We Can Help the Earth!

For an Earth Day project, my primary classes drew pictures in Tuxpaint of what they could do to help the Earth. We put everything together in PhotoStory.

Our Animal Stories

Primary students recently researched and wrote stories about animals. After typing the stories in Microsoft Word, students illustrated their stories using TuxPaint. I collected all the completed stories into one Microsoft Word document and uploaded into Calameo. Calameo is a website where people can publish and share work.

Calameo was very easy to use and it had several privacy options. I did become frustrated with the site. The students stories and pictures are suppose to be on one page. I have fiddled with the document, put in page breaks but I am still having problems. It might work better to convert your document to pdf format first. I usually use pdfonline, but for some reason I am having problems with receiving my completed document. So, I used Zamzar to convert our word document to a pdf. Once I uploaded the pdf to Calameo then the pictures stayed with the text on our animal stories. Click here to view the publication from the Calameo website.

Last year we did something similar only I borrowed an idea from Tammy Worcester and had the students create a zoo exhibit for their animal.

St. Patrick's Day Activities

For St. Patrick's Day I choose to read the book, The Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing. After reading the book to our primary students, I had the students use TuxPaint to draw a picture of how they would try to catch a leprechaun. Pictures were upload in to Animoto.

Haiku

A fun way to practice writing haiku is to have students write a book in haiku format. DogKu written by Andrew Clements is a great starting point for this writing project. After reading the book, third and fourth grade students wrote their own stories in Microsoft PowerPoint. Students were given the option to illustrate their stories using TuxPaint or the draw tools available in PowerPoint. Completed stories were uploaded to Issuu in pdf format.

Get your own - Open publication

Nursery Rhymes

Preschoolers have been working on learning various nursery rhymes. In computers, I recorded students reciting nursery rhymes using Audacity. Then students used TuxPaint to draw their favorite part of Humpty Dumpty and Hey Diddle Diddle. The recording and the drawings were put together to create a movie that the students can watch over and over again.





Online nursery rhyme resources

Speakaboos
students can listen to celebrities read animated fables, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, folktales and lullabies.

Northumberland NGfL: Read Along Nursery Rhymes A collection of activities to use with the Smartboard.

Teletubbies: Nursery Rhymes Sing along with the Teletubbies.

Mojo's Song Lyrics Find the lyrics and listen to your favorite children's songs. There are nursery rhymes listed under the traditional music heading located on the left side of the page.

What other online sites are you using with your students?

What is Hiding in My Mitten?

This lesson plan originated from Michelle Brown of Jefferson Elementary in New York. I made contact with Michelle after Lisa Harris, Micro-Computer Specialist and AV Coordinator at Jefferson Elementary, posted a project request on CAPSpace.

After reading "The Mitten" by Jan Brett, primary students at Burrton Elementary drew pictures in TuxPaint. (I allowed the Turtles, our kindergarten, to use the stamps on TuxPaint. The first and second graders had to draw a picture of what animal was hiding in their mitten.) Using Microsoft Word, we imported the completed picture into a mitten template. Then the students typed three clues about what was hiding in their mitten. We printed the mittens, cut them apart and glued one end together.

The Turtles (aka kindergarters) printed their animal, cut out the animal, and took turns putting their animal between two large gloves that I brought from home. I filmed each student sharing what was hiding in the gloves.

On Friday, January 30th, we used our Polycom system to talk with the first graders at Jefferson Elementary in New York. The first graders from both schools took turns reading their clues and guessing what was hiding in the mittens. Afterwards, we spent about 15 minutes allowing the students to ask each other questions. Visiting with students in another region of the United States was great learning opportunity and a lot of fun.


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During our Polycom session, I filmed and took pictures. However, I later discovered that the way I had my camera hooked up, it caused a lot of static. I had the Honeybees (grade 1) and Buffaloes (grade 2) read their clues to me during computers on Monday while I filmed once again. Windows Movie Maker was used to edit our movie. The mitten movie was then published on TeacherTube. (I put all the primary students into one movie.)

My Year in One Sentence

Third grade students were asked to summarize their year in one sentence. To begin the project, the third graders used Microsoft Word to type and edit their sentences. Then, they used TuxPaint to illustrate an image for their stories.

I created an account on Gabcast and used my cellphone to dial into my account and create a podcast recording. Students took turns recording their sentence.

Gabcast! Burrton Third Graders #1 - My Year in One Sentence

Third graders describe their year in 2008 in one sentence.