Picture Book Biographies Inspire and Inform

Here are a few of the finished biography presentations of my fourth grade students. You can read about the project on this blog post, Identifying Personality Traits and Finding Evidence. 

This last step in the process had the students practicing digital literacy and being good digital citizens. 

They practiced presenting information on a slide, finding images that would support that information, citing their sources, ensuring that their message did not get lost in the medium (both substance and style matter). 

They will be presenting their slides to each other this week and practicing their public speaking and presentation skills. Their last task will be to reflect on the process and the project. 

Hour of Code: Unplugged: Every day Algorithms: Paper Airplanes

Today, third graders participated in Hour of Code, in an unplugged activity, which had them learning about ALGORITHMS. After watching a brief video, the students and I talked about the definition of algorithm: a list of steps you can follow to finish a task. They shared algorithms they use every day to get ready for school: getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, taking the bus, etc.  We focused on the tooth brushing algorithm because it is a universal activity, it is a tangible way to talk about the algorithms, and some of the steps can be switched around. For instance, one can wet the toothbrush and then add paste or add paste and then wet the toothbrush, but one cannot add the toothpaste after brushing.  

It was a fabulous activity and the reflections by the students were thoughtful. The complete lesson is here. Since we reflected on the learning as a group, I sent home the assessment as a tool for the students to share with parents what they learned today.  Have a look and a listen at the collaborative learning and coding happening in the library and today:

Fourth Graders Share How They Will Take Care of Our Library

This week's focus is on library rules and routines that pertain to taking care of our library space and the materials in it. We kicked off the conversation by reading Library Lion, written by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. Let me just tell you that there was absolute joy on the faces of the students as we read. You can read about the read aloud experience on this post: ReedALOUD: Library Lion. 

After reading the book, we connected to the story's theme of rules and why they are important. We also talked about how the lion showed his appreciation for the library by helping to take care of the space the materials in it. The fourth graders then took to Padlet to share their ideas for taking care of our library. The actionable things they could do and the things they would say. Padlet, a virtual sticky note platform, also allows the students to practice being good digital citizens. Given what they had to say, this library should be looking inviting and ready for every student coming through the doors!

Show and Tell: The fourth grade biography project

The fourth grade biography projects are all complete. These students have been practicing how to both show and tell what they have learned by using technology tools to convey their knowledge. You can read about the project and see their progress in this post and those linked within it. 

Each project includes the following information about their subject: an important fact; images; a Haiku; a Wordle with personality traits; and, a Tagxedo showing the beverage that describes the person. They would love your feedback! If you watch any of these videos, please leave a comment on this form.

Ms. Page's Class

Ms. McManama's Class

Ms. Hyder's Class

Want to share a comment with the students? You can leave a comment on this form or in the blog's comment section below.

Fifth graders take charge of a tech-infused project

The problem:

A school community growing by leaps and bounds needing a reminder about our community's expected behaviors.

The solution:

Give the fifth graders an opportunity to share what they know about the expected behaviors by creating projects that will be shared with our kindergarten through fourth grade students and their teachers.

The fifth grade teachers and I have been busy planning this valuable, fun, productive, and tech-filled day.

We set the task before them:

They brainstormed expected behaviors:

~Examples of student ideas~

We showed an exemplar that we created:

We reviewed the criteria for success:

Slide 1: Exemplar

Slide 2: Exemplar

Slide 3: Exemplar

We reviewed these two guiding documents:

Full document 

Full document

We sent the off with these two documents, an iPad and a laptop:

The project could be fully completed on the iPads, but I think editing an Animoto and working on a Google Presentation are easier on a laptop,so the students did their planning on the guiding document, photographed and filmed on the iPads, and then started their Animoto on the iPads. After importing their photographs and movies, naming their video, and adding some basic text, the students switched to the laptops. The laptops were numerically aligned with the Animoto accounts for ease of transferring to the new device. 

We are in the thick of it:

We have one more work period tomorrow during which the students will review, edit, and finalize their project. Watching the students think critically and creatively throughout this process has been exciting to watch.  

The hallways were full of students conferring, organizing, and acting out their skits, while back in the classrooms, the students were reviewing what they had just filmed and photographed, assessing it's merit, and heading back out again. #coolbeans

Next steps:

 The students will watch the projects next week and complete a rubric and reflection. We're determining the best time for the projects to be shown to the other students, but I'll be sharing them here soon!

4th Graders Create Digital Postcards for National Monuments

I recently wrote about a project where the fourth graders used Tellagami to create digital postcards for National Monuments. You can read about the project on this blog post: Hi, My Name is...and I am Visiting....

Below are the final projects from two of the fourth grade classes. As I said before, these projects are part of a scaffolded process where the students are learning, understanding, and practicing digital literacy skills. I am excited about their journey and I am happy with these expressions of their new knowledge.

McManama Monument Project from Mason-Rice School on Vimeo.



Page Monument Postcards from Mason-Rice School on Vimeo.

The 5th grade science videos and presentations

Here are links to almost all of the 5th grade videos and presentations created by the students as a way to prepare for the Massachusetts' state standardized science test (MCAS). 

Projects created by the students in 5LC

Projects created by the students in 5W

Projects created by the students in 5C

Each class covered the same twelve topics. You can read about the project here. 

Which mammal eats the most field greens?

The third graders have been learning about mammals. I am always looking for ways to broaden opportunities to express new knowledge and such an opportunity arose last week. In a quickly planned lesson, each student wrote a riddle about his or her mammal and then created a Google Presentation.  The first slide of the presentation has the riddle and the second slide has an image of the mammal and the answer (i.e., the mammal's name). The classroom teacher will combine all the slides into one slide show, which will be shown to the parents at the Mammal Morning.  This slide show will also be shared with their 1st grade learning buddies. I plan to house it on my Webpage, so that all the students at the school can view it and learn about the mammals.

This project provided me with the opportunity to work with the students using Encyclopedia Britannica's ImageQuest, a database of about three million images on varying subjects. This project also allowed me to embed some important skills and strategies around presentations - font choice, theme, color, etc.  


To complete the mammal presentations, the students:

-->Opened up their Google Apps account

-->Created a folder

-->Shared the folder with the teacher

-->Created a presentation within the folder

-->Chose the theme of the presentation

-->Typed in their riddle

-->Opened a new tab on the browser

-->Logged into ImageQuest

-->Searched for their mammal

-->Selected an image

-->Downloaded the image

-->Uploaded the image to their Google Apps account

-->Inserted the image into the second slide

-->Cited their source in the notes (the teacher will include all of them in a final slide)

-->Previewed their work

-->Made changes (if necessary) to the slide show

This was a lot of steps for third graders, but I always have high expectations and faith in their abilities, and sure enough, each child found success. The process also required the additional step of uploading because of a quirk in our Google Apps.

One of the reasons for the success rate is having students who are comfortable with the technology and take to steps quickly. It makes projects like this easier because those students take on the role of resident experts. It is also gratifying to see students who might not excel in other areas become the leaders in the technology realm. I am excited to build on their knowledge in the next project!

Caught in the Act: Second Grade Researchers

Sometimes I just get to be part of a process, and sometimes that is not enough. I want to be there from start to finish but it is not always possible, either because of timing or the intended outcome of the process. Such is the case with my second graders, who are spending a good deal of time in the library as information gatherers, source citers (yes, I made that phrase up), and all around enthusiastic learners. Here's the thing, I am having so much fun working with them, that I am feeling okay about not being there for the next part of their project.

The students are conducting research on African Animals. They are using a variety of resources, both print and electronic. After a review of how to access information in the various resources, the students then moved between the three stations: electronic resources (mainly encyclopedias), print encyclopedias, and nonfiction texts. Two things made me especially happy yesterday:

Thing One: I observed students taking notes on text in their books and on their screens, but even cooler, I observed them taking notes from videos and images. These students already know that we take in information in a variety of ways and from a variety of media. #coolbeans

Things Two: The students quickly took ownership of this process and even began to take on the persona of their animals. Many could be heard to say, "I live in..." or "I eat..." or "I am the largest..." The best line thus far? "I eat you, but don't worry, you are already dead when I do." Now, there's compassion for you!

Check out these information gatherers: