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.