Five For Friday: Shrimp Tacos, Tablets, Sidewalk Chalk, and an App Review

After sitting outside for a one-person happy hour, I decided it was time to come in and share all the fun we were having this week.

1. Shrimp Tacos with Chipotle Lime Mayo
recipe adapted from Food Network

Shrimp marinade
1 lb shrimp
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
pinch of cayenne pepper
juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp triple sec
1 tbsp EVOO
Kosher salt
black pepper

Peel and devein shrimp, toss in marinade and let sit for about 10 minutes.  Grill or pan sear shrimp for about 3 or 4 minutes on each side, until shrimp are opaque.  Reserve in a covered bowl if not using immediately.

Chipotle Lime Mayo
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp honey
1 chipotle pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp (plus more to taste) chipotle in adobo sauce
Kosher salt

Tacos
Whatever garnishes you like!

According to my husband, these were the best tacos he's ever had.  But he says that about a lot of things I make... the mayo was so good I'm going to use the leftover as a dip for french fries! This was a great quick meal for a weeknight.

 2. Research with Google Tablets- Our district bought two carts of Google Tablets, and my 8th graders have a research report to do.  I don't have computers in my room, and it's hard to get into the lab when there isn't a class going on.  So, tablets + newly discovered subscription to Ebscohost (yay!!) = happy teacher.

3.  Working with adverbs.  I am pretty sure I explained before that my 8th graders are lacking many basic foundational grammar skills.  We did common and proper nouns last week, and I actually gave them the exact same test I gave my second graders. This week we worked on adverbs as our problem of the day, and some kids picked it right up, but adverbs can be tricky! This is a great website if your students need some extra practice.

 4. Prefixes! In other grammar news, my second graders worked on prefixes.  We did Brainpop, we did interactive whiteboard games, we made flap books...we worked really hard!  So today I borrowed some sidewalk chalk from my always prepared friend Halle, since my sidewalk chalk was in my car...exactly where it should be, right?  Anyway, we went outside and studied for our test like this:

Me: "Give me a word that means not happy!"
Them: "Unhappy!"
And they would race to write it.
Simple and fun and planned while we were walking down the hallway.  Now that's my kind of lesson. Don't tell my principal.

We had free "chalk talk" time after and one of my buddies made me "re-man!"

 5. Kid-Tested, Teacher-Approved.  We used the free app Bluster (by McGraw Hill) all week, and I am giving it an A+ rating!  Here you can see it in action- my students begged to play it again and again! It comes with matching rhyming words, synonyms and prefixes.

You start on Level 2 for some reason, and the words are good for 2nd grade and up.  My students liked it because they figured out they could "beat the clock" to get a better score.  We didn't learn all the prefixes they have in the app, but that was ok because it was teaching them word recognition- two of my students were great at it, but one really struggled.  That helped me to see where his problems are in quick reading.  If you don't have it yet, I suggest you download it!

Do you use iPads or tablets in your classroom? What apps do you use?