Boing! Bouncy Bands to the Rescue!

One of the many reasons I love blogging is getting to try awesome new products.  Especially products that jive so well with my teaching style and beliefs.  I am always looking for creative ways to help students focus and channel their extra energy in the classroom. 

You may remember that way back in 2011, I wrote about wiggle seats.
These bouncy wonders have helped some of my most impulsive students focus in the classroom over the years. Three years later, I still use them and my kids still love them. But, they don't work for everyone.

Enter... BOUNCY BANDS!

 Bouncy Bands are simple, easy to use, and the kids love them. I was invited to try out the "new & improved" Bouncy Band earlier this month.  My sample arrived quickly and took me about 15 seconds to install on a student desk.  Um...awesome!

Bouncy Bands are a basically a super tough rubber rope that slides on to the two front legs of a desk. Each band comes with two plastic tubes you can slide under the band to hold it up. The band creates a place for students to set their feet, swing their feet, or bounce their feet...all QUIETLY!

Here are 5 great benefits to using Bouncy Bands:

• Students can stay focused and on task longer.
• Students can release their anxiety and extra energy.
• They are quiet! (This may be my favorite part.)
• Students don't distract others as much. (Although, they all want one!)
• Students don't get in as much trouble for being off-task making for a happy student and a happy teacher.

I have used the "new & improved" Bouncy Bands for a week and my only complaint is that I don't have more.  I have several more students who love to lean back in their chairs, tap their feet, and drum on their desk.  I know they would benefit from having a Bouncy Band put on their desk too.

I will say that the band works best for students who do not have another student sitting directly across from them. If you sit your students in groups, kiddos will swing their feet right into the shins of their classmate across the way. This is a lesson I learned the hard way, but it is easy to fix.

Bouncy Bands have proved to be another great tool for helping kids be kids in the classroom. I'm so grateful to Scott from Bouncy Bands for letting me try his innovative product.  Make sure to check out their website at www.bouncybands.com to learn more. I'll be placing my order for a few more very soon. :)

Boing! Boing! Boing!

SmileMakers

As teachers, we all have our favorite places to shop for our classroom.  I always do a fair amount of damage at Ikea, Target, Office Max, and my local teaching supply stores.  But, the classroom shopping doesn't always stop there.  I order online too. I have my favorites: Really Good Stuff, School Specialty, Carson Dellosa, etc.  But now, I have a new favorite...SmileMakers!

Smilemakers was new to me until this summer.  A lovely woman contacted me and asked to me check out the website to see if there was anything I might like to try out for my classroom.

So... I started browsing and oh my gosh it is like an organized teacher's dream!! How was I ever going to choose just ONE thing?!

Look what I found....

 Horizontal Pocket Chart 

I could use this underneath my white boards.  There are even little pockets to hold teacher supplies like pens, Expo markers, and scissors.  Love!

 

Assorted Folder Holders

 Need I say more? 

Blue Mail Center

I wish I had seen this before I bought my HUGE mailboxes.  Look how small it is?  When space is an issue, this mailbox center would be perfect.  After all...paper folds.  :)

Literature Center

Perfect for organizing books, paperwork, or whatever! The possibilities for this are endless.

Okay, so once I got out of the organization section, I found more fun things. 

 Time Tracker Mini

Why are kids so fascinated by timers?  Who knows?  But, they would LOVE this one.

Read Bookends

I have seen these in the Scholastic Bonus Catalog too and they are just so cute!

Of course, this doesn't even begin to cover what you can find on their site.  There are all kinds of stickers, posters, treasure boxes items, educational games, and teacher supplies.  There was so much good stuff, I couldn't decide on the ONE thing I wanted to try, so they surprised me with the green literature organizer.

The organizer arrived quickly and was super easy to put together.  The cardboard is very sturdy and the organizer holds it's shape without any additional tape! I moved it around my room quite a bit while I was putting everything together.  There were so many possible ways to use it. 

I finally decided to use it in my writing center.  It stores all our paper used for writing from our pre-writing organizers to drafting paper (yellow notepad paper) to final publishing paper. The design makes it easy for kids to see what paper they are grabbing and they have access to it all at once.  I love it!

I would like to thank Smilemakers for supporting my classroom and giving me a chance to try out their products.  They definitely made me smile and I'll be back.  The quality and service was good and the prices are very reasonable. :)

To request your own catalog to peruse on our couch, click here or visit their website at SmileMakers.com!

Happy shopping!!

Imagine A Classroom with Perfectly Sharpened Pencils

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy... LOOK what was sitting on my front porch!!

I could have missed this gem of a package if I hadn't been on the look out for it.  It was so little and sitting on the ledge so innocently.  I immediately knew what was inside and I was giddy with excitement. I used my keys to rip open the box and you know what was inside?!  This guy!! Whoo-hoo!

That's right!  It was the legendary pencil sharpener that I have seen on so many blogs.  It was... THE QUIETEST CLASSROOM PENCIL SHARPENER.  I was eager to try it out and see if all the hype in the blogosphere was true.

I mean, I don't know about the rest of y'all but I go through  electric pencil sharpeners at school like candy.  It's ridiculous but the regular ones they install in my classroom just eat pencils.  The pencils never get sharp and my students spend five minutes cranking that dang handle only for me to get frustrated and hand them one of my prized Ticonderoga pencils I keep in my "off-limits" teacher cup so that they can FINALLY get back to work!

I couldn't wait to try this puppy out and LOOK AT THOSE PENCILS!!!

They are so sharp!  I couldn't believe it.  It took me seconds...literally seconds.  It was easy to use and not one pencil broke.  I will admit (please don't judge) that it did take me a minute to figure out how to use the sharpener, because you have to slide out the front metal part, but then the sharpener holds the pencil for you while you crank.  Easy!

As I was testing it out and admiring my beautifully sharpened pencils I kept thinking about one kiddo in my room last year.  Apparently, his pencil was NEVER sharp enough.  He was always getting up for quick bzzzz in the sharpener.  I wish he could see these pencils.  Sharp enough?  I think these would meet his approval. :)

I'm super excited to take this pencil sharpener to my classroom and share it with my students.  Plus, I will make all the other teachers in my hallway jealous.  I kinda love that too.   If you haven't tried it, I would highly recommend checking it out.  It really does do a great job and it's quick, easy, and quiet.  Just click here to go directly to Classroom Friendly Supplies' website to get your hands on this little gem today!

Thank you Troy for sharing your wonderful pencil sharpener with me.

Teacher to teacher... your pencil sharpener rocks!

Have you heard of K5 Learning?

Have you heard of K5 Learning before?

K5 Learning is an online reading and math program for kiddos from kindergarten to 5th grade.  The program is designed for at home or after school use and the kids can participate in the lessons and activities completely independently.

I had the opportunity to try out this program with two of my students who were working below grade level this past year.  The first thing the kids do is take an assessment to figure out where their learning needs are. This assessment is emailed directly to the teacher or parent and provides some valuable feedback about the child's strengths and weaknesses in reading and math.

From there, the teacher or parent can assign specific skills for the child to work on.  The program automatically provides a list of suggested lessons and the approximate time it takes to get through a lesson.  As a teacher, I found the time appropriation particularly helpful.

Here are some quick highlights about what the K5 program includes:

•  free online assessments of each child's math and reading skills
• award-winning curricula based reading and math content (Seriously, you should see all the awards?!?)
• over 3,000 online multimedia activies, personalized for each child based on their assessment
• structured environment with lessons paced in a logical way
• easy to use 
• child safe with no external links, advertisements, etc.
• comprehensive reports for parents
• 24/7 availability and no downloading required

K5 is composed of a comprehensive reading and math program, a math fact program, and a spelling program. To try a lesson out, click here! 

There are lots of lessons to sample form all different grade levels. This is a screen shot of a 2nd grade vocabulary lesson on homophones. 

There is a quick introduction and then the students get to practice. There are lots of pictures to support visual learners throughout the lessons as well as explanations for auditory learners.

The math fact program is especially cool because it keeps track of student progress on every single math fact! The program keeps track and analyzes every response the child makes, including how fast they respond to determine whether or not they need more practice with that particular fact.  Then, it keeps track of everything on this master grid.  When the grid is full, the child has mastered their math facts. Pretty cool, right?

My students LOVED working on this program.  They enjoyed the lessons and working on the computer.  One of their favorite things to do was work on their math facts because they were able to choose their screen character and customize!  Boy, do they LOVE that!

I was lucky enough to try out this program for free, which was awesome!  I wish I was able to purchase this program for all my students to use at home.  I mean, wouldn't this be the coolest way to assign homework?  It would all be personalized!! Talk about differentiation.

It is available on a subscription basis for $25/month or $199/year with substantial discounts for siblings.  I know that sounds expensive, but it really is worth it. If I had a child that was a bit behind, this would be a great way to help catch them up, use technology, and have some fun.

The good news is that there is also a 14 day trial period for FREE! So, if you think you might be interested, go sign up!  Just click here to go directly to the free trial page.

I plan on recommending this program to parents of both my struggling students and my GT students this year.  That way all kids can get the extra support that they need outside of the classroom.  It's the perfect answer when parents ask, "What can I do to help?"

I hope you also find this program helpful.  If you have had experiences with K5, I'd love to hear about them below. Comments welcomed and happily encouraged!

Happy Learning!

I've been funded & K5 Learning Review

Guess what? I've been funded!

 That's right...I've had my first Donors Choose project funded.  I'm so excited. I submitted my project on Sunday and received all my funding this afternoon. A huge thank you goes out to the George and Fay Young Foundation for matching dollars and to my big brother for donating the rest.  How great is family? Thank you both for your generosity and believing in my students.  Anyway, twelve brand new Whisperphones will be arriving in my classroom sometime soon. I know my students are going to love them!

In other news, K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students.  I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program.  If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their  open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.