Monday 27 January 2014

A New Take on an Old Idea

Plenty of teachers have either heard of or tried having a stuffed classroom pet that travels home with students and asking children to write about the animal's adventure away from school.  Some commonly used ideas that tie in with class read-alouds are: Flat Stanley, Tacky the Penguin, or The World According to Humphrey.  Mrs. Woody has put a 21st century spin on a journal going home with students and she is asking that kids blog about the animal's experience.  Her first grade students take a photo of themselves with the pet and then email the photo along with a message to the student-run blog.  What a fantastic way for students to see a real purpose for blogging!

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Reading iPad Tech Integration

First grade students learned about characters feelings and how they change in their unit, Readers Meet the Characters in Our Books.  Students could show their learning by making a Doodlecast Pro of images from the book along with a narration of how the character's feelings changed.  I have included a teacher sample that can be used as a model below.

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Reading Makes Me Feel Good

Festival of Stories is starting in the Primary School this week!  Students will be inspired by Todd Parr's book Reading Makes You Feel Good.  In Technology class, students will mimic Todd Parr's drawing style to create images of what makes them feel good.  Below are samples created by Mr. Mike's class.