Summer Session Week 9

Kindergarten Spanish:

Hard to believe these little guys have already made it through the first session of school! They've already grown and learned so much. We concluded our session with a whirlwind celebration of Mexico. We made quesadillas, played Mexican restaurant, dressed up in traditional clothes, danced La Raspa, and read Burro's Tortillas-all in 55 minutes. Here are some highlights:

B1-2 and 3-4 Technology:

We had a fun last week by exploring a site called Kerpoof. Although this week we mainly had a great time playing around with the different features and "kerpoofing" our work, it will be used later in the year for more educational purposes. Studenta first had to learn how to login. After going to the website, students click the login tab and then click "login with student class id." They will then see 3 boxes-nickname, password, and class id. Their nickname is the first 3 letters of their firstname first 3 letters of last name (no capitals or spaces). The password is kerpoof and the class id is m861 Try it at home!

See you after break!

Summer Session Week 8

Kindergarten Spanish:

After our usual starters (everyone has now had a turn at "Me llamo Fred"), we reviewed our colors and played color bingo-so much fun we had to keep playing until everyone had bingo. To prepare for our big Mexico day next week, we discussed tortillas vs. bread, looked at different foods made with tortillas, read Runaway Tortilla by Eric Kimmel, and watched parts of Kids Explore Mexico. Get ready for some exciting video next week as we cook, dress-up, and do some dancing!

B1-2 Tech:

The students are excited to be collaborating with children all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico in the Symbolic Monarch Migration project at journeynorth.org. After viewing 2 short video clips about the project, we cut out and decorated our monarchs, using our digital pictures for the head and antennas. They are now ready to "fly" to Mexico where they will spend the winter before returning somewhere in the United States or Canada in the Spring. We will be able to track them online and find out where our monarchs land.

3-4 Tech:

This was sort of a "clean-up" week for us. The students did Dance Mat typing for a break from Type to Learn, and then finished up powerpoints and digital jigsaw puzzles. When everything was complete, it was time for Study Island, our TCAP preparation site.

Summer Session Week 7

Kindergarten:

Too much activity for me to video or take pictures this week as we rotated through 4 different centers working with colores. We read Oso Pardo(Brown Bear) by Eric Carle and then did some gummy bear math, sorting and graphing our yummy gummy colors. Other centers included color lacing cards, playdoh, and color blocks. The students did a great job cooperating and working out their own problems while I concentrated on the graphing group.

B1-2 Technology:

This week we started a great project ,which we will re-visit periodically throughout the year, called the Symbolic Monarch Migration from the site journeynorth.org. I urge you to visit this site, which has a wealth of information. You can help track the monarchs on their Fall trip to Mexico and then back again in the Spring. We learned about the lifecycle of the monarch and watched some amazing video of the monarch caterpillar munching milkweed and the butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.

As the students played various butterfly and insect games on ikeepbookmarks, we took pictures of them with their "antennas up" to be used next week as we create paper monarchs that will be mailed to Mexico to spend the winter at the Monarch sanctuaries along with the real monarchs.

3-4 Technology:

This week we put all those formatting skills together with the information we discovered about ourselves to make "Who Am I?" powerpoint presentations. Students learned how to do motion clips, slide transitions, and insert a digital picture from a file (remember those pictures we took last week?) I'm hoping to combine their powerpoints into a class Who Am I to share here after everyone finishes next week. Students who finished early made a digital jigsaw puzzle of themselves at this cool site.