Try this!
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Interested in coding.......these kids are!
"Can we play on the code thing?"
"I have 30 lines of code!"
"Can we work on one together?"
"Can we work on one together?"
These kids are really excited about having the opportunity to learn some of the basics of coding.
It started when one of my students wanted to make a game for kids for his genius hour project. To help him, I found the app called Hopscotch and put it on all of the kids ipads.
Two months later I have found that the majority of students were on the app or were sneaking on the app to play. Due to their curiosity, I knew it was time that I jumped into it too! Not such a bad thing! I found they were looking at work that other kids had already made verses making their own work using codes they created. They just need to learn how as the interest was completely there.
code.org is a great site that takes kids through the steps of how to code. They sign up and play, then it goes through the basic concepts with a drag and drop program. It is a game-like self directed tutorial that uses Angry Birds to teach students to learn how to repeat, loop, conditionals and the basic algorithms of coding in 20 mini activities. It took our class about an hour. After using this to teach kid the basics, they were then more successful with the app Hopscotch.
I just love using kids curiosity to foster this type of learning. It's easy when their excitement is encouraged by one another, I just have to give them the tools. :)
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Book Trailers with Tellagami & QR Codes
Students love watching book trailers! They created and recorded trailers with the QR codes using different apps that successfully would record and create an http: link. I have really enjoyed watching the students make their own book trailers!
We started using Croak.it! Croak.it is a voice technology tool that allows users to discover, collect and convey thoughts and expressions on-the-go over voice in 30-second audio snippets. Recently we started to use Tellagami. Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated Gami video. Check out a couple of the 4th graders work samples. Here are three examples of how the kids make book trailers using Tellagami.
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| Telagami |
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| Croak.it! |
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Love Reading! Record, Link, and Share!
I have enjoyed reader’s workshop more than ever this year by
getting my students to read, write, record, send and share. LOVE that kids have enjoyed reading
more than ever! Some are easier
than others to engage into some of their favorite books but at the same time
they LOVE the high expectations of reading. Reporting out to their friends
electronically and individually in our conversations is when things start to happen. Honestly, creating a book
report online has become a collaborative conversation verses, “Why do we have to
do this?” These students enjoy sharing their books verbally and electronically as
they have learned to persuade others to read similar books.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
State Testing TIme
Ready....set.....go! AIMS is right around the corner! This marvelous group is ready for serious business! They had a great time making their own video to show they were ready for AIMS baby!
Friday, April 11, 2014
Japan in 4th Grade
Welcome to Japan!
This winter was we had Around the World Day at our school. After reading, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes it was an easy choice of what country the students wanted to learn about. Here is a link but please read to enjoy the activities! :)
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| From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sadako_and_the_thousand_paper_cranes_00.jpg |
We started out by decorating our own Kimonos as we learned about the traditional dress of the Japanese. In the story Sadako receives a Kimono from her mother as a gift while in the hospital, it was a good connection to the story for the kids.
The Japanese fan was our next creation! After watching a beautiful fan dance of a women in her kimono we started making fans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NJhVZtNFDw I used decorative Japanese style card stock on one side and the other side was up to the kids to decorate. They loved coming up with their design, many kids asked if they could look up images online. This happened to be the day and time my principal popped in with our state representative and a couple other adults! Always fun!
After spending some time shopping around different craft stores I came up with a few more ideas. One was the Japanese Cherry Blossom. I brought one into the classroom from the craft store to hang in our room. Thank goodness my mom was there to help me organize this painting project. We went step by step....first the kids had brown to paint the branch then each student was given red and white and they made their own hue of pink. They practiced on the newspaper first!
We tried to do a little something everyday for two weeks. The dolls and blossoms were more time consuming projects than others, but I tied to do something little each day. Daily the kids came in wondering what we were going to add to our portfolio page of Japan.
First we learned where Japan
was geographically. We colored the map and labeled the capital, Tokyo and city,
Hiroshima. In the story we read it took place in Hiroshima where the main
problem arises due to the historical bombs being dropped.
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Then I gave each of them a
flag make out of card stock and red sticky dots. We added the flag to the
portfolio and wrote what it resembles. The red circle represents the red
sun and the white resembles the white fields.
The currency of Japan is Yen, I printed it in color, glued and labeled onto the portfolio sheets.
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The Great Wave was next. We labeled the famous painting: "The Great Wave off Kanagawa." Then we talked about and labeled the important symbolization in this famous painting to Japan. Mt. Fuji, the boats with people that are used to transport the fish within the heavy waves that are about to break.
After studying the painting this naturally took us to Tsunamis in Japan. This man-made utube caused some good conversations
Next we learned how to write numbers in Japanese
and how to make Organmi by folding special paper to make a paper cup.
Our last exciting moment was
having our own feast. I had a parent come in and she explained all of the
different traditions as well as mannerisms of how Japanese eat properly. Starting out with the tea, someone else
must pour yours first. Then we
tried teriyaki chicken and sushi. Each
child had there own set up chopsticks and some slightly picked it up, some
tried real hard and others just were not there yet. It was a fun day of learning about another culture.
Check this out the video made with the app 'Puppet' to see more pictures of the kids in the classroom!
I'm Speaking at ISTE 2014
I am really looking forward to showing and sharing ideas for kids to make creative book reviews to share with their friends!
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