Smart-NoteBook

I got my act together and here is a couple ideas of what I use almost daily on my SmartBoard notebook.  

Phonograms

The first thing my kiddos and I do in the morning (after bellwork) is phonograms (Sequential Processing).  At my school we have been discussing and working on making objectives kids friendly so they know what they are going to do and why.  My co-worker/friend Kristen and I made one on our SmartBoard for our phonograms.  (Check out her blog: http://idowedoyoudo.blogspot.com/).  

We start each morning with the question, "Why do we learn phonograms?" with the choral response "So we can read and write!".  Then I go over everything we are going to do and we begin.  As we complete each part we check them off.

My kiddos LOVE it!  They know what to expect and can make the connection of why they are learning phonograms.  

Here is the screen we use when learning how to write a new phonograms.

I write on the top 2 lines, explicitly describing how I am writing the capital and lower case of each phonograms while the kiddos practice in the air with their finger.  Then I pick kiddos to come up and practice capital/lower case of the phonogram while the rest of us write it in the air with our "magic finger"!

Having the black, red, and blue lines is very helpful so when I am describing how to write it or asking a kiddo to fix their work I can use the colors as a helpful visual.  (Ex: Start at the top black line, go diagonally down to the bottom blue line, diagonally back up to the top black line... etc).  They LOVE getting to come up and practice on the SmartBoard.  

After we get done with Sequential Processing I read an Expository Text on the SmartBoard based off the phonogram of the day.

Expository Text

The kiddos and I discuss what expository text is, what the topic for the days expository text is (pointing out that it is a word that begins with the same phonogram as the one we learned for the day), what we already know about the topic, answer questions while we read it, and what we learned from it when we are finished reading it.  It's an easy way to introduce expository text at the beginning of the school year without overwhelming them.  Once we get through all of the single phonograms (26) we go back and re-learn each one putting lots more emphasis on words that begin with that phonogram and independently writing it perfectly.  We also revisit each one of the expository texts but this time at the end they have to write 1 sentence using the topic and a fact they learned.  Last year my kiddos liked reading the expository text better the second time around because they were familiar with it and excited to pick and write their favorite fact from each text.  

Sight Words

My kiddos love to play games on the SmartBoard.  One game I found last year was a "button" sight word game.  I found it on SmartBoard Exchange (http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0).  It is a totally FREE!!!! site that lets teachers exchange what they have made of the SmartBoard.  You can pick by grade level and/or topic.  If you have never gone to this site GO!!!!  

Anyways, I changed this one to the words my kiddos are currently working on.  

 I start the game by pressing a button.  Everyone thinks in their head what the word is.  Then I pick a student to say the word.  If they get the word correct everyone says the word together and that kiddo gets to press the orange button that takes you back to the button page and then press a different button (if they get it wrong everyone says the word together, they repeat it after, and then get to choose the next word).  

As I come across more SmartBoard resources I am using and loving I will blog about them too!!

Happy Teaching!