Tech Tip and Happy Birthday George Washington!

Happy Friday!  I was making this George Washington writing graphic organizer and writing paper to use with my class and thought I would share a tip with you too.  

Did you ever wonder how to get an exact color match of a graphic you have?  

I always want my text or background colors to match exactly.  On the picture above, I want the background color to match the jacket color.  Well there is a super easy way (with mac) to do this.

 

When formatting the color of an object, select the More Colors... option at the bottom of the color selection drawer.

 When it comes up select the crayon box.  Then click on the magnifying glass and your cursor will turn into a magnifying class.  Hover over the color on your document you are trying to match with this magnifying glass and click it.  The color will appear in the selection rectangle, and then click OK.  It is really that easy, a perfect match!

Now in honor of my favorite day Friday and Old George's Birthday, here is a freebie for you.  Click here to grab this graphic organizer and writing paper.

Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was born 204 years ago in a log cabin in Kentucky.  I love teaching about Abraham Lincoln almost as much as the students love learning all about him.  I use this lesson to teach many things to the kids.  It is great for learning about timelines and introducing biographies.  We also compare and contrast life then and now.  The unpleasant history of slavery is also discussed.  My favorite book for this it "The Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln".  It is perfect for K-2 students.

After learning about the life of Lincoln, we write about what we learned.  This is the graphic organizer we use.  I also talked about chronological order and how important it is when telling a story that makes sense.  You can grab this organizer and matching writing paper here.

The students did a fabulous job writing.  We then writing craftivity to display their writings.  My hall way looks amazing now!

I hope your writing turns out as awesome as mine!  The kids even had fun doing it!