Where Did September Go?

It's already October.  I feel like I totally missed all of September.  It is such a blur.  I had to leave during the end of August, right before the start of our book fair for a family emergency.  I had to leave so quickly, I didn't even get a picture of the final set up before the fair started. However, I felt very blessed to have some wonderful co-workers and some great volunteers who ran the fair while I was out.   I was out for 6 days and it seems like it took me forever to get back to a routine.

Just as I thought I was about to catch up, the annual West Georgia RESA Technology Conference was upon me and I was out another two days with that.  It was a good conference.  I got to talk with my friend Shannon Miller and I even won a Keurig, although I don't drink coffee. But it's all good because the hubs does drink coffee and his birthday is coming up.

So I thought my luck was changing, but the next week I got two flat tires...in less than 12 hours!  But PTO brought cupcakes that day (my favorite!) and I got an email confirmation that I am registered for my favorite tech conference in November. That made the situation a little less stressful.

The awful back luck continued last week when a nasty viral infection struck me down on Tuesday afternoon. Hard.  I started feeling bad and within an hour I was down for the count.  Although it wasn't the flu, I can't imagine that the flu would have felt much worse.  Everything hurt and then came the sore throat, runny nose, cough, nausea.  I was a walking bedridden Nyquil commercial. I am starting to feel better today, which is good because I really do not need to miss any more work.

In between all the bad luck, I did manage to teach some classes including

Kindergarten and First Grade First Checkouts of the Year

Second Grade Library Centers

You can purchase a copy of the library centers I use HERE in my TpT store.

Third Grade Dictionary Skills

You can read about the Dictionary Dudes and download a free copy HERE.

Fourth and Fifth Grade Fiction Book Hunt with Aurasma

You can read more about the Aurasma book hunt HERE.
NOTE:  Aurasma is now HP Reveal. 

Fourth Grade Non-fiction QR Code Hunt

You can read more about the QR Code Dewey Hunt HERE.

So that was my September.  I really hope that October is less eventful.

Aurasma Book Hunt

Note: Since this post was first published, Aurasma has become HP Reveal.  However, all trigger images created with Aurasma should still work with the new HP Reveal app.

In my last post I told you that I was doing some Aurasma activities with my kiddos.  A few weeks ago, I did a Book Hunt with 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades to help them review the different fiction sections of the Media Center and I used Aurasma to make it more fun.  It was a BIG hit!  I wanted a new way to teach the fiction sections of the media center and this was it.

For the Book Hunt clues I created, I used Aurasma Studio rather than the Aurasma app.  Aurasma Studio is the online version of the app and it offers tons more options for what you can do...like creating an aura with multiple overlays and actions.  I had not used Aurasma Studio before. I did all my previous auras with the Aurasma app, but I found Aurasma Studio much easier to use for what I was doing.  NOTE: Auramsa Studio is now HP Reveal Studio.

BTW, you can learn all about using Aursma with my free How To Guide ( Just click on the picture or click HERE to download your copy.

Note: Since this post was first published, Aurasma has become HP Reveal. The app works in much the same way, but parts may have a different look.   The How to Guide has been updated to reflect that change.

For the Book Hunt lesson, I first reviewed the different sections of the Media Center, how to read a call number and how to look up books in our online catalog, Destiny.  Then we started our Book Hunt.   I used book covers as the trigger images.  I gave the students their first clue printed out.  They did not have to scan it.   It looked something like this:

They would then go and locate that book on the shelf, practicing their skills in reading call numbers and locating materials.  Once they found the book, they would scan the book cover with the Aurasma app (now HP Reveal app) and their next clue would appear as an aura.  They would then go and find the next book shown in that clue, repeating the process until they found all 4 or 5 books.

Their final clue looked like this:

I created six groups for this Book Hunt with 4 or 5 books to be found per group.  (Each group had a different color frame around their clue.)  Third grade had 4 books to find and fourth and fifth grade had five books to find.  Below are some pictures of the books they had to locate.  If you follow my HP Reveal channel you can scan each book separately to see the clues that the students saw when they scanned the book covers. (To follow my HP Reveal channel, type in this URL in the browser of your device that has the HP Reveal app on it:  http://bit.ly/MESMCAC  Once you are following my HP Reveal channel, you will be able to scan the books below and see the auras I've created.)

They had such a great time on this Book Hunt.

I am hoping to use HP Reveal (formerly Aurasma) with my first grade classes this week...but that is for another post.  Stay tuned!

Do you have any great ideas for using HP Reveal in the classroom or media center?