Our target skill for this week was conclusions. We began by watching the YouTube video below. After watching the video, we talked about drawing a conclusion. We were able to conclude that the cake was made for his mother. After our brief discussion, we wanted to practice our skill. I put together some QR Codes to assist with practicing conclusions. I had my students use their LearnPads to scan codes using the ScanLife app. In addition, I had created a quiz using Socrative. Students opened up both apps and were able to toggle back and forth. They scanned a code with the ScanLife app and then provided their answer within the Socrative app. The QR Codes provided three of four statements. These statements were clues that students could use to conclude what was taking place. For example, 1) Your mom takes your temperature, 2) You have to stay in bed all day, 3) You eat soup. Based on these clues, a student could conclude that you are sick. If you would like to use the QR Codes, you can access them here. There are a total of six "mystery conclusions" for students to solve. You can add the Socrative quiz by using the following: SOC #: 13411210 This activity got them out of their seats as well as provided some practice with drawing conclusions. During our reading group rotations I had students apply their understanding of conclusions by creating their own mystery conclusions. To accomplish this, students used iClipart for Schools. They located three to six pictures that they could use as clues for an activity of their choice. Once they had their pictures, they opened up the Pic Collage app and created a collage of their three to six pictures. Their collage was saved to their Google Drive accounts. The final step was to create a new post using Kidblog. They titled their post Conclusions and inserted their collage from their Google Drive account. Tomorrow we will be spending time during reading rotations leaving comments on each post about conclusions. We will leave our "conclusion" guess in the comment box on each of our classmates. This process of creating their own conclusion collage required them to think critically about which pictures should be used to represent their activity. In addition, they had to apply their understanding of conclusions in order to leave a comment on each others' blog post. Below are some example collages that my students created during this process. Share This:
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I recently had the privilege of attending the ITEC Conference in Des Moines, Iowa. I was able to attend some great sessions by Aaron Maurer. His hands on sessions highlighted how powerful play/tinkering can be in the classroom. Upon returning to my 5th graders, I have been working on the idea of a Maker Space within my classroom. I want to harness the power of students being able to tinker, play, invent, collaborate and learn from the successes and failures along the way. One challenge was gathering the materials that I needed to launch this space in my classroom. I contacted a local bank, The University of Iowa Community Credit Union, about a grant. They had an online application that I could fill out and submit for a grant. They were awesome and supportive of my proposal. They will be providing some significant funds to purchase materials to get my Maker Space up and going. Thanks to the Credit Union! To keep track of my Maker Space ideas, I began cataloging items in a spreadsheet. You can see the document embedded below. You can access the most recent version by clicking here. Pixel Press Floors To kick off my maker space, we began with the app Pixel Press Floors. If you are unfamiliar with this app, check out this video. In a nutshell, it is an app that lets students design their own video games. On the education portion of Pixel Press' website, they have pre-made lesson plans. They have a one day lesson plan as well as a five day lesson plan. They are very easy to follow and perfect for opening your students' eyes to all the possibilities. My class will be using the five day lesson plan. We kicked off the new maker space along with Pixel Press Floors today. We watched the video and then I let the students play levels from the arcade to begin exploring some of the different elements they may want to add to their own designs. Tomorrow we will begin creating our interview questions and interviewing "gamers" to develop empathy in the design process. My students are super excited to work through this project. I will be documenting our journey. Can't wait to see what they learn as well as what I will be able to learn along the way. Share This: |
Andrew FenstermakerInstructional Technology Coordinator | Innovation Coach | Google Certified Innovator | Presenter | Blogger | Adjunct @UiowaEducation | Owner @kids_f_i_r_s_t |