Third Graders Reflect About Legos

During the 3rd grade unit on Lego robotics, I challenged my students to reflect about what they have learned while building and programming the different projects. Each partnership keeps a journal where they record the building process, keep project explorations, write reflections, and answer questions about how each project they build works. They also use digital cameras to document their constructions.

Here are some reflections to the question "What did you learn by working on this project?" from Mrs. Hensler's class.

"As the projects get bigger, they get more complicated." - Quentin, Julian, JC

"We learned to work together as a group." - Hannah, Annie, Skyler

"We learned how gears work." - Cian, Jake, Chris

"We learned that compound machines are made up of simple machines." - Julia, Zara, Devyn

"We learned how to activate sensors and motors and how to fit gears together. We also learned TEAMWORK!" - Luke and JT

When building the dancing birds, "we learned the motor spins the first gear and that spins the pulley system for the second bird to move." - Lizzie, Anna, Isabella

This week the students will use the photos and journals to create ComicLife posters highlighting their work over the last few weeks.

 

Special University Visitors

Today I took a break from my typical Monday teaching schedule to welcome some visitors to Shorecrest. It was a privilege to tour Dr. Isa Jahnke from Umea University in Sweden and Dr. Swapna Kumar from the University of Florida through Lower Division and Early Childhood classrooms. The purpose of their visit, to observe how our teachers and students are using iPads to enhance teaching and learning.

There are many 1:1 initiatives currently being implemented throughout Scandinavia, and Dr. Jahnke is interested in learning how other countries introduce mobile technologies to teachers and students, as well as how schools support teachers in the implementation process. I spent time discussing Shorecrest's 5th-12th grade initiative for the 2013-2014 school year as well as our plans to integrate iPads with the younger students. I shared examples of apps that we are using as well as the different professional development opportunities, both formal and informal, that are taking place to help prepare teachers. We also discussed my role as an Instructional Technologist, a position not usually found in Scandinavian schools.

Here are some of the wonderful ways they observed teachers using iPads today.

Second graders in Mrs. McKenzie's class worked with partners to research individual species of penguins. Each partnership was asked to answer eight essential questions about their penguin as well as other interesting facts on a recording paper. Rather than searching independently on the Internet, students used a 'short cut app' created through Safari that took them directly to a site with pre-selected resources.

First graders worked in small groups with Mrs. Raumann to practice writing words families. Using a whiteboard application, they worked on spelling words with short vowel sounds as well as consonant blends. This activity also worked on the students fine motor skills as they practiced writing their words with only lower case letters.

The Junior Kindergarten teachers started the day by showing a YouTube video on the Seminoles of Florida. The students were able to see traditional dances along with clothing worn by the tribe. The iPads were then used to show other videos along with images to the children at their morning centers as they crushed fruits to make dye, created their own headdresses, and participated in other Native American related activities.

Kindergarten students worked with the application Monkey MathSchool Sunshine to reinforce math concepts such as shape, pattern, sequence, less/more, and counting sets.

Dr. Jahnke and Dr. Kumar were impressed with the overall program and work students were doing in the classrooms as well as the openness of the campus and classroom spaces. Of course, the students were wonderful about having visitors. After quick hellos, they would always get right back to work.

Kindergarteners Create Symmetrical Pumpkins

Inspired by the story, Spookley the Square Pumpkin, students were challenged to create their own pumpkin on the computer. Now I must tell you, these were no ordinary pumpkins. Not only were the pumpkins square, they were symmetrical. Using a template in the drawing program Early Learning Toolkit, students used a variety of drawing tools (marker, circle, square, line, spray can, paint bucket) to create their own Spookleys while exploring the mathematical concept of vertical symmetry. The kindergarten teachers will continue exploring this concept in their classrooms with their students.

Here are a few sites if your child would like to continue exploring symmetry at home:

Symmetry Artist 
Line of Symmetry
Symmetry Patterns
Reflective Symmetry

Nugget Reaches the Czech Republic

A bit of a departure from my regular posts - I had to share this adorable picture of the latest carrier of one of the 2nd grade travel bugs, Nugget. Nugget was released on January 16, 2009 and has logged 23,400 miles. He has visited three different continents (N. America, S. America, Europe), nine countries, and ten states. Wish I had as many stamps in my passport! Right now, Nugget is traveling across the Czech Republic.

Nugget is one of 16 travel bugs released by second graders over the last four years. The Class of 2023 will be releasing their own in the next few weeks.

Visual Maps Help Organize Information

Two key software programs embedded into the Lower Division curriculum are Kidspiration and Inspiration. Both programs allows students to visually connect concepts and ideas by combining pictures, texts, numbers and spoken words. 

Kidspiration is used in K-2nd grade. It has a simple interface built specifically for young children. In addition to students being able to create their own webs, there are many math, science, and social studies templates that allow the classroom teachers to extend technology into these units. This week, for example, first graders worked with partners to create webs sharing facts about the bone and skeleton. It was a great way for students to showcase what they have learned and also serves as an assessment tool for the teachers before moving on to a new unit.

Inspiration is built for older students. It utilizes a similar interface as Kidspiration but includes many more advanced tools. This week, fourth graders also built webs, but focused on organizing their weekly vocabulary words based on their Greek and Latin roots. Information represented spatially allows students to organize and group similar ideas which makes better use of their visual memory. Visual learning is also reported across educational literature as an effective way to improve critical thinking, comprehension, and retention. The use of color and shape also help enhance with the experience.

Keeping Things 'Simple' in Third Grade

Throughout the third grade year, students will be engaged in a variety of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) activities including robotics and programming. To help prepare them for these future projects, they are engaged in a thorough study of simple machines. After researching the six types of simple machines, students gathered together as a class to create an information web.  Students then practiced identifying simple machines through a variety activities including sorting images on the SmartBoard, visiting online simulations, and exploring a simple machines app on the iPad.

This week, students will go on a photo safari to search for simple machines throughout campus. The digital images captured from the photo safari, once edited, will be used to create posters using the program ComicLife.

Here are few of the fun links students used this week.

Museum of Science and Industry Chicago

EdHeads - Simple Machines

Simple Machines Mind Quiz

K12 Simple Machines

Starting the Year Off with a Bang!

The computer lab was buzzing with excitement last week as students in kindergarten and second grade were the first to use the new iPad Rolling Lab cart. The cart contains 30 iPads and will be available for checkout by classroom teachers to individualize instruction for students, support the current curriculum with educational applications, and provide more opportunities for students to engage in 21st century skills such as research, critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration.

Each lesson began with the development of iPad rules generated by the students followed by a brief introduction on basic functions of the iPad such as turning it on, navigating screens, and selecting apps. The majority of the students were quite familiar with the basics and were quick to point out other features for the class such as adjusting volume and changing the orientation of the screen. Anyone watching the scene of children as they worked and talked would be hard-pressed to deny that technology has become ubiquitous in the lives of our children.

2nd Graders Play Rush Hour from Anna Baralt on Vimeo.