It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

With a late Thanksgiving this year - Christmas holiday preparation must be done rapidly. This is NOT something I do well. I like to put the decorations up bit by bit. Also, I am finding that weekends are crammed with festivities and parties. Again, something I prefer to spread out over the course of several weeks.

Something I am enjoying (other than the beautiful snow today
is the new group on Facebook - Techformers. It is a group of educators who see the benefits of using technology to help our students become thinkers, reflectors, and creators.

Today's challenge was to use a word cloud generator to create a picture using the words to a favorite Christmas song. I usually use Wordle - it is quick and easy. The down side for me, as a 4th grade teacher, is that some of the wordles in the gallery are not school appropriate. So, I do not let my students use it independently. But today, while exploring some new word cloud generators, I discovered ABCya. It is also quick and easy to use, and it seems to be younger student friendly.

Here is the word cloud I made from one of my favorite Christmas songs.

Tomorrow during computer lab I will have the students select their favorite holiday song. I show them how to copy and paste into a word document and then upload to ABCya.com. Then they will work on MS Paint to illustrate the song. 

Happy Holidays!!