Sssssssnakes

First grade has been super busy! (as always!) We had a long, scaly, rat-eating visitor this month. You guessed it... A SNAKE! Ok, so it wasn't a real one of course, but we enjoyed it all the same! Thanks to my friend Joe, we had a traveling Webkinz snake visit our classroom. We did a K-W-L, and researched some quick facts about snakes. I let the class decide what they wanted to do... and quickly their hands began shooting up in the air. I loved the excitement as they told me their ideas. One group wanted to write a comic script, and use ToonDoo to create it. Another group wanted to green screen with a snake moving behind them, and one group wanted to use the iPod to record facts. These groups quickly got to work creating scripts for their project. One group took a different approach... they wanted to write from the point of view of a mouse, the snakes prey. I had remembered seeing a mouse on Voki... so they went with that idea. As I facilitated this process, visiting each group as they worked together, I'm sure I had a huge smile on my face. Here were my little leary 1st graders... who came to me in August and probably had no clue what an iPod was, busily writing scripts, working collaboratively, and all the while, totally engrossed in what they were doing. However, the best part of this project will come when the students see their work published for a bigger audience. To me, the excitement and look of pride on their faces is priceless. Check out their finished projects here!

Wilkes & PBL

I thought I'd add an update on my latest projects with my Wilkes Instructional Media class. I'm now taking Project Based Learning. It has been an interesting ride! For this course, we're partnered up with 3 other classmates to create a PBL experience. My group chose Butterflies/Bees as our topic. We created an essential question and gathered resources to begin creating an elementary level PBL experience. Recently, we were to create a Media product. My group members and I each created part of it, and then pieced it together using Voicethread. Here is my contribution on bees...
I used a song from Discovery Streaming, and gathered images from Discovery and Creative Commons. Enjoy!
** Oh, and a warning... It's a catchy tune... and you may find yourself singing it after you hear it! hehe **

Civil War Sallie visits Clarion Area

Civil War Sallie recently visited our classroom. We spent the week learning about Abraham Lincoln and his role with the Civil War. The students completed fast fact sheets about Lincoln's life. They read and heard stories about Abe Lincoln. Finally, the students created a timeline of his life. Each student picked a year to illustrate and talk about. These were later added to a Voicethread, and to Timerime... a neat online timeline maker. The students also created their own songs and skits about Abe Lincoln. It was an exciting week... and they were sad to see Sallie go! Check out Civil War Sallie's Blog to see more!