4th Grade Washington, DC WebQuest

Fourth grade students are participating in a WebQuest about Washington, DC during their first three week rotation in the computer lab. A WebQuest is an inquiry-based activity in which the information used by students comes from the Web. According to Bernie Dodge, the inventor of the WebQuest, a real WebQuest....

1) is a task that is a scaled down version of something adults would do as citizens or workers.
2) requires higher level thinking including analysis, problem-solving, synthesis, creativity and judgment.
3) makes good use of the Web.

Here is some information about our project. You can see the complete WebQuest here.

Project Introduction:
The Funtastic Travel Agency in downtown St. Petersburg has asked for your help. They are planning a bus tour across the continental U.S. with stops in each state's capital as well as Washington, DC. Since there is so much to do in D.C. and each person taking the tour has different interests, they are asking you to help plan individualized tours for each of the passengers.

Student Tasks:
Task 1
Read the bibliographical information of your assigned passenger and find six places in Washington, D.C. that you think will be of interest to him or her. Use the Web sites provided to identify the six tour stops as well as to research interesting facts about each one. Use the handout provided to record your facts.

Task 2
Use the information gathered during the research process to create a series of Web pages using iWeb. Your presentation should include text, graphics, and audio (if time permits).

Wordle of the Week

Did you know that I love geography? I love teaching it and challenging my students to learn about the world around them. I incorporate geography-related units throughout the year. Another way I challenge students to think geographically is through my "Wordle of the Week." Each week I create a new word cloud and post it in the classroom. The students look at the words and figure out how they are related. Sometimes the Wordles have one connection, sometimes two or three. Can you solve this week's?

VoiceThread for Peace

Listen to 2nd and 5th graders share about peace, what it means to them, and how they can support peace each day. You can see a full view of the project here.

What is an Avatar?

In preparation for an online project, second graders learned about avatars this week. An avatar is a two-dimensional picture used on the Internet to represent a computer user. As student use of the Internet continues to increase exponentially, every effort is made to help keep student identities safe. Using avatars is just one way to help children participate in online communities while maintaining their privacy. Students had so much fun creating a Lego Man avatar. Look in E-bytes next week to see their avatars in action.

Meet Firefoot, Mrs. Swirly Whirl, Sparky and Curly Q

Last March, the second graders released four travel bugs out into the world. A travel bug is a trackable item that moves from place to place through the sport of geocaching. At the end of this month, Shorecrest 2nd graders will release four more bugs.

Creating the Bugs:
Many people attach their trackable tags to items such as key chains, stuffed toys, or other small objects. Shorecrest travel bugs are special because everyone in the class has a chance to contribute to its creation. Using my class SmartBoard and the drawing program Early Learning Toolkit, each child in the class drew one part of the bug, adding on to what was drawn before them. Next, each class voted on a name for their bug as well as wrote the goal for their bugs.

Travel Bug Names & Goals:
Curly Q. (Ms. Graham's Class) would like to see Mount Rushmore.
Sparky (Miss Hartz's Class) would like to reach Hawaii.
Mrs. Swirly Whirl (Ms. Cameron's Class) would like to visit the Sears Tower.
Firefoot (Mrs. O'Mullane's Class) would like to stop in New York to see the Statue of Liberty and then visit the Grand Canyon.

Tracking the Travel Bugs
As travel bugs are retrieved from and dropped off in caches, their movements are logged on the Geocaching.com website. I have set my account to send me email notifications anytime a bug is moved. This allows me to give the classes weekly updates. The students will then use Google Earth to record each bug's travels. In addition, I have a large map in my classroom where the students will place pins when the bugs are moved.

Teaching geography through travel bugs couldn't be more fun!

First Grade Name Webs in Kidspiration

Kidspiration is a kid-friendly mapping tool that allows students to organize ideas visually. Students write text or add pictures based on a main idea. Text and pictures can then be linked together to show connections. First graders used "Picture View" to create a name web last week. They practiced launching the program, changing the main idea, adding pictures from the library, and creating links to make their web. They also reviewed how to print independently.

Fun with Wordle

I just love the site www.wordle.net, and so do the kids. Wordle is an online tool that allows you to make "word clouds" from text. These "word clouds" can be printed out or saved as images. Words typed more than once are more prominent in the final graphic. Students can format clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. Third graders made Wordles about themselves while fourth graders created Wordles highlighting aspects of digital citizenship.