Thursday, April 29, 2010

Comments4Kids Thursday: It's What We Do

Today we are going to comment on Mrs. Dykes' Class blog. Her students are writing journal entries pretending to be living during World War II. I hope you remember studying that war. I want you to pick three posts to leave comments on. Make sure you follow the rules:

1) Relevant
2) Positive
3) Comment only when you have something to say.

If you need a quick "refresher" on the war here are two links you can look at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
http://www.worldwar-2.net/

Friday, April 23, 2010

Comments4Kids Friday: Because Any Day is a Good Day to Comment!

#Comments4Kids is a marathon, not a sprint!
First we will stop at Mr. Wood's class blog. Mr. Wood teaches in Auckland, New Zealand. His students wrote about their holiday (vacation). Pick two posts to comment on.
BRS Room 17

Next we will go to Miss Dunsiger's class blog. Miss Dunsiger teaches first grade students. They have some posts about Earth Day, Flat Stanley, and a party. Leave them two good comments too.
Miss Dunsiger's Class Blog

I now have a special treat for you. A former teacher of yours has fulfilled a commitment to this years class. I don't think you need any guidance for this comment.
Mr. McClung's World

Monday, April 19, 2010

Creating a Visual Sequence of Events

We are going to work on creating a visual sequence of events from a book we will read in class. Your responsibility is to identify one event in each chapter of the book we are reading to capture in some visual format. Here are some ideas that you may want to use:

1. Use Paint to draw your visuals.
2. Draw you pictures on paper. Use bold colors so when we digitize the picture we can see the work.
3. Use cut paper. As you know, I am a huge fan of cut construction paper art.
4. Use charcoal or pastels.
5. Create 3D models using objects or clay.

Mrs. Smith has agreed to let us use her art supplies for those of you that need them. Make sure to thank her when you get them.

As I read the story to you, take notes about a specific scene you would like to capture from each chapter. There are fifteen chapters so you will have to create fifteen visuals.

After you have created visuals from all fifteen chapters we will create a Voicethread where you will explain what is happening in each picture. On the first frame of the Voicethread you will need to reflect on what you have created. Include what you did well and what needed improvement.




The book I have chosen to read to you is The River Between Us by Richard Peck. I chose this book because of the excellent writing and the subject matter. The story takes place not to far from here and tells a story about an important battle in the American Civil War that you probably never heard of.

The purpose of this assignment is for you to create a visual sequence of events. I will use these as models for next years 4-8 grade classes. Let's make these excellent models for next year's students!

Directions:

1. Listen and take notes as story is read.
2. Create visual representations for each chapter.
3. Take picture of the representations if necessary.
4. Create Voicethread and describe each image.
5. Reflect on what you have learned on the first image of the Voicethread.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Secret Builders



 Secret Builders brings something new, the opportunity to converse with other people outside of the classroom. Use common sense and the online safety practices we have talked about in class. I am no saying you cannot have a conversation, just remember that you are looking at an avatar and not the person. You really don't know anything about them, so don't let them know anything about you!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Comments4Kids Thursday: We Are Back!


Rules for Comments4kids
1) Be positive
2) Be relevant
3) Don't comment if you don't have anything to say.


3rd and 4th Hours

These are students from a 5th/6th grade class in Dundas Ontario, Canada. Pick a post they have written and leave a comment on it.
Liki's Awesome Blog
Cara's Blog
The Blog of Awesomeness
Myang's Blog
Awesomista Stuff
My Blog
Stuff and Stuff



5th and 6th Hours

This post is from the Room 3 in NZ blog we have on our blog roll. Read Brian's story and leave a comment.
The Worst Storm Ever

This blog is actually from a town close to here, Sparta Missouri. Mr. Bennett just started a class blog for his students. Leave them some nice comments.
Mr. Bennett's Beach Brains

Justin wrote a blog post on coin collecting at the Elementary Learning Blog
Coin Collecting

Julia in Mrs. Kolbert's class wants to know "what you think is the most important place for humans to change our actions in simple ways". She wants two or three sentences.
A Cool Competition

Zoey has written several interesting posts. Pick one to leave a comment on.
Zoeyc1's blog

Veronica has a couple interesting posts about making her own dress. If you are interested leave a comment.
Veronica's Blog

Liam has written an interesting post on human rights titled "Rights are Given, Not Inherited". Since you have studied government this year, read the post and leave an insightful comment.
Liam's Place Blog

Monday, April 12, 2010

End Slavery Now: The WebQuest

Your assignment is to complete the webquest: End Slavery Now. You will need to divide up into groups of three and follow the directions. The webquest gives you all the information you need to complete the task.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

BBC History Games

BBC has an excellent education site. Let's look at the BBC History Games page today. Play a couple of the games. Reflect on how these games might help someone learn more about history.

Pixton.com an On-Line Comic Book Creator


Pixton is a site that allows you to create comics by dragging and dropping images. Create a comic over something you have covered in science or social studies this year.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

A Week Long Class Preview of the iPad

My class recently had the opportunity to spend a week using the pre-released iPad in our classroom. You may ask how a small school in the Midwest was allowed such a wonderful opportunity, it was because of my close relationship with a very vocal Mac advocate.

I am only allowed to give a very concise review of the use of the iPad, Apple wants to save all the good quotes for a white paper, but here is my generic impressions:

     1) iBook is not a killer app for schools. It doesn't come with any books!
     2) There is no built in keyboard. Get real! I teach keyboarding, completely useless.
     3) The screen is beautiful, but without Flash I couldn't watch Hulu.com while I was supposed to be
     working.
     4) The app store was great! My students spend most of the week downloading free demo games 
     involving shooting zombies or racing pretend cars. You can bet that was a great use of class time!
     5) The long battery life was truly amazing!

 Here is a link to the original proposal I sent to Apple: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dskqh8g_73d9fksxfn