Hour of Code...Continued!

We have been coding the whole month of December! These past few weeks kindergartners, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders have been coding. I was really impressed with the kindergartners. I didn't know how they would do. Using Code.org's course 1,  they were coding with Angry Birds! Kindergartner, Luca, was so excited when he finished a level he exclaimed, "Now I'm going to build a computer!"

I was actually impressed with all the grades.  

They stuck with it when it got hard.  They helped each

other.  After finishing his Hour of Code in under an hour, 2nd grader Elliot shouted out, "I am the King of Code!"  Another 2nd grader, Gabby, was so excited after getting past a part she was struggling with said, "Yes!  I did it!"  

 I think we have some future computer programmers here at Magee!

Enjoy the pictures of students hard at work!

Hour of Code: Week 1

Students at Magee participated in the Hour of Code this past week and will continue to participate through the end of the month.  This is the third annual Hour of Code.  It occurs during Computer Science Education Week.  It was started by the website Code.org.  The purpose is to introduce kids to computer science, which is often not taught at schools.  Coding is the language that is used to create apps, websites, games and more.  Hour of Code shows kids and adults that anyone can learn to code!  It introduces them to the possibility of designing apps and games as a career.   If you want to read more about the Hour of Code and the benefits of computer science, click here.  This week 4th and 5th grade participated.  We used the website, Tynker.  Tynker has special Hour of Code activities. Some of the activities the 4th and 5th graders did were, Candy Quest, Puppy Adventure and Dragon Dash.  Here is what a few 5th graders said about participating in the Hour of Code:

David said, "I think that coding is awesome! This had made me think maybe I should be an engineer. Its so interesting and fun. This is job that would would be so fun. Now I want to be a engineer."

November commented that, "Hour of Code is a great way to advertise coding and it sends a message that anyone can code!"

Nate said, "I really liked it because it made me think about how hard coding a computer is. I really think that if I had to I would need a lot of lessons. I also really liked it because we got to learn how to code. I can't wait to do it when I have free time."

Luke commented that, "It was one of the most fun things I did on my computer!"

  

Using Google Maps in the Classroom

3rd graders are in the middle of a map unit in Social Studies.  3rd grade teacher, Mr. Suhr wanted the students to use all of the skills they've learned so far in a real world application.  He introduced the students to Google Maps.  Students stated at our school, Magee Elementary.  They then wrote directions from Magee to different places in our district, like the Delafield Public Library, Dousman Elementary and more.

After writing their directions, we took the students back to Magee.  I then showed them how Google Street View works.  That was so fun!  I asked the students to follow street view to downtown Genesee Depot, which is right down the highway from our school.  Most of them found my one of my favorite businesses, Sally's Sweet Shop.  I'm anxious to hear how many 3rd graders went home and looked up other places on Google Maps.  Mr. Suhr shared how he was going to find his brother's new house in Texas.  Google Maps is a great tool and using it effectively is a skill these students can use for years to come.

Digital Citizenship Week

This week, October 19-25 is Digital Citizenship Week.  I thought I would use that opportunity to share how we make sure our students at Magee are good digital citizens.  We use a variety of online resources.  One is Common Sense Media.  This site has a great scope and sequence for grades K-12 that I like to pull lessons from.  All the lessons are aligned to Common Core standards and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) student standards.  Here are a couple of examples of activities we do.

 In first grade we do the Going Places Safely lesson.  This lesson relates going to places online to going places in the real world.  Just as students need to stay safe and follow rules in the real world, they need to stay safe and learn rules for online places.

 In grades four and five the students take a Digital Citizenship Pledge that they help create
collaboratively.  I saw all of the fourth and fifth graders this week to complete that.  We talked about what makes a community, all the different communities we belong to and why it is important to have expectations in our communities.  We took a look at the Digital Citizenship Pledge that Common Sense Media provides.  Students then got into groups and brainstormed two more expectations that they felt were important.


We then came back as a whole group and found expectations that were similar.  We voted on two that would go on their pledge poster for their classroom.  They will all sign it.

 Digital Citizenship is something that is taught and practiced all school year at Magee, not just during Digital Citizenship week.  Here is a link to parent resources that are on the Common Sense Media site.  There is a lot of information there for parents of children all ages.

Magee is Celebrating International Dot Day!

International Dot Day was September 15th.  Magee celebrated on Monday and is continuing to celebrate all week.  When I put an email out to my staff to see if anyone was interested in celebrating the day, I got a lot of responses.  I was very excited to see that my art teacher, Christine Jones was interested.  She really loves the book, The Dot by Peter Reynolds.  That book has inspired children and adults around the world and it continues to inspire with the celebration of International Dot Day.  We sat down together and planned art projects for all the grade levels with the theme of circles, dots and collaboration.  She, of course, had the best ideas!  The art projects also all related to math and concepts that she teaches in her curriculum.





For example, in second grade the students are all collaborating on one big classroom dot.  Mrs. Jones divided each dot into six pie slices and each table got 1/6 of the pie to work on.  They study fractions in second grade. Students used collage and color to design the pie slices.





 In kindergarten they were already working on tracing, so their project involved tracing different sized circles and overlapping them. They then used crayons to add design.

I wanted to bring some technology into the day, so third grade paired up and used iPads and the Drawing Pad app to created dots.



The best part of the day was that I got to hang out in the art room all day!  What a fun day!  I'll post more about our celebration of Dot Day soon.

 

Kindergartners Research and Share with Little Bird Tales

One of my favorite groups to work with are the kindergartners.  It's amazing how far they have come from the beginning of the school year!  For one of our last projects, their teachers, Mrs. Hansen and Mrs. Gross wanted them to do some research and work together with a partner.  We paired them up and had the students explore the online database, Pebble Go.  They had used Pebble Go in the past so they were familiar with it.  We told the students to write down three topics they, along with their partner, were interested in.  The next time we met, they had to choose one of those three they wanted to learn more about.  Each partner then got a note taking sheet.

The two students worked together to read, listen and take notes about what they thought was most important to share about what they learned.  We practiced all together writing facts into our own words and 

not just copying them.  That was tricky, but they did really well!  On the back of the sheet I added space to find more facts from Britannica School.  There were some groups that were ready to find more!

After finding at least three facts, the partners each logged into Little Bird Tales.  Little Bird Tales allows the user to create an online book by drawing pictures, typing text and then recording their voice.  Even though they did their research together, we thought it would be better for each student to make their own book.  Because they did their research together, the partners were able to help each other if they got stuck.  The students worked really hard to get all of their facts typed and pictures drawn.  I then showed them how to record their voice reading their facts.

Here are links to all of their stories.  They turned out great!  Enjoy!

Mrs. Gross    Mrs. Hansen

First Graders and Magee Celebrate Earth Day!

Every year at Magee we celebrate Earth Day.  We have different presenters come in for each grade level.









For example, Second graders learn about trees and go with their presenter outside to find the different trees.  Fifth graders take the morning and cut brush outside.  First graders learn about prairies and go outside to study the Magee prairie.  It's a really great day organized by one of our fifth grade teachers, Mr. Suhr.





First grade teachers Mrs. Coss and Mrs. Trost wanted their students to learn about Earth Day and the issues related to the day.  They were also writing opinion pieces during writer's workshop.  We thought we could tie the two together!  We started with the students using the database Pebble Go.  Students used the Social Studies database to research Caring for Nature, Cleaning up Litter, Reusing and Recycling, Saving Energy and Saving Water.





They then took all that new information and either wrote their opinion piece or they wrote a persuasive letter to a friend with their opinions.  We then used Google Docs to publish their pieces.  This time we "fancied them up" with different fonts and we used the Research Tool feature to insert a picture.




 Here are a couple of finished products.  They did a great job!  What a great way to celebrate Earth Day!

Mom's Big Catch

Last week Magee had a very special guest visit.  Wisconsin author, Marla McKenna, came to our school!  Ms. McKenna wrote the book, Mom's Big Catch.  Mom's Big Catch is based on the true story of the time Ms. McKenna went to the Brewer game with her family.  I won't give away the ending, but the mom in the story ends up catching a ball in a very unusual way!  The sequel to the book, Sadie's Big Steal, comes out in June.  Sadie is the family's dog.


Marla McKenna met with each grade level for about 40 minutes.  She read the story and talked to the students about how she got the idea, how long it took her to write it and the process of sending it to publishers and having it rejected.  She then told them about the publisher that decided to publish her book and what that process was like.

Ms. McKenna's message to students was to never give up and follow your dreams.  Also, she told them how important it is to be positive.  There were times she was discouraged but she made an effort to choose to be postive through the whole process.  Ms. McKenna talked to students about becoming better writers by using describing and action words and adding emotion to their writing.

Marla McKenna also ate lunch with six of our students.  That was such a fun time!  The students asked lots of questions and Ms. McKenna asked them questions, too!  It was a great day.  We all can't wait to read Marla McKenna's new book, Sadie's Big Steal.

For more information about Marla McKenna, visit her website.

5th Grade Trip to BizTown

5th graders went to JA Biztown this February.  It is sponsored by Junior Achievement of Wisconsin.  Here is a link to their organization.  The following is from their flyer for educators:
       JA BizTown, combines  in-class learning with a day-long visit to  a  fully interactive, simulated town. Students leave understanding the relationship between what they learn in school and their  participation in a local economy.





5th grade teachers Mrs. Behnke and Mr. Suhr wanted their students to create something to share about their day.  We decided to use the web 2.0 tool Narrable.  Narrable allows students to use pictures and their voice to tell a story.  Since the students are so busy at BizTown, Mrs. Behnke and Mr. Suhr took a ton of pictures throughout the day.






         



After they got back we put all of the pictures taken that day onto a drive that all students had access to.  Mrs. Behnke had the students use a prompt she created to have them start thinking about how they would describe the day to other 5th graders in a newspaper article.  The prompt is linked here.  After that was done, students started going through the pictures and using this planning sheet, picked pictures they wanted to use to describe their day.







After their planning, students started putting their Narrable together and recordering their voice.  I created a Google site as a place to display all of their Narrables.  Click here to view their stories.  They did a really nice job.

                                                           
   



                                        

3rd and 4th Graders Use Narrable to Make an Online Story of Forensic Pieces

The theme for Forensics this year was Change.  With only that theme and their teachers, Mr. Hallagen, Mrs. LaRoque and Ms. Thoni as their guide, the students wrote their own pieces.  After lots of work revising and practicing reading their pieces aloud, the students read them at Forensics in front of a judge.  After all of that work the teachers and I wanted the students to do something special with their writing.  We decided to try a new online tool. Narrable.  Narrable allows students to use pictures and their voice to tell a story.

                                

I showed the students a variety of sites to find copyright free images.  They searched for images that would help tell the story of their piece.  They inserted those pictures into Narrable and then recorded themselves reading their piece.  Below are a couple of examples of the Narrables they created.  Enjoy!

Character Trading Cards

Second graders were participating in the Series Reading Club during reader's workshop.  During this book club they were reading lots of books in a series and really getting to know the characters.  The students were then able to understand, predict and critique their books.  Second grade teachers Mrs. Woyahn and Mrs. Siewert wanted their students to show all their great learning about characters.  The two classrooms share eight iPads so we thought we'd use the iPad app Trading Cards by Read Write Think.  The app really gets them thinking deeply about their character and allows them to make connections to their own lives.

  I took small groups of students during their reader's workshop to work on their trading cards.  Our students all have Google accounts so it makes sharing digital products done on iPads very easy.  The students emailed their trading card to themselves and then uploaded the jpeg file to their Google Drive.  I had the students share their images with me and I put them together into a Google presentation.  Mrs. Woyhan and Mrs. Siewert were then able to embed that presentation onto their Google teacher site for everyone to see.


Take a look at their hard work!


Mrs. Siewert's Class

Mrs. Woyahn's Class

Celebrating World Read Aloud Day

Imagine a world where everyone can read...  

We celebrated World Read Aloud Day at Magee last week. World Read Aloud Day is a day to show everyone that all kids have a right to read and write. We should all celebrate that right!

Magee staff each chose their favorite book to read aloud.  We had some staff members have a hard time with that!  It's hard to pick just one!










Students then traveled to someone different than their classroom teacher.  Students listened to the read aloud and then got to work creating a quilt square for our Magee Story Quilt.

Each student made a square that listed their favorite story.  They then got to decorate the square however they liked.  The quilt squares were collected and we now have the Magee Story Quilt proudly displayed in our front lobby!