Join The StickTogether January Challenge... Random Acts of Kindness. There's A Special Choice Board To Share Too!

 

Our friends at StickTogether are kicking off a special new monthly activity for 2022. 

They are the StickTogether Monthly Challenges!  

In January, the StickTogether Month Challenge celebrates Random Acts of Kindness. 

Using the amazing January Challenge, Random Acts of Kindness template found here....

....you can challenge your students to take part in these mini Random Acts of Kindness challenges.  

I just love these....Play With Someone New At Recess, Sit By Someone New At Lunch, Spend Tie With A Loved One, Call A Friend or Family Member and so many others that will inspire kindness within our students and throughout our school community. It will be fun to share these with our students. 

To participate in the StickTogether Challenge #1...Random Acts of Kindness, share one student's StickTogether Random Act of Kindness Challenge story on this Google Form that you will find here.

You can share photos to tell the story. 

We can #STChallenge and tag @byStickTogether when sharing photos and stories on social too. 

StickTogether will choose one winning StickTogether Challenge story each month.  The winner will get one FREE Standard StickTogether Kit that you choose. 

Also, at the bottom of the Google Form, there is a link for a certificate you can print out to give students for their Random Act of Kindness. Our kids will LOVE these and what a special way to celebrate their kindness. 

To go along with the January StickTogether Challenge, I put together the Random Acts of Kindness Choice Board.  You can share this link with your students or make a copy here. 

I am so excited for the StickTogether Challenges and can't wait for a new one each month. 

QRCode Monkey Creates The Coolest QR Codes! Look How It Helps Me Make Monthly QR Code Posters To Share!

I make QR codes for a lot of different resources every week and my favorite QR code generator is QRCode Monkey.  I love how easy it is to make a QR code pointing to the resource I want to share, but also how it lets me include a small image of the resource in the center. 

Let me show you how to use QRCode Monkey! 

I use QRCode Monkey each month as I make and share the monthly choice boards. Today, as I was getting the February Choice Board ready to share with our teachers, I put together the QR code too. 

First, I grab the link by clicking on Publish To The Web. Just copy that link and...

...take it over to QRCode Monkey. You will paste that link into Your URL. 

Next, go down to Add Logo Image and Upload a small screen shot of the choice board. 

Click on Create QR Code and watch as your...

....QR Code is created.  

 

You can download the QR code or take a little screen shot. 

Then I head back to Google Slides to make the QR Code poster I will share with our teachers and students. I upload the QR Code and a screen shot of the choice board. I can share this with them digitally by publishing this choice board to share in their Google Classroom or Seesaw or make a...

....paper copy so they can scan it easily with their device.  This is how our youngest learners access the choice boards because they use iPads. 

It's that simple! You will find QRCode Monkey here, friends. 

You've Been Book'd For February! And Our NEW Monthly Virtually Book'd eBook Program Using Capstone Connect For All Readers!

 

One of our favorite reading celebrations at Van Meter School are the...

...You've Been Book'd bags and lists that we have shared throughout the year. 

Our students and teachers love hanging the You've Been Book'd posters in their windows, reading the books, checking the boxes and trading them with other classrooms.  

It is so much fun.  You can read all about our You've Been Book'd program here and you will find the first one for this year and back-to-school here in this post.

Here is our You've Been Book'd for February. 

Last year, as we were learning together virtually, I thought it would be fun and special to take our You've Been Book'd program online and use all of the wonderful eBooks in our Capstone Interactive to make this happen. 

And now, I am getting ready to kick off another year of our You've Been Virtually Book'd program using Capstone Connect, an amazing new platform from our friends at Capstone that connects PebbleGo, PebbleGo Next, Capstone Interactive eBooks and teachers resources in one place with links to use that connect to each resource.

Let me show you how I put the You've Been Virtually Book'd For February choice board together today.

First, I logged into our Capstone Connect. 

I searched for "Valentine" eBooks using the Title Search in Capstone Connect. 

When I searched "Valentine", it gave me the results eBooks, PebbleGo articles and teacher resources.

For the choice board I created, I needed the book cover and link to the eBook.  It is super easy to Copy the Link in Capstone Connect. You can see it circled on the right. 

To view the eBook, I clicked on Valentine's Day and the eBook...

...opened up in Capstone Interactive.  This let me view the eBook and also grab the cover image. 

I then clicked on Copy Link and took it to the choice board. 

I then went back to the You've Been Virtually Book'd For February choice board I created in Google Slides.  I added the screen shot of the book cover, clicked on the image, and added the link I copied to the image. 

When our students and teachers click on the book covers, it will take them straight to the ebooks within Capstone Interactive.  

We don't even have to login because by using Capstone Connect it takes us directly to the eBooks and PebbleGo resources every time.  

We love our You've Been Book'd program and can't wait to celebrate reading in one more way with our students as we share our You've Been Virtually Book'd program every month! 

I made this template for you to create your own You've Been Virtually Book'd For February.  If you have Capstone Interactive eBooks, you can find the link and add them to the book covers I have included above or take this template and fill in your own eBooks and choices for February. 

You will find the February You've Been Virtually Book'd template without eBook covers here.

Happy Reading, friends.