A Sea Animal Inquiry

A Peaceful Protest

Mr. Lewis's KG class inquired into sea animals.  They were interested in learning:

• What does my animal need to survive?
• Where does my animal live?
• How can it live there?
• How can we help these animals survive?

To culminate their learning, the students chose to lead a peaceful protest and share with others the importance of not polluting the oceans.

 

A Biomimicry Breakout

Students in grade 1 are so enthusiastic about our breakout challenges!

Make a Class Book of New Learning

Kindergarten students have been busy inquiring into tree frogs in Ms. Burant's class.  They have wondered, researched, interviewed experts, observed, and reflected on their learning.  Each student has chosen a fact to share in their class book, The Green Tree Frog: Fun Facts.

Students made the posters in Pic Kids.

A High School Interim student, Matt, compiled the posters into a class book using the app, Book Creator.

Here is a video showing the almost finished book.  A few students have been absent who need to contribute to the book and a few more voices need recording.

QR Code Quest

Grade 1 students have begun their unit on weather in Science.  What better way to generate interest in this topic than looking at extreme weather!?!  Tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, blizzards, and thunder/lightning always intrigues students. 

Students in Miss Kumar's class chose an extreme weather from six different options and followed a QR Code Quest to learn more information about their extreme weather.  In order to complete their quest for information they had to:

• scan a QR code with a video about their extreme weather
• write down 1-2 observations from the video
• scan a QR code to access PebbleGo and login to find the eBook about their extreme weather
• write down 1-2 facts from the book
• scan a QR code with directions on what to do with their researched information
• create a product on their ipad (using Pic Kids, Book Creator, Yakit, or Doodlecast Pro) sharing what they learned

Students were engaged throughout the process and all students learned at least one new piece of information about their extreme weather from their QR Code Quest!

Resources Used:

• YouTube videos of extreme weather
• PebbleGo
• BrainPop
• Handout created by teacher 

QR Code Work Choice

Students in Grade 1 are becoming extremely independent learners with their ipads in our 1:1 program.  For this lesson, students are exposed to three different stations and they can choose one to complete.  The goal is for them to scan the QR code at the station, watch the directions, and then follow the directions from the video to create their project.

Station 1
Students apply their knowledge of cloud types learned in science class to make a clouds iMovie.

Station 2
Students apply their mathematical thinking skills to make a screencast of how they solve a math problem.

Station 3
Students create a drawing of their NF research animal in its natural habitat as a background.  They then make the animal 'talk' and share some of the new learning they discovered when researching the animal.

Below is a student sample from each station.

Showcasing Nonfiction Learning

First graders are exploring different ways to showcase their nonfiction research.  They were given options of making a nonfiction book using the app Book Creator, designing a presentation in the app Haiku Deck, or producing an iMovie.  Here are a few samples below.

iMovie

Haiku Deck

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app


Book Creator (open the link in iBooks on an ipad) 

Daily Weather Check

First grade students will be studying weather and record the daily temperature and cloud coverage for a particular city to track its weather.  At the end, students can compare various weather patterns from cities around the world with their classmates. 

Daily, students will:
1.  Choose a city  
2.  Click on its 'globe'  
3.  Click on the link to find out that city's weather for the day
4.  Record the weather on their monthly weather calendar

Kelli's Weather Report

--

The new clip-n-clip feature in iMovie is amazing! Here is a short sample I made quickly for our first graders who will be studying weather in January...can't wait to try it with them.