1st graders in Ms. Guthrie's and Ms. Tremel's classes were really busy last week sowing the seeds of change! They changed up their "old school" science journal to create a "new school" style of chronicling the growth of their grass seeds. They observed, measured, photographed and wrote their observations day by day using the Scribble Press app. These talented 1st graders even figured out how to add a second picture onto their page as well as how to use the forward facing camera to capture a picture of the roots from a different perspective! Great thinking! To add detail, the first graders used the bubble captions and other Scribble Press drawing tools. Sharing their work was easy because the final books are shared with families via a shared URL, a private student login, PDF or ePub. Way to sow the seeds of change!
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Ms. Mills' 2nd grade class invited me in to do a quick Popplet lesson so they could change the way they would present their research project on the Presidents of the United States. Ms. Mills chose a student to "drive" the iPad as I taught the lesson. This is a great way to empower a student to be the teacher and role model for the class. Students did their research on their iPad, used a guiding worksheet to collect their information, and added Popples of information about their President. They really loved finding pictures to add relevant visuals to their facts. When they finished their Presidential Popplet, they emailed the Popplets to their teacher. Check out Ms. Mills website for her post on our email lesson. Way to go 2nd graders!
After reading Matt Gomez's post about his Kindergartners, Tic, Tac, Toe and Twitter, BPE decided to challenge another school to a friendly tournament of Tic, Tac, Toe. We used the Google Doc that was posted on Mr. Gomez's site and ran it inside of a Google Hangout. Within the Hangout, we had a live camera and sound feed between the teams. Each side could hear and learn from the other side's discussion. Every child was so engaged in the process and it was amazing to listen to them explain and discuss with each other the best moves. Ms. Champion's Kindergarten from Eanes Elementary and Ms. King's Kindergarten class from Bridge Point had an awesome time discussing strategies, scheming about the placement of their X's and O's and learning about teamwork. We played 3 rounds and even though BPE won two rounds and EE tied us for one round, everyone in kindergarten was a winner today! Let us know if your school wants to play! See our game from Eanes Elementary's point-of-view on the Eagles' Educational Tech Blog! 4/26/13 Ms. Skonieczny's class from Bridge Point and Ms. Carpenter's class from Eanes dueled also! This time BPE's team had a dog on it! Take a look at Eanes Elementary's post about our game! 5/2/13 Ms. Tremel's first grade from BPE and Ms. Wolff's first grade from EE took the Tic Tac Toe challenge too! Their team work and focus on strategies was really amazing. These first graders really used their noodles today! A few things we did differently: We numbered the squares on the Tic Tac Toe grid 1-9 so kids could easily communicate where they wanted to place their piece. The students discussed in small groups which space they would move into and why. The student who was chosen to move the piece looked to their class to vote silently by holding up the number of the spot they thought would be the best choice. We also worked with students to start thinking about more than one move at a time so they could really think critically together and see where the game could lead their team step-by-step. In anticipation of a new student arriving from California, 2nd graders in Ms. Koller's class decided to make a 2nd grade writing TEK* come alive in their classroom. First, they created a "sloppy copy" handwritten letter to their new friend. Then they typed the letter, revised it, and added a picture from their iPads using the Pages App. Each child then sent their letter to our student shared network drive via the Pages WebDav feature. Ms. Koller emailed them to the new family welcoming them to Bridge Point. What a friendly way to start a day at a new school. Way to go 2nd graders!!
*(14) Writing/purposes. The student writes for a variety of audiences and purposes, and in various forms. The student is expected to: (D) write in different forms for different purposes such as lists to record, letters to invite or thank, and stories or poems to entertain. Trailers are great ways to get audiences excited about upcoming events, movies and books, but how about creating hype for your lesson?! Ms. Lee, one of BPE's awesome art teachers decided to do just that! She created this iMovie trailer to prepare her students for an upcoming lesson on contour lines. After she played the trailer, kids were totally hyped to draw using contour lines! Who wouldn't want to draw a shoe after that kind of intro!
Combining a science, language arts, and a Texas history lesson, kindergartners in Ms. Skonieczny's class went on and iHunt for Bluebonnets today. They carefully iHugged their iPads and headed outside with their iPads to take pictures of the state flower of Texas. One student exclaimed as he iHugged his iPad, "This is my favorite day, I get to take my own pictures!" They all marched outside to find a patch of Bluebonnets to photograph. Each child took 5 photos and returned to the classroom to learn how to create Popplets about their Bluebonnet photo. Way to go kindergartners!
Inspired by Ms. Iles' QR hunt and Ewan McIntosh's Google Vs Non-Googleable lesson style that encourages kids to construct their own knowledge to make learning "stick", Ms. Cimino created a lesson about renewable and non-renewable resources. In the slideshow above, you will see the steps she took to facilitate her lesson as her third grade students used their analytical and critical thinking skills to construct meaning for themselves. This lesson truly embodies my favorite quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin, Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, INVOLVE me and I will learn. Awesome brain work, Ms. Cimino's class!
Want to use Post-It notes on the computer? Check out Lisa Johnson's share of how to print on Post-Its through your printer! Get the templates: mini, large, standard. After a much awaited "iPatience", the last two Kindergartens at Bridge Point received their 1:1 iPads. Our Kinders were using a shared iPad model for some time prior to this event, however, they were way excited to get them truly personalized. We worked with Ms. King and Ms. Skonieczny's classes on April 3rd to FINALLY bring L.E.A.P into their classrooms. We had already covered the basic gestures, iPad parts and how to open and close apps. Since these two classes were so very advanced, we added a few extra lessons for this rollout. For these two classes we added how to search for apps so they can get focused for the lesson much faster (and it's a great way to practice sounding out words!). And because these two classes were already masters at uploading files through iFiles to our student shared servers, we taught them how to RENAME files in iFiles too! A simple LONG PRESS or a PRESS and HOLD on the file in iFiles will give you a menu that includes renaming files. WAY TO GO KINDERGARTNERS! Of course these Kinders were raring to go and they dove right into a science lesson using Popplet. Applying the Kindergarten Science TEK Matter is described in terms of its physical properties, including relative size and mass, shape, color, and texture, Kinders took a picture of a rock and created a Popplet that described the physical properties of their rock. Sure beats making 22 AIMS printed packets!! This iPad lesson really "ROCKS"!
Washington-on-the-Brazos is a famous place in regards to the history of Texas. The Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico was signed here on March 2, 1836. On Wednesday, March 27th, our 4th graders ventured off to the birthplace of Texas to explore in a more hands-on approach to learning about Texas history. This year was a little different because the 4th graders got to take their iPads. Our students were excited to use the Texas 1836 augmented reality app that was designed around the Washington-on-the-Brazos site, however, it seems the app needs a little more tweaking before it becomes 100% interactive. Students were able to take pictures, videos and notes on their iPads. Below are a few quotes sent to me via email from 4th graders: Bringing our iPads was helpful because we took pictures of all the activities we did. But, the app Texas 1836 didn't work as we expected it to. But, the iPads were still very helpful! We hope we get to bring our iPads on more field trips! Thanks for letting us bring them! Inspired by an idea from Flapjack Education, students in Ms. Iles' room really kept learning in motion today. Using QR codes and jumbo plastic eggs, students moved about the classroom reviewing their addition, subtraction, and money counting skills using their own iPads. Ms. Iles created several QR codes with questions and answers using http://qrcode.kaywa.com, printed them out and put them inside numbered eggs. She introduced the lesson explaining how to access the egg's math problem by scanning it with QRafter. Using the student worksheet she created, she modeled how to write the problem and check the answer. If the student were to get a different answer, the student would simply mark through it and add the scanned answer. She asked her class why they would do that and a little girl answered, "Because we learn from our mistakes!!" How true! The eggs were placed randomly around the classroom and the students were dismissed by table to start at an egg of their choice. It took a few minutes to get used to the process of scanning, writing and recording, but after a few minutes, the first graders got the hang of it! These kids were motivated to practice math for sure! How many kids have you taught who are disappointed to NOT finish a math worksheet review? Get the answer sheet here. Thanks for sharing your activity with us Ms. Iles! A few tips:
Ms. Iles has done it again! Try out her WRITE THE ROOM idea! For Daily 5 Word Work, students scan a sight word, read it to themselves and draw a picture of the word, great idea! Students in Ms. Van Zandt's class used their iPads to show their understanding of the Solar System for the Science TEK (8D) "Identify the planets in Earth's solar system and their position in relation to the Sun". This class really worked together as a team to learn! Ms. Van Zandt worked with her kids on how to search on Google. Often adding the terms, "for kids" after what they intend to search helps kids find kid-friendly websites to use for research projects. They then used paper notes or in one case of one crafty 3rd grader, her Notes App, to make notes for their projects. If they had a question about Keynote or Animoto, they simply took their iPad to a classmate for a quick tutorial and voila! they were in business. See a few examples below. Way to go third graders!
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