Each class day, people add more content to YouTube than you’ll be able to watch the rest of your life. Amongst the deluge of video content, there are nuggets that inspire creativity and may even launch unique projects and experiences for your students.

Consider a YouTube search for “Aesop’s Fables.” Surprisingly, the search returns only 1,270 videos. As search results go, that’s not much. In the mix were clips of students enacting fables, old cartoons of fables, and storytellers presenting them. One jumped off the screen and demanded attention.

The style of the video was different than anything else amidst the results: it was claymation. What’s particularly interesting is that it was created and produced by 1st and 2nd graders with the help of their teachers.

Recreating a fable through claymation adds a kinesthetic element to the project; filming it makes it not only last longer, it also makes it very easy to share with others. If you have a class enewsletter or send regular email updates to parents (or donors, booster, supporters), including video content showcasing stories recreated by your students might just get the attention of the folks you’re trying to reach.

When you create any art, craft, multimedia or other project you want to share with the world, please be sure to post them to the SmileMakers Facebook Page.

Windows are wonderful. There’s a built in adventure just on the other side of the sliver of glass between inside and outside. What do you do if you only have one small window in your classroom?

Just add another window! Not much budget you say? Here’s how you can add a window without putting in a requisition or negotiating a budget approval.

After we posted a note about Crayola’s new write-on-windows markers, K.C. Grewe posted an intriguing question on our Facebook Page:

How about framing transparencies? Go to the dollar store for the frames and stick a transparency sheet (maybe 2 for sturdiness) in the frame. Use transparency markers (I don’t know if these wall markers would work) to write, draw, etc and then wipe down when done.

For less, use sheet protectors. Pin/tape them up in different places around the room and create a window-like border around them. Then, have your students create pictures—images of what’s outside—and slip them in the pocket! These can be changed according to the season, theme, whatever you like. [by S Collazo and used by permission]

Looks like the state of California is experimenting with going all-digital. Technology is reshaping much of the way we get and create content. Moving to all-digital textbooks would be a reshaping of epic proportions. Theoretically, digital textbooks would be less costly and certainly easier to keep up to date. They could also include multi-media and interactive content as well.

What do you think are the benefits and the drawbacks to going all-digital?

Education blogger Elizabeth King is a thought-provoker. Her recent post Critical Thinking: What is it anyway? got us thinking: what’s the connection between well-developed critical thinking skills and smiles?

King’s post is thorough, well-worth the study, and has helpful graphics and questions. In the end, it seems critical thinking skills equip students to “navigate the world of ideas” and make sense of one’s own world. The connection to smiles? It could just be that understanding the world around you, and being able to make sense of it, gives you the confidence to act. The action and the results are likely to…create smiles.

What do you think?

“What’s your favorite part of the school day,” the grandparent asked his 4th grader. “Recess,” she replied.

Recess is probably an eagerly anticipated part of your school day, too. Except, that is, when it’s rainy or it’s messy outside. Then what? What DO you do on your rainy days?

Teacher blogger Vodkamom asks the question a little more poignantly, “What do little girls do when they are banned from rescuing worms and snails from the schoolyard wetlands and are forced to play inside because of the rain?” Apparently the remedy she experienced left her with an unwanted collection of pet ants.

Here’s a collection of rainy day suggestions:

• Rainy day fun and boredom buster for kids from AmazingMoms.
• Top 10 rainy day activities from Family Education. (Even though some suggestions focus on what parents at home might do with their children on rainy days, the events might apply in the classroom as well.)
• 12 Rainy day activities: Chase the blues away with fun rainy day activities that get kids up and moving.
• Better Homes & Gardens rainy day projects for kids. (a directory listing of a wealth of craft projects)

“Crafts” made the list of many of the “rainy day” lists we explored. If you’d like a complete selection of economical crafts, please check out the wide variety of SmileMakers rainy day crafts (and sunny day crafts, too) available through our website.

One school year’s past. Summer’s here. Enjoy it for a while. Soon, you’ll turn your attention to preparing for a brand new school year. There’ll be textbook reviews, seminars, workgroups, lesson plans and more.

What are the tools you use to help you prepare for another year? Would you define and describe them in the comments section?

A long-time classic planning structure is Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Of course it’s been updated since he first published it, but it is often referenced in current literature. How would you recommend teachers use it in preparation for a new year?

Using Bloom’s taxonomy does seem to foster thinking focused on outcomes. Here’s a helpful Bloom’s Taxonomy “verb” chart that may help you think through the processes required to help your students reach the outcomes you envision.

Planning resources available through SmileMakers:

• Plan Book with Pizzaz
• Differentiated Instruction Planner
• Lesson Plan & Record Book

Teachers and education service professionals gathered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to talk about the heavy-duty issues of education. While they were there, one of them, music teacher Charlene Broadway, got one of our Cat in the Hat® puppets and made us all smile.

The Cat in the Hat® puppet is available online from Smilemakers.com. Here’s a complete listing of Dr. Seuss® products available from Smilemakers.

You’ve probably seen them already: those adorable rubber bracelets shaped like horses, bears, dogs, and other fascinating creatures. Kids love them. They don’t wear just one either—they wear a BUNCH all at once. Nice thing about rubber band bracelets, they’re economical and nearly always bring a smile (a smile for the one getting another supply of them, and a smile for everyone who happens to see them wearing the bracelets!).

We have a good supply economical rubber band bracelets available to help you spread smiles all over the place.

What an incredible time to be an educator! The Internet opens up not only a whole new world of resources, it also opens up a whole new world of relationships. Blogs are especially useful for opening up both new worlds.

Here are a few blogging treasures we’ve discovered:

• Integrating Tech by Scott Snyder. Scott’s a high school English teacher with a passion for trying out new technology to make classroom learning more effective.
• The Connected Classroom by Kritin Hokanson. Kristin is an “elementary teacher turned HS Tech Coach.” She does a good job incorporating multimedia into her blog and shining the spotlight on others doing cool things with technology, too.
• History Is Elementary by Jennie Weber. Jennie is now an “online instructor and stay at home mom” who has experience teaching history and math at all levels.

Would you share with us some of the bloggers you enjoy reading and tell us more about them? If YOU’RE a blogger, please share your blog link with us.

It’s amazing what you can do with just a sticker or two
A sticker can make smiles grow quicker for me and you
There’s a sticker for a job well done,
And even a sticker for a job just begun,
A sticker for my very own book,
Or a sticker my just my very own book nook,
There’s a sticker for this,
And a sticker for that,
And a very special sticker
For that Cat in the hat!

Celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss on March 2.

Online resources about Dr. Seuss

• The History Channel’s This Day in History for March 2, 1904
• Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden
• ReadWriteThink’s lesson plans incorporating works by Dr. Seuss

SmileMakers resources for making it a grand party for young and old, so your celebrate will be told and retold.

• Dr. Seuss® Read with a Friend bookmarks
• Dr. Seuss® Teacher Reward Kit: Includes 90 recognition awards, 60 teacher postcards, two 50-sheet notepads, 72 bookmarks and over 1,200 stickers. Over 1,450 pieces. 9″ x 6″ x 3 1/4″
• Dr. Seuss® Cat in the Hat Hats for Your Class
• Dr. Seuss® Hat’s Off to You Recognition Certificates
• Dr. Seuss® Motivational Sticker Book

Would you mind taking a moment to share with us how you’ll be celebrating the birthday of Dr. Seuss?