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

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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.