Download Sydney's eBook: Cookies

Sydney's eBook: Cookies

eBook Publishing Party with First Grade Buddies

My students have been writing machines!  The students were first assigned to write Halloween eBooks.  The students were then assigned to write Thanksgiving eBooks.  We have shared our stories with our first grade buddies from Mrs. Landefeld's class.  Here are some photos of the celebration:

Students Learn How to Create iMovie Trailers on the iPad

Since the class learned how to do iMovie on the computers on their field trip to the Apple Store, I wanted to teach them how to do iMovie trailers on their iPads.  The students each chose a familiar picture book.  Their task was to create iMovie book trailers.  (The eventual goal is to publish these trailers and to create QR codes for each trailer. The students will then put the QR codes in the school and classroom libraries so other students can listen and watch their movies.)  The students needed some time just to explore all the trailer options (theme- format/soundtrack/font/etc.) to see what was available (and to get "playing" out of their system).  After a few minutes of exploring the themes, they each selected a theme and worked on taking photos and videos to add to their book trailers.  They have been working on the typing and having peers edit their trailers before finding a teacher or adult to help edit spelling and grammar.  We will post the iMovie book trailers soon!

 

The Entire Second Grade Visits the Apple Store!

The entire second grade at Jamestown Elementary went to the Apple Store in Clarendon over a series of 3 days.  The students learned how to use iMovie and created movies of animals, inspired from their visit to the National Zoo a week earlier.  The classes hosted a movie festival when they returned to school!

Here are photos from Ms. Payack's class visit!

Ms. Dye, Ms. Gagliolo, and Ms. Blake Collaborate

The teachers exchange ideas each Friday during their PLC (Professional Learning Community) meeting from 10:00-10:45am.  They also meet for a full-day each month to share ideas, have training on projects and ideas, and work on their goals.  Here is a snapshot of Ms. Dye sharing her class project with Ms. Blake and Ms. Gagliolo.

Students Creating & Solving Math Story Problems

IMG 9633 from Jamestown Elementary School on Vimeo.


Students took photos of the story problems in their math workbooks and imported them to Drawing Pad.  They used the tools (colored pencils, stickers, pencils, crayons, etc.) as math manipulatives in order to solve the story problems.  They worked individually and in pairs and trios to solve the problems.  Here is a video clip of one team of students solving the story problem on the iPad.

Math Story problems on the iPad

Story problems can be difficult for any math student, especially second graders-- who are still working on reading fluency.  Today we began our story problem unit.  Instead of just reading problem after problem and solving in the workbook, students took photos of each problem from their workbooks, cropped the photo to zoom in on the text, and imported the problems to Drawing Pad, where they used the digital stickers and markers to act as manipulatives and solve the problems. The kids loved it! They are enjoying story problems and can easily draw pictures to understand the words on their iPads!

Students Publish their first eBooks!

We have been working on creating stories during Writing Workshop.  The students have been learning the writing process (We call it the "Writing Life Cycle).  Students wrote their rough drafts in their writing notebooks, peer edited in red pen, edited with an adult, then went to publish using the iPad.  We're working on striking a balance with the iPad and traditional writing, since the students are only seven and eight years old, and they are still working on fine motor skills.

The students have been working on creating stories in BookWriter using the photo, text, and voice record tools.  They made their own drawings using DrawingPad (and some opted to draw pictures by hand and just take photos of their pictures using the Camera App) and imported them to each page. 

The students created Halloween stories, and worked on creating a title page, a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and created and About the Author page.  Each eBook has a photo of the author, illustrations, and text that is voice recorded.  (We have a student who is blind, so, the voice record piece is essential so he can hear the stories his classmates created.)  A hidden "bonus" of the voice record feature is that it forces the class to work quietly (we do recordings in special areas throughout the classroom as well as the hallway) and helps the students to work on their fluency.  (Public speaking is one of the greatest fears in America, not spiders (mine), so, hopefully this helps ease that fear!)

Enjoy their eBooks!  The students are becoming addicted to writing-- they are publishing machines!  Even today, the students came in and worked on their stories for Morning Work before our 9:15am specials.  It was amazing to see the students so engaged!

Second Graders take over the National Zoo!

The students went to the National Zoo (Yay!  No more government shut down, so the Zoo was open!), armed with their iPads.  They were put into very small groups of 2-3 students (Thanks to many chaperone volunteers!).  Their task was to visit their assigned animals (each student chose one animal from the Zoo website in advance as well as visit the Bird House (since we are partnered with the Zoo and are taking part in the Bridging the Americas Migratory Bird Project).






The students took photos and videos of their animals using Camera App.  They wrote notes in Popplet and using Sticky Notes.  Many students created drawings of animals and their habitats using DrawingPad.  Students worked on creating eBooks using BookWriter and created voice recordings in that App to record their thoughts and observations during the trip.

The students will be venturing into iStop Motion in the coming weeks to create claymation videos of the animals and their habitats.  The students had such a rich, meaningful experience at the Zoo, which we will build upon the next few months of school.

 

Here's a photo of Hannah taking photos and videos of the birds in the Bird House during the feeding with the zoo keepers and Isabelle sketching the birds on the iPad.

Field Trip to the Apple Store!

Today our class went on a field trip to the Apple Store!  This is by far one of the absolute BEST field trips available to students!  The students were on a mission to learn iMovie.  (Even though I can teach them iMovie, I find that the students learn best from the Apple experts in a new environment and the whole experience at the Apple Store-- the yellow Apple field trip t-shirts, and the Apple flash drive bracelets with their iMovie creations provide such a rich learning experience.)  The parents were so excited to join us for the field trip!  Many of the students know more than the parents regarding iMovie and the iPad, so they wanted to learn along with the students.  It was a beneficial trip for all.

The students learned how to import photos and video clips to iMovie, how to trim the media and give their movies special effects.  They learned slide transitions as well as how to insert titles and music.  The movies weren't perfect, but they were excellent for a first try in less than 90 minutes.  Each team of students (teams of 2 and 3) saved their movies to their Apple flash drive bracelets.  When we got back to the school, we had an iMovie screening on our television (the computer paired with the TV through Apple TV) of all the wonderful animal movies.  The students were so proud of their work!  Today begins iMovie creations in science on the iPad, where students will create movies about their zoo animals.  I can't wait (neither can the students)!

The other two second grade classes are also going on the trip this week.  Ms. Uche's class is going tomorrow, and Ms. Payack's is going Friday.  This way, all the second grade classes will know how to create videos using iMovie.  We plan on having a film festival later in the school year!

Data from just the first night of using Raz-Kids!

This is a screenshot (names left off, of course) of the first night of the students using Raz-Kids.  It was interesting to me that the lower leveled readers (groups D-F) logged in more than the higher-leveled readers.  It would be interesting to find if this is because of student behavior, learning styles, or if technology is really the way to reach the lower-leveled readers.

Raz-Kids iPad subscription is here!

I am so excited by this news!

We used some our textbook fund to purchase Raz-Kids, an online resource for teachers and students.  The students are able to access hundreds of eBooks on Raz-Kids.  

I couldn't sleep last night, so I logged in to www.raz-kids.com and set-up the teacher portal for our class.  The more I explored the website, the more excited I became for all the possibilities.  Every child is enrolled in the class (including those meeting with Special Education teachers).  I used the PALs information and DRA levels to choose appropriate leveled readers for each child in our class.  There is an option to have each student read at a self-pace beginning at their independent level, and an option to customize groups and have students grouped according to what the teacher decides.  I chose to customize the groups, and opened 5 eBooks to each child (in both English and Spanish).  I also assigned a running record to those students currently meeting with the reading specialist to help monitor fluency.  (I will assign running records to the rest of the class periodically as well, but not at this time.)

Raz-Kids is powerful because the leveled readers are on each child's level.  The students can read by themselves, or listen to books and record themselves reading the text.  Afterwards they can take a quiz to check for comprehension.  I will send out periodic assessments to do a fluency check on each student, and as mentioned above, some students already have that assessment.  The parent information sheet is going home in blue folders via backpack mail today.  You as a parent have the option to add your email address to your child's account so you will be sent periodic updates to monitor progress.  I highly encourage registering your email.

I will use Raz-Kids as one of my daily reading rotation stations.  As of right now, I meet with each reading group for 20 minutes per day, 5 days of the week.  The stations are: 1) Teacher, 2) Word Study, 3) Raz-Kids, 4) Independent

I am excited to see Raz-Kids in action today!

No more iPad Withdrawal!

They're back!

The iPads have been updated to iOS7 and the apps have all been updated!  On that note, students may run the updates on their iPads whenever they see the little red marks on the update notes pop-up (no password is needed)!

Please make sure students charge their iPads each night and bring them back fully charged to school.

-Ms. Blake