Submitted by: Susan Forthuber, Barbara Marsh, Vicky Hughes
School: Lakeside Elementary School

Summary

The students will create models showing specific information of each of the Powhatan, Lakota, and Pueblo tribes. The students will create a triarama that will demonstrate knowledge of Indian Regions.

Submitted by: Mara LaFratta Brennan
School: Lakeside Elementary School

Summary

My goal for this lesson is for the students to attack the authentic task of deciphering the reasons behind the outbreak of the Civil War in America. I want the students to build upon the background knowledge they have about the Civil War and what caused the division of the country. I created a webquest to enable the students to explore the history of assigned states in order to better understand the choices the citizens and governments of the states were forced to make at the time of the Civil War.
My intention is for the students to explore other issues that plagued the states as they made the decision to secede from the Union or remain faithful to their state. This SOL is particularly challenging for the students because the issue of slavery is so black and white in regards to what is right and wrong. They know it is wrong to enslave another human being and find it very difficult to understand why anyone would fight on the side of the Confederacy. Sadly, it has become a good vs. evil battle in many of their minds. They can’t see past the struggles that each side had in relation to economical needs and livelihood. My goal is not for them to form an opinion or have anyone decide that the Confederacy was right in all of their beliefs, but I want them to have some grasp on the tough decisions that were made at this time in history. I want to pull together traditional research through books and literature and connect it with technological advances, such as podcasts and blogs.

Submitted by: Theresa Wilkes, Lori Bardon
School: Longdale Elementary

Summary

This lesson focused on Fall. The students were introduced to research using non-fiction books and readings. The students practiced the writing process by using a “web” to display fall facts that they have found, writing and editing rough drafts, and creating a final product. The students recorded their voices and all of the final Pixie projects were compiled and shared with the class.

Submitted by: Wendy Dyal
School: Mehfoud Elementary

Summary

Students will become familiar with community helpers and be able to identify the community helpers within the school and local community. Using technology, the students as a class will research and become familiar with the jobs of community helpers and the role they play in helping the community. They will then use technology tools to demonstrate what they have learned about these community helpers.

Submitted by: Meg King
School: Highland Springs

Summary

Students will work together in pairs to develop and create different shape combinations for the face of our class Jack-O-Lantern. They will develop, create, and share their ideas using the program Pixie. As they recall the names and attributes of different shapes, student pairs will count and record the number of shapes used for each face. Lastly, student pairs will record an explanation of which shapes they chose for their face and a justification of why they chose the shapes they chose. Our class will review the different shape combinations and choose a favorite face to carve into our pumpkin.

Submitted by: Mary Barnett, Emily Byrd, Kathi Charlson, Keri Richardson
Collaborators: Caroline Jonic, Celeste Young
School: Ridge ES

Summary

To address the current real-world social concern of bullying in our schools, monthly classroom meetings were held to address issues on this topic. High-level interest concerning this topic led third grade teachers to plan a student-directed project. They had an initial “kick-off” with the School Resource Officer’s Anti-bullying presentation. Over the next two weeks the third graders collaborated, interacted and created a skit, digital posters, a music video, and Google presentations to campaign against bullying. To share the projects more globally, the Pixie projects and Google presentations were uploaded onto blogs and Voice Thread.

Submitted by: Jen Travers, Jeannie Costin
School: Longdale Elementary

Summary

This is a culminating activity based on Science SOL 4.7 The students were in charge of coming up with a marketing campaign to increase attention and tourism to their planet. The students could use any application on the MacBooks to complete their marketing product. The open choice allows the students to use the technology they are comfortable with and showcase their individual talents.

Submitted by: Theresa Wagner
School: Pemberton Elementary

Summary

Summary: Kindergarten students are challenged to evaluate, explain, and relate information concerning shape attributes through a variety of experiences. They complete a Children’s Engineering design challenge that requires that the computer be used to create a Shape Picture using Pixie and then create a graph of the shapes used in their Pixie Shape Picture. Center rotations give further discovery. The children record a dialogue on the I-pads as Shape Experts, go on a shape hunt and use the I-pads to take a photo of four objects in the room that represent each shape and also sort shapes in a shape box and create a graph of the shapes found in the box. The children later reflect on their experiences and share their work from each station.

Extensions: Use the ShowMe program on the I-pad to outline each shape found in each photo and record a description of the objects in the room that represented each shape. The videos taken as Shape Experts, Shape Pictures made on Pixie, and photos taken on the Shape Hunt are uploaded into each child’s folder and then made into an I-movie to be shared with the class and parents.

Submitted by: Stephanie Biller
Collaborators: Nancy Essid
School: Ridge ES

Summary

Students were given a challenge to design a digital presentation of one state in the Southeast Region of the United States. Each group worked collaboratively to do research, evaluate the research, and brainstorm facts that started with each letter of the alphabet. Students had to use problem solving and critical thinking skills to match the research with the letters of the alphabet. Our class, in Henrico, digitally collaborated with another fifth grade class in Prince William County by sharing research and ideas for the letters through Google Docs. Students were asked to evaluate each others’ research and prioritize facts. When the research was completed, students used Pixie to create a page for each letter of the alphabet. They created drawings, inserted pictures, and recorded facts from the research in Pixie. Each group’s work was then created into a Quicktime movie and presented to the class. The project was also shared with the class In Prince William County digitally. The teacher and librarian posted the Quicktime movie on the classroom website, library blog, and Vimeo. Students used a rubric to self assess and critique the final project.

Submitted by: Kitty Coor
Collaborators: Kathy Vick – Librarian, Jessica DelMonte – ITRT
School: Echo Lake Elementary

Summary

Third grade students self-selected their collaborative research groups and the habitat they wanted to explore. Using a variety of resources: nonfiction books, Discovery Science, and websites, students extrapolated information on animal and plant adaptations by communicating with one another the importance of the located material. The students used a research template to guide their research. A rubric aided the students by enabling the researchers to know what was expected of them to receive their desired grade. The partners also communicated to formulate questions they wanted to research relevant to their topic. In addition, the partners were able to record specific interesting facts they came across in their research. The student’s communicated as to how best to show their research in a final project. They decided which technology tool would showcase their work the most creatively. Examples of projects were uploaded to our class blog. At the completion, families were invited to a share fair. The lesson was also shared with third grade classes across the county.