2nd Grade Research

My 2nd Graders are awesome at research. We have been been reading nonfiction, taking notes, and writing reports all year. Their teachers are so great at collaborating with me, and it shows in the skills these kiddos have. Teaching with these lovely ladies is easy and fun--and our students learn so much! As I look at these completed new projects I am astonished at the growth we see in one year.

Recently, all second grade classes researched a different country from around the world. I helped them get started on the research part--then teachers continued in their classrooms. Students then worked with their teachers to learn skills about writing a paragraph to report their information. I taught them how to create illustrations in Little Bird Tales (which is one of my favorite multi-media creation tools for the primary grades--Go create a free account and play if you haven't yet!) I then worked with teachers to combine student work into books that have an illustration, a topic sentence, and a recording of students reading the paragraphs they wrote. They turned out great.

Check out our class pages with links to our books (I will link up to the last classes as they complete their books):

2 ANDERSON

2 OLSON

2 KATH

2 THEBERGE

Reading Party

Today we ended I LOVE TO READ MONTH with an All School Reading Party! What a fun way to end the day.

3rd Grade Research and eBooks

Students evaluating images and sketching
before using the computers

Our 3rd Graders have been studying Native American Cultures of the Southwest. This year, I collaborated with 3rd grade teachers to teach research skills and note taking. After students had completed their research, they were ready to start creating their multimedia project. We used drawing programs on the computer or the iPads to create images to go with the paragraphs that students wrote.

After looking at state standards, the teachers and I decided that for this project we would teach the students about evaluating images in the nonfiction texts they were reading to decide what to draw for their eBooks. After a mini-lesson on image evaluation, students used the research texts to find images that were appropriate for their eBooks. Students worked diligently to try to accurately represent the culture they were learning about.

After students had written their paragraphs and drawn their pictures I taught them how to move their documents into Flipsnack.

See our completed eBooks below.

3 Pang
Apache
Shoshone
Pueblo
Ute
Comanche
Hopi
Navajo


3 Plana
Apache
Ute
Hopi
Pueblo
Navajo
Shoshone

3 Bros
Ute 
Pueblo
Apache 
Hopi
Navajo
Shoshone  
Comanche

3 Hessler
Navajo 
Hopi
Apache
Pueblo
Ute
Chyenne
Shoshone 

2nd Grade eBooks

I have been working with our 2nd graders on research skills all year, and they are getting really good at finding the most important information as they read non fiction.

Right now, students are learning about different countries around the world. Students are going to culminate their research by writing an eBook using Little Bird Tales.

To practice each class is using this great free online resource to create a book about their class. Here is Ms. Anderson's class. Look for our Country Research soon!

• Click to view my tale.
• 

6th Grade Glogs 2013

In sixth grade, we have been working on creating glogs using Glogster (an online interactive poster). Students have been learning about Mezzo American Cultures in Social Studies. Their teacher and I collaborated to identify what resources students need to show on their Glog.  Students learned how to create an iMovie using the computer to record their learning on one topic area. They also revisited finding images online that had appropriate copyright. Students   What fun to see students so actively engaged in their learning. You can also see that students found websites with more information, and linked to their Glog.

Here are our completed projects:

Story Telling

I recently purchased Story Boxes made by Steve Light. I had seen them at a conference and thought it would be a great tool for my library.

Right now, I am taking a class on storytelling, and with all of the reading I have been doing on storytelling and the positive effect it has on early literacy skills, I decided to be brave and try telling stories to my students instead of just reading them from picture books.

Kindergarten Students Play/Retell "Little One Inch"

This week, I am teaching my kindergarteners about Folk Tales and telling them the story "Little One Inch." I read many versions of the story, then I diligently practiced telling the story to my own children over the weekend. I was surprised how much they enjoyed it. All weekend, my 4 and 6 year old asked me to tell them the stories of "Little One Inch" and "The Girl Who Loved Danger" (the other box I purchased). They not only wanted me to tell them the stories, but they told and retold the stories over and over again. "Mom, can I play Little One Inch?" was a frequent refrain. They were quite sad when I brought the boxes back to school today. (Maybe this summer we can make our own?!)

The retelling of stories is a beginning step in both reading and writing. This little box, with only the characters from a story really got kids excited to retell and "play" the original folktale. The pieces helped them remember the characters and the setting.

Today, when I brought the box to school, I could hardly wait for my kindergarten class to come in and share my story with them. They were captivated for every moment of the story and they too couldn't wait to tell the story and play with the pieces. I am thinking I will check these boxes out to teachers for Literacy Stations since the kids didn't want to stop interacting with the story box. I just need to figure out a system.

Parent Child Book Club Sign Up

To sign-up for the Parent Child Book Clubs on March 26:

CLICK HERE