Top 10 List

What a powerful week!  We have had so much fun working with one another through projects and creative new approaches.  Below you will see a summary of our week, showing new friendships and ideas that will help our creative juices for the upcoming year.  Grab some popcorn and enjoy!! :)

Top 10 Things Pinnacle Leaders Will Never Say

Wrap-Up for Pinnacle Day 1

3-2-1

3 Things I Found Out:
1. How to give students assignments after they complete a quick quiz- (Auto-generated assignments....SWEET!!)
2.  What Canva is and how to use it.
3.  What the Four C's are (in depth)

2 Interesting Things:
1.  LOVE the Appmazing Race Idea...wish I could collaborate with more strangers though
2.  Badge sticker...Interested to see what the possible badges are.

1 Question I Still Have:
1.  How can we access unit guides for planning?  This would help during our "work time".

Migration vs. Hibernation

Our next voyage will be using Blendspace to create a presentation that uses videos, pictures, and text to support students' thoughts about the difference between hibernation and migration. This comes after several weeks of experiments and Shared Reading articles to help them see what all types of adaptations organisms can have as week as the advantages and disadvantages of these adaptations. 

One experiment that I must share with you that the kids really enjoyed required them to use different tools to represent their "beak". They were able to choose between a spoon, scissors, tweezers, and a binder clip. They had to use this "beak" to "eat" their food and place it in their cup, which represented their bellies. Their food consisted of a paper clip, a rubber band, a pipe cleaner, and a Cheerio. They were given 20 seconds to see how much they could "eat."  Students recorded their data in their notebooks and compared their data to their group member's.  They truly enjoyed trying to beat their own records. We then discussed how these adaptations impact the birds they are similar to and why it is/isn't hard for them to survive in certain habitats. 

Students willl take their knowledge from this experiment and others to put together their Blendspace. I can't wait to see how they present their research of hibernating vs. migrating. 

Side note-if you haven't ever tried Blendspace, it is well worth the exploring time. Being able to log in, create, and share with their google log in is well worth the time to explore!! :)

Nonfiction Class Project: Sharks

After our character units, we moved into nonfiction during the month of November and continue to work on this unit.  Part of the Reader's Workshop unit included a class research project in which the class decided on a topic they were interested in.  From there, students discussed and came up with the subtopics to be researched.  My class was so interested in this project.  Their topic was sharks and they came up with some great ideas for subtopics.  

After researching and becoming experts on their subtopic, students added post-it notes of their learning to our class anchor chart so that we could share the information with one another.  They also completed the Post-it Note Organizer that I found from Sarah's blog.  Even though it was posted for a 1st grade class, it worked perfectly for our research project.  Lastly, students chose begged to use the green screen app to create a video of their learning.  Each partner chose the background picture for their recording and I recorded them sharing their expertise.  

Character Units Coming to an End

Students spent the month of October learning about characters in Reader's and Writer's Workshop. At the end of the unit in WW, students had to create a "Selfie" of the character they created to use in their Realistic Fiction stories.  Once their selfie was finished, students video-taped one another describing how this character fits into their stories.  We inserted these videos into Aurasma to create an augmented reality project.  Students' selfies were placed in the hallway to be viewed by their parents during conferences.

During Reader's Workshop students studied all about characters, including how to become the character and see the character's world through his/her eyes.  To wrap up this unit of study, students worked on an app-smashing project that included Chatterpix and Aurasma.  They had to first pick which character they were going to "become" and create a script of what this character would say.  Most students chose the main character while others chose minor characters within the text.  Students created the dialogue using Chatterpix (very user friendly for the kiddos) and imported this into Aurasma.  Their trigger image for this was the book cover.  This also serves as a great tool to use for students that have not read the text to get an insider's view of what the book will be about.  

Aurasma Again?!

The last project went so well, we decided to do another!! To finish up our character unit, students are selecting a text, picking a character, and deciding what their character will say. They will then use Chatterpixs to make the character come to life. Some students are even disguising their voices as their character!! So FUN!! :) They will use the book cover as their trigger image for the chatterpix to come to life. These will be placed on students' desks for showcase at parent conferences. Be sure to check out our class web page for some other cool projects and updates in our class. Bit.ly/cusmith 

Aurasma Making Its Appearance

Today my class worked on making character selfies to describe the internal and external characteristics for the character they are creating to use in their Realistic Fiction piece of writing.  We will then be using their selfies as the trigger for our first Augmented Reality project. Students will be talking about their character and what traits they have. They have also been planning how they will include the text evidence in their writing to prove these character traits. I can't wait to see the finished porducts and share these at parent conferences!!