Showing posts with label Apps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apps. Show all posts


A few weeks ago, I attended the TCEA conference in Austin.  I had so much fun and I learned so much!  Today, I wanted to share with you guys my kiddos new favorite app, Tellagami.


What's Tellagami?  Well, it's an app that allows your students to create a short 30 second voice message using an animated character.  This voice message is called a gami.  The best thing is that the app is available for both Apple and Android devices.


The Tellagami Edu is much better to download because it doesn't have any in app purchases.  It's so worth the $4.99 price tag!

My students love to create book talks using Tellagami.  After reading a book, they write down a short script telling why someone else should read their book.  We've also used it to retell stories and recently to present our research facts about different famous people.

Since the clip is a short 30 seconds, it has taught my students that they need to write a script and rehearse what they are going to say before they hit record.  It's great for modeling the importance of revising and editing before the final draft.

This week we read The Rainbow Crow during our legend genre study in reading.  I created a short gami to convince you to read it as well.




The thing that I LOVE most about Tellagami is that it is SO easy to use!

First, you choose your character.  They have two options either a boy or a girl but it gives you the option to change hair color, eye color, and skin color.  My kids love that you can change the character's expressions.  Here are the ones that they pick the most!


It's also super easy to change the background image.  My kids like clicking on the camera and taking a picture of a spot in our classroom.  That way it looks like their character is standing in our classroom!


Lastly, I have my kiddos record their message.  Remember...I have them edit, revise, and rehearse it before they hit the record button.  Recording is super duper simple!  Just click on the back button, click on the green message bubble, and then click on the microphone.  When they are ready to record, they just hit the green record button and read out their message that they rehearsed.


When they finish their gami, they just click on the share button in the bottom left corner and then click the save button.  It saves their gami in your camera roll.  See, I told you it was super easy to use!!!

What else do you think you could use Tellagami for in your classroom?  I would love to hear your ideas too!



http://buzzingwithmrsmcclain.blogspot.com/

I'm joining Jasmine from Buzzing With Mrs. McClain for her fabulous You Oughta Know blog hop.  I was so excited to join in the hop last month, and I was even more excited to join in again.  Let's get started.

I think you oughta know about....Remind 101.  Do you struggle with sending home reminders to your classroom parents?  I know I did and then I found Remind 101.

https://www.remind.com/

It's free to sign up and super super easy to send messages.  The best news is that the parents don't see your phone number, so it is totally safe to use.  Your parents will just text your class code to the phone number given when you sign up.  There is also an app that they can download to receive the messages.

My favorite part is that you can schedule messages to be sent on a certain date and time.  How awesome is that for all of us busy teachers?

https://www.remind.com/

I hope you are able to use Remind 101 in your classroom this year.  It has been a real time saver for me!

Now that you've read my You Oughta Know blog post, click on the blog links below to read about other cool things that will help you in your classroom.


Last year, I was super lucky to be given a classroom iPad to share with my teaching partner.  I'm always searching for new apps for my second graders, and when FarFaria contacted me last month to review their app I was thrilled!  I love that FarFaria offers a classroom library full of books.  There are sooo many book choices!  I can't wait to share some of them with you....


My boys and I love story-time!  It is our favorite time of day and the interactive stories are just so much fun!  It's so great to have a big variety of books to choose from.  My boys' favorite is The Wheels on The Bus.  The melody is very catchy and they love the bright pictures.  


Mason, who will be four in early November, can easily navigate the app.  He learned quickly that when you tap on the blue auto-play button it will read the book to him.  He loves finding all of the transportation books and adding them to the favorites section.  I have no idea how he figured it out on his own! 


Even Maddox, who is 20 months, tries to tap the screen and figure out the app.  His favorite books are the kitty books.  The Grumpy Cat books are very funny!  He also really enjoys the Peek-a-Boo books because they make the sounds of the animals and cars on each page.


Here are some other cool features of the FarFaria App...
  • Great Variety - There are over 600 different books available in the app and they add 5 new books each week. 
  • Leveled Books -  I really love that the books are leveled.  The books are leveled from level 1 up to level 4.  Most of my second graders would love a lot of the level 4 books, but I do have some students that would benefit from the level 2 and 3 books.  The level is on the front page of each book, and it sorts the books by level too.
  • Read by Myself Option (building fluency) - Although the read-to-me option is super cool, I absolutely love that my students can read the books and turn the pages on their own.  It would be great for my read to self station.  The students can also re-read favorite books to practice fluency.  I love that option as well!
  • Favorite Books (another way to build fluency) - I kinda mentioned it above but I love that you can add books to your favorite section.  I'm always looking for engaging ways to build my students fluency and I know this app is perfect for that.  I know with the variety of books, my students will easily find a favorite book to build their fluency.
You can try the FarFaria app for free by downloading the app here and read one story a day.  I'm also super excited because FarFaria is letting me giveaway a 3 month subscription to one of my lucky readers.

Good luck friends!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
I had so much fun joining the Ten Pin Linky party this morning, that I decided that I wanted to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her very famous Five for Friday.  I've been reading almost everyone's week and I'm super excited to finally be able to link up.

 

1.  On Monday, my husband and I finished moving the last of my school stuff to my new classroom.  I had been in that room for 4 years and had some great times and some pretty low times.  It was hard to turn in my key knowing that I wouldn't be back in the same room next year.  I am looking forward to next year, a new grade level, and finally being in the main building.  I've been at 2 schools and 3 different grade levels and I've ALWAYS been in an outside building.  Isn't that funny!  Now I'll finally not have to worry about leaving my keys in my room and being locked out.  Plus my new room is bigger!!  Here are some pictures of my empty room.


2.  I took a really neat class this week called iCreate on a Mobile Device.  It was a class that my district held but the instructor was an educator who works for Apple.  I know dream job!!  I learned about this new app that I can't wait to use with my Second Graders.  It's called Haiku Deck.  The kids can create slide presentations on just about any topic.  I was also thinking they could use them to publish their writing and since I'm teaching in the Dual Language program the kids could make slides of vocabulary words in either language as a tutorial for others.  It would have the picture and then the word in both English and Spanish.


The app lets you add your own pictures or you can search for pictures in the app.  Really great and simple for our primary kiddos.

3.  This little guy learned how to stand up in his crib.  Yikes!!


 

He's been pulling up for a few weeks now but this week was the first time he did it in his crib.  So we had to lower his crib (sad face)...they grow up too fast!

4.  This year my next door teaching neighbor retired (super duper sad face).  She is the one that encouraged me over and over to join TpT until I finally did.  I owe her a lot!  Anyways, I got to see her this week because she is borrowing our bumbo for her niece that is visiting.  She gave us a gift card to Chick-fil-a as a thank you, so we took our boys today.  Mason was really excited, he kept saying nuggets almost all the way there.  Poor Maddox all he got were some cheerios.  Here are my two little boys.


5.  I spent a lot of time creating and working on my blog this week.  It's been a ton of fun meeting new teaching friends and learning new things.  I added a pinterest hover over button and a new "add my button" button!



Thanks for reading my very first Five for Friday!  Check out my last blog post for a classroom management freebie.
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