Friday, May 30, 2014

Fifth graders get creative with idioms using ABCYA's animate

Sometimes at the end of year it is difficult to keep the fifth graders engaged in their lessons, but they are eager when they can use a cool tool to demonstrate their learning. It is also great for us teachers, because we can have some fun with the kids and still teach them something in the waning days of the school year. We used two cool tools, Brainpop and Animate from ABCYA.com to create a motivating learning experience. You can view the animations by going to ABCYA.com and then opening animate. Just drag one of our animations into the frame and click the play arrow and have some fun with idioms!

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Learning our letters with Skitch

Skitch is an app that we have used this year to create Internet Safety posters with grade 4. It is a versatile app that can also be used successfully with our youngest learners. Kindergartners practiced identifying their upper and lower case letters and typing their names using Skitch. Some of them even did a little drawing. Check them out! It's quick, fun, and easy to share.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Explain Everything: An app for all subjects!

Another great app that we have been using this year is Explain Everything. It allows student to create, collaborate and share with a global audience. You can insert images, choose themes, free draw, and record on your slides to create an appealing presentation. Our math coach, Jesse Winch, has been using it with his students to help them show and explain their work. This app brings learning to life in all subject areas! Our fourth grade students researched the Underground Railroad using Scholastic.com. Then they took their information and created presentations using Explain Everything. Have a look at their presentations here. While you are at it take a peek at how Mr. Winch has used this app.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Curious about Presidents? Our third graders found out some interesting stuff!

I really love the Pic Collage app. Not only is it easy to use and fun, but it is such a powerful way to share your learning. Every student can be successful and turn their handwritten research into an entertaining and attractive presentation for a wide audience. It provides us teachers with a differentiated learning opportunity that all students can access and use to make their learning shine! We researched presidents using PebbleGo databases. Students took notes using the PebbleGo "Share what you know" sheets. Then we created eye-catching posters using the Pic Collage app on our ipads. We chose one important contribution from the president we researched to include in our poster. Take a look here to learn something new about presidents!

Oliver the Golden Retriever promotes reading at Williams

This week our library had a visit from Oliver, the Golden Retriever who loves to listen to young readers. Mr. Beaudet and I hosted Oliver, his owners, and 8 students from Williams as part of our Williams School PTO fundraising efforts. Oliver listened to our student readers read from a wide variety of books. Among the titles read were Take me out to the Yakyu, Your pet dog, Biscuit, and Henry hikes to Fitchburg. Oliver came to us from the Pets & People foundation along with his owners, Karine Alexander and her daughter Caroline. They are a certified pet therapy team and they are terrific. It gave our students a chance to practice and enjoy reading aloud. Reading should be fun and enjoyable and Oliver certainly gave us a wonderful opportunity to share books and reading together in the Williams library in a new way. Thanks to Oliver, Karine, and Caroline for a creative and exciting visit to Williams. You can learn more about this program at petsandpeoplefoundation.org