Students in Ms. McMillin's 2nd grade class created their own drawings to explain their understanding of the water cycle. They then used Shadow Puppet EDU to record their voices and add animations to their drawings. It was their first time using Shadow Puppet EDU and they were excited to share their creations. What's so cool about this app is that it creates an online link so students can share their production with their teachers and family very easily. Here's a short tutorial that I made in case you want to make a Shadow Puppet too!

The quote, Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions is fantastic way to think about how to help ourselves and others improve our work through collaborating and sharing feedback. Just like breakfast, it's an essential part of our day of learning! Our PE teachers took this quote to heart as they harnessed the power of the iPads during FitnessGram training. Students recorded their partners for various exercises and then worked together discuss how to improve their techniques based on the video that was recorded. What a fantastic way to utilize a technology tool to provide a quick and authentic opportunity to improve! 

Beginning with a genre study of ABC books, kindergartners in Ms. Skonieczny, Ms. King, and Ms. Hester's classes became published authors today! ​ In their study, they used noticing charts to identify important parts of books or ways authors use illustrations, rhyming, color, bold text, or alliteration to tell a story. 

The ABC book that inspired their writing, photography and amazing alphabet hunt was Alphabet City by Stephen Johnson. Each class used their iPads to photograph hidden letters on the walls, in the halls and in the play spaces of our beautiful school. 
​
Using the kindergartners' own photographs of hidden letters and their own sentences, each class created an ABC book using Shutterfly to publish them.

Like real writers, we celebrated their writing and photography with a book signing complete with alphabet cookies, yum!

Happy New Year! Check out how Ms. Matus' class spun their written resolutions into fun animations as a great way to ring in the New Year. Her students smashed together Google Drive images, Doodle Buddy drawings, and the Face Talker app to illustrate and animate their promises for a great New Year! Way to go 3rd graders!