mother's Day gift!  Here is the link to the slideshow template.  Remember, you will need to go to File->Make a Copy.

3.  SmartBoarding School is a site with TONS of interactives that were designed to be used on an interactive white board.  If I have shared this previously, pls forgive me but it is one of my favorite sites.  Please note, it does have a section called Christianity but that does not mean that the rest of the site can't be used.  

4.  Are your looking for computer based anchor activities?  A gentleman on a blog I follow shared his site.  It's called Mr. Anker's Tests.  It is NOT all tests but rather a collection of flash based games he created for grades K-7.  Check it out!