4th Grade Jazz Glogs

During their last rotation in the lab before winter break, students created glogs representing the jazz musicians they are studying in preparation for their "We Haz Jazz" show on January 28th. A glog is an online poster that allows students to embed images, videos, and text.

Working with partners, students researched the lives and careers of selected musicians. In addition to practicing the skill of taking notes from websites, the students were introduced to the concept of documenting sources for a bibliography. Students were required to collect copyright, URL, and author information for each of the websites used in the research process. They also included resources for media used on their final projects.

A grading rubric was used to help guide the students during the process with an emphasis on content, use of media, design, and mechanics.

Enjoy these wonderfully informative projects!



Ms. Tucker's Class
Benny Goodman by Bruno & Will
Tommy Dorsey by Ethan & Steven
Jelly Roll Morton by Grace & Elizabeth S.
Cab Calloway by Campbell & Ashlee
Joe King Oliver by Rachel & Austin
Ella Fitzgerald by Lily & Alexandra
Louis Armstong by William
Scott Joplin by Tate & Christopher
Billie Holiday by Elizabeth R. & Reagan

Miss Telemachos's Class
Louis Armstrong by Logan & Danny
Dizzy Gillespie by Bella & Felina
Lester Young by Ashton & Ethan
Jelly Roll Morton
Ella Fitzgerald by Senna & Jacqui
Count Basie by Natalie & Vivienne
Dizzie Gillespie by Marielle & Taylor
The Dorsey Brothers by Scott & Charlie

Miss Lemon's Class
Fats Waller by Brendan & Cole
Charlie Parker by Matthieu, Taylor E. & Anna
Thelonious Monk by Benjamin & Lance
Count Basie by Kathryn & Makaylah
Gene Krupa by Taylor and Thomas
Dizzie Gillespie by Noah & William
Mary Lou Williams by Emma S. and Jacqueline
Scott Joplin by Emma M. & Walker

Mr. Hughes's Class
Louis Armstrong by Carlos & Alexis
Dizzie Gillespie by Connor & Taylor
Bessie Smith by Olivia & Saif
Billie Holiday by Sara & Isabelle
Cab Calloway by Sophie & Greta
Duke Ellington by Aidan & Thomas
Ma Rainey by Delaney & Jordan
Thelonious Monk by Trevor & Will

First Graders Make Gingerbread Houses

After listening to the story Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, first grade students had the opportunity to make their own gingerbread houses online just like the main character Matti did in the story at Home Sweet Home. Once the houses were created, they were used as story starters by the children. The children were challenged to tell a story about the gingerbread living in their house. Many of the children wrote about boys and girls while others wrote about gingerbread animals such as elephants and bunnies.

Here are links to other fun gingerbread activities:

The Gingerbread Man Story
The Gingerbread Man on Starfall
Gingerbread Man Sequencing
Gingerbread Man Coloring
Gingerbread House

Second Grade Travel Bugs

It's not often that I find time in my day to write two blog posts, but I am so excited about my travel bug project with second grade that I could not wait to write about it. This school year will mark the third year we will release travel bugs.

In simplest terms, a travel bug is an item that can be tracked online at Geocaching.com. Each travel bug (dog tag) has its own tracking number stamped on it. This tag is then attached to a small item such as a stuffed toy, key chain or luggage tag and placed inside a cache. Geocachers will move a travel bug from cache to cache in the real world, while we track its movement through an "online diary". Travel bugs can be given tasks or missions to complete. It is up to the owner of the bug to decide.

I will be releasing the travel bugs over the winter break in several caches nearby my house. Each week, when the students visit the lab we will go online and check their progress. We may find that the cold weather will keep movement slow the first few months, but we'll keep our fingers crossed.



















In case you are interested, here is a quick update of all the places travel bugs from the the last two years have been. The bugs have traveled more than 44,000 miles in all to date.

• Nugget (2009) has been in 11 states and is now in Southwest England.
• Lightning Bug (2009) has been in 7 states and is now in British Colommbia.
• Boogler (2009) has been in 5 states and is in Illinois.
• Mr. Frecklehead (2009) has been in 4 states and two countries. It reached its goal of visiting the Eiffel Tower twice.
• Firefoot (2010) has been in 3 states and is now in New Jersey.
• Curly Q (2010) has been in New York.
• Swirly Whirl (2010) has been in 6 states and is currently in Ontario, Canada. It reached its goal of visiting Sears Tower (a.k.a Willis Tower).
  
• Sparky (2010) has been in four states and is currently in Iowa.

Kindergarten Builds with Pattern Blocks

During their last visit to the lab before winter break, kindergartners used pattern blocks to create pictures. After a lesson reviewing the six different pattern block shapes (triangle, square, rhombus, diamond, trapezoid, and hexagon) and introduction to sides and angles, students built pictures on the computer. Students learned how to drag shapes to the work space, select shapes to change color, as well as learn how to rotate the shapes. It was wonderful watching their creative juices flowing!

Week of November 29th

FIRST GRADE
First graders kicked off their unit on the solar system with a discussion about different features found on or near planets in our solar system such as rings, moons, and craters. After viewing a slideshow, students pretended to be astronomers who discovered a new planet in our solar system. Using their new knowledge about planet features, they named, illustrated and described their new "discovery".

Solar System Introduction

View more presentations from abaralt.

SECOND GRADE
Second graders continue studying the continents and have now moved on to Europe. With research a focus of the curriculum, students chose to learn either about a country or landmark in Europe. This week's lesson reinforced the concept of taking notes rather than copying sentences from a website. This is always a challenge for the students requiring lots of practice and guidance. Students started their research using WorldBook for Kids as well as other kid-friendly, age-appropriate sites and will complete the research independently at home. Students will use the information gathered for upcoming classroom presentations.

FOURTH GRADE
During the next rotation in the computer lab, fourth graders will work with a partner to research information about a famous American jazz musician. Facts gathered along with images and media files found on the Web will be used to create an online poster called a glog (sample). A rubric is being used to score the project.

4th Grade News Animations Finished

Fourth graders have anxiously awaited the publication of their animation movies. Students created news stories about interesting or unusual events that have taken place in the last few months around the world. Students began the project by identifying a story and conducting research. Research focused on the essential questions who, what, where, when, why and how. Microsoft Word was used to write and edit scripts, and the program Frames was used to create the animation. Students duplicated frames and edited shapes to make their characters talk, added their voice tracks, and created title slides. Some groups even added music tracks.

Mr. Hughes's Class
Trevor & Aidan
Alexis & Delaney
Carlos
Connor
Sophie & Olivia
Saif & Will
Isabelle
Taylor
Thomas
Jordan
Sara & Greta

Ms. Lemon's Class
Ben & Taylor E.
Matthieu
Kathryn
Will & Makaylah
Thomas & Anna
Lance
Emma M.
Cole & Brendan
Noah & Walker
Emma S. and Taylor W.
Jackie

Miss Telemachos's Class
Jacqui
Valère
Felina
Ethan
Natalie & Vivienne
Jake
Charlie
Scott & Logan
Taylor (pending production)
Senna & Danny
Isabella & Marielle
Ashton

Ms. Tucker's Class
Will
Ashlee & Elizabeth S.
Christopher & Bruno
Rachel & Alexandra
Grace & Elizabeth R.
Steven
Tate & Ethan
Reagan & Lily
Campbell
Austin & William

Geocaching Fun in Third Grade

Third graders were excited to participate in their first geocaching activity of the year. After spending a day researching the basics of this treasure hunting game along with learning how GPS technologies work, the students were anxious to use handheld GPS to locate caches hidden across the campus.

Working with partners, students acquired satellites and navigated through the various screens to program the GPS to locate a specific cache. After discussion about how to use the built-in compass, students set off on the hunt.

Once caches were located, students removed envelopes containing pictures and facts about building toys from the 20th century. As students are using K’Nex in their study of motion and design in their classrooms, I thought they would be interested in learning about other building toys used throughout history.


Students returned to the lab and used an online tool to create a timeline. The use of timelines will be extended when the students begin studying European explorers.

Third Graders Learn About Simple Machines

Effective educators, no matter what they teach, must have a basic understanding of how students think and learn when designing learning experiences. One of the perspectives that underlies my philosophy of teaching and learning is Lev Vygotsky's socialcultural learning theory. A Soviet psychologist from the 20th century, Vygotsky believed learning occurs in social contexts often with adults or more capable partners guiding students through the learning process. His theory states that each learner has different levels of abilities and an optimal zone in which learning takes place. This zone, called the zone of proximal development, can be maximized if a child receives guidance and support from a skilled partner. Many of the projects in my classroom follow the instructional strategy of cooperative learning where students work in small, mixed-ability groups in hands-on projects to take advantage of the skills and strengths of their classmates.

This week, third graders worked with partners to learn about simple machines. After a lesson to build background knowledge about the qualities of simple machines and the six different types, students set off across campus on a photo scavenger hunt. Using digital cameras, students were asked to take pictures of each kind of simple machine. Photos were uploaded to the computers and used to create posters in Comic Life. Teamwork was required throughout all stages of the process as students supported each other during their learning.

Week of November 1st

Kindergarten
After reading the rhyming story, Mrs. McNosh Puts Out the Wash, kindergarten students used Early Learning Toolkit to illustrate rhyming pictures. Each student was given a card with a picture on it and asked to think of words that rhyme with it. This activity helped students review how to launch a program independently from the dock, use the new paper tool to find their writing template, and use the drawing tools to add details to their drawings. Students were also introduced to the “shift” key and given instruction on typing their names with the proper casing.

First Grade
A special thank you to the first grade teachers who shared their students for an extra lab session this week. Each class is participating in an online collaborative writing project called Write On with other first and second grade classes around the United States and Canada. The students are writing progressive stories, where each class in the group writes one part of a story. The first class brainstorms and writes the intro paragraph. Then the next class reads the paragraph(s), brainstorms and decides how to they want to continue the story. This will continue until the last class on the list writes the ending and gives the story a title. Pictures are drawn to accompany each section of the story. The completed digital story will be published with the online tool VoiceThread in early December.

Second Grade
In preparation for the second grade program, A Small Part of the World, second graders used the online encyclopedia World Book for Kids to learn about a country from around the world. This week, the students were challenged to brainstorm nouns, verbs, and adjectives that start with the same beginning sound as their country. Next week, students will use their parts of speech worksheets to write and publish alliteration stories.

Third Grade
Third graders used the program Microsoft Word to publish haiku poetry. Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry consisting of three lines. The first and last lines have five syllables and the middle line has seven syllables. The lines rarely rhyme, and the theme of the poetry is usually related to nature in some way. First, students visited the website www.freedigitalphotos.net to find a picture from nature that interested them. Next, they learned how to copy and paste the picture along with the URL address into Word. Students then wrote their haiku and learned various tools to format text. Look for their poems at Poetry in the Park.

Fourth Grade
Fourth graders are adding finishing touches to their news animation stories. I was thrilled with the creativity of the projects and the collaboration of those students who chose to work with a partner. Projects will be finalized this week and published at the end of next week.

First Graders Play Copycat with Kidspiration

First graders become very well-versed using the tool Kidspiration. In addition to making webs of their spelling words each week, student use the various reading, math and social studies/science templates included in the program to compliment their weekly stories, practice math skills, and organization information about topics such as the weather, their bodies, and the solar system. This week, students used virtual pattern blocks within Math View to create pictures.

Each student was given a bag of random pattern blocks to create a picture. The children were asked to use all their blocks in the picture and were only allowed to trade blocks with a neighbor who was also willing to trade. After designing their picture on the computer table, students had to recreate their picture using virtual blocks on the computer. This activity fosters spatial awareness, an important skill for developing readers as well as beginning geometry skills. Students used rotation tools to help flip blocks and the color palette to match colors between the real blocks and virtual blocks. Once their picture was copied, students were asked to write at least one sentence about their design, remembering that a sentence always starts with a capital letter and ends with punctuation.

Mid-October Lab Update

Kindergarten
The kindergarten students have been busy learning how to use Early Learning Toolkit. They have now been introduced to all the drawing tools: pencil, line, rectangle, circle, paint bucket, and spray can. They are navigating the tool bar to print independently as well as change program templates. They will continue using the program during center time in their classrooms. Next week, they will begin learning how to use visual mapping program Kidspiration.




First Graders
Any one walking into the lab on Monday would find first graders full of giggles as they used Scholastic's Story Starters to write silly songs, poems, letters, and stories.


Second Graders
With their North American continent study coming to an end, second graders created fact webs in Kidspiration to share interesting facts they have learned the last few weeks.

Third Graders
During their first rotation through the computer lab, third graders used the multimedia authoring tool, MediaBlender, to create slideshows on the scientific method. On day 1, students reviewed the drawing tools they have used in previous years. Next, they learned how to create and edit textboxes to add content. On days 2 and 3, they made slides for each step of the process and learned how to make buttons to connect their slides together. Some students even learned how to add sounds to their slideshows.

Fourth Graders
Fourth graders will begin their second lab rotation on Wednesday. While the first rotation focused on basic skills, their next project will be much more exciting. Students will learn how to create stopmotion animations about current evens using a new program called Frames.

Tasty Graphing in First Grade

What could be more fun than graphing Skittles candies and then eating them? First graders enjoyed working with the program The Graph Club to do just that. After sorting and counting their Skittles, each student recorded the results from their individual bags on a teacher-created template. Next, they were asked to use the program's note box to write two sentences describing their graph along with a model number representing their bag. This activity was a fun hands-on way to explain how bar graphs and pie charts are useful tools to display numerical information.

Second Graders Use Neighborhood Map Machine

Learning about maps and globes are essential skills of the second grade curriculum, and a great way to give students hands on experiences with maps is using the program Neighborhood Map Machine. Neighborhood Map Machine allows students to explore different kinds of maps as well as create maps of their own. Lessons and activities within the program include learning about concepts such as grid coordinates, location, scale, and compass navigation.

During the first week with the program, students learned how to read grid coordinates to add symbols to a grid map. This week, they will use the program's compass to navigate various maps to solve mysteries. Next week, they will take on the role of cartographer as they begin designing their own map by adding roads, buildings, parks, street symbols, bodies of water, parks, etc. The students will also be challenged to write directions to navigate between two buildings on their map.

Word Processing & Keyboarding in Fourth Grade

A major goal of the fourth grade technology curriculum is to ensure students are comfortable with basic word processing skills such formatting and aligning text. Students practiced underlining, bolding, and highlighting text, changing font types and sizes, centering titles by creating Wacky Web Tales, and cutting and pasting text. They also practiced saving documents by navigating the Finder. They were introduced to the concept of a remote server for saving work and practiced logging in to the server using their own username and passwords. Using a server will help students work on files from multiple locations.

This week, students will continue to use Microsoft Word to publish a Spanish writing assignment. They will also be introduced to the program Type to Learn 4 to develop touch typing skills. Students will keyboard 20 minutes twice a week progressing through 34 lessons and 6 assessments at their own pace. Type to Learn 4 provides demonstration, practice, and assessment, with continuous reinforcement on the home row, ASDF JKL;. It teaches proper fingering for each key (letter, number, symbols) and emphasizes both accuracy and words per minute speed. Speedskins are also used to reinforce memorization of the keys. Many students will surpass the year end goal of 15 words per minute (WPM) with 95% accuracy.

Third Grade Learns About Online Safety

Third Grade - As third graders begin using computers more at home and at school, it is essential they learn how to stay safe online. After a review of Shorecrest's Responsible Use Policy for Educational Technology, students viewed a Brain Pop Jr. video on Internet Safety. Next, they were asked to write five rules to remember when working online. Students were asked to share the C*H*A*R*G*E*R*S policy with their families.

First Week for Kindergarten & First Grade

Kindergarten - A rainy day did not damper the excitement felt by the kindergarten students on their first visit to the computer lab. After listening to the classic story Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson, students were introduced to the drawing program Early Learning Toolkit. Using one single color just like Harold, students used their imaginations to create a picture. Important vocabulary reviewed included computer, mouse, keyboard, keyboard tray, and monitor. I also discussed with the students how to properly use the mouse. As the students develop their fine motor skills, it is essential that they use the mouse with proper arm position. Their arm and/or shoulder should be relaxed and not elevated.

First Grade - Kidspiration is the core computer program used by first grade. It allows students to visually organize information and make connections between concepts by linking pictures, symbols, and words. This week students were asked to make an alphabet web using their first or last name. This required students to practice searching through the picture library, dragging pictures to their workspace, and creating their own links.

Another Year

It is hard to believe that another school year has started. Like my colleagues, I spent much of the summer preparing my room for the start of school. In addition to some cosmetic renovations, I was very fortunate to have a new wall-mounted projector added to my space and am learning how to use it along with my mounted interactive white board. I look forward to using the board with the students throughout the school year.

The lab schedule for this year is as follows:

Kindergarten - begins the week of August 23rd with lessons on Monday(bi-weekly)
First Grade - begins the week of August 30th with lessons on Monday (bi-weekly)
Second Grade - begins the week of August 23rd with lessons on Tuesday (weekly)
Third Grade & Fourth Grade - begins their rotation schedule (three weeks art, three weeks technology) the week of August 30th; they will visit the lab on Wednesdays and Thursdays

Teachers will also be bringing their classes individually to the lab for classroom projects.

Stay tuned to Turned On to Tech throughout the school year for project updates!

Animation Summer Camp

Enjoy these great videos created by two of my summer campers this summer. The first is a stop motion animation made from paper. The second, a clay animation. As always, the kids amazed me with their creativity.

Marker Man: A Stop Motion Animation by Cai from Anna Baralt on Vimeo.

The Great Fall: A Clay Animation by Casey from Anna Baralt on Vimeo.

Mr. Wolfrath's Explorer Movies

Ponce de Leon - Wolfrath from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Da Gama - Wolfrath from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Pizarro - Wolfrath from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Cortes - Wolfrath from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Wolfrath - Lewis & Clark from Anna Baralt on Vimeo.

Mrs. Hensler's Explorer Movies

Columbus - Helsler from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Erikson - Hensler from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Magellan - Hensler from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Cortes - Hensler from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Ponce De Leon - Hensler from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Mrs. LaDuke's Class - Explorer Movies

Columbus - LaDuke from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Erikson - LaDuke from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

LaSalle - LaDuke from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Magellan - LaDuke from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Marco Polo - LaDuke from Bob Clingman on Vimeo.

Portfolio Showcases

Traditionally, teachers in the Lower Division completed PowerPoint slideshows for each student during their years at Shorecrest. Artifacts in the portfolios included photos, writing samples, artwork and technology pieces. The portfolios were then presented to students at the end of their fourth grade year. While these portfolios created a wonderful memory showcase for students and parents, something was missing - input from students.

This year, we tried something new. Students in fourth grade used the pieces collected by their teachers in previous years along with self-selected pieces from this year to build their own iWeb portfolios. Embedded within the web pages were reflections about their growth as a learner. These portfolios will be shared the last week of school with families.

Ms. Tucker's Class - Monday, May 24th @ 9:30 Computer Lab
Ms. Lemon's Class - Thursday, May 27th @ 1:30 Computer Lab
Mr. Lee's Class - Thursday, May 27th @ 1:30 in the Classroom
Mr. Hughes's Class - Thursday, May 27th @ 1:30 in the Computer Lab

In addition, second graders will share their Voice Thread portfolios highlighting writing, projects, and technology projects from the year. These portfolios include voice and text reflections.

Ms. Cameron's Class - Monday, May 24th @ 8:30 Computer Lab
Ms. Graham's Class - Tuesday, May 25th @ 8:30 Computer Lab
Ms. McKenzie's Class - Wednesday, May 26th @ 8:30 Computer Lab
Mrs. O'Mullane's Class - Thursday, May 27th @ 9:30 Computer Lab

Commotion in the Ocean Slideshow

The first grade ocean unit lends itself beautifully to a research project. There are so many amazing creatures to learn about. Students used a fact web to research interesting facts about their animals. Then, they visited the lab to write informational paragraphs. The project took two sessions to complete. The first session began with a lesson on writing a main idea and supporting details. The second session, students revisited their writing with the teacher to edit spelling and grammar, and then drew their pictures. The students feel very "grown up" once this project is complete. As one student commented, "I am ready for 2nd grade now!"

Commotion in the Ocean Slideshow May 2010 from Anna Baralt on Vimeo.

April in Review

Kindergarten
Wordle is a favorite student website and learning tool. After listening to the book “I Love Words”, each kindergarten student was asked to spell a word for the class while I typed it on the computer. Next, I showed the students how to create the word cloud and customize the colors. Finally, students were challenged to create their own Wordles using words they could spell independently.


First Grade
In conjunction with their unit on pond animals, students visited the lab for a pond animal research project. Class began with a brainstorming session, where students were challenged to name as many pond animals as possible in three minutes. Mrs. Owen’s class named the most with 27. Next, students used the Enchanted Learning website to answer animal riddles. This allowed students to practice navigating a web page with the scroll bar as well as using hyperlinks. Finally, students used a graphic organizer to record information about a selected animal. Students were asked to record facts about the animal’s anatomy, habitat, range, diet, predators and life cycle. This activity served as a precursor for the ocean animal project sent home Thursday afternoon.

Second Grade
In honor of Earth Day, students created a piece for Planetfesto.org. Created in 2007, students around the world have been creating 6” long virtual pieces of ribbon with the hopes of circling the earth. This feat will require 263,000,00 pieces to be made. Each piece of the ribbon is made up of a picture selected from the website or uploaded by the creator, a statement of why they love the planet, and a pledge to personally help take care of it. You can view Shorecrest’s part of the ribbon by visiting this link. Students from 63 countries have participated in the project so far.

Third Grade
Lights. Camera. Action. After investing three weeks in researching, planning, and script writing, third grade students will begin producing their explorer movies. Ms. Diaz-Leroy has helped students create music for their projects while Mrs. Rowe worked with students on building sets and creating clay figurines. Groups will shoot the clay animation feature with still cameras next week, which will be followed by shooting live action with Flip cameras.

Fourth Grade
During their latest rotation in the computer lab, fourth graders used iWeb to build individual portfolios of their work during their years at Shorecrest. Using work samples collected and scanned by classroom teachers through the years along with self-selected scans and images of projects and work from fourth grade, they created pages highlighting what they have learned. Students will add final reflections and memories before sharing portfolios with family and friends at the end of May.

Third Graders Prepare to Make Movies

There is no doubt teaching and learning are team efforts, especially as third graders embark on their next technology project in the lab. Working in teams of four, students will be making movies, featuring clay animation, about famous explorers. This project ties in to their social studies curriculum and will be a main focus for the rest of the school year.

After researching about the early life, travels, reasons for exploration, and other interesting facts of their explorer, students brainstormed movie ideas. Once each team agreed on their idea, they learned how to create a storyboard to plan their movie. The student teams will begin writing their scripts as well as assembling the props and media needed before filming these next two weeks. Ms. Diaz Leroy will be teaching the students how to use GarageBand to create their own music score while Mrs. Rowe will be working with students on creating the sets and clay figurines for the animation sequence. Students will return to the lab to shoot footage and assemble their final products using iMovie.

I could never complete a project of this scope on my own, and thank all of the teachers in advance for their help and support.

Using Clickers to Learn About Florida in First Grade

First graders had fun using clickers in the lab this week. Clickers are small, hand-held devices that allow students to respond "anonymously" to questions asked on screen via an infrared signal. Since each student has his or her own clicker, each student has the opportunity to engage in answering questions. They are a wonderful way to introduce new concepts and ensure all students are participating. There are benefits to using clickers for teachers too. They can be used as an assessment tool to help guide instruction. Students receive immediate feedback as a class of their performance (i.e. 95% correct), while teachers can review information about individual student performance as needed.

After answering questions about Florida (capital, flag, state symbols, etc.), students proceeded to the computer to create a state symbol web in Kidspiration. They practiced navigating the picture library within the program, adding pictures to their work space, and linking those pictures to their main idea, Florida.

Los Colores, los Números, y los Animales en Kindergarten

Kindergarten students helped read the counting book One Yellow Lion by Matthew Van Fleet in the computer lab. As they read the story in English, I translated the story into Spanish. This helped the children review their color and number words to ten while also learning the names of new animals in Spanish. They followed up the story by creating their own color, number and animal drawings in Early Learning Toolkit. Each student was asked to identify the color and number words associated with their drawing in Spanish before printing out their picture. All of the pictures were shared with Señora Bockman-Pedersen, who proudly displayed their pictures in her classroom.

Digital Storytelling in Kindergarten

Digital storytelling is using computer-based tools to tell stories. After listening to Jan Brett's story The Gingerbread Baby, kindergarten students created their own Gingerbread Baby adventure stories. Each student dictated one sentence for the story, building upon the previous student's page. Then, they used Early Learning Toolkit to illustrate the story. Finally, they recorded themselves reading their page using the Web 2.0 tool Voice Thread. Every child smiled as they listened to themselves, making all the work that goes into this project well worth it!

The Gingerbread Baby Goes to the Beach
by Mrs. Overton's and Mr. Thompson's Kindergarten Class


The Gingerbread Baby Goes to the Zoo
by Mrs. Vigue's and Mrs. Acosta's Kindergarten Class


The Gingebread Baby Visits the Candy Store
by Mrs. Minke's and Mr. Hutton's Kindergarten Class

Olympic Podcasts in 4th Grade

Fourth graders will finish working on their Olympic podcasts this week. A podcast is an audio broadcast that has been converted to an audio file format (i.e. MP3) for playback on a computer or digital music player. Podcasts are mostly verbal but can contain music, images, and video. After conducting research and writing scripts, students will record themselves in the program GarageBand. They will learn how to use different tracks to add voices, music, and sounds, split audio clips, and learn how to duck music (lower music when voices are present). The podcasts will be published to Charger Radio.

Learning About Australia

Last week, second graders took an online tour of Australia in the computer lab. Practicing the skill of reading for information, students read an online storybook while answering comprehension questions. Students will further their study this week as they work with partners to learn about animals from Australia and New Zealand. Using a Venn diagram, students will compare and contrast two different animals.

Kindergarten Students Learn About Graphing

Kindergarten students were introduced to the program The Graph Club during their last two visits to the computer lab. After sorting and counting objects such as pattern blocks and pennies/nickels, students use a table to record the number of each object to create a graph. Students learned about bar, circle, line, and picture graphs. They also used the program’s notebook tool to write about their observations.

First Grade Goes on a Virtual Google Earth Tour

If you are a parent of a first grade student, you probably already know all about Google Earth, a virtual globe, map and geographic information program that can be downloaded for free. Words cannot express how excited the students were to visit the lab and participate in a Google Earth tour of landmarks around the United States. The students were first introduced to the program in their classrooms and allowed time to explore. Then they came to the lab on Monday to take a customized tour. Starting at Shorecrest, students travel to the following landmarks:

White House
Lincoln Memorial
Washington Monument
Statue of Liberty
Empire State Building
Niagara Falls
Grand Canyon
Mount Rushmore
Golden Gate Bridge
Independence Hall & The Liberty Bell

Each location was viewed in 3D. In addition, pictures and facts about each place were shared. Students answered questions about each stop on the tour.

The Last Great Race - The Iditarod

Students in 3rd grade are preparing to follow the Iditarod Sled Dog Race that begins on March 6th. The last two weeks, students have been learning about Alaska and the race by labeling a class map and participating in an Internet scavenger hunt. Each class will choose a musher to track and follow along in their classroom. In addition, the students will be participating in a race of their own, the Idita-Read. Students will mush from Anchorage to Nome virtually as they read 1,112 minutes to match the 1,112 miles of the actual race route. Children will visit the website http://www.idita-read.org/ to log their minutes each day. They will also have the opportunity to write book reviews to share with students around the United States.

2nd Grade Monsters Are Back!!!

One of my favorite computer lab projects is the Monster Project. Using monsters as a vehicle, students create monsters on the computer using the drawing program Early Learning Toolkit. Next, they write descriptive paragraphs in Microsoft Word describing their monsters. Many adjective-related activities both in the lab and classroom help the students think about powerful descriptions. Finally, our students exchange written descriptions with students from another school. There are more than 50 classrooms across the US and Canada participating in this year's project. Our partner schools are in Canada, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Illinois.

The second graders have drawn their monsters and began typing their descriptions today. Next week, each rough draft will have a new pair of eyes as they participate in the process of peer editing. Once suggestions are made and the drafts are edited, final copies will be uploaded to the project wiki.

Check out the wiki, http://monsterproject.wikispaces.com/Welcome, to learn more.

Third Graders Explore Scratch

Scratch is a programming language that teaches important mathematical and computational skills. The program also encourages students to think creatively, reason systematically and work collaboratively by creating interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art. All of these projects can then be shared on the Web. Oh, and did I mention it is lots of fun too!

Scratch was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab with support from the National Science Foundation. It is a free download. You can download Scratch from http://scratch.mit.edu/download. The support area on the website has a Getting Started Guide along with answers to frequently asked questions and video tutorials.

Third grade students spent several class periods learning Scratch basics and exploring the program. Many students have already downloaded the program and started projects at home.

Fourth Grade Haz Jazz!

Fourth graders enjoyed presenting their Jazz multimedia projects to family and friends on Friday after their We Haz Jazz show. Using a rubric to guide their work, students created projects in MediaBlender combining text, music, and video. Projects were graded on content as well as design. Minimum requirements included a title page, timeline page, career page and resources page although every group added additional pages to their stacks. It was wonderful to see students working cooperatively and creatively. Projects will be posted online in the following weeks.

First Steps of Internet Research - 1st Grade

Even though it happened more than 40 years ago, first grade students were fascinated to watch Neil Armstrong take his first step on the moon and claim, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Furthering their study on the solar system, students visited the lab to participate in an Internet scavenger hunt. After reviewing how to launch Firefox and vocabulary such as scroll bar, back button, home button and hyperlink, students visited this website to answer questions about the Sun, Moon, planets, asteroids, stars, constellations and asterisms.

Photo URL: http://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov/kids/sites/lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov.kids/files/footprint.jpg

The Write Stuff - 3rd Grade Literary Devices

As I mentioned in the previous post, students in third grade spent three weeks studying and using different literary devices in their writing. Working cooperatively, each pair of students created a six-page multimedia presentation. In addition to learning ways to make their writing more interesting and descriptive, they practiced a multitude of skills: using drawing tools, inserting and resizing graphics, navigating folders and creating interactive buttons. I was so impressed by the teamwork and cooperation shown by all the groups. Here is the link to the final projects.

Better Late Than Never

I apologize in advance for the lateness of this post. I actually wrote it on December 21st as a summary of the projects completed before Winter Break but just now realized I never published it. I hope you will still find the information interesting.

First Grade:
The second science unit of the year for first grade is The Solar System. After learning about the Sun in the classroom, the students visited the lab for an introduction on the planets. I was amazed at how much information the students already knew. We had many interesting conversations about how the planets were alike and different. This lead to a fun creative writing and drawing project where students created their own planet, named it, and described what it looked like.


Second Grade:
Writing poetry is always fun. Each second grade student was given a winter word. Then, using Early Learning Toolkit, he/she wrote an acrostic poem. This was a great opportunity to remind students about resting their thumbs on the space bar and hand placement while keyboarding.


Third Grade:
Third graders completed a multimedia project on literary devices using MediaBlender. A literary device is a writing technique that helps create meaning through language. Essentially, it allows writes to paint mental pictures with their words. Students learned about alliteration, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, personification, simile and metaphor and worked with partners to use these devices in their own writing. I will be publishing these projects and will share the link in a future post.

Fourth Grade:
Fourth graders continue to focus on keyboarding through direction instruction and typing games in Type to Learn 4. The students are finding the lessons more challenging as their goals for accuracy and words per minute have begun to increase.