Watch our Animoto to see the process in action |
See our finished product with audio recordings |
It takes a village to write and publish a book, but we did it! It all started with a genre study of ABC books. Ms. Skonieczny's kindergartners learned that authors make lots of decisions when creating a book. We chronicled our journey through the genre study by creating noticing charts for several ABC books. These charts helped kids identify important parts of books or ways authors use illustrations, rhyming, color, bold text, or alliteration to tell a story.
One of the books we studied was Alphabet City by Stephen Johnson. This book inspired us to create our own environmental ABC book. To practice finding letters, Ms. Husain, Ms. Medina and Ms. McLaughlin took a few sample photos and organized them into a Notebook 11 file for kids to find hidden letters as a group.
Using their iPads, the kindergartners searched high and low hunting for hidden ABCs on our school grounds. While encouraged to find as many letters as they could, each child was assigned (by taping a card to their iPad) one particular letter to showcase. Using the free Shutterfly Photostory App, we created an ABC book using the student photos and sentences they created for their assigned letter...can you find alliteration, rhyming and patterns in our book? We had more letters than students, so we also included a few teachers and one special guest too! We hope you enjoy our book, BPE ABC, as much as we enjoyed creating it!
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4th grade bloggers Justin and Jack write about FaceTime with Jordan Allen, author of a short story personal narrative, that was read by the class prior to connecting over the web: 4th grade bloggers Ally, Jordan, and Gabrielle write about Learning Outside of the Textbook with Dr. Taliferro in Boston, MA: Today's hAPPy Friday comes from Carl Hooker, Director of Instructional Technology. Want to know some of the cool new features of iOS7 and how to use them in your classroom? Check out the App Integration Snapshot and enjoy Apple's newest update! Often students struggle with comprehending nonfiction text and read it like they would fiction. In this lesson, Ms. McLaughlin, our Instructional Partner extraordinaire, turned Ms. Cimino's third graders into first class sleuths by helping them recognize nonfiction by its features. Just like a detective who looks at clues to solve a mystery, Ms. McLaughlin explained strategies to help students attack text for understanding, making the process a whole lot less mysterious! Super sleuths take good notes, so students were encouraged to explore all kinds of nonfiction text and record their findings with a variety of apps like Draw Free, Skitch, Popplet, Notability, and Keynote. Using Chirp, the students received a picture of the "Noticing" chart for their notes. On their own, students took pictures of the text and used various apps to draw notes on their pictures, add their own thoughts, and even record their findings using the audio feature on Notability. Got a serious case of the non-fiction blues? We've got the gumshoes for you!
On Monday, November 4th, BPE hosted Dr. Dieter Breithecker, an authority on ergonomics for children from the Federal Institute on the Development of Posture and Exercise in Wiesbaden, Germany. Dr. Breithecker spoke to teachers, parents, and community members about his research on movement and brain activity. His research indicates that there is a positive correlation between an active environment with natural stimulation and the ability to pay attention. Having flexible furniture and spontaneously incorporating "brain breaks" are a great way to energize the mind. Check out these quick brain break energizers or this one that Dr. Breithecker had us do (recreated by HCMS) so you can use them in your classroom. The Third Teacher, a book on which Dr. Breithecker consulted, talks about transforming teaching and learning by incorporating basic design elements and intuitive movement into the everyday classroom. From Node rolling chairs and Hokki stools to high-top standing tables, Bridge Point's two newly redesigned classrooms embrace the idea that bodies in motion equal brains in motion. Check out our ThingLink below for information about one of our redesigned rooms. Dr. Breithecker's presentation can be found online and more information on his research can be found on his site. Jump inside a bubble view of Ms. Cowan's room or Ms. Cimino's room with Bubbli. Ms. Cowan's Redesigned Classroom ThingLink |
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September Calendar | |
File Size: | 5257 kb |
File Type: | notebook |
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Weidaw, Katie. "Eanes ISD Experiments with Futuristic Classroom." KXAN NEWS STATION. KXAN, 22 Aug. 2013. Web. 22 Aug. 2013. <http://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/eanes-isd-experiments-with-futuristic-classroom>.
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