Slideshow Project-living and non-living things

I created a video slideshow of pictures that showed living and non-living things in the world around us.  This lesson is for Kindergarten/First Grade students.  I would have each student use the camera to take one picture of a living thing and one picture of a non-living thing.  As a class, we could create a class video of all the pictures the students took so everyone could see the different objects their classmates came up with.  I think this project would be great so parents could see what we have been working on in Science.  Students could create their own slideshow from photos they take from class assignments.  For example, we work on a weather unit.  They could be responsible for taking photos of all different types of weather and create a slideshow for the class about weather we see out our windows. 



Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Webquest assignment

My webquest assignment was created for my First Grade class.  One of our science units was Construction.  The students were given an assignment to create a shelter of some type.  They gathered materials and built shelters that they shared with my class.  Instead of sending home a letter, I created this webquest so the students could work on their projects in the classroom.  I could also modify the webquest for a home project.   If students wanted to work on something on their own at home, they could pull up the webquest for reference.  Parents could also see what the students are working on in the classroom.  I think creating a webquest would be challenging for some First Graders, but at the end of the school year, they could create a webquest about the writing process or a writing activity. 

Webquest for building a shelter

Photo Album

These are photos I took for my Kindergarten/First Grade lesson on living and non-living things.  The idea for the lesson is that the students can take turns using the camera to take photos of living things and non-living things and can create a slideshow as a whole class.  I think this is a great way to get young students to use a camera, especially since young children love taking pictures of funny, random things.  We could create photo albums of the class throughout the year so the students have a book at the end.  Students can create photo albums of their families for a Social Studies lesson about their cultures and traditions. 

Living and Non-living things photos

Quiz assignment

For my quiz assignment, I chose to create a quiz for my First Graders reviewing story elements and important messages of fairy tales.  I decided to use the story "Little Red Riding Hood", a story I usually start off my fairy tale unit with.  After reading the story and teaching what story elements are (character, setting, problem, solution) and what important messages are and after doing class activities to enforce the concepts taught, I would allow the students to take the quiz while at centers to review.  I found this quiz to be helpful to check for understanding from all students.  I also liked that I could upload my class list from excel if I was teaching for the kids to log on and take the quiz.  I think these quizes would be beneficial for First Graders when reviewing story elements from books we read in class.  The quizes would also be fun for math concepts! 


Little Red Riding Hood quiz:  username/password:  samplestudented514

Google Doc assignment #2

For my second Google Doc assignment, I made a presentation for First Grade students reviewing nouns and verbs.  The students will have access to the presentation from my blog and my website.  The first two slides are reviews of what a noun and verb are.  The next slides are for ACTIVboard activities for the whole class to participate.  Lastly, the final slide is a review for the parents including a photo assignment for the students to complete.  There is also a mini quiz for them to print from the presentation.  I used the presentation because it is able to be published on a website and/or blog for parents to see and have access to.  Students in my class could use the presentation option to create a show for their parents about work created in class.  We could create class presentations about field trips or photos taken in the classroom. 


click here to see my presentation

Google Doc assignment #1

For my first Google Doc assignment, I used the form document to create a form to send home to the parents/guardians of my First Grade class. Last Winter, we asked for volunteers to come into the classrooms to speak about Winter holidays such as Kwanzaa, Christmas, Eid, ect. I was in charge of organizing the parent/guardian responses. I thought that using the Google Doc form would be easier to gather the information I need to organize all the presentations for all 8 First Grade classrooms. I found making the form an effective way to get all the information I would need and other teachers would need to make this in school field trip organization easily.  Students could also create forms for graphing in math.  They could collect data from the math class and graph the data collected. 


Click here for my form

Web 2.0 assignment

For my Web 2.0 tool project, I used "Book R" to create an easy reader book for my elementary students.  In my classroom, I would implement this frequently with my students for my Writer's Workshop part of the day.  As my students begin to work on writing stories, I would have my class write a story using the story elements taught (character, setting, problem, and solution).  When they finish the rough draft, I would have a reading meeting with each student to edit their stories.  Once they write their final draft and I have checked them, the students can go on "Book R" to publish the stories they wrote.  Students can print them out for the classroom library or they can post it on a class blog for all the students to read when the books are complete.  This would be a great activity for fiction and nonfiction writing samples for First Graders.    Students would find this fun to be publishing their own writing!