Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

I ran across this project through Pinterest and forwarded it to all my friends who teach (preK through 6th Grade). http://projectsbyjen.com/Projects/HCE2012/hce2012.html   It is a global Christmas Card Project that looks extremely well organized. The site includes videos from previous years projects, the standards the project address and comprehensive instructions. It can be done with a classroom teacher or even in conjunction with the art teacher. The theme this year is SNOWGLOBES (fun!). Jen (the project organizer) even includes a link to her pinterest page with snowglobe ideas. If I had a classroom group this year I would definitely do this with my students. Please note that registering for this project ends this TUESDAY (November 20th) so if you are interested you will need to sign up ASAP.

In one of my schools fourth graders are working with a local Audubon club to explore birds (as part of their Organisms and their Environment unit). This week they are working on dissecting owl pellets. I put together this short (6 minute) video about owl pellets for the children to watch prior to the activity so they would have some frame of reference going into it. Basically I found several YouTube videos and downloaded them. I put them together using Windows Movie Maker Live into one longer video for the kids. In conjunction with watching the video students will also work on a virtual owl pellet dissection on this site -  http://www.kidwings.com/owlpellets/flash/v4/index.htm . This will all take place the day before the actual owl pellet activity. I am curious to see how the video and virtual experience will compare to the actual owl pellet dissection (having never done it myself!). I'm going to ask students to compare the two and tell me if they felt that...

Looking to have a little fun with your students just before Halloween? Try taking a break from your regular science class (or you can even do this in your ELA block if you can't go "off task" in your science class) and introduce them to the wonderful world of bats. In ELA you can read the story Stellaluna or, if you want, show it on your Interactive White Board. The website Storyline Online has a member of the Screen Actor's Guild reading it aloud. You can actually download the video of it from YouTube with your YouTube Downloader (you can get the downloader from this site - CLICK HERE ). After the story have students write down some facts they learned about bats. Next show the video The Magic School Bus: Going Batty . The full episode can be found on YouTube and can be downloaded using the YouTube downloader. Please watch the entire video (22 minutes) before showing it to your class. I show Magic School Bus videos from Discovery Streamline Education so I ...

   Continuing on the topic of windmills I thought I would do a quick post of where you can buy a "fairly" inexpensive windmill kit. The kit featured here is from Pitsco Education  and has been used by Mrs. Parker's fourth grade class for several years (see bottom two pictures). She teaches in a STEM school so they have money, that alot of classroom teachers don't have, to puchase these kits. Last year I had the opportunity to help, as an extra pair of hands, in her classroom while the fourth graders put the kit together. I'm glad I had the opportunity. I normally don't do well with kits but Mrs. Parker and the kids made it look very doable. If I were to purchase these windmills I would probably buy the DVD that goes with it to help explain how the kit gets put together (an extra $25). I most likely would look for some kind of grant to offset the price. We have several in our district and I am hoping I am not too late to apply for th...

In a graduate class that I am taking about teaching physical science to children we have to present a lesson plan to our peers. Yesterday one of my classmates (thank you Marianne Blake!) presented a lesson on energy conversion. She shared the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and the YouTube video I have embedded. She had also presented another video about William Kamkwamba fom Amazon (6 minutes long) - HERE . She teaches in school with a very high poverty rate and felt her kids would be able to relate to the true life story and tie into what they are learning about energy transformation. The story is very touching and both videos and the book could easily be incorporated into a science lesson (or in an integrated ELA lesson) . I have another friend who has children build windmills with her fourth grade class and I'm going to be passing on these resources for her to use in preparation of that lesson (Mrs. Parker this is for you!). I ...

A friend showed this video in my graduate class the other day and I thought it was completely doable with a group of students as a project. The parts might have to be purchased through a grant though. I'm going to try and convince one of my fourth grade teachers to do this during her light, electricity and magnet unit. It actually fits our sixth grade standards the best but we can squeeze it into the fourth grade as well! I'll post pictures if we do it :)

I like the simplicity of this video. I would like to get my students to make a video like this!