With the proliferation of easy-to-use, touch-based tablets, it’s not surprising that schools and home school educators are capitalizing on their many uses and implications for interactive learning.

You may have explored abcteach’s interactive section, which has plenty of materials meant for computers and interactive whiteboards, but you might not be aware that the grand majority of teaching activities on abcteach work wonderfully with tablets. Since documents on abcteach are in PDF format, they can be opened and modified with many PDF editing apps for tablets. Students can complete crosswords and dot-to-dots, read biographies and science articles, complete coloring sheets, and answer writing prompts, all without using a printer.

We’ve searched the App Store (iOS devices) and the Android Market for the best apps and have some recommendations for those of you looking to take advantage of the 45,000 activities on abcteach available for your tablet. Today, we’ll focus on one app in particular which we found to be one of the most flexible and feature-rich: neu.Annotate PDF for the iPad. Find a list of other recommended apps for iPad and Android tablets at the bottom of this post.

neu.Annotate PDF (iOS, $0.99)

neu.Annotate PDF makes it easy to view and edit abcteach activities on the iPad. After you’ve downloaded the app from the App Store, simply navigate on abcteach using Safari (the default iPad web browser) and find a document you’d like to use. Touch the document title or thumbnail to start downloading the document. To demonstrate how you can use abcteach documents with neu.Annotate, we’ll use a 10-page learning unit about the inner planets of our Solar System. This unit has vocabulary, reading comprehension, and opportunities for class participation. Find it here on our member site (login required). For free materials about the Solar System, visit our free section.

Your abcteach document will pop up automatically in Safari, along with an option to open the document in a particular app. Touch “Open in…” and select neu.Annotate from the drop-down menu. Any app that can open PDF documents will be displayed in this list.

Your PDF will be opened immediately in neu.Annotate. From this app, you’ll be able to draw directly on the document using a number of tools, including pens, highlighters, and shapes. neu.Annotate comes with several handy tutorials for getting started, which we highly recommend reviewing, but using the app is surprisingly intuitive.

Using the pen tool (click the pen icon at the top of the page), you can fill out the answers to study questions. You can use your fingers to write, but we recommend investing in a decent stylus (around $10) for precision writing.

You can also use the pen tool to color shapes on the page. You’ll want to adjust the color, size, and opacity (i.e. the transparency) of your pen. Touch a pen icon, and then tap the style box to bring up the style options for that pen. neu.Annotate lets you keep five preset styles up at the top of the page to make it easy to switch back and forth between different styles.

When coloring a shape, it’s usually a good idea to reduce the opacity and increase the width of your pen. A lower opacity ensures that you won’t completely obscure the lines when you’re coloring in your shape, because the pen’s color will be slightly transparent. A larger width will make it easier to fill in your shape with color. When you’re coloring your shape, you might find it useful to zoom in by placing two fingers on the tablet and moving them slowly apart. With a closer zoom, you’ll be able to be more precise when coloring or writing. To pan around the page without drawing, drag across the screen with two fingers, or switch to the “hand” tool.

When you’re finished editing your document, you can email it to anyone and store it on your computer (you can also view it at any time from within neu.Annotate). Just touch the arrow button in the top right corner, choose “Mail as JPG,” and email the completed file to yourself. This will ensure that all of your annotations, images, and drawings are saved directly onto to the file. Exporting a PDF will not always work as expected, so we recommend always exporting to JPG (PNG is fine as well).

We hope you enjoyed learning how to use and edit abcteach documents on your tablet. Here are some other apps that we found to work similarly to Neu.Annotate:

GoodNotes Free (iPad, Free)

Notability (iPad, $0.99 for a limited time)

ezPDF Reader Pro (Android tablets, $2.99)

As always, post any questions or comments in the section below. Have you found any other apps that you find useful for interactive learning? Let us know!

~The abcteach Team

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. By now, your classroom is undoubtedly adorned in pinks and reds, with hearts on your worksheets and hand-made crafts on the wall. There’s a party planned for next Tuesday, and the whole class is invited. The question is, will every child (or his or her parent) be prepared to take part? And if not, how will you make sure everyone remains included?

Valentine’s Day, like many gift-giving holidays, can be a great time for your students. There are secret admirers, candy, special notes, and who can forget all that chocolate! But, as you know, the greater the anticipation, the greater the let down may be if the day doesn’t go as planned.

abcteach has hundreds of great Valentine’s Day materials to keep on-hand or create at a moment’s notice. The following quick tips and ideas can help your class celebrations run smoothly.

Pre-Party

• Save time by creating a Valentine’s Day box at home.
• Send a reminder about classroom food allergies or sensitivities. Ask parents to include sugar or gluten-free options so that treats can be enjoyed by everyone.
• Bring in extra goodies, just in case.

At the Party

• Forgot the cards at home? Not a problem, have students create their own.
• If card boxes were left at home, substitutes can be created quickly by stapling and decorating large manila folders.
• Make sure each child’s card container is on their desk. This helps immensely with time management.

Suggested Valentine’s Day activities
• Create a word search and/or word scramble with abctools. Puzzles can include students’ names or Valentine-themed words.
• Set out holiday coloring pages, along with markers, stickers, crayons, and paint.
• Select any or all activities from our Valentine’s Day Learning Center.
• Get artsy with mobiles, glass hearts, and Valentine’s trees (members materials)

Valentine Reading Comprehensions
• Reading activities can be used with the whole class or in small groups. They can be included in multiple subject discussions, incorporating grammar lessons, character analysis, creative writing, or foreign language practice.

Valentine Writing Activities
• Compose poems, color and write stories, or create a variety of blank shape books for your class

As your celebration draws near, we hope these tips spark new ideas and better prepare you for some of the day’s surprises.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The following tips are provided by retired elementary teacher and current abcteach staff member, Nancy Elton. A teacher of 30+ years, she used these opportunities to engage parents and other classroom helpers and to provide students (and herself) needed support throughout the year.

Sign Them Up
Anytime there is a classroom or school function with parents present, have a sign-up sheet with areas where parents or other adults can assist.

• • Meet & Greets
• • Parent/Teacher Conferences
• • PTA/PTO nights

Activity Options

• • Class – Creating bulletin boards (inside the classroom and out), cutting out letters, putting up borders, preparing student work to be displayed, etc.

• 
  • Individual Students – Providing editing and revision help, assisting with computer work and tutorial needs

• 
  • Small Groups – Assisting with learning centers, tutorials, games, and field trips

• 
  • Teachers – Sorting & collating, photocopying work, organizing classroom books/games, creating portfolios, cutting materials needed for classroom activities, etc.

Anywhere parents can be of assistance, embrace the help. Many of the activities can be done from home, as our parents are frequently not available during the school hours. Every child benefits from added support, both in schoolwork and emotionally.

As a teacher, I could not have provided the degree of positive educational experiences for my students without the ongoing participation of parents.

Posted by Nancy Elton, abcteach staff

Lesson planning is imperative, but sometimes it’s fun (and necessary) to step away from traditional plans in order to recharge your students’ interest in learning. An easy way to do so is by simply following the momentum of your calendar year.

January has a plethora of monthly, weekly, and daily observances as well as famous birthday anniversaries that you can tie into curriculum practice. Studying the Southern Hemisphere? Incorporate Australia Day games and activities. Working on measurements? It’s National Soup Month. Why not practice those skills with recipes? And how about famous authors? Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19th, 1809.

In addition to well-known holidays, here are a handful of January dates and observances to use when looking for a creative alternative. abcteach has materials that adapt to many of these special times, so take a look around and find what suits you best!

Birthdays

• Betsy Ross – January 1st
• Louis Braille – January 4th
• Elvis Presley – January 8th
• Stephen Hawking – January 8th
• Lewis Carroll – January 27th
• Jackie Robinson – January 31st

Holidays

• Chinese New Year – January 23
• Australia Day – January 26th

Special Observances

• Inauguration Day – January 20th
• National Handwriting Day – January 23rd
• National Puzzle Day – January 29th
• National Thank You Month
• National Mentoring Month
• National Soup Month
• 100th day of class for some schools

The new year is always exciting. It’s fresh, optimistic, and offers a clean start to achieving all of the things put off in years past. Unfortunately, after a couple months, or even a couple weeks, some of the most well-intentioned goals have given way to the same old routine.

The good news, as you know, is that this trend doesn’t have to continue. Achieving goals is all about preparation and planning. It’s creating a game plan and putting steps in motion to make it happen. This is a crucial lesson for students to learn, and is especially applicable in the classroom. Research projects, term papers, group presentations… they all seem daunting at first. But take them in small doses and the project quickly comes together.

Here are some tips to help your students succeed in larger projects:
• Talk about planning the project; have students vocalize their personal plan.
• Define the larger goal.
• Brainstorm materials necessary for the project.
• Set a general timeline (it’s been helpful to start with the due date first and then work back, but organize how you see best).
• Break the larger goal down into smaller weekly goals based on your timeline. Discuss with students where they should be at each point in the timeline.
• Have students make note cards of facts and ideas so that they can be easily arranged when organizing concepts.
• Set concrete times for students to review the plan and their progress. Have them do a personal review and one with you.
• Conference with students/groups to give them feedback along the way.

abcteach has a number of resources to support project management, including: graphic organizers, KWL forms, Venn diagrams, and research help. Help your students achieve their goals (and in a less stressful manner), by teaching them how to plan ahead.

Good luck!

Hello, January! And a warm welcome back to all educators. No matter where you’re at on the globe, a new month means a new opportunity to incorporate creative materials in your lesson planning.

Where the colder temps abound, we have a great supply of winter and snow-themed activities. And while you’re perusing, don’t forget to view other “cool” sections, such as the tundra/arctic, winter calendar activities, seasonal book units, weather, and indoor crafts and activities.

For our warm weathered colleagues, we encourage you to visit our summer and seasonal clip art categories, along with specialized sections such as the coral reef, plants, science experiments, and summer sports.

As always, abcteach has a broad supply of holiday and seasonal items, including colorful clip art and interactive games. Please let us know what is working for you or what you’d like to see more of in the coming months.

~The abcteach team

p.s. The photos above are from the abcteach Photo Clip Art section on the member site. If you haven’t been there in a while, check out our new additions!

In a time when the emphasis in education is increasingly on testing preparation, it’s great to take a break and have some “old-fashioned” fun with paper, scissors, and crayons. abcteach’s Paper Roll Pals provide such an opportunity, with dozens of templates that kids can print out, color, cut out, and paste onto paper rolls. We’ve found that kids from Pre-K to 5th grade have a blast assembling these Pals.

How to get started

Head over to our Paper Roll Pals section on abcteach.com. There are a number of free templates to choose from, and even more for abcteach members (learn more). Download the assembly instructions, and print any templates that interest your students or children. Have kids bring in used paper rolls to use for their Pals (you can also roll a sheet of heavier paper into a cylinder if you don’t have rolls to use). With crayons, colored pencils, or water color paints, have kids color the designs. After the designs are colored, cut them out and paste them to the paper rolls.

Once your Paper Roll Pals are decorated and assembled, get creative! Use the characters in a class or home puppet show. Have kids compare two Pals using a Venn Diagram, or write a story using the puppet characters. Use puppets to create math problems (e.g. How many puppets have hats?). Make a board game using the puppets as game pieces. Have kids design and draw a new Paper Roll Pal that represents them.

As you can see, the possibilities are many. When you create your paper Roll Pals, let us know! Send pictures of your students’ creations to spotlight@abcteach.com to be featured on our blog and share your ideas with other educators.

Have fun creating!

To all of our educators near and far… as you bring in the new year, we wish you continued success in all of your endeavors. We thank you again for being a part of the abcteach community.

~The abcteach team

Wishing all of our educators a very Merry Christmas. May the holiday be a safe, happy time for you, your family and friends.

~The abcteach team

Music makes the world go round. And when it comes to the holidays, both traditional and contemporary music add to the magic of the season. Whether you’re in the car, shopping around or feeling merry with family and friends, there’s nothing like a collection of classics to put you in the mood.

If you haven’t visited it yet, we encourage you to check out abcteach’s music section. It has a variety of themed activities, including biographies, vocab, and even a specific category dedicated to holiday carols (found on the member site). These materials are great for home or classroom use, and support any environment with an ear for melody.

Here are additional music-related sections:

• • Theme Unit: Music
• • Clip Art: Music
• • Teaching Extras: Music Extras
• • Reading Comprehensions (select your age group and go!)

 
From Jingle Bells to Auld Lang Syne, we hope these materials add that extra special something to your holiday plans.

~the abcteach team