One of My Favorite Technology Blogs

I wanted to share an amazing blog that is one of my go to blogs for all things technology related!

I'm sure many of you already follow Erin, but, if not, you must pay here a visit.  I am currently a kindergarten teacher, but I am also a member of our building's 21st Century Technology team for our district.  This means that I need to have amazing ideas, tips, and ways to integrate and embed technology in a variety of grade levels!  

Kleinspiration has been the inspiration for many new things I have tried in my classroom, as well as things that I will be sharing with our tech team to introduce to our staff throughout the upcoming school year.

I love that her blog is full of amazing resources, but it also focuses on the purposeful embedding of technology, which is really what it's all about!

You must go visit her blog,

and while you're there be sure to sign up for her Target gift card giveaway!

A Rockin' Giveaway

How would you like to win this for your classroom?

Hop on over to 

to find out how to enter this giveaway, and check out some of her amazing reviews while you're there!

Embedding Google Docs with the New Version

Ok, let me first say, that I do not profess to be a blog or tech expert, but I can usually figure things out.  I originally learned how to embed a Google document into my posts from Kristen at Ladybug Teacher Files.  Her amazing tutorial taught me how to embed files using the old version of Google docs.


Our friends at Google have since completely done away with the old version.  No matter how many tutorials I read/watched or how many times I tried to make it work with the new Google docs, it just wouldn't.  I was trying to post the activities that went with the Christmas in July Picture Book Exchange (this post), and I couldn't let it go.  


I know lots of people are using Scribd now rather than fight with Google docs, but I just didn't want to mess with setting up one more thing :)  So I decided to do trial and error with the HTML code that the old version of Google docs generated for me in the past, and I believe I have a bit of code that may be helpful to others.


Here's my humble attempt at sharing, via a tutorial, the process I used.


Obviously, start your post, and then switch over to the "Edit HTML" tab.  Copy and paste this code into your post. I leave the highlighted portions for now.


<iframe frameborder="0" height="560px" src="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&amp;pid=explorer&amp;chrome=false&amp;embedded=true&amp;srcid=A PORTION OF YOUR GOOGLE LINK GOES HERE&amp;hl=en_US" width="100%"></iframe>


In a new tab, open up your Google docs, and check the box next to the document you want to embed.  This will bring up the properties of the document on the right sidebar.

Next, click on the "Settings" link in the Sharing section on the right sidebar.

It will bring up this box:

If you have not already defined the sharing for the document, click "Change" and select either "Anyone who has the link can view" or "Public on the web."  You must choose one of these options to be able to embed the document.

The link you need will be highlighted at the top of the box. Copy this link, and back to Blogger we go!

Paste this link underneath the copied HTML code, so it looks like this

<iframe frameborder="0" height="560px" src="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&amp;pid=explorer&amp;chrome=false&amp;embedded=true&amp;srcid=A PORTION OF YOUR GOOGLE LINK HERE&amp;hl=en_US" width="100%"></iframe>

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B0I1MYR8aYMPMWVjNGYxNTgtNzU4My00NjgxLWI3ZDgtYzA0MWVjN2YyNjk4&hl=en_US

The section highlighted in yellow is what needs to be copied from Google generated link, and pasted into the highlighted section of the HTML code provided.  If needed, you can also adjust the height in the first line of code, highlighted in green. 560 works nicely for landscape documents, and roughly 675 work nicely for landscape.


Click on the "Compose" tab at the top of your post to see how the embedded document looks, and make any height adjustments necessary.


Clear as mud?  I hope this is helpful to those struggling to embed Google docs with the new version! 

Christmas in July Picture Book Exchange

Christmas in July Picture Book Exchange 

Linky Party

I was so excited to participate in this festive exchange organized by Randee at How About Them Apples?, Jackie at Here We Go Loopty Loo, and Nicole at First Grade O.W.L.s!

My partner was Amy, a kindergarten teacher in South Carolina.  

Amy sent me "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" by Mo Willems

and some fabulous activities to go with the book including: thinking maps, writing prompts and cute pigeon writing paper, a directed drawing lesson, and so much more!  I can't wait to use these activities this fall when we start our Mo Willems author study! 

I LOVE MO WILLEMS! I had this picture book in my classroom, but it apparently met it's maker sometime during the last week of school :(  It was on my list of books to replace this summer, but I hadn't yet.  SO perfect!  And what makes it even more perfect than the fact that it's Mo Willems, you ask?

Look what I found at Target this last week! (more about my latest Target finds coming soon)

(on clearance for $6.48! Yea!)

It was meant to be!  Thanks Amy for a fabulous Christmas in July gift!

And because the giving is so much more important than getting...

I sent Amy "Splash!" by Ann Jonas.

This is one of my favorite picture books to use in math lessons.  Early in the year we use it to practice listening, counting, 1 to 1 correspondence, and oral number stories.  As the year goes on it is a natural book for addition, subtraction, and writing number sentences.

Here are the activities that I sent to Amy to go along with the book:

Small manipulatives to use with the story ( I have used them in small group math and as a follow up activity after the listening center).


Large version of manipulatives (I use mine with magnets on the whiteboard).



Number Story pages with 4 different levels, depending on the time of year or the needs of your students.

Head on over to 

to see all of the fabulous picture books that were exchanged and their corresponding activities!