Showing posts with label GoNoodle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GoNoodle. Show all posts
Saturday, January 10, 2015
GoNoodle Sanity Savers Linky!!
Okay, this is super fun!
I'm linking up with the adorable Elizabeth Hall at Kickin' It In Kindergarten!!
(Can I just say I got to meet her in Vegas this Summer- and she was one of the sweetest girls ever!)
Today's linky is all about GoNoodle- and a little bit about me!
If you haven't heard about how much I love GoNoodle, you obviously haven't read my posts here and here.
It's a healthy obsession, I promise. :)
Favorite Brain Breaks- Indoor Recess Mash Ups!!
Oh my goodness!! This was exactly what this teacher needed this week!! With NO recess for 4 days in a row, we were going CRAZY! So thankful that GoNoodle created these 15 minute mash ups (a warm up, mix of different brain breaks, and a cool down!)
L.O.V.E!!
I also can't get enough of "Chillax" before we take a spelling test or when I just need those little bodies to calm it down.
Happy Place- Canton, TX.
I wish you could say that you could find me there the first Monday of every month, but with this freezing cold weather...and the lack of money in my wallet right now...I just can't.
But you can bet that I'm taking a personal day to head out to get my antique shopping on in March!!
Guilty Pleasure- Reality T.V
I have no shame in this. Should I? #sorrynotsorry
I can't get enough of my Bachelor nights with my girls, as well as anything on Bravo!
"Prince Farming"- ABC will never stop the cheesiness.
Keep Calm And.... Pray for Snow!!
I have to go with Elizabeth on this one- Texas is definitely feeling left out of the Snow Days. Where's our "wintery mix" we keep hearing about!? :(
Thanks Elizabeth for hosting!! Now head on over to her linky to link up for your chance to win some fun GoNoodle Swag!
Welcome Back, and Five for Friday!
First of all...
I can't believe it's already 2015 and my firstie babies are about to be second graders.
I'm not gonna lie- I was super dreading coming back to school this week. It's really nothing about the kids or my job- I feel so blessed to be in the profession that we are in...
It was because of my incredibly soft bed, and my adorable new puppy that gives the best morning snuggles!
Oh wait, you haven't heard the hubs and I have a new puppy!?
WELL, I must introduce you... Here is our sweet 5 month old adorable baby Morkie, Baxter!
He's no joke the cutest dog in the world. :)
...Back to School...
Today I'm linking up with the fab DoodleBugsTeaching for her Five for Friday!!
I made it- and survived the first day WEEK back! And to my surprise, it has been a FABULOUS week! I was worried about the nonstop talking, and dreading the amount of review I was going to have to teach {including that this classroom is a still a no nose-picking zone!}but my kids have been ROCKING it!
With all of this review, we also dove 2 webbed feet first into our penguin study using this fabulous resource from Heidi Dickey!
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| Her blog at My (Not So) Elementary Life is too cute! Check it out! |
After starting with a KWL, we split up into 5 penguin groups to study different kinds! The kids were pumped to do independent research and present their findings :)
Y'all. I had a conference call with GoNoodle on Saturday!! The Co-Founder, Aaron Briggs reached out to Erin Klein {OMG!} and myself. Can I just say I may have screamed when I read the email? I can't say enough how amazing social media is!! SO thankful for Twitter and Instagram and for the connections I've been able to make with teachers around the nation!
SO. MUCH. FUN!
Erin and I are avid GoNoodle PLUS users, and Aaron was hoping to get some feedback on some things that we love about GoNoodlePLUS, as well as pick our brains about some things we would change.
Even MORE great things are coming, guys! Just wait!!
{Don't know too much about GoNoodle and these amazing brain breaks for your class? Check out my GoNoodle post here!}
Every year, I tend to be stuck on what resolutions I want to have for the year, this year- I finally wrote them down!
My students made their resolutions for the year as well. Not gonna lie, I was super impressed with their goals for themselves!
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| {Precious} |
So if you live in Texas, you have probably heard about the ridiculous amount of earthquakes we have been having here in Irving. So far, I think we have had 20 in the past two months. On Monday, we had 3!! My students have been asking and wondering what's happening.
"Is our house going to fall down in a large crack in the ground and land in hot lava?"
--No joke-- He was genuinely concerned.
After researching earthquakes on pebblego.com, we learned that buildings can withstand the tremble of quakes if they have a strong base. We were challenged to make our own structure to see if our buildings could withstand the shaking...
Sidenote: Jello = Ground :)
Too much fun, y'all. And yes, we totally grabbed spoons and ate the jello afterwards!
A huge hit in my classroom this week was Sight Word Head Hunters!
I used this game as a review of some sight words we've learned this year. Super easy to create! I put a list of my students on one side of the paper- and random first grade sight words we've learned on the other side. Each student received a sight word from the list- and we taped it to their heads. Kids walked around the room trying to match the sight words to their friend's names.
THEY LOVED IT!
Anything to get them moving, right?
It was a fabulous formative assessment that I will definitely do again.
This game had me thinking so many other versions...
Math Fact Head Hunter
Vocabulary Head Hunter
Onset Blends Head Hunter
...oh the possibilities!
Well in a nut shell, that was our week here in first grade. Glad we survived it and now we are praying for a snow day this weekend.
If you haven't already, head on over to Doodlebugs teaching and link up to her Five for Friday linky!
Have a great weekend, y'all! Stay Warm!
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
GoNoodle Challenge Success!!
If you read my last GoNoodle post, you would know that our class has taken upon a new challenge!!
My class has GoNoodle in their blood y'all. For real.
My kids were curious if other teachers in the building were doing GoNoodle- or even knew about what it was. We took a survey from each teacher. My kids were mind blown that the majority of the teachers in our school does not have their class participate in these awesome brain breaks.
"What are they thinking???" one student asked. Ha!
They were determined to make a difference.
For 5 weeks, we spent time on Friday mornings to work on this mission:
"How will we as first graders convince other teachers in the school to use GoNoodle"
We had to do a little brainstorming first...
Why do we like GoNoodle?
What are our 3 favorite things?
Then we had to brainstorm ways we would get the word out for how amazing GoNoodle is to our teachers! Our class goal was to have at least a total of 16 teachers in the building to use GoNoodle. ((cross your fingers))
Throughout this process, we were tweeting out our plan of how to achieve our goal, My kids were so excited to see that GoNoodle RETWEETED our tweets and replied back!! #celebstatus
"How can we be a part of their marketing team???"
Later in the week, they sent us some super cool GoNoodle Swag to help us in our effort in spreading the GoNoodle Love!
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| Even our principal got in on the fun! :) |
The next thing on our agenda was to create invitations for teachers to come to our GoNoodle Powered Classroom and see what the hype is all about!
We made sure to list some of the reasons why teachers should use GoNoodle:
-its FREE!
-Your kids will love you
-GoNoodle can help your kids calm down before a test
-It get's their wiggles out!
-It helps kids learn
-Movement is important in all grades
We created videos of the kids doing GoNoodle brain breaks and turned them into QR Codes to put on posters around the school...
Then it was time to create and hang the posters in all of the "hot spots" we could find around the school!
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The next week, we delivered our invitations to all of the teachers. It was the sweetest thing to watch these determined first graders BEG the teachers to come to our class!
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| "What's GoNoodle" ... "Don't worry, we aren't eating noodles- we are USING our noodles! Come and See!" |
A week has passed since we delivered our invites. It took some waiting (and maybe some begging) for teachers to come and check it out.
We are proud to say that so far, 4 different classes have come to see our GoNoodle Powered Classroom with their students!
We danced, We persuaded, and succeeded!!
As of now, we have 14 teachers who have implemented GoNoodle in their classroom! :) We may not have reached our goal of 16 teachers, but we aren't giving up hope!
My kids had the best time with this challenge. I took all of the pictures and videos from the past week and created a video to showcase their hard work. I'm so proud of them!!
Click on the picture below to view it:
Thank you GoNoodle for all you do for kids.
Your biggest fans in Coppell, Texas will continue to spread the love!! :)
Friday, October 17, 2014
Do you GoNoodle??
Do you GoNoodle?? -- I do!! And it has truly changed my classroom environment this school year.
Many of you haven’t heard what this buzz is about GoNoodle- but
I promise you, you won’t regret checking it out! It’s a FREE website for brain
breaks- If you do any brain breaks at all for your students, you should totally
try GoNoodle!
My favorite things about it:
1. It’s FREE!!!
– just sign up as a teacher and set up a class. Our class is the
“RockinRedSockMonkeys” Pick a classroom “champ” and get to brain-breaking!
Because
of the extreme GoNoodle-Love happening in my class, I went ahead and tried the
FREE 15 day trial of GoNoodle PLUS. I’m LOVING it and will now pay 10$ a month
to continue having the PLUS. The 10 bucks is totally worth all of the amazingness!!
2. GoNoodle is not just all fun and games (although that's a huge part of it!) We have math fact review, calming yoga time before our spelling
tests, and energizing wiggle jams to start our mornings. There are ENDLESS choices--and they are all conveniently organized for you into categories!!
Helpful tip for teachers that are afraid of getting too crazy: Use the dancing brain breaks for a classroom
behavior incentive!
3. The classroom
champs- For each 10 brain breaks you do, your class champ (or character) will
“grow stronger”...eventually you will max out your champ- and pick a new one!
This is really the hook for your students.
4. It’s not just
for K-2 students- There are plenty of 3-5 brain breaks that your students will
LOVE. Movement to help learning matters in all grades!!
GoNoodle PLUS is where it's at y'all- Body Spelling, Word Jam, and Mega Math
Marathon.
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| The kids are spelling each letter of one of our spelling words for the week- STAY |
5. It’s not just
for classroom teachers!! It’s perfect for P.E, Music, Art, and Counseling!!
Think about the many times a counselor has to calm a student down, or change their sweet little attitudes
... there's a brain break for that.
What about a mile run in P.E?
...there's a brain break for that.
A wiggle song to get your wiggles out before you start working on your artwork?
...there's a brain break for that too!!
When you have time, I strongly encourage you read these quick
blog posts I found straight from the GoNoodle Blog! I truly believe it will change the environment in
your classroom!!
GoNoodle in the upper grades:
Why
Movement Matters:
Find the PERFECT Brain Breaks for your class!
Cure the Afternoon sluggish mood:
Take GoNoodle Throughout the Building
I didn't even tell you the best part.
My kids are shocked that not every teacher in my school does GoNoodle in their classroom. They challenged themselves to work as hard as they can to convince other teachers in the building to get on board.
Y'all. It's insane and it's making my heart JUMP to see them so determined.
Last week we brainstormed ways we could persuade.
Today, they made invitations to give our to other teachers so they can come check out our GoNoodle powered classroom and see what all the hype is about...
Our goal is to
have 16 teachers to GoNoodle-ize their classroom!
Stay tuned to see how successful the kids are with their challenge!
Follow us on Twitter @MrsSaxonKinder to catch the details :)
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