Blog - Rhody Girl Resources

QR Code Activities in the Elementary Classroom

Do you use QR code activities in your classroom? QR code activities are a great way to integrate technology and let your students practice or review concepts learned in the classroom.

What are QR Codes?

QR codes are similar to barcodes at the store. They are an arrangement of black squares and dots that hold information. When scanned by smartphones or tablets theses codes link to a variety of information including websites, images, or video files.

How I use QR Code Activities in My Classroom

I’ve been using QR code activities in my classroom for several years now. I like that they are safe, kid-friendly, and can help integrate technology into a variety of subject areas.

1. Simplify Research

As an early childhood educator my students are expected to participate in research but many struggle with typing web addresses and reading to determine if a site or link is appropriate. Using QR codes allows me to provide quick and easy access to links I would like my students to access. They can scan the QR code and go directly to a video, website, or article. This eliminates the frustration of having to help numerous students at once and all of the mistyped web addresses.

2. Build Fluency

During literacy centers or Daily 5 I have used QR codes to link to books and voice files. Many books are available as read alouds on Youtube. Students scan the QR code and it takes them directly to the book I want them to listen to. I have also recorded myself reading a book and used the QR code to link the voice file. Using QR codes in this way supports my young readers and ELL students.

3. Literacy and Math Stations

I love using QR code activities during my math stations and literacy stations. I place codes at a station or hang them around the classroom and provide students with devices. They scan the code to reveal an image, word, or sound file.

qr-code-activities-letters-and-sounds-pic

4. Present or Share Information

QR codes work great to share information. Place a QR code on a newsletter or information going out to parents and they can scan and be linked to a video message, your website, and more! You can also use QR codes to create interactive bulletin boards. Other students and staff can scan the QR code and see your children sharing, presenting, or reading.

5. Dictation

QR codes are a wonderful way to create a second teacher. Record yourself saying a word, sentence, directions create a QR code with the file, and you have another teacher! I like to use QR codes to practice sentence dictation. Students scan the QR code, listen to the sentence, and record what they heard. You are free to be helping others and the student can scan it as many times as they need to hear it again.

Do you use QR codes in your classroom? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Before We Were Yours Book Review

Reading is one of the things I enjoy most. Yet, it is also one of the things I do not make enough time for. I decided with the start of 2020 to change that. I came up with a challenge for myself to read at least as many books as my age this year and to share my monthly reads here. So let’s kick it off with my Before We Were Yours book review.

Before We Were Yours is a historical fiction novel by Lisa Wingate. It is based on a horrifying scandal that occurred with adoptions at a Memphis based orphanage. Though this is an incredibly sad situation for many, this novel manages to turn a heart-wrenching situation into a heart-warming story.

Summary

The book opens in 1939 aboard the Foss families Mississippi River shanty boat. In labor with twins, the parents rush to the hospital, leaving Twelve-year-old Rill Foss to care for her four younger siblings. While awaiting the return of their parents, strangers arrive and take the children to the Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage. Here they are lead to believe they will stay until their parents return. Unfortunately, Rill quickly realizes this is not the case and they are in danger.

Flash forward to present-day South Carolina. Avery Stafford’s life is quite the opposite of the Foss family. She is a successful lawyer, daughter of a senator, and currently planning her own lavish wedding. Avery has returned to South Carolina to be groomed as the next senator, should her father’s cancer treatment go differently than planned. While making a public appearance at an aged care facility, Avery encounters May Crandall. Avery’s interaction with May and her inability to leave things alone may shift everyone’s life.

Review

I had been seeing this book shared all over Instagram. At the time, I was busy and kept pushing it off. Finally, winter break came and my desire to read returned. After reading the synopsis I knew I needed to pick up this book. Having heard so many good things about it and knowing it was based on true historical events, I had high expectations.

I honestly struggled at the beginning of this book. As the characters are developed the story starts off slow. I knew the storylines had to connect, but I just couldn’t fathom how. None of the characters seemed to match up and the locations and names were totally different. Ultimately, this works in the stories’ favor as it made it unpredictable and kept me reading.

Wingate really makes you feel for these characters. It is hard to fathom children being kidnapped and some of the other horrible things the Foss children experience. Even though, Avery is well-off you also feel for her in a different way. In a sense, she is trapped in a life that she did not ask for and may not want.

Before We Were Yours is a 4 star read for me. It makes you sad and sick to think about what happened to those children yet by the end you cannot help but smile. I enjoyed the little bit of romance mixed in and was grateful for the happy ending.

I hope you enjoyed my Before We Were Your book review. Before We Were Yours is available wherever books are sold or you can grab it using my affiliate link here!

This post contains affiliate links and I may be compensated if you purchase a book. Any money earned goes back to pay for the maintenance costs of this blog.

Subitizing Activities For The Classroom

To understand the importance of subitizing activities in the classroom you must first know what subitize means. I’ll admit, the first time I heard the word subitize I had no clue what it was. In fact, when you type subitize it gets flagged as misspelled!

What Is Subitizing?

Subitizing is the ability to instantly see how many without counting. For example, look at the picture below. How many fingers do you see?

Did you have to count 1-2-3-4-5? Probably not. Most likely you just recognized that there are 5 and said “five”.

Types of Subitizing

There are two types of subitizing, perceptual and conceptual. Perceptual subitizing is when someone looks at a visual pattern such a dots on dice and instantly recognizes how many. Conceptual subitizing involves recognizing smaller groups and combining them. Knowing your student’s subitizing abilities helps you to plan and understand what your students need.

Subitizing and School

Many children enter kindergarten able to perceptually subitize to 5. These students recognize how many based on a pattern. Once students can recognize the pattern they can learn to subitize conceptually. In order to support this progression, it is important to integrate subitizing activities within your classroom.

5 Ways To Integrate Subitizing Activities Into Your Day

Subitizing activities can be completed throughout the day. They do not have to be during math and they do not require a lengthy amount of time. Subsequently, subitizing activities are easy to squeeze in. Here are 5 ways to integrate subitizing activities.

Number Talks

Number talks are a great way to work on subitizing. They get your students communicating about what they see and their thinking. In my classroom, we started our math block with Number Talks. Students would gather on the rug ,and I would quickly flash a card. The image is shown briefly so that students are not trying to count. Next, students volunteer to share what they saw. Finally, we would look more carefully at the picture and discuss the different patterns and combinations.

Check out the book Number Talks: Whole Number Computation, K-5 ,for more information.

Time Fillers

Have a few minutes to fill? Standing in line waiting while students use the bathroom? These are prime opportunities to do subitizing activities. Grab these free “Quick Image” Subitizing Cards below and have students call out the amount or show you how many using their fingers. Don’t have cards or pictures available; use your hands. Show students different finger combinations and have them tell you how many.

Math Center Subitizing Activities

Math centers are the perfect time to integrate subitizing activities. In math centers, students can practice subitizing through matches, sorts, and other center activities. Activities such as Subitize and Sort make a great center. The activity stays consistent throughout the year, changing themes each month. Thus the center becomes independent and is great practice. Students look at the different representations (finger, tallies, ten frames, dice, dominoes) and subitize to determine how many. Then they match it to the correct number.

Give students manipulatives and Code Cover-Up mats for another subitizing activity perfect for a center. Each mat has 3 numbers, and students subitize to find the different representations. They follow the code and cover the numbers accordingly.

Brain Break Subitizing Activities

Many teachers are already using brain breaks during their day to help students’ minds reset and get their wiggles out. How great that you can use this time to do that and sneak in a little subitizing practice. Check out Youtube for lots of fun subitizing videos. Jack Hartmann’s Subitize Rock and Harry Kindergarten Music’s Subitize With a Pirate are just a few of the many subitizing songs available.

In addition to using Youtube videos for brain breaks, there is Subitize & Exercise. Subitize & Exercise Brain Breaks are slideshow subitizing activities. The slides are projected for the class to see. Students will see an image (ten frames, tallies, dots) and subitize. On the next slide, it will show how many and give an exercise to be completed as they count to the number shown. Subitize & Exercise gets students subitizing, moving, and counting, all in a matter of minutes!

Games for Subitizing

Students love games. Use the word game, and suddenly an activity has a whole new meaning. The beauty of games is you can play them during any subject. How does playing a reading game support subitizing, you ask? The tools you use to determine how many spaces to move your game piece, how many cards to pick, etc. Have students roll a die, pull a domino, or spin a ten-frame spinner, and now you’ve integrated subitizing within another subject!

Practicing subitizing is crucial to students’ development of number sense. I hope these ideas have been helpful and gave you some new ideas on integrating subitizing. Have any additional ideas? Please share them in the comments below!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. I make a small amount if you click and purchase through my link at no extra cost!

Don’t Let The Fear Of Failure Stop You!

I’m finally here!!!! Welcome to Rhody Girl Resources. Y’all I am so excited to start this website, share, and collaborate! This is something that I have thought about doing for years, yet something kept holding me back. What would hold me back you ask? FEAR OF FAILURE and TIME!

Fear of Failure and Making Excuses

If I’m being honest I might be a perfectionist and a people pleaser. That can be a dangerous combo! Putting yourself out there is intimidating. Every time I considered starting a website the “what ifs” would run rampant through my mind. For instance, I let the fear of not being successful, not being liked, and the fear of failure prevent me from ever getting started. I listened to these fears, let them consume me, and never even gave myself a chance. Instead, I let the fear of failure win. I pushed the idea of starting my own business and website aside and each time it resurfaced I continued to ignore it.

In addition to my fears, I made a lot of excuses. Above all, my main excuse was that I didn’t have enough time. I was teaching, a mom, a wife and starting a business and website would take time away from something else. What I didn’t realize at the time is how important time for yourself and filling your own cup first is.

Life Changes

In 2017 we found out my husband was being relocated across the country for work. We had always considered moving back to the east coast but the timing was not ideal. The whole process moved quickly and I had to resign from teaching in December. Suddenly my safety net was gone. My whole life was being turned upside down and moved 2,500 miles away. I may have begun to panic, second guess our decision, and want to stay where I was settled and content. In other words, I was freaking out!

As you’ll get to know I am pretty independent. I like to contribute and feel in control. I do not like relying upon others. Being jobless in a new state, in the middle of the school year made me question everything. How can I contribute to and support my family? How can I find a job? Do I belong in the classroom? As these questions swirled through my mind I suddenly realized the answer was right there in front of me and had been there all along.

Change Is Good

These life events were the catalyst that helped me change my mind and stop making excuses. Change empowered me and suddenly sharing and creating wasn’t something I just wanted to do it became something I needed to do. The fear of failure was gone. I started out by creating a Teachers Pay Teachers store. I had no clue what I was doing but I had created many things for my own classroom and thought it couldn’t hurt to post them. Boy was I surprised when people actually started to buy them! After that, I saw an ad on Instagram where Kayse Morris was advertising her course Transform Your Resources. This course was calling out to me. Yet I still debated if I could afford the class, would the class help my business, and if it was really what I wanted to do. I chose to invest in myself.

Do What You Love

As a result, here I am today with my own website, writing my first blog post. I may have let fear of failure and excuses get to me for a while. However, I persevered and I am now doing what I love. I am so excited to embark on this new adventure! I feel like I’ve grown and learned a lot from both my experiences in the classroom and as a mama. Take my advice and don’t wait to do something you think you will love. Do not listen to others, do not worry about being judged, do not let the fear of failure win. Follow your heart and do it for you and your own happiness! I hope you all stick around, come on this journey with me, and find inspiration to face your fear and try something you’ve been wanting to yourself.