National Symbols

When planning for upcoming topics and units in Social Studies are you thinking about a PBL unit?  Second graders are asked to identify acts of patriotism and symbols of the United States.  Students can be asked to research one of the symbols to learn about the importance of one of the US symbols to share with families at our school that are new to the United States.  The essential question could be Why are these symbols important to Americans? 

Here are some sites to help with research and projects to present their findings to a new family.

1.                      Ben’s Guide to Us Government for Kids:  This is a great site that is provided by the Government Printing Office.  It is divided into age groups for sharing age appropriate resources.  Their goal is to teach how government works, about American symbols, and ways to carry out civic responsibility.  There are great resources in the K-2 section on the American Symbols.  This is a great place to start the research for the national Symbol PBL unit. 

2.                      Brain Pop Jr. and Brain Pop:  Both of these sites and apps have a lot of great videos that introduce many topics.  Brain Pop Jr. has a free video on US Symbols.  Brain Pop Educators section you can find background information and activities for US Symbols. You will also find a matching game for US Symbols on the website.

3.                      Sekai Camera:  With a little Prep work students can go on a virtual scavenger hunt in your school.  You can place digital “post-its” in the air.  Place a picture of each symbol virtually around your school.  Have students find the symbols using the ipad camera.  Have students comment to name the symbol or a reason it is important.  This would be a fun quick check of student learning.

4.                      Find More:  Pinterest, Discovery Education and Teachers Pay Teachers are great resources to find more ideas to implement this unit in your classroom.  During my quick search I found book ideas, writing prompts, craftivities, and videos.  Students could write about being green like the Statue of Liberty or watch a video on Discovery Education.

5.                      Aurasma:  Here’s the project using Augmented Reality.  Have students draw a picture of the symbol they researched.  Students will then record themselves answering the essential question and telling why their symbol is important to Americans.  Put the two together and create an Aura.  Use the pictures as a display and post instructions on how to view the Aura.  Erin Klein has lead many face-to-face and virtual workshops on Aurasma.  She has a free step-by-stepdirections PDF on Teachers pay Teachers.

 I can’t wait to teach this unit in my class in November. What PBL units are you looking forward to teaching?

Have a great weekend!

Pumpkin Ponderings

The pumpkins are out and little goblins are bouncing in their seats.  Halloween time is near.  This week the focus is on finding some educational Halloween websites and apps that will keep candy energized students focused on learning. These are some of my new favorites and old standbys.

1.    It’s the Great Pumpkin,Charlie Brown:  At its core, it's the classic story with that same classic music and even its classic storyteller walking you through it: Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown. Aside from the tale you already know, you can also dress a Peanuts character in a Halloween costume. Developers say there are more than 1 billion combinations. You can also play around with some mini-games, including pumpkin carving, playing Schroeder's piano and bobbing for apples. Plus, you can virtual trick-or-treat with the Peanuts gang. "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" is an iOS app for $5.99.

2.    HalloweeneBook:  This app is a simple customizable ebook for kids.  It focuses on the “Where” question.  Students will learn location concepts like in front of, behind, and next to.  Students are instructed to find characters as they read.  You can also upload pictures so that students appear in the book next to the characters.  This app was created for students that fall under the Autism Spectrum but it is beneficial for all students working on communication skills.   This app is $0.99

3.    ABCya:  This is one of favorite sites to find games for reviewing skills.  On their home page they are featuring several Halloween games.  One of my favorites is the Carve a Pumpkin game.  Students can virtually carve a pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern.  While this may appear to have no educational value, it really does work well in a writing situation.  Let student’s create their Jack-O-lantern and have them using that as a writing prompt.  They can write a descriptive paragraph about their pumpkin.

4.    The Legend of Spookley theSquare Pumpkin:  This is one of my favorite Halloween stories.  This app would be great at a center with a story map that would have students identify the different story elements. According to iTunes, In “The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin” a very unique pumpkin delivers a special message of tolerance and self-acceptance that's just right for Halloween...and every day of the year! 

Narrated by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, singer of the perennial Halloween favorite "Monster Mash", this interactive omBook for your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch includes custom music, background audio and enlarged artwork for each scene.  

To promote reading in young children, individual words are highlighted as the story is read. By combining the original text of author Joe Troiano and artwork of Susan Banta with features that entertain and promote reading, this omBook appeals to readers of all ages. This app is $0.99.

5.    Mask JumbleHalloween:  In this Augmented Reality App students can make a virtual mask on top of their face.  They create masks in a realtime video mirror.  This app is $0.99.  It includes 10 masks.  Photos of the mask can be emailed as a postcard.  This works great as a writing prompt.

Have a great weekend!

Let's Get Started!

Here are some tools and ideas that can help you get started with your next PBL project and to show your students’ creativity.

1.    Storiesabout Me:  This app is pricey ($5.99) but you may find that it is worth it.  Students can create stories that have pictures, text, and audio.  It is simple for young children to tell the story of their project.  It can also be shared through a drop box option. 

2.    Another App Smash:  App Smashes are apps that work together to create one product.  Tellagami is one of my favorite apps to create talking Avatars.  With Tellagami you import your own backgrounds.  If you create a background in a drawing app such as Kids Paint or Kids Doodle, your Avatar appears in front of the picture explaining the picture.  This would be great to show vocabulary words or steps in the PBL process.  Several completed Gamis from Tellegami can be dropped into iMovie to create a great finished project.

3.    ComicBook App:  This app let’s you use a photo from your Camera Roll. Choose the template you want to use, add your pictures with a tap.  Then you can add speech bubbles and text.  There is a wide selection of image filters, comic fonts, captions, and classic comic graphics.  You can save to a PDF.  The app is $1.99 and expansion packs are $0.99 each. 

4.    Using Screen Shots:  Screen shots can be used in so many ways in the classroom.  Students can take pictures of score screens in games.  These screen shots can be emailed to you to put in a digital portfolio.  It can also be shared through any app that allows you to upload pictures.  Edmodo, Dropbox and Showbie are just a few.  They can also be used to create step by step directions for using app that require explicit directions.

5.    Recording your PBL Project:  Add the class job of class photographer.  Have the class photographer take one picture each day, post it to your class blog and write about why that picture was important.  If you rotate jobs, it gives every student the responsibility of sharing your classes learning.

Bonus:  For those of you who have class stores or earn points for prizes, I read about a reward that was near the top of the price list.  Students were able to earn the ability to “Text the Principal.”  What a fun free reward for the privileged few.

Have a great weekend!

Really Random!!!

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This week Friday Five is really random! This is the last of the random posts for a while.  The next few weeks will be devoted to technology that can be used to support a PBL project in your classroom.

1.    Why Didn’t I think of that?  Do you ever have one of those moments that you find something so simple that you wonder why didn’t I think of that? You may be smarter than me but I had one of those moments while searching for this week’s Friday Five.  I found a link to a school’ in New Jersey’s  Excel project.  They taught second graders coordinate grids by having them use the fill feature to fill each cell a different color to create a gingerbread house. I know this is a fifth grade standard but it is a great intro to using Excel for any grade. Their coordinates and template are included on the link. http://www.medford.k12.nj.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=1449

2.    App Control:  I recently had a teacher ask me about locking an app so students had to stay on a certain app without changing.  I’ll attempt to step you through the process.  Click on settings. Under the general tab look for the Accessibility section and click on it.  Look for Guided Access, click, and slide the button so that it turns it on.  Click set passcode. Enter a passcode and then you are done.  Open your app.  To activate the Guided Access, triple click the home button.  A border will appear around the app.  Click the start button.  Now students are locked in the app.  To disable the Guided Access, triple click again, enter your passcode and touch end.  This may be especially helpful for young students that randomly wander through apps.

3.    Thinglink:  This is a modern day interactive poster.  Upload a picture and tag it with web content.  The image can then be shared to make it interactive. You can annotate images, embed interactive images, or record an instructional message for students. They offer a free sign up for educators. All images can be embedded practically anywhere. My students will be using this next week in their study of Geographic Regions.  They will choose a biome and add video links of themselves describing the region.  I can’t wait to try it! http://www.thinglink.com/action/store/education

4.    Chirp App:  This is a great app for sharing information such as weblinks, notes, and pictures across ios devices.  Just load the app on all of the ios devices that you want to chirp/ share information.  Chose the content and hit the chirp button.  It is a great way to push out a picture that you want students to “mark-up” or label in another app.  Such a quick formative assessment. You can also send links so that all students are going to the correct website. This may become one app that you wonder how you lived without it if you have multiple devices in your classroom. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chirp/id529469280?mt=8

5.    App Smashing:  Whenever you use more than one app to complete a project it is call app smashing.  At the iLivetolearniLovetogrow has a great App Smash to practice vocabulary.  They used Storymaker, Balloon Free, and PicCollage to make a mini project that helps students learn their weekly vocabulary words.  What are some of your favorite app Smashes?

Have a Great Weekend!