Adventures in Literacy Land: Epic

Showing posts with label Epic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Epic. Show all posts

Epic...There's More To It!

Epic.  I am a HUGE fan.  Have you tried it out?  I know there have been many great posts about the features and benefits of Epic.  And I want to certainly echo those points here; however, this year Epic added some additional features and a great summer incentive to families.  I can't wait to share all this information with you!
(If you have not used Epic, check out Jennifer's post about how to set it up-Here!)

But first things first...after a year of using Epic in the classroom and at home, what did I observe?

  • Excitement--students would be so excited to share with me the books that they found.
  • Motivation--Epic provides such high quality texts that my students were so motivated to keep reading and exploring new texts.
  • Independence--the app is really kid-friendly, easy to use, and navigate.  This means more independent students!
As a teacher (and mom), here is what I love:
  • It is free for teachers!
  • Each child has their own account.
  • Nonfiction to fiction ratio is great.
  • Books are based on student interest.
  • Some books are read aloud to students.
  • I can see who is really trying to read the books and who is just flipping though them.
  • New books are constantly being added.
Actually the list could go on and on.  As I was writing this post, I got lost myself in the sea of books that have been added this year.  There were so many that I wanted to click on and read for myself.  But let's move on...

What's new to Epic?  As of April 28th, students can access Educational Videos on Epic.  And they are popular!!  The video that I heard most often at the end of year was "Money" from Flocabulary.


When I doing some research on their site, you do have some controls over these videos because they can be pretty exciting and hard to stop watching.  You can check out that information HERE.

Another addition that occurred in April was the Home Access Program.  Teachers can give their families access to Epic at home for one month FREE without providing any credit card information. This is wonderful because I am always looking for more ways to add to their home library!

Right now Epic is providing free access to families through July 31st with the hope that this will help with the summer slide!  Yes!!  Just direct your families to www.getepic.com/summer and they can read, read, read until July 31st!!
Do you have a favorite feature from Epic?  I would love to hear about it!!






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Reaching Readers with Online Books

Greetings from one long, lost blogger!

Hello!  It's me--Jennifer--from Stories and Songs in Second!



My summer hiatus from this royal kingdom of literacy lovers is now over! 

Know that I am glad to be back to share a wonderful website that I recently discovered!  I've used RAZ Kids, a program purchased by my school district, as my "go to" online reading resource for many years, but am going to add EPIC to my student's list of Daily 5 Listen to Reading choices this year!

I've been very impressed with the variety of literature choices provided at Epic--Books for Kids, and really like that many of the titles included in their different libraries are current, quality trade books.  There is a balance of fiction and non-fiction, and you can tailor your menu to your student's interests.



In order to show you how easy-peasy it is to sign-up for your account, I took a series of screen shots so that you'd have a picture tutorial!  I am not the most techno-savvy person, but was able to set up my account on my home laptop, and plan to access it on my iPads at school as well!  There is also an iPhone app!













I love the Scaredy Squirrel series, but don't own many hard copies.  I am looking forward to sharing more of the stories with my second graders using EPIC on my classroom SmartBoard!  I am also looking forward to sharing information with my students' families so that they can access our account at home and READ, READ, READ! 




I hope that you'll be able to use EPIC effectively this year to reach and teach more readers!  Click
{HERE} to get started!

In closing, I'd like to share this fun set of promotional posters I made for the annual literacy initiative in my building.  Maybe you can use them in your classroom or school as well?!?!   Click {HERE} to download it!  

The "We have read _____ picture books," "We have read ______ chapter books," and 
"Your teacher is reading...." posters were inspired by the ever-wise Pernille Ripp.   She writes over at Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension, and shares my love of picture books and fills her classroom with them.  I look forward to encouraging a classroom community of children who are passionate about books this year, and hope you will too!




As always, thank you for allowing me to share my story!  Continue to keep calm, teach on, and hold a song in your heart!  Feel free to visit me over at Stories and Songs in Second this week where there is a back-to-school celebration going on!







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