This lesson is for : Kindergarten:
Summary
Our school features its school song, “Nuckols Farm School Song” via the live morning announcements. The song is instrumental during the first few weeks of school to familiarize new students to our school. The original song had words and pictures; however, most kindergartners were not able to read the words or understand what the song was about. During a morning meeting, I posed a question to my kindergarten students “how could we make this song better to see and understand?”. After discussion and many suggestions, it was agreed upon that it would be better to have some pictures of our actual school with the words to the song to accompany pictures that matched the lyrics. As a class we made a list on the Promethean board of the important places in the building that all students must know. The iPads were utilized to take pictures of these 19 places (inside and outside). Because the fox is our school mascot, students decided that we should have a fox in the video. We obtained contribution from an art professional (our school art teacher) to collaborate and have the students create original pieces or artwhich would be featured on the school song video. After several high quality discussions about the shape of the building, we used Google Earth to look at the school from various vies. The Promethean board was used so all students could manipulate the tools in Google Earth. Students used construction paper to make the school on paper. The music teacher offered her expertise and led the students while practicing singing the school song and the enunciation of the words. The music teacher recorded the students singing using audacity and Garage Band. A copy of both were given to me and the students listened to both and decided with a vote on which version was the best. Windows Movie Maker was placed on the Promethean board over the period of many days and edits were done with teacher help and student decision making. The final product was used in a Henrico Schools hiring day and also being played on the morning announcements for all students to learn our school song.
TIPC Ratings
Research & Information Fluency
Rating: Entry – Explanation: teacher guided topics and questions
Communication & Collaboration
Rating: Approaching – Explanation: students worked together to create groups
that would go take photos. Students selected I-pads to take the photos. The teacher used drop
box to move.
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: Students worked together to produce a video to be used by our school community. Students used various resources to help them construct the video. The majority of the project was based on each students input on the importance of our school community and the need to help future students. Students analyzed and determined how the picture of the school was taken that was shown on Google earth. Airplane or car were the most common answers. Why would we use these take the photos. Why is it important to have pictures from above? Why is it important to have views from the ground? What is the size difference? What is in the picture that may or may not still be there today? What season is it? Answers – no cars in the parking lot and the trees are really green so it must be summer. Upon zooming into the picture – it was noticed that buds were on the trees. “It could be spring and after school”. How can we figure that out? We looked at the screen more carefully and discovered the date printed – April 1, 2012. It was spring. How can we use this information to make a picture of what our school looks like? Students used this information to make their version of what the school looks like.
Creativity & Innovation
Rating: Approaching – Explanation: Students created their own interpretation of the
school building itself. Students developed an organized compilation of materials to create their own original art work and the
video.
Lesson Materials
