President Projects for First Graders

Since President's Day is a day that most only remember George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, we decided to make it a day about ALL of the presidents.  

We grouped the entire first grade and assigned each child a different president to research.  They then followed the directions to do the research and make their president.  The students could then use any media to bring their president to "life."


The students then had to share their findings with their classmates.  Listening was not the only thing the "audience" had to do.  They also had to fill out the president project reflection sheet in order to take notes on their friends' presidents.  This helped us to make sure that they were actively listening to the presentations.





We used this rubric to grade the projects and their presentations.

What did you do celebrate President's Day?

What We're Reading ~ Valentine Favorites

Check out what we're reading on this "love"-ly day!!

Franklin's Valentines by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark

Franklin is getting ready for his class' Valentine party, but he has lost all of his valentines.  He is so sad when he does not have cards to give to his friends.  In the true spirit of friendship, Franklin's friends reassure him that it's not what you give, but what kind of friend you truly are!

One Zillion Valentines by Frank Modell

Since Marvin and Milton do not have money to buy Valentines, they decide to make them for their whole neighborhood. 

 

Love, Splat by Rob Scotton   

Splat has a special Valentine in mind for a cute girl named Kitten.  But Spike also likes Kitten.  Splat tries to win her heart on Valentine's Day.

What stories do you like to share on Valentine's Day?

Alexis

Lesson Ideas ~ A Book of Homophones

This week we learned about homophones.  Homophones are words that sound the same, but are spelled and mean something different.  

We began by reading Dear Deer: A Book of Homophones by Gene Barretta.  This story is about clever Aunt Ant who has just moved to the zoo. Speaking in homophones, she describes the quirky animal behavior she sees. There's the MOOSE who loved MOUSSE and ATE EIGHT bowls, and the WHALE who was ALLOWED to WAIL ALOUD--and that's just for starters.

We then made a list of homophones and put them into sentences.

The students used the book and our list of homophones to create their own.  


This was a fun way to reinforce their understanding of these troublesome words.


What ideas do you have to teach homophones?


Alexis

Lesson Ideas ~ When I Grow Up

We have our school's annual Career Day approaching.  So to coincide with our Social Studies unit of Our Community and It's Workers, we had the children think of what they think their future endeavors might be. 


In order to complete the task, the students had to:

• Think of their career choice
• Explain what they thought they would have to do with that job
• Decide how they would spend their money

The students had so much fun imagining themselves 20 years from now.  And I thought it was really interesting to see how they would spend their money!


They turned their writing into shapes of themselves and we displayed them on a bulletin board of our city in 20 years.

What interesting ways have you taught about the future?

Alexis

Explosions of Color

This fun "experiment" is really cool to watch and easy with items that you already have in your house.  Your kids will have fun watching the colors "explode."


What you need:

• A flat tray (like a cookie baking tray) or a shallow dish
• Food coloring (at least 3 different colors)
• Whole milk - low fat milk will not work for this experiment (we only buy 2% milk...it worked fine)
• Liquid soap used for washing dishes

What to do: 

Carefully pour the milk into the tray or dish so that it just covers the bottom.

Add about 6-8 drops of different colored food coloring onto the milk in different spots.

Add about 5 drops of the liquid soap onto the drops of food coloring and watch the show!

 

 

To clean up, simply pour the colored milk down the drain. (don't drink it!)

Here's the science behind the fun:

So you know where the color comes from, but why milk and liquid soap?  The main job of dish soap it to go after fat and break it down.  Usually the fat is on dishes from the food we eat, but fat is also in whole milk.  When you drop the liquid soap onto the tray, it tried to break down the fat in the milk.  While it was doing that, it caused the colors to scatter and mix creating a very colorful display. 
  
Science experiment courtesy of Science Bob.

How could you use this demonstration in your home or classroom?  Have you tried this before? 


Alexis

The Times, They Are A Changin'

This past week Apple announced the new face of education:  iBooks textbooks for the iPad. 

Wow.

That's really all I can say: wow.

Textbooks have always been somewhat of a dilemma.  Publishers conduct complete overhauls of current textbooks or come out with new and innovative ones every five years when school systems go through their adoption periods.  This is fine...except with history books.  History is almost completely null and void within days if not minutes. 

Students today have access to technology at every turn: TVs, game consoles, computers, cell phones, laptops, iPads, tablets, etc. 

Photo courtesy of Apple.

Even in schools, the tides are turning in education.  There are computers, SMART boards, laptops, and a myriad of other technological advances.  In our school we have had digital access to the stories and lessons digitally that we could allow the students to access from home.  So it was only a matter of time when textbooks would be completely digital. 

And leave it to Apple to have textbooks available on iTunes.

Apple has worked with leading curriculum publishing companies like McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin, and Pearson to offer classroom textbooks for the iPad. 

As a former independent consultant for a major publishing company, this huge announcement is monumental!  When new revisions are made, they can be done instantly, and to low costs for schools.

Wow.

Bravo, Apple.  You never cease to amaze me.

My Fake Wall: A Teaching Tool

Facebook has over 800 million users.  Chances are you are one of them.  Many of those millions are children ages 13 and over (not to mention the ones who stretched the truth about their real age, and are younger).  

There's a way to use this knowledge of the most popular social media sites with your students.  
MyFakeWall.com is a site that allows you to create a fake wall for entertainment purposes.  


Here's how to use it with your students:

As a culminating activity when doing a study of a famous person in history or modern culture, your students could create a fake wall page for that person.  They can use exact dates and have the person's "friends" comment on posts.  This will undoubtedly test their true understanding of the life and events that occurred in their person's life.

What a way for students to use their creative juices and their knowledge of social media.  This would definitely be more fun than just writing a boring term paper on a person's life!


Have you ever used MyFakeWall.com?  If you have, share some of your students' posts!

Disclaimer:  This would be best used with students who are 13 years or older as Facebook.com isn't supposed to be allowed for children under 12. 

Alexis

Using Storybird to Write Stories

Do your students love to write stories, but hate to draw?  Do you teach little ones who can dictate a story to you, but have a hard time "writing" a story?  Are you a "non-artist?"  Then Storybird is for you!

This wonderful site can be used by all grade & age levels to write stories using beautiful illustrations.   

Early Childhood:  The class can choose an illustrator that appeals to them and use the pictures to dictate a story to an adult.

Elementary and higher:  At this age level, the individual students could choose their illustrations and write their own stories.  The program also has a feature where you can use your own illustrations.

 

The site is extremely user friendly.  The user can just drag and click the illustrations of their choice.  They can then type their words into the text boxes.  


Teachers:  This can be used to add your students' names to a class and the teacher can then add assignments that follow a theme that the students will create stories for.  There is even a fundraising component where the students' stories could be used to raise money for the school.


If you're anything like me, then you aren't the best artist.  Storybird is the site for budding writers without artistic abilities.

Have you ever tried Storybird?  How would you use it in your classroom or your home?


Alexis