Saving YouTube videos with Keepvid

Ok, so I just love singing with my little Kindergartners!  This year my class really enjoys singing along with me, they often tell me that singing songs is their favorite part of the day.  Of course it helps that all my songs are pretty much short little movie clips to help them learn visually too.  I find myself constantly searching YouTube for new learning songs/videos.  I am sure some of you already know about the wonderful world of Keepvid but just in case you haven't come across this lovely website I would love to introduce to you what it can do.  

This website can turn your favorite YouTube videos into a MP4 video file that can be saved to your computer.  Downloading and converting video clips is so easy.  Here is the "How To" for saving your favorite video clips from YouTube.

1.     Use the link address from youtube.  For the alphablocks link (see below) it would look like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU4FKj0OmWs

2.    Click on the Keepvid link above to go to the keepvid.com website.

3.    Copy and paste your YouTube link into the box (on the Keepvid website) that says "enter the link of the video you want to download." 

4.    Click Download button. (Click the small grey button to the right side, do not click on the large download button)

5.    Click Download MP4 (Usually in dark blue letters).

6.    Now you can save this video to your files. 

I hope this is helpful to some of you, Enjoy!

My latest favorite video clips include the "Alphablocks".  If you have not watched any of these videos please search them in YouTube.  My little ones love when I play anything Alphablocks.  

Before you go I want to tell you about Tonya's Treats for Teachers giveaway.  

She has reached 500 followers and is giving away great items!  Go check it out!

Until next time!

Freebie Friday

Ooops!  Friday came and went.
I am a little late but I'm back again and linking up with Blog Hoppin for Freebie Friday.  I am going to keep this one short and sweet.  Here is the link to my Freebie page.   If you take a look around my TpT store there are plenty of freebies.  I have many different versions of the "Writer's Eye" and "Reading Strategies."   Go check them out and see if anything fits your needs:)  I will be updating my TpT store this weekend.  Here are some future items you will see:

1. Banana Bucks: Caught being good money

2. Signs for writing and reading posters

3. How do you go home clip board

Therapeutic Thursday

With a job like ours, we should all just take the time and RELAX!  I am linking up again with Blog Hoppin to blog about how I like to chill out. 

1. Hitting the gym actually is the best stress reliever!  

I know if I am having a bad day, I hit the gym and turn it into a great work out.  

2. I also enjoy my beach time! 

3. Cuddling with my Buster!  He is a shih tzu /poodle mix and he has my heart.  

He is the best cuddle dog ever.  Plus, I think he is just adorable.

4. Pedicures!  I try to pamper myself with a pedicure at least once a month.

I have to have cute feet to go well with my cute shoes:)

See ya tomorrow tomorrow with some Freebies!

Tuesday Techno??? and Where I teach Wednesday!

Back again with teacher week at Blog Hoppin!!  

Ok, so yesterday was my second (first) day of school.  It went pretty well, I do have a my hands full with some rambunctious boys this year.  But the good news I finally made it back to the gym that evening.  The bad news is, when I got home I was too tired to turn on my computer to blog about my technology tips.  So today you get two for one.  I absolutely love every thing about technology in the classroom.  As I mentioned before I wouldn't know what to do with out my mobi.  My school does not have interactive white boards but we have a program called active inspire.  With this program and my mobi I am able to display my computer on our large screen and use my mobi pen to control the program, move things around, and write.
 
Next, I want to tell you how much I love powerpoint!  My Kindergarten students love singing songs.  We usually sing along with YouTube videos.  However, sometimes the songs I want are just no where to be found.  So I use powerpoint to create a slideshow that is timed with the song I want.  I get to personalize it however I wish.  My favorite song is "The Good Morning Song"  (I have no idea who sings this version of the morning song.  I tried to research it but found nothing.  I am truly sorry.) and I use powerpoint to display some awesome visuals for my students.  During the instrumental break I put each of my students pictures on a slide and we say good morning to all of our friends.  This helps my little ones learn everyone's names.  If you don't know how to insert a song file into powerpoint feel free to click HERE and grab my Good Morning PowerPoint for FREE and on the last few slides it explains how to insert the song.  Please remember you have to already have the song in order to do this.  Songs have copyrights therefore I can not share/sell the song with the powerpoint:(  I was also going to talk about some great apps that I downloaded this year to use in my classroom, but that will have to wait another day.   I have to get a chance to use them first and I don't want this to be too lengthy.



Now on to today's task.  Where I teach Wednesday????
I teach at Spirit Elementary!
The school where every students shines, YEA!
It is a fairly new school, opened just 9 years ago.  I came to work here the second year it was open.  I can't believe how much time flies.  It is located in Deltona, FL.  I am about 30 minutes away from my favorite place ...the beach! And about 45 minutes away from Disney World.  I teach Kindergarten and I love it (except for the first few weeks of school can be very tiriing.)  I already posted most of my classroom pictures a few days ago.  If you want to take a closer look at my classroom click HERE and check out my previous post.  

Happy bloggin friends...I'm off to the gym for my second night in a row!  Go ME!

Yea! It's Teacher Week!

It's Teacher week at  Blog Hoppin!!  Today is Manic Must-haves Monday so I am going to share with you my teacher must haves. 

1. My Mobi!  Seriously how did I ever teach without it?????  This is my favorite toy, I love it and so do my students.  

2. Post-Its!  I am totally addicted to post-its.  I have to constantly write myself little notes or reminders.  (And yes, I have this Post-It dispenser)

3.  My laminator!  I bought mine a couple of years ago and it is the best thing I ever did.  This year I found a package of 200 laminating sheets for $20 at SAMS....best deal ever!

4. Cute shoes!  These are my latest addition to my shoe collection.  Just bought them at Kohls in the clearance section. (Hi my name is Michelle and I have a shoe addiction.)

5. Coffee and Water!  I start each morning with a fresh cup of coffee made easily by my Keurig. And drink Water all day long.  I bring a larger Tervis tumbler to school and buy the large jugs of water to keep at school for refills.

I hope you enjoyed my teacher must haves.  I look forward to linking up again tomorrow to talk about my technology tips.

A quick little sidebar...today was my first day of school.  I was so exhausted that after dinner I feel asleep on the couch for a good two hours.  I am trying to stay away for the Eagles game but still feel super tired.  I am not a nap person at all!  My husband was nice enough to let me sleep while he cleaned up the dishes and finished the laundry.  I guess you can say the first day kicked my butt!  Oh and look what my hubby sent to school today to wish me good luck on my first day of school and to wish for another great school year.  Gotta love that man:)

Final Class Pics and First Day Jitters

Wow this week has been crazy busy.  I have not even had a moment to blog stalk.  Blog stalking will still have to wait because I am heading to the beach this morning to enjoy my last little bit of summer break.  The first day of school is tomorrow.  I met most of my students at meet the teacher last Thursday evening and they seem very sweet.  My parents seem really involved as well, so that is always a plus!  I am so excited about my classroom this year.  I made a few change and moved some furniture around as well as added many new great ideas from Pinterest and blogs.  I want to thank all my bloggy friends for being such an inspiration to me.  Here are the final classroom pictures.  My husband laughs at my classroom because he says it's very "Jerseylicious" and I say it's perfect then! I'll let you guys decided, what do you think of my classroom make-over?

(View from the back corner of my room)

 (my new guided reading area) Check out the seat crates!  I added ribbon to each of my seat crates to help with easy assess.  

 (my teacher desk and ABC center.  TV center is cut off a little bit but that is what the big red thing is next to my desk)  I absolutely love my TV center.  The students watch different learning videos, usually from leapfrog.

(my students work wall)

(View from entrance)

Hope you like my classroom because the fire Marshall did NOT.  He told me "No more on the walls!"  I smiled and nodded and rolled my eyes a little when he left.  Shhh.....LOL.

Here are some new things I created for my classroom.

 Love this idea from Pinterest.  This is my friend's daughter.  She just got here drivers license and she stopped by my classroom to brag. Oh and ask for my car...LOL.  She wants to buy my Nissan Altima.  

 I found this idea from Pinterest too!  So easy to create and I love that all I have to do is move a clothes pin when students change their transportation home.  I will be posting this on TpT later.  

This is not new this year but I wanted to post anyway to show everyone my word wall.  I call it my word vine.  I have to add a title but just have not gotten around to do that yet.  

Lastly, I am linking up with A Turn to Learn to discuss those first day jitters.  I am a little late to the party but here goes nothing...

Class pics and a meet the teacher gift idea

Wow, I just may make it through this week, a little (a lot) exhausted but I can do this!  Monday was my first day back to work and let me just tell you its been nothing but meetings, learning new programs, and running around.  My brain feels like it is going to explode and my feet, back, arms, eyes ....every inch of my body aches.  This is what my classroom looked like when I walked in Monday morning.  Everything stacked to one side.  

I have been at school from 7:00 in the morning till 8:00 at night trying to prepare for meet the teacher and the first week of school.  I feel like my to-do list keeps getting longer instead of shorter...I wonder does this happen to all teachers? I think the reason my to-do list get's longer is because I can never finish just one project at a time.  Please tell me that there are other teachers out there that feel a little ADD too.  We start one project then walk across the room to grab something and find ourselves engaged in another project 2 minutes later. This pattern seems to go on and on when I am setting up my classroom, therefore, I am left with about 10 unfinished projects in the classroom.  This drives my husband nuts and I just laugh and go with the flow! (a.k.a...ride the wave!  Which is my school's slogan this year.)

I have to brag a little here ladies and gents...my husband is the BEST!!!!  He has come to my classroom each evening after work to help me with my classroom set up.  He really has a special talent for bulletin boards. Here is one of his creations.

 He's the perfectionist and I'm the can't finish a project, stuff everywhere kind of person.  So if you guest it we drove each other up the wall.  It must be true love because I enjoyed every minute it:)

I will have more pictures of my classroom later this week.  It is almost complete and ready to be photographed.  Tomorrow night is meet the teacher so it will have to be all done by then.  Wish me luck!

Got to get back to work.  This is my project for tonight.  These are my meet the teacher "welcome" gifts.  I give each of my students a friendship bracelet.  It is so cute because most of them wear it to school the first day, as do I! 

Last official day and a Fabulous Giveaway!

I can't believe it's back to work for me tomorrow.  It feels like just yesterday I was singing away to the lyrics of the song "School's Out for SUMMER!"  Now today I'm officially being lazy and relaxing before I head back to work tomorrow.  Ummm.....Excuse me but where did summer go?   

I want to continue with my plans for today aka being a total couch potato! But I just had to give a quick shout out to Corinna over at Teaching Fabulous Firsties for reaching 100 followers.  I am giving away my writing journal and addition/subtraction PowerPoint.  So go on over and show her some love.  She is absolutely fabulous and so is her giveaway!

Good-Bye Summer

Happy Saturday everyone! Well the good news is I officially survived 4 long weeks of summer school.  My last 10 hour working day with pre-school students ended this past Thursday.  The bad news is I officially go back to work this Monday.  We have a lot of training/meetings during our pre-planning and not a lot of time to set up our classrooms.  I even have the extra stress of trying to be done one night earlier because our Kindergarten team has Kindergarten Orientation and Meet the Teacher all in one night.  So can you guess it????  Yup, I am totally stressed out!!!!!! I just keep telling myself..."I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!"  I think I can with help that is.  I have two willing teenage buddies (My friends daughter and her boyfriend) that have offered to help. (They are cheap labor too, all I have to do is buy them pizza!) I even had two former parents and my husband offer to help as well, so I am hoping to get it all done and not feel too much pressure.  But that's next week.  This week is my pity party and I can cry if I want too!  Summer is over and I feel the pressure of starting another school year!  So if you can't beat us, join us in saying good-bye to summer 2012 hosted by Sheree over at Peterson's Pad 

Here's the rules:

Share 4 things about your summer!

1. A place you visited

2. A book you read

3. Something you did or made for your school class

4. A fun thing you did

1. A place I visited: This summer I took my very first official vacation!  My friend and I went to Jamaica with our husbands and it was a blast!  The pool was huge, the ocean was gorgeous, and the drinks/food were free!  

My husband and I

Lisa (from Learning is Something to Treasure) and myself

2. A book I read: I read all three books of 50 Shades!!!!  I read one book in one day laying on the beaches of Jamaica.  These books are awesome and made my beach days so relaxing.  

3.  Something I made for my class: I made seat crates!  I also started making new posters and journals for my classroom.  I decided I needed to get my butt in gear and start creating things again.  I used to be so creative with my lessons and I think after teaching the same grade from the past 7 years, I got a little lazy and less creative.   If it's not broken don't try to fix it, right?  Wrong!  It's so much fun to try new things in the classroom.  So this saying just does not fit in with my new teaching style.  I want to grow and learn with my students so bring on the NEW!!!

I also made this journal to help kick start my Kindergartners writing skills.

4.  A fun thing I did: My little sister and her friends (along with a surprise from my cousin) came to visit me this summer.  We had a blast driving to our Florida beaches and hanging out by the pool.  I got to be young and free for a week with them and let me tell you I was a little excited when they left to go home so I can be my "old" self again.  Where do these 20 somethings get their stamina???  I was so exhausted after they left I think I didn't move out of my bed for like three days.     

Me, my sister, and my cousin

Well, Good-bye summer and hello to another school year!