Tried It Tuesday: Tagxedo

I'm linking up with Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday!  As I mentioned in May's Monthly Market, this year for our Mother's Day craftivity we are using Tagxedo.   It's this digital word art website that allows you to type in words and it turns those simple words into amazing works of art.  I have been tossing around lots of ideas on how to incorporate these works of art into Mother's Day and I think I have finally just decided on a large card.  Mostly because we're running out of time and I cannot put it off any longer?!  It's nothing overly fancy but I really like it and can expand more on it next year.

Once you're on the homepage, you will click on the Create tab in the top right.  Here is where the magic happens!  I just played around with it and figured it out but I will tell you some quick tips to get you started and life a little less confusing.

1. Load = type in the student's words
2. Save = save :o)  I've been saving it as 1MP and it's great quality!
3. Color Respin = change which words are which colors
4. Theme = choose your color scheme.  The border around your color block tells what color your background is.
5. Font = font :o)  You can upload your own font very easily though :o)
6. Orientation = change the words from jumble to horizontal to vertical to up and down, etc.
7. Shape - you can pick a new shape.  Our art teacher did their silhouettes by taking a picture of their heads on a white background and uploading it :o)  I typed "MOM" on Word and saved it as a picture and it filled in the word MOM :o)

That's all I've got for now but I'm sure you can play around and figure out A LOT more.  Here are some of our examples from today:

We are going to cut out the heart and place it on fancy scrapbook paper and what not to make cards.  Should look something like this but I'm going to let them get as creative as they want.

This one's for my momma!

I see this for LOTS of things!

• End of the year - students write down something nice about each person and I type it in.  The shape will be of their name and it is a going away gift.  This would be a GREAT self confidence booster, especially for my guys going into middle school.
• Teacher Appreciation Week (even for your teammates)
• Mother's Day/Father's Day
• Back to School - open house have an apple shape of all the things they have to look forward to this year!  (I'm definitely doing this)

What would you use it for?  Don't forget to check out my TPT store for the Teacher Appreciation Sale today and tomorrow!

May's Monthly Market and GIVEAWAY

It's that time again for Monthly Market!  To participate all you have to do is write a post about one, two, or all three of the topics for the month and link back up to share your ideas.  They can be ideas you've already tried, things you want to try (hello Pinterest!), or products that you've used or plan on using.  The whole point of the market is to swap or trade ideas with people in the same situation as you are.  You can link up all month as well.  This month we are celebrating Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day and the End of the Year (VERY excited to be celebrating that one!). 

Cinco de Mayo:
Is it awful that we really don't do anything to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the classroom?  I usually eat lots of salsa though at home if that compensates for it??? LOL  I would LOVE to hear what some other classrooms do and get some great ideas.

Mother's Day:
Click here for last year's Mother's Day gift: Mom's Gazette.  The kids had a lot of fun creating a newspaper for their mom.  Thanks Martha Stewart for the front page template!  Since there was no back we created an Author's Spotlight (the student's favorites in fifth grade), a BioPoem and coupons for Mom to use!

 

This year I want to make silhouettes of the students with a little twist.  The picture below was my "pinspiration."  Now the twist is that instead of pretty scrapbook paper for the background, I want students to write either twenty different adjectives that describe their mom, or maybe ten reasons why she's the best mom ever, and have them continually repeat like digital art behind the silhouette.  It won't be perfect and some words will get cut off but since it continually repeats down the page you're bound to see it again somewhere else.  Our amazing art teacher showed me this cool site called Tagxedo that will help out with all that and I'm VERY excited to get started.  I'm going to try and make a tester tomorrow so fingers crossed!  I will post pictures of the final product and tell you more about my Tagxedo experience next week for Fourth Grade Flipper's Tried It Tuesday :o)

End of the Year:
The end of the year is always so crazy for fifth grade?!  We have the maturation video (yikes!),  Sunshine State Party, Fifth Grade Party, Safety Patrol Party,  Sunshine State Feast, Book Fair, Award Ceremony, etc.  You get the point.  Since there is all this going on and it is during the day, my kids are always being pulled out of the classroom so it's rare that I have them all together for activities.

One thing I love to do though is Paper Plate Awards.  They aren't the "fancy paper" kind of awards but I think the kids actually prefer these because they are designed and decorated just for them.  It's unique and special and shows that I paid attention to them over the year and I really "GET" them and appreciate them.

(Not from my classroom)

Cannot forget the new monthly writing prompt calendar for our Daily 3: Writing Connection Station!  The first three people to link up will get a copy for free!!!

Go ahead and post your amazing ideas as well!  If you do please include the button and a link back to this post.  Also remember to comment on the blog before and after yours (who doesn't love comments?!).  Don't forget that my 200 Followers Giveaway is still going on until May 5th so be sure and enter for some FANTABULOUS prizes - yep prizes, plural!

Basket Bonanza and Mother's Day

Tonight was our school's second annual Basket Bonanza and it was a smashing success!  A lot of my kiddos showed up to volunteer and I got to put my raffle tickets in for a lot of great baskets.  I even put in for two free round trip Jet Blue tickets (fingers crossed, Mr. S and I could use them for the honeymoon)!  I had to leave early so I'm not sure if I won yet, but I sure hope so.  There were some amazing creations there and lots of great gifts ideas for the holidays this year!  Our class voted on the theme Mother's Day for our basket and here is what we came up with...

• Best Mom coffee mug
• $10 Dunkin Donuts gift card (for breakfast in bed)
• Two tabloid magazines
• Bubble bath and lotion
• Back massager
• Ghiradelli chocolate
• Paint Your Own Plate Kit
• Three blank Mother's Day Coupons
• Mother's Day card

The lovely ladies of the PTA and front office wrapped it in cellophane and made it look worth a million bucks!  Gotta love cellophane :o) 

Speaking of Mother's Day, we just finished our Mother's Day projects and I am VERY pleased with how they turned out!  Since they are in fifth grade I wanted to something that they didn't think was too "babyish."  So what do all teachers do when they are in a creative bind... go to Pinterest!  I found the front cover from Martha Stewart and I created the back on Phrint Shop. 

(At the bottom, students write their name next to Published By, but I shaded it out here for privacy purposes)




On the top is the Author's Spotlight where we included a recent picture of the student, their name, age, height, favorite color, favorite subject in school, favorite TV show or movie, favorite book, favorite food, and what they want to be when they grow up.  Along the bottom right are three coupons for mom: one free hug, an uninterrupted nap, and breakfast in bed.  The kids all voted that those were acceptable and probable coupons, haha.  The bottom left is a Mother's Day BioPoem that the kids wrote from their point of view of their mother.  It was really funny and interesting to see how some of these kids see their mom.  Kind of makes you wonder what they think about you???  Tomorrow we will wrap them in our big envelopes so they can take them home this weekend for Mother's Day!

Sabra