Graphing Planets

3rd Grade is graphing!  There is a terrific website that kids and adults can use to display their data.  The website is located @ http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx

This site is very straight forward and can be manipulated with very little effort and instruction on the teacher's part.  I am attaching a great example from our third grade students.  The students researched planetary information.  Students were charged with finding the number of moons each planet has, the distance from the sun, the rotation of each planent, the orbit, temperatures and the number of rings they have. The following example is one regarding the moons of our planets.

Saving at Country Meadows Elementary

This video will show students how to save their files when using programs such as Pages, Keynote, Garageband, and Comic Life.  You also can save pictures, music, and video to the server for access at a later time.

Wixie Intro @ CM

Wixie Intro:  The following is a link to a video for Country Meadows Elementary School.  This link will show students and teachers the basic functions of Wixie.

Wixie

Country Meadows has acquired access for grades 1-3 to Wixie

With Wixie, students can use paint tools, text options, clipare, and voice recording to showcase their content knowledge.

• Create original work that demonstrates their comprehension of the curriculum
• Illustrate to explain abstract concepts
• Create graphs and models to represent data
• Write digital stories
• Create non-linguistic representations to complement writing
• Anytime/anywhere mentality



Integrate into the core curriculum


Wixie comes with hundreds of curriculum activities. Teachers can also create customized content for their classes and distribute it to students in seconds.


You can access this tool at: https://kildeer.wixie.com/


Students can login anywhere in the world using their credentials.  All that is required is flash.

Creating Digital Stories

There are several different ways to create digital stories.  Which ever way you decide works best, it is well worth learning this skill.  Creating podcasts, iMovies, and keynote presentations are three ways to accomplish the creation of a digital story.  The media that is created can be used from alternative assessments to guided reading for your students.  Either way the benefits can be instructional and student centered.

The following is an example of a digital story for instructional purposes.  Students can circulate through a center and acquire this content knowledge or it can be used as a guided reading station.

The following is a podcast that was created by a student.  This is an alternative story telling method that integrates 21st century technology.

2nd, 3rd, 4th Grade Activities in iLab from December 2011

This week 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade began work on Comic Life projects in the iLab.  2nd Graders are working on Fable passports.  The Fable passports are summaries of fables students are reading on MeeGenius.  The students summarize their fables using Comic Life.  The third grade is also using Comic Life as a research template.  3rd Graders are assigned a planet.  They describe their planet as if they are the planet.  The "I am" construct coupled with Comic Life is a fun way for the students to compose their work.  4th Grade is also using a Comic Life to interpret poetry.  Attached are some samples of 3rd and 4th grade work.

3rd Grade "I am"

4th Grade "Poetry Critques"

iMovie 4th & 5th Grade

Students are learning to compose movies with iMovie.  This week in art class students will be contributing to their winter concert repertoire by composing rich media filled movies.

The movies will be playing in the background, while the students sing.  Above, is an example from Mrs. Backe's 5th grade class.  This tool is exciting and engaging for students.  It is a great alternative assessment of learning.  Students and teachers are able to see exactly what students have learned in a fun format.

This program is available on all district computers.  Learning iMovie is fun and easy.  If you would like more information about iMovie, please feel free to contact me at:

rhanrahan@kcsd96.org