The students in Ms. Burnette’s 1st grade class at Jackson Davis have been learning about the Earth, moon, and sun. Today we did small group rotations in which they used Scratch Jr. to code these objects in our solar system to talk and move. Scratch Jr. is an iPad app with similar blocks to the web-based Scratch program, but there are less blocks to choose from and large picture icons rather than being text heavy. It’s very easy for even the youngest coders to navigate.

The first group added the background, selected the Earth and moon sprites, recorded their voice, and programmed the Earth and Moon to talk and move when touched.

The second group added a background, selected the Sun and Earth, recorded their voice, and programmed the Earth to talk and move around the sun.

The third group added a background, selected a sun, and recorded their voice to explain how the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

Last Friday, the Tech Takeout team visited Seven Pines Elementary! The fifth grade teachers noticed that students needed some review with the fourth grade SOLs 4.7 and 4.8 (the solar system) with a connection to their fifth grade SOL 5.6 on oceans. Everyone was super pumped for a Science themed Tech Takeout, because who doesn’t love Science?? Mrs. Gross, the librarian was kind enough to let us use her awesome library to host the three classes and we worked with laptops and IPads that are housed in the fifth grade classrooms. Special thanks to Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Marazzo, and Mrs. Bottari for letting us borrow their fantastic fifth graders on Friday morning! #SevenPines is a great place to be!
 
In Miss Aquilina and Mrs. Robinson’s group, students used the PicCollage app (in freestyle mode) to create an inspiration collage. We pulled in photos from a Comemories site, added a selfie, and played with the background and stickers. Then, we saved the photos to the Camera Roll on the IPads and opened the ChatterKids app. We pulled the photo into ChatterKids, drew a mouth over our selfie’s mouth, and record some narration of the photos. Most fifth graders chose at least one ocean photo and one solar system photo, which was cool! It was so hilarious to see our selfies talking; everyone had a blast with this activity! Here’s Michael’s:

 
Students in Mr. Covais’ and Ms. Browne’s group focused on how the Earth’s tilt in relation to the sun create seasons. Using Google Slides, the students imported pictures of the sun and Earth. They duplicated the slides and they then selected a sticker to place on the Earth. After rotating the picture to demonstrate the tilt of the Earth they downloaded the slides to their desktop and imported them into Windows Movie Maker. Finally they copied and duplicated the slides to make the movie about a minute long. The students published the movie to share with classmates. Everyone did a great job!

 
Students in Mr. C’s and Mrs. Green’s group created 3D models of the solar system using Tinkercad. They used different resources to gather information about the relative size of each planet. Then they logged into Tinkercad using their HCPS Google information and started tinkering! They referenced their resources as they built to make sure that the sizes, colors, and order was correct. Take a look at this awesome example:

 
To celebrate Computer Science Week, the student in Mrs. Hues & Mrs. Taylor’s group used Scratch to code the movement of the Earth, Moon, and Sun. They were provided a template with the sprites, but they had to add the background image, code for each sprite, and voice recordings to explain their model. When students were finished, they shared their projects and uploaded them to this studio. Check out this great student example!
 

 
Thank you again to Mrs. Hall, Mrs Marazzo, Mrs. Bottari, Mrs. Gross, and Mrs. Mothershead for having us for an awesome TechTakeout at Seven Pines Elementary!

The students in Mrs. Farrar’s 2nd grade class studied even and odd numbers earlier this year. To support their instruction, I had students create even or odd bugs in Tinkercad. Tinkercad is the software we use for creating 3D designs. They started with an empty work plane and had to add 3D shapes to create a bug with even or odd features.

After students were finished designing, they made their designs public and pasted a link to their project on a Google Doc. From the Google Doc, I was able to open up their projects and download them as a .stl file for the 3D Printer. The instructional technology team has a few UpMini 3D printers that we take to the schools in order to print the students designs. The 3D printer melts the plastic filament and lays it down in layers to build exactly what the students designed in Tinkercad. At Greenwood, we purchased filament that glows in the dark, which was a big hit with the kids!

After all the bugs were printed, I gave them to the students and then we used the ChatterPix Kids app on the iPad to add one more element to this project. The students to a picture of their bug, added a mouth, and recorded their voice to have the bug explain why he/she was even or odd.

Take a look at some great student samples!

The students in Mrs. King’s Kindergarten class have been working on rhyming and repetitive text in class. Today they created gingerbread cookies and recorded themselves reciting the Gingerbread Man poem. First they went to PicCollage and uploaded the image of the Gingerbread Man. Next they took a picture of themselves within PicCollage. Using the scissor tool, they were able to crop their picture so only their face was visible. They put their face on the gingerbread cookie. They added a background and then saved their picture to the camera roll.

Next we went to ChatterPix and pulled in their personalized gingerbread cookie picture. They drew a mouth on their face and students recorded themselves reciting the poem. Take a look at some really cute examples!

The students in Mrs. King’s Kindergarten class at Longan have been learning about their 5 senses. For this activity, students used the Pixie app on the iPad to create a picture of themselves labeled with the 5 senses. Students used the camera within Pixie to take their picture. Then they used the text tool to label the 5 senses. As a follow up, you could have students record their voice and explain the 5 senses. Students sent their finished pictures to their teacher using Seesaw. Take a look at this great student sample!

After reading the stories, creating questions for the moderator, researching debates in the library, creating arguments for their book, and designing book jackets and posters, students were ready for the live debate! They invited parents to come in and watch the live debate. It was also filmed so that students in other 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms could view before casting the vote. You can watch the live debate here!

Students had November 21st & 22nd to watch the debate and then vote on this Google Form:

After the votes were in, students analyzed the data provided from Google (a pie chart) and created their own bar graphs with that data.

To take it a step further, students pulled their graph image into a Google Doc and typed a question that would have to be answered by analyzing their graph. Then they used the drawing and voice recording features on the Seesaw app on the iPads to explain their answer.

Seesaw provides us with a QR code of the finished work that was then added to the Google Doc.

Mrs. Wilson hung the graphs in the hallway and invited the 2nd and 3rd grade classes to try to answer the questions and then check their answers by scanning the QR code with the iPad and watching the video.

The students in Mrs. Alves 1st grade class disguised their turkeys so that they would not be gobbled up during the holiday season.  They were very creative in their designs.  They then used ChatterPix Kids on the iPad to have their turkey say “No turkey here!  I am…”  Take a look at some of their adorable turkeys!

Turkey Trouble 2016 from Karen Hues on Vimeo.

The students in Mrs. King’s Kindergarten class have been studying community helpers.  To support their social studies unit, I did a lesson using Nearpod in which the students toured a variety of locations using a 360 Virtual Tour.  Students stood up and took one spin around to see the location.

On the next slide, they had to select the community helper that would work in that location.

To view the whole Nearpod presentation, click HERE. If you want to add the Nearpod lesson to your library, click HERE.

Next students used Britannica Image Quest to find an image of a community helper of their choice.  They saved their selected image to the camera roll.  Then they launched YakIt, selected the image, added a mouth and recorded their voice explaining the job of their community helper. They uploaded their finished recordings to Seesaw.

The students in Mrs. White’s 4th grade class have been learning about graphing and analyzing data.  This lesson included many parts and digital learning tools, so I am calling it the Digital Data Decathlon.  Take a look at the different “events” that students participated in to complete this activity.

Event 1:  I started by having the students create a Google Form in which they asked one question to their classmates.  Here is a student sample:  Favorite Ice Cream Toppings

Event 2:  They posted a link to their Google Form to Google Classroom.

Event 3:  Each student clicked on their classmates links and answered their question.  They answered 21 questions in all.

Event 4:  Students went to their results from the Google Form and analyzed the results.

Event 5:  Students opened the data in a new Google Spreadsheet and began making an x/y table (topic vs. # of students).

Event 6:  Students turned their table into a bar graph and edited as necessary.  They adjusted the scale on the y axis and made sure they had axis labels and a title.  They were also able to customize the colors on their graph. They saved their finished graph as an image on the desktop.

Event 7:  Students created a Google Quiz.  These are similar to forms, but in the settings, you can change it to a quiz so that the person taking your quiz can get immediate feedback.  Each students created anywhere from 3-5 questions that could only be answered by analyzing the graph which was uploaded to the quiz.

Event 8:  Using the answer tool, students selected the correct answers for each of their questions and assigned a point value for each of their questions.

Event 9:  Students published their quizzes by posting a link to their quiz in Google Classroom.
Take a look at this student created quiz: Favorite Food Graph Questions

Event 10:  Students took each other’s quizzes.  They did a great job reflecting during this portion of the activity.  If there were any errors, they politely brought that to the attention of the person who made the quiz and they could easily edit their mistake on the Google Quiz.

The 3rd grade students at Montrose having been practicing with multiplication. Today we used an interactive Nearpod to practice multiplying in a variety of different ways on the iPads. First, students practiced with creating arrays for a given multiplication fact.

Then they had to do the opposite and figure out the multiplication sentence by determining the factors and counting up the squares to determine the product by looking at a shaded figure on the graph paper.

Next they explored multiplying using sets. They looked at a picture with a set of items and had to figure out the multiplication sentence.

Finally, students multiplied using a number line. For example. 2×4 would be 2 jumps of 4 on the number line.

If you would like to try this Nearpod with your students, click here to view this Nearpod. Click here to add this Nearpod to your library.