Archives: Blogs and Blogging

Lego iMovie Trailers

Students in Mrs. Sharp’s and Mrs. Downey’s Math and Writing classes used Legos to practice skills! First, they created lego houses based on a STEM activity created by Mrs. Downey. They found the area and perimeter of each of the rooms in their houses, and made sure to include at least one simple machine and working light.

Lego Houses:

Then, in writing class, they created Lego video trailers using the iMovie app.  I created templates for them to use here:

iMovie Trailer Script Plans

But there are many iMovie Trailer templates out there! Here’s a few more I’m considering using next time:

iMovie for iPad – Storyboard Help Sheets

iMovie for iPad Printable Storyboard Templates

Here’s what the students created.  They only had one class period to write and film their trailers!

Lego Trailers:

The Journey from elemitrt on Vimeo.

The Cabin from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Super Family from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Summer’s Here from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Creepy Connie from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Check Out their Final Lego Movie Blog Posts here!

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The Big Bad Wolf

Mrs. Downey’s and Mrs. Corbett’s class completed a S.T.E.A.M project centered on a beloved children’s story, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Mrs. Coffey and Mrs. Pettipiece helped too!

Video Trailer (Just a Tease)!

Longer video

 

After discussing and analyzing the story, and comparing and contrasting it to the real Three Little Pigs story, students spent the next week delving into the world of engineers, architects, construction workers, realtors, consumers, and presenters. Each group of students planned, drew blueprint, tested and revised a house for the Fourth Little Pig.  Each house was created to withstand gusts of wind from The Big Bad Wolf.  They even completed a purchase order and shopped on a budget for the materials to use to construct their house.  They also used the app Pic Collage to create a real estate listing to market their house to potential pig buyers.

To see their pic collages and read more about the project, please visit Mrs. Downey’s blog post about it! You can find it here.

Cross posted on the Oak Grove Digital Library.

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Island of the Blue Dolphins

 

 

Students in Mrs. Becker’s Class created Virtual Posters after Reading Island of the Blue Dolphins.  I absolutely love how these turned out.  Students drew pictures, and then used the Pic Collage app on the iPads to take pictures of their illustrations.  They layered them on top of each other, added the text, and added the background.  It’s a great mix of student art work and digital work.  I love them!

Students even posted them to their blogs.  Take a look the link below, and leave them a comment or two on their great work!

Island of the Blue Dolphin Virtual Posters

 

 

 

Cross posted on the Oak Grove Digital Library

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More Popplets!

Students in Mrs. Mulvaney and Mrs. Downey’s Language Arts Class are at it again!  This time they created Cause and Effect Popplets about the book Rosa Parks: Freedom Rider.   Many of them blog with different teachers, but you can see their work by clicking on the links below.

They were excited to learn how to post their work to their own blog too.  Keep an eye out for more projects by this class!
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Blog Excitement

There is quite a bit of excitement in the 4th and 5th grade hall at one of my schools.  And believe it or not, it’s all about WRITING.  Yep!  Writing journal entries, writing free writes, writing news reviews, writing assignments.  Why? Because students here are using blogs to write!

After a few lessons on safety, blog set up, writing blog posts, and commenting on blogs, these students took their blogs and ran with them.  It amazes me every time I walk in the computer lab and hear excited writing discussions, or in the hall or lunch room.  I even heard a group of students discussing what they wrote (or were going to write) outside on the playground!  And really, they have just scratched the surface.  They have been commenting on each other’s blogs, but really staying within their own school.  Today I challenged them to branch out and read other class’ blogs around the world.  And once again, the excitement was palpable…

I want to try and encourage their efforts by finding folks to comment on their blogs as well.  I’ve been following the #comments4kids hashtag on Twitter, and reading through the Comments4Kids site to find other similar classrooms.  And now, I’m posting here too in hopes that you might have  a moment to leave a comment (and a location) on one of their blog entries.  If you have time, here they are:

5th Grade

A big, big thanks in advance, and an offer to return the favor.  Leave me a comment (with a url) if you want me to comment on some of your students’ blogs!

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Glogging About Authors

Fourth Graders in Mrs. Corbett’s class created interactive posters about famous authors!  They used a service called Glogster Edu to create these posters!  Here are a few examples of their work.  You can see them all on the class wiki .

 

It’s amazing how engaged the kids were while working in Glogster!  Here is a video shot from the work session.

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Do You Have a Class Website?

I believe that in today’s world of technology every teacher should have a web presence–a way for parents, students, and others to learn more about their class.  If you don’t, here are some quick and easy ways to start a class webpage.  Once you have it finished, be sure to let your schools’ webmaster know so they can link to your site from your school’s website.  Also let your parents know.  You’ll be amazed at how happy they will be to have a way to find out information about their child’s classroom!  A class site will also give you space to show off all those great technology projects you’ve been doing this year!!

So here’s a few of my favorites:

Blogging

If you want to blog (great if you plan on updating content frequently), here’s some great choices.  I’ve included examples, but please know you don’t have to be that elaborate.  It’s fine to start off with just text! 

Edublogs 

Edublogs allows you to create a teacher blog (like this one).  You have lots of options for themes, and while you can stick to text, you can also embed lots of things into your blog.  *This does cost $40 to turn off ads, but I may be able to help with this.  Let me know if you choose this route.*  Here’s an example of a 2nd grade class blog using edublogs 

Classblogmeister 

Classblogmeister is my favorite way to blog with students because it’s free and very, very safe.  It’s a little clunky if you are just creating a teacher blog, but super for kids. Here’s an example of a Kindergarten class blog using classblogmeister.

Blogger

Blogger is not my favorite way to create a blog because of the “Next Blog” button at the top of site which could lead your students to who knows what…but there are ways to turn that off.  And it’s really easy.  If you want to do a blogger blog, let me know, and I’ll give you the directions for disbling that pesky button at the top.  Here’s an example of a Kindergarten class blog using blogger.

Wikis and Website Builders

Want something a little more permanent?  Try a wiki or a website:

Wikispaces

Want more of a static webpage?  Try a wiki!  Wiki means “quick” in Hawaiian, and wikis are quick ways to make a website.  My favorite is wikispaces.  They offer ad free wikis for teachers.  Here’s an example of a fourth grade classroom page created with wikispaces.

Weebly

Weebly is a super simple webpage creator.  I know lots of teachers that use this service!  Here’s one example of a classroom website made with Weebly.

Google Sites 

Google sites also lets you create a simple webpage.  All you need is a google account (which is great to have for lots of reasons!)  Here’s an example of a classroom site made with google sites.

Here are some other sites I’ve briefly viewed, but have not used extensively.  If you choose any of these, check and see where links on these pages go, and check for ads.  They appear to be okay at first glance, but it’s always good to check frequently since webservices sometimes change.

Yola

SchoolRack

ClassJump

Hipero

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Blogging 2nd Graders!

blogging girlYes, it’s true! Mrs. Allen’s and Mrs. Wiggington’s second graders at Oak Grove are blogging on their very own blogs! They would love to recieve comments, so be sure to check them out periodically. Soon they will be writing about things they are studying in their curriculum!

Here are their blogs:

Mrs. Allen
Mrs. Wiggington

I’ll keep them linked to this blog (on the right) in case you want to check back on them later in the year!blogging boy

(P.S. — Keep an eye out for one more blogging class of 2nd graders coming soon!)

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Blogging 5th Graders

Mrs.  Hudson’s and Mrs. Graves 5th grade classes at Clearbrook Elementary are blogging!  I’m so proud of the hard work both the teachers and the students are putting into this project!  The kids are very excited, especially about comments they’ve received from some college students in Alabama.   They worked really hard on writing posts about instruments to go with the sound unit they are studied in Science, and they are working on entries about their visit to Apple Ridge Farms.  If you have a few minutes to leave them some comments, they would love it!  It’s so motivating for them to know that their writing is read by a “real” audience!

Here are their blogs:

Mrs. Hudson

Mrs. Graves

I’ll keep them linked to this blog (on the right) in case you want to check back on them later in the year!

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iGoogle Follow-up

Following the our iGoogle Workshop, I’ve had a few requests for blogs to add to your iGoogle page.  Here are a few I like to follow:

Technology in Elementary Classrooms:

Welcome to NCS-Tech
Instructional Technology Specialist
Artful, Tuneful, Beatful
Digital Passports
My Technology Journey
Primary Preoccupation
Tech Thoughts by Jen

Other ITRTs
(Pam Elgin) Technology Medley
(Meg Swecker) Giant Stride
(Brian McKee) Brians TRT Blog

I have many more of these if you want…

Gifted
(Amanda Gibson) The Gifted Corner

Smartboard Blogs:
Teachers Love Smartboards (probably my all-time favorite)
Talking SMARTBoards & Much More!

News:
BBC News in Pictures
CNN Top Stories
So Salem Blog
Roanoke Times

If you need help remembering how to add an RSS feed to your iGoogle Page, don’t forget to take a look at your iGoogle Handout.

If you find that you have a lot of blogs that you want to follow, it might be good to start using Google Reader.  Will visit that topic soon! ;)

Feel free to comment and add some of your favorites!

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