Archives: Lessons

Breakout EDU

This summer while attending ISTE, I learned about a cool new game for the classroom called Breakout EDU.  Here’s a short video about it.

Since receiving my kit, I’ve played it four times–twice with my college students and twice with fifth graders.  All ages loved it.  For the fifth grade game, I used an adaptation of two of the games on the site (http://www.breakoutedu.com/).  The game centered around missing iPads, and students had to use their knowledge of place value to decode the clues to find them.

There are many games already pre-made to use with the kits (for free) and I enjoy making them up too.  I’m looking forward to playing with some first graders on Halloween!

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Robotic Fraction, Decimals, and Percentages

I just posted a lesson I’ve used with various 5th grade classes as they were studying fractions and decimals.  We used the Lego EV3 robots, and were able to complete the activity in an hour.

Here’s how the activity works.  Using a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 robot and a touch sensor, each group of students inputs a fraction. Then they convert the fraction into a decimal and a percentage using hand calculations, and double check their work using the EV3 robot. They observe the robot moving forward and record the distance it moves. Students learn that the distance moved is a fraction of the full distance, based on the fraction that they input. For instance, if they input ½, the robot moves half of the original distance. Using this information, students work backwards to compute the full distance. Groups then are challenged to move the robot as close as possible to a target distance by inputting a fraction into the EV3 bot. Four different challenges of increasing difficulty are available in this lesson. Most students complete 2 within an hour, but the extra are included for students who master the concepts quickly.

The kids had a blast with this lesson and were fully engaged.  I love how it really makes them think about fractions in a real sense, and that they have to draw on their understanding to figure out the challenges.

If you have access to EV3 robots and want to try the lesson, you can get it here:

EV3

 

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Newsela and Blendspace

Newsela — (Grades 2-5) This site provides current event articles on various reading levels (sports, health, science, arts, kids, etc).  Each day there are new articles that you can assign to your class (or read in small groups).  Each article has about 5 different reading levels (by lexile level)…so students can read about the same topic at their own level.  There are quizzes students can take, and best of all, there is a search bar that allows a teacher to search for articles that relate to certain reading skills (Author’s Purpose/Point of View, Text Structure, Central Idea, etc).  It might be another resource to add to the list of ways to engage your students in Reading.
Blendspace — (All Grades) Love, love this resource!  Blendspace allows you to create collections of web resources on a certain topic (videos, websites, pictures, etc).  This resource would be great to use with your students in the computer lab, as a small station within your classroom, or even as a way to organize materials you will present to your students on your Activboard.  You can add quizzes and monitor student progress too, if you want.  There are even tons of lessons already available that you can use immediately with your students. We are going to be encouraging you to move away from Portaportal (due to all the ads), and this is an excellent resource to take its place. :)

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The Vowel Zoo!

Students in Mrs. White’s Kindergarten classes researched and made animals that started with the short vowel sound.  They worked in small groups to build their creations, and then animated them with an app called ChatterPix Kids.  Take a look at their zoo below!

The projects are also posted on the Oak Grove Digital Archive, including Vowel Zoos from Mrs. Blankenship’s Class and Mrs. Fox’s Class.

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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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ABC Digital Books

Students in Mrs. Clapper’s class used the Pic Collage app on the iPads to create an ABC book.  They were each assigned a letter (a few did two), and then they took pictures of things in the classroom that started with that letter.  They were so cute!  Here’s a few examples.

I can’t post them all because most had students names and pictures on them.  If you want to see all the letters, though, check with Mrs. Clapper or I.  We’d love to show you!

 

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O.R.E.O. Project 2013

Mrs. Chamberland’s class participated in the great O.R.E.O. Project this year!  These second graders used their estimation, counting, and graphing skills during this project.  They submitted their results online, and compared the number of oreos they stacked with people all over the world!

Take a look at an example graph they made in Excel!
Oreo Chamberland 2013

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Mission 005 — Latitude and Longitude

Mission 005

Need a fun, cross curricular way to introduce Latitude and Longitude to your students?  Here’s a Math/Social Studies Lesson using spies, secret codes, and google earth.  What can be better than that?

It addresses Math SOL 4.15, 5.14 and Global Studies SOL GS.1.

First, make sure students understand how to use Google Earth to find specific points on Earth using latitude and longitude.  You will want to make sure that the status bar in google earth is showing (View>Status Bar) so that you can clearly see the latitude and location of your point on the globe. You will also want to cut off all layers except those that show countries.

If you are using the Google Earth App on an iPad (or iPod), make sure to change a few settings.
Check out How to Change Settings in Google Earth by Tina Coffey on Snapguide.

Students also need some background in finding patterns in a series of numbers.  It may also help if they’ve done a bit of code breaking before (although it’s not necessary).  Then, present groups of students with their secret envelope and access to Google Earth, and sit back to see what they can figure out!

Here’s are the documents to create your own Mission packets:
Mission 005 – Latitude and Longitude

I’m working on a follow up STEM activity that has students designing their own codes.  I’ll add it when I’m done.

 

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