The kindergarten students in Ms. Dunkum’s class at Baker have been learning about time to the hour. One of their activities involved the students working as a team to decide what a typical day looks like. They planned on a worksheet with 6 or so different sentences: “At _______ o’clock, I _________.” The students then selected their props and set up a scene to photograph to accompany their voice and text in StoryKit on the iPads. Check out their finished products:
Category Archives: Baker
Explorerbook
The 3rd grade students have been studying the European Explorers. The teachers were looking for a new, fun way to reinforce these concepts, so I used the “Facebook” template from Virtual Share and updated it to fit the needs of the 3rd grade students. There were 8 slides altogether in this Keynote; 4 for each of the explorers information and another 4 for photos of each explorer. The hyperlinks allow the students to navigate Explorerbook when in play mode. If they click on the explorers friends, it will take them to another explorers information page. If they click on the Photos tab, it will take them to a page with pictures and captions for each explorer. To exit they click on the log out tab and it takes them back to the editing mode in Keynote. What a fun way to review these important people in history!
VoiceThread
One of my favorite Web 2.0 tools is VoiceThread! I have used it in several classrooms to get the students communicating about the things they are learning in class. The first step is to build avatars for your children so that their actual pictures are not out on the internet. There are several great sites for creating your avatar, such as buildyourwildself.com, or you can have your students draw themselves in Pixie. Then you can use these pictures to add identities on your page. You only have to create the identities once and they will be on your account forever, or until you delete them.
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| From Build Your Wild Self Avatar |
Next, the teacher uploads photos or videos to their VoiceThread project. Once the images are uploaded, you are able to share the link with your students so that they can hop on the computer and make comments. Comments can be typed or spoken. Both commenting options allow you to have a virtual pen, so you can draw on the page while you are talking or typing your comment. You can set their preferences so that all comments have to be approved by the teacher before they are posted. This is a really great way to get your students talking with their peers, other schools, other students in Virginia, students in other states, and students in other countries! The possibilities are endless.
4th Grade Food Chain Activity
The 4th grade student’s in Ms. Edgerton’s class at Baker have been studying food chains/webs. As a research activity, each student was assigned a different habitat (grasslands, ocean, desert, etc.) The librarian pulled some books and web resources to help them find the information they needed on food chains in that habitat. While researching, the student’s used this pre-created template on Pixie to plan out their ideas:
Once their planning sheet was completed, the student were asked to open up the Pixie slide of their habitat. The teacher and I had already created Pixie slides in which we inserted a picture of each habitat and glued it to the background. Then when the students added their pictures, arrows, and text, it would show up right on top of the habitat photo. In Pixie, the students clicked on stickers and searched for the name of the animal, plant, or decomposer they were looking for. Pixie searches the clip art folder, pics4learning, and iPhoto to find pictures for the students. By clicking and dragging they can easily add the living things to their slide. The shape tool allows them to draw arrows to show the flow of energy through the food chain/web. Here’s an example of the finished product:
Greece & Rome Pixie Slide Show
The students in Ms. Albus & Mrs. Parrish’s 3rd grade classes at Baker worked on these 5 Pixie slides to enhance their understanding on Greece & Rome. We started off by locating Europe on a world map. Next we identified the countries of Greece & Italy on a map of Europe. Then we took a closer look at Greece & Italy and the location of the Mediterranean Sea, which was important for transportation and trading. In the final slide, we looked at how the contributions from ancient Greece & Rome have shaped our lives today. By clicking on Share, we were able to turn our 5 slides into a slide show. We did not have time, but voice recordings can easily be added to each slide to explain each slide before exporting as a Movie or Slide Show.
Greece & Rome from Karen Hues on Vimeo.
Kindergarten 5 Senses
The kindergarten students have been learning about the 5 senses, so I had a them create a Pixie and label the 5 senses. They took a picture of themselves on Pixie, glued the picture to the background, and then labeled their eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and hand with the 5 senses. We practiced resizing and changing the color of the font. After the students saved their work to their folders, I was able to go back, open all of them up, and then share it as a movie with this cute 5 senses song. The students loved seeing their work put altogether on the big screen. If you want to learn how to turn your students Pixie slides into a presentation, please sign up for a consultation.
5 Senses from Karen Hues on Vimeo.
Kindergarten Past & Present Pixie
The Kindergarten students have been studying the difference between past & present, so I created this activity in Pixie where students can sort the objects into either the Past or the Present.
I would call out a topic such as Presidents, transportation, communication, cooking, etc. and they would have to find the pictures and sort them as either past or present. By going through the pictures one category at a time, we were able to discuss the difference between the past and the present for each topic. In our discussion we talked about how some items, for example the newspaper, is still available today, but that in the past they only had the newspaper, letters, word of mouth to inform them what was going on in the world. In contrast, today we have the television and internet where we can find the news very quickly. This activity was not only a great way to practice sorting, but also led to meaningful discussions on how life was in the past.
1st Graders Review Using Activotes
The 1st grade students in Mrs. Kowalczyk’s class at Baker did a fabulous job using the Activotes to review for an upcoming science test. She used a Rags to Riches activity on Quia to display the questions for her students. After hearing the question read aloud, students were able to select their answers using the Activotes. As they pressed the letter for the answer they wanted to select, they would see their number light up indicating that they had voted.
After all of the answers are submitted, a graph is automatically generated that shows how many students selected each of the answer choices (A-D in this case). Mrs. Kowalczyk used this as a wonderful opportunity to analyze graphs. After looking carefully and answering a few questions about the graph, she let the students had a discussion about what the correct answer should be.
This was a fantastic way to get her students actively engaged in the lesson and review the content at the same time. The great news is that the Activotes can be used in a classroom with or without the Promethean board. If you’re interested in learning how to use the Activotes, please sign up for an appointment today!
1st Grade Fall Pixie Lesson
The 1st Grade students have been practicing with all of the cool features in Pixie. We began with a template. The students then took their picture and put a hat on their head. Next they typed a sentence about fall and put it in a speech bubble. Last they spray painted leaves and pumpkins on their page. Some students even had time to add clip art. Great work 1st Graders!
Kindergarten Track Pad Lessons
Over the last few weeks I have been using this great site to introduce Kindergarten students to the laptop:
http://www.poissonrouge.com/bugs/index
Here students can practice using the track pad to move the arrow and click & drag. I’ve been very impressed by the number of Kindergarten students I have seen practicing using only one hand! Way to go!!
Remember to allow your students time to continue practicing on the computers. Keep up the great work!