Archive for the 'Videos' Category

Just Dance Kids

Published on April 3, 2013 in Videos and Wellness. 0 Comments

Active play is natural for children. At the very end of the day yesterday, the children asked me to put on some videos of dances that we have seen in the past. The end of YouTube videos shows you more options along the same lines. We were able to play a few dance videos with Just Dance Kids. Here is the last one we danced to. I missed the piece of the display that said it was simply “Just Dance” without the “Kids” part attached but even so the children enjoyed it and no one was concerned with the lyrics “sexy lady.” I captured this last song on video in order to show you why this Symbaloo collection is so valuable for giving kids active play indoors. It requires close attention if they want to get the moves “right.”

Just Dan – ce kindergarten from gail poulin on Vimeo.

Here is the whole Just Dance Kids Symbaloo webmix.

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/justdancekinderchat1

An Endless Quest…

Published on March 29, 2013 in Videos. 0 Comments

…without knowing where your quest is. So says the boy in this video.

The following video has gone viral. It would be nice to think that children can go to public school and develop these kinds of thinking skills. My suspicion is, this child is not a public school student. He would suffer tremendously with our rigid structure of learning blocks. He needs time to just think while engaged in some sort of hands-on activity like building or art.  Interesting to note that children who are thinking along these lines before they enter school, can be limited in that free time for developing ideas. They are in our classrooms all the same.

This boy reminds me of some of my own students, the ones who struggle with a prescribed path to learning. I know I interrupt their thinking with my Common Core learning focus. Far better to have kids developing their own understanding of how the world works. Not all will be this articulate but how important is the sharing piece as they process their lives and learning. Can’t that part wait if necessary?

Enjoy those report cards today parents.

More Symbaloo Fun!

Published on January 12, 2013 in #30in30, Blogs I Follow and Videos. 0 Comments

This time the credit goes to a couple of my Tweeps on Twitter.  I found the link posted by @mattBgomez who in turn credited it to @MauiMickey.  The collection is called Just Dance #Kinderchat and it’s chock-full of great dance tunes. I know my class will enjoy them as they are a real dance-loving bunch of kids.

Another post in my #30in30 series.

Reading Bear

Published on December 28, 2012 in Literacy, Science & Tech and Videos. 0 Comments

I like finding new resources for online learning and I really like being able to share them with parents.  Today I learned from Michaele Sommerville about Reading Bear, a free learn-to-read website with lots of levels of instruction. Here is the You Tube video, Getting Started.

I will share the site with my class very soon and hope parents will use it at home as well. The challenges slated for January through June look pretty formidable with daily guided reading practice and writers workshop on the agenda for the rest of the year!

Some Seasonal Videos

Published on December 17, 2012 in Videos. 0 Comments

We have watched a few snowman videos using the projector, laptop, and white pull-down screen.  The videos are requested again and again so I thought I would share the links with you. Both are on YouTube but I like to show them using safeshare.tv whenever possible to get rid of the ads. You can use this simple program by going to their site and inputting the url address of the video you want to watch. The children asked that I share these quick links with you.

Here is The Snowman  and  Little Snowflake.