Hour of Code 2015

Well, its that time of year again... Hour of Code is here!

During the week of Dec-7-13, teachers are challenged to provide their students with one hour to learn about coding in the classroom. It is a great opportunity to allow students to experience what computer coding is all about. If you check out the hashtag #hourofcode on twitter, you will find a bunch of info and resources for this. While it might seem like a "waste" of time, remember, it teaches students to problem solve, be persistent in the face of challenges, to think creatively, and learn a new skill that has real world applications. Last year, it was one of my students' favorite activities that we did all year. They asked to code whenever we had free time.

Below is an introduction video to coding and hour of code from hourofcode.org:

You can click on the images below to be directed to different coding activities your kids can play to learn about coding.  To share the links with my students, I have created a page on my class website with all the different options. You could also share them out via Classroom. 

Angry Birds Coding:

Starwars, Minecraft, and Frozen Coding:

Hour of Code activities from Tynker:

Here are some other coding sites we used last year: 

www.madewithcode.com/projects

www.crunchzilla.com/code-monster

scratch.mit.edu

codecombat.com

There are also iPad apps that can be used to teach about game design and coding, If you click on the picture, it will direct you to their websites. 

Hopscotch

Pixel Press "Floors"

This app is really cool- it allows kids to draw out game levels. You can go to their website and print out the paper first, or the kids can draw in the app. They have to use different symbols to get different game elements. Super fun, and the games look awesome in the end! 

Creating Book Trailers

After doing our reading groups, we were looking for a project to wrap up what the kids had learned.  In the fast finishers Jennine had developed, she had Book Trailers as one of the activities students could complete.  We decided to give it a try using books by Deborah Ellis.  Students were challenged to find images and words to represent the book without giving away too much.  They also had to think of which trailer template best suited their book.

First students took a look at the different templates to see which might work for the theme of their book.  They then went to this site to print a planning template.

http://learninginhand.com/blog/2014/8/6/plan-a-better-imovie-trailer-with-these-pdfs

 This is extremely important.  There is no question the kids could have quickly whipped off a movie, but this forced the students to think of powerful images that represented the book.

Students then used the iPads to search images and used iMovie to create their trailers.

 

                                                 

Word Wall Bingo

Today in class we played "Word Wall Bingo". The kids absolutely loved it! For the rest of the day they asked me when we would play again. This idea would work in various grades with any type of word wall. First I gave the students blank bingo cards and instructed them to fill in each blank space with words from the wall. I gave them specific word families to choose from, but you could  modify this based on your grade and the type of word wall you use. We then played bingo with the cards that the students had created! The students enjoyed that they had a part in creating the game and were extremely engaged throughout this lesson.

Setting Goals for AR

For students to take ownership of their own progress in AR, I have the kids set their own goals on the second term.  During the first term, I set the goals according to the results of their STAR tests. Before setting their goals, they must first reflect on how the first term went.  We regularly check in with the kids throughout the term, but I think it's important for them to see if they achieved their goal and why they did (or did not as the case may be).  Then, they are given the job of setting an achievable goal for the next term.  It is always interesting to see that many kids who did not achieve their goal fully recognize why (whether it be attendance or difficulty with certain books, etc) and they will make a plan on how to get their goal on the next term.

Google Slides- A world of Possibilities

I think that Google slides is my #1 go to web tool for creating learning activities for students. One thing that I love is that I can use it to create interactive texts/ activity booklets for students to use as they research online. If you haven't tried it, you should! Here are some examples from my classroom. You can also make notebooks etc. and print them out using slides- all you have to do is change the page size. Another thing that Slides has going for it is that you can include content outside of the printable page that students can drag and drop. You can also create pictures to use as the backgrounds, which is really handy for graphic organizers for students- They just have to insert text boxes over top. We recently did this for a flow chart of a food chain, and I am going to make the story arc in there for students to plan their writing. Really, the possibilities are endless. 

Science: Sky science notebooks 

Social studies: Provincial Government magazine

Science: Interactive lessons on trees and forests

Science: Printable Trees of Alberta research Notebook

I also use it to make posters for my classroom, and this is what I used to design my teacher planner this year. With a bit of creativity, you can make some seriously cool stuff in Google Slides :)  

Place Value

We are beginning focusing on place value in grade 4 this month. I found this idea on pinterest and quickly made a template.  Please feel free to use this in your classroom. For some students it may be helpful to have them representing the numbers in the houses using base ten blocks on a mat. Students may also need to use the back of the form to draw their picture. 

Link to the template below:
Place Value Template

Reading Blog

One thing I have introduced in my classroom this year is a book blog. After reading a particularly good book, students are encouraged to write about it on our class reading blog to share the book with the world. When a student posts, I will often tweet out the link to get visitors to our site. The kids LOVE to see how many people have visited. This establishes a sense of authentic audience for students, and encourages them to improve their writing, since they never know who is reading it. It is also a good opportunity to discuss how to write about the book without spoiling it for the reader. 

I created the blog on Weebly, as I find it really easy to use for the kids with the drag and drop options. If you want to check out their book posts, the address is:

 http://6breadingadventures.weebly.com/

Reading Strategies

I'm sharing a strategy that I'm using with one of my struggling readers. I hope some of you will find it useful!

One of my students LOVES reading but she also LOVES to guess the words, which she is really great at. I was finding that she was "reading" the words while making direct eye contact with me. I was constantly reminding her to cover the word and sound out the letters one at a time. She really didn't like me telling her to sound it out, and often got frustrated.

So, today I told her we'd be playing a reading "game". I gave her five stickers and told her that every time she guessed a word, I would steal a sticker. I wouldn't take a sticker if she attempted to sound out a word and got it wrong. However, if the word is "tree" and she says "ball", then I would remind her to look at the first letter for a clue and then take a sticker. She really loved the idea and she was REALLY motivated to sound out the word instead of guessing.

You could differentiate this by giving students more or less stickers, depending on their reading level or how easily they get frustrated. If they're not into stickers, something small like gum or iPad minutes could also work!

Evaluating Credibility of Online Sources

In our classrooms, it has become a part of our tasks as educators to develop 21st century learners, who have the skills they need to be digitally literate. Using the internet as a tool to answer questions, research, and find information has become embedded across the curriculum and grade levels. It seems that sometimes we assume that our students should have these skills, simply because they have grown up in a digital age. However, these researching skills need to be explicitly taught to students if we want them to be successful and engaged in their learning.  

One skill that I have really noticed students need instruction in is analyzing a source for credibility- they will often believe everything they read on the internet! One activity that I do with my kids to help them realize that not everything they read/see on the internet is true is show them fake sites.

The first thing I always show them is this video, which looks incredibly believable because it is made by Google.

We always talk about why they think this video might be real or fake, and talk about the fact that just because information comes from a big name source, doesn't mean that it is always going to be the truth. 

Another site I show them is about a Tree Octopus. You can click on the image below to check out the site. Again, we discuss why this site is real or fake, and clues they can use to find this out. 

There are lots of these fake sites out there on the web, and a list for classroom use can be found at Teachbytes. Another good site is http://allaboutexplorers.com/, which has some good lessons for having students realize there is lots of false information out there. It emphasizes the importance of using more than one source when looking for information.

Some questions that you can use with your students for evaluating sources include:

• Does the information come from a respected author or organization
• is this information credible?
• is it up to date?
• do other articles or sites confirm this information? If not, what is different and why?
• is the material biased?
• if there are different sides to this topic, does the author cover them all?
• if you trace the links, ownership, or other materials in this source, what do I learn?
• (Harvey & Daniels, 2009, p.135)

I also realized that when I have students researching, it needs to be more than a fact finding mission. This type of learning isn't promoting higher level thinking. Instead, our class is going to use a question to guide our research, and students will be encourage to explain what they are thinking as they are searching for information. I always want students to be synthesizing and making meaning from the information they are gathering.The sheet below is what I will be having students use while researching. You can click on the image below to open it and make a copy for yourself if you would like. It is adapted from the Harvey & Daniels book referenced below. 

References

Harvey, S., & Daniels, H. (2009). Comprehension and collaboration: Inquiry circles for

curiosity, engagement and understanding. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Listening Activity

This is a simple activity that is designed to help students practice their listening skills. Many of my students this year struggle with following directions. They often forget what I say shortly after I say it, often due to the fact that they just aren't paying attention. During this lesson students must focus on step by step directions that the teacher reads aloud. Here's how it works. First make sure each student has their pencil crayons out. Then hand out a colouring sheet to the kids and instruct them to leave it face down on their desk. This is the picture that I used: 

Once you are ready to begin, ask the students to turn over their sheet. You will have a predetermined set of directions with you that you will read aloud one at a time. An example  might be: "Colour the bush green and draw three apples on the tree.". The trick here is to make sure students know you will only read each step once and that they are not allowed to ask you to repeat a step. They have to be listening very careful to what they need to be doing! In my class I gave a small treat to any student who got everything correct. Below is an example of some directions.

These particular activities are great because they allow you to choose either one, two, or three step instructions. You can find more like them here:

 http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/FollowingDirectionsDirectory.html

You can also find many different versions of these online, and it would be easy to create your own!

I hope this is something you can use in your own classroom to help your students learn to be better listeners.  

Bookopoly

I have been on a bit of a gamification kick lately, especially since I am just finishing up a big inquiry project on the topic for my course right now. If you are interested in reading more about gamification, this is a link to a bunch of articles I collected during my research:
https://www.diigo.com/outliner/7fthyf/Gamification?key=btmqbfhx0

My latest creation is a board game that I have dubbed Bookopoly (which apparently is actually a thing...so much for being creative!) As you might notice, it is designed to look like the classic game of Monopoly.  My students have been struggling with their AR reading this year, and it has been really hard to motivate them to read their books. Hopefully engaging them in a fun game will help kick their reading into high gear! One important aspect of this game is that it is designed to allow students of all reading levels to be successful!

Click on me to see the property tile template

On my Bookopoly board, each property tile is named after a location in a kids book (well, mostly anyway!), and has a specific XP value assigned to it. Just like Monopoly, they get more expensive as you go around the board. The idea is that students will earn XP points by doing different reading tasks, and then will be able to buy properties on the board with their XP points. They can also upgrade their properties by purchasing houses and castles. To make it even more fun, students will also try to earn a variety of badges. Badges can be earned for a bunch of different achievements, from reading a graphic novel to buying your first house. 

The descriptions of the badges can be found here if you are interested. 

Below is a table of achievements and the corresponding XP points students can earn. 

But of course, there has to be some way to track the XP points that students are earning and spending, so welcome Math outcomes into the equation! Students will be responsible for tracking their income and spending on a sheet, pictured below, keeping a running total of the amount of XP they currently hold. 

Students will be given a booklet that includes sheets to record their properties, collect their badges, as well as their XP bank logs. Hopefully this helps with our AR issues this year!!!

Candy Corn Contest

Here's a great October reading activity! The "Candy Corn Contest" is a book about a boy who is trying to win a jar of candy corn from his teacher by guessing how many candies are in the jar. In the book the students get to enter guesses when they read a page from their library books. I read the book to my students, and then have them answer comprehension questions about each chapter. For each question they enter correctly, they get to enter an estimate into the draw. Whoever guesses the correct amount (or the closest) wins the jar of candy! 

Coming soon to a library near you!

I So, I was looking at Twitter the other day...

And I came across a really great article on Edsurge https://www.edsurge.com/news/2014-12-14-using-audioboom-in-the-classroom-to-improve-reading-fluency. 

The author discussed how they used an app called audioboom to improve student fluency by having them record books. I loved the idea, and so now the grade sixes are embarking on a quest! Over the course of the school year, you will start to see QR code appearing inside the back cover of the library books. When scanned on an iPad, students will be brought to an audio recording of the book being read. Grade six students will be recording the audio to help them practice their fluency and expression. 

The reason we have decided to start creating audio recordings of the books is so that some of the lower students in our classrooms might still be able to listen to the book if there is no one available to read with them that day. All they will need is an ipad with a QR scan app and their headphones. Also, we know that Daily 5/CAFE has students listening to reading as a part of it, and that many of our Div I classes are using this program. Right now, we are going to be focusing on books at the 1-2 levels, and then working up from there. 

So, keep your eyes posted for these books! When students record a new audio book, they will be our database on our Google Site. This is where we will be keeping track of the titles we have recorded. The link is below

 https://sites.google.com/a/sperd.ca/aesbookproject/. 

PS: If you happen to have a title in your room that we have done a recording for, feel free to print of the QR code and tape it in your book as well! 

P.S.S. Teachers if you are interested in having your kids record audiobooks, let me know and I can show you how to do it and give you access to the folders etc. The more the merrier!! 

Candy Crush!

In my class this year we are doing something called "Candy Crush Friday!". Every Friday before lunch I give the students five questions, covering a variety of things that we have learnt about throughout the week. Each question that the student answers correctly earns them one candy. They have to crush the answers in order to earn the candy! Sometimes I have candies that are all worth one point. Other times I've had a variety of candy and made some worth more points than others. By doing this I am able to get an idea of who understood the major concepts from the week. And as an added bonus, the kids absolutely love doing this! They remind me about it all week to make sure that I have the questions ready to go Friday :) 

Our Grade 4 Word Wall

Our Grade 4 Word Wall.

Last year I tried using a regular word wall, but I wasn't using it regularly. This year I decided to try something new. We are using a word wall that focuses on word families.

We pick a common sound like "ight" and as a class come up with words that would fit into this family. The kids are pretty good at creating the words when they have the sound. We come up with eight and then pick two words to focus on. We define them and then the students are responsible for creating a sentence using the word. This also helps review proper sentence structure. 

Zombie Mathapocalypse

In October, grade six takes a turn for the creepy and becomes involved in a full out zombie mathapocalypse. Being the cruel teacher I am, I have been building their anticipation for the past week or so by subtly referencing it, taping up printed off zombies in their lockers, etc. They have even started asking the kids from last year for their advice and info! What they don't know is that we are going to be integrating mathematical concepts and skills into a game format to engage them in their learning! For the past few days I have also been giving the kids "ZCoins" for demonstrating perseverance in math, as well as sharing their mathematical thinking. I haven't told them what they are for, but they have been discussing the fact they probably have something to do with the mathapocalpyse. 

Usually we begin on October 1st. On Day 1, I start off by playing an emergency broadcast on the smartboard:

I also tape a Newspaper article to their lockers with a bit of information to pique their interest and tie in some literacy:

At this point, I still haven't really given them any information, but they are dying to find out what is happening! Hook, line and sinker!

To start, I show students all the supplies in the Warehouse that they will be trying to obtain. This same presentation is how I keep track of student supplies. As they earn them, I cut them from the supply pages and paste them on the individual students' page at the end. 

Before we get into any math, the kids are given an introduction sheet to get them thinking about their strategy for the game. 

From here, we dive into some math. Students design bunkers using area, perimeter and volume. 

As students collect supplies, they are responsible for recording their data on a graph

Also, because we are just winding up a unit on patterning, we complete a table of values as the mathapocalpyse goes on. Each day the number of zombies increases by 2Z+3

Each week, students receive updates on the apocalypse, and depending on their supplies, they will either live or become a zombie. If they become a zombie, they can steal supplies from classmates instead of getting them from me. 

We also connect probability in by having the kids spin a spinner every week to decide their location on our map. We post their locations on our bulletin board. However, the only catch is that if they have a map as one of their supplies, they have access to a digital map that we update with clues specific to the week to help them survive (ex. there is a 1/6 chance of a zombie attach at the forest this week vs a 4/6 chance at the hospital). Sometimes I have to change the weekly updates if it means that all the students will become zombies, but it usually works out ok. 

This year I am also integrating Twitter. I created an account @zmathapocalypse that will be tweeting the updates out to my class. The kids have a lot of fun during this game, and it really does help improve their math skills, while touching on curricular concepts we need to learn. 

The link below is to a more comprehensive typed up explantation I did last year.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tqTGVSzR2EgGI_U5KCy884Twf9R32TDPXdH3SRZuXus/edit?usp=sharing

Accessibility using Web Tools

Pam was asking me this morning about R&W gold and other accessibility tools to use with Chrome, and so I thought I would share a few. We all have those students who struggle with basic literacy skills (reading and writing) that can make independent work a struggle once they reach division II. Since we can't help them every minute of the day, it is useful to leverage technology to teach them strategies for being independent when the situation warrants it. (Especially in science and social where we aren't necessarily assessing these reading and writing skills, but rather working on concept knowledge). 

In Google Docs

• Read and Write Gold (Download extension from the chrome store)
• Reads the text students have typed back to them
• Also works on Blogger as it turns out! Worth trying out to see where else it works on the web. 
• Tools: Voice typing
• Speech to text program
• Add-on: Speech recognition
•  Speech to text program
• Add-on: Kaizena Mini
• Leave voice feedback for students on their work

Chrome extensions 

1. Speak it- reads text 

2. ISpeech- reads texts

2. Announcify ( removes distractions and highlights a paragraph at a time) 

3. Clearly- opens up the site without distractions 

You can also download an extension called ChromeVox, but it can be really irritating because it reads EVERYTHING since it is designed for the visually impaired. 

Other Tools and Tips

• You can click on the little microphone beside the search box to use the voice search in Google Chrome
• Sadly, Google removed the option to filter searches by reading ability :(
• You can create custom search engines (cse.google.com) so that when students are searching you can ensure the resources they are getting as a result of their queries are in kid friendly language and at the appropriate level. 

IPad

• Voice typing in Chrome and in Google Docs using Siri

Food for Thought

- I created a bunch of projects using Slides, and I can't find a tool that will consistently read them to students. However, if I had created it in Docs, I would have easily been able to find a tool to have the text read to students. So... it is a good idea to reflect on the projects and the ability level of the students and how they will be able to access resources independently and structure your projects around that to save yourself headaches! 

How to add extensions from the Chrome store: