Reading Challenge Check-in

This week has been a great one for reading.  We had our school book fair, our local librarian came to visit, and the local library had a Read-a-thon.  It seemed like a good time to check in and see how many books the students have read.  I know students have been reading because they keep adding favorite books to our classroom book wall, but I was flabbergasted when students actually tallied up the number of books they have read since the beginning of school.  When I totaled all the books up, I got 896 books!

This class loves its books.  Here are some photos of a typical silent reading time.

We got "dotty" postcards from our buddy class in Georgia

Although we have been connecting with our buddy class in Georgia via Padlet and Kidblog, last week we connected the old-fashioned way. The students received postcards in the mail from their Georgia Global Read Aloud buddies.  They were decorated in dots in honor of International Dot Day and the book The Dot.  Students were very excited to read the postcards and learn more about their buddies!

This week in our Kidblog conversations, many students talked about the fairy tale told by Abilene's grandmother, Pelligrina.  It did not have a happy ending.   Students have posted thoughtful ideas about why the author might have added such a tale to our read-aloud book, the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

Thank you Mr. Enterline for teaching us about sharks and scuba diving

Look at all the questions we had!

We in room C-2 had another guest speaker for science.

Last Friday, Greg Enterline came to our class to talk marine biology and scuba diving.  It is always fun to learn from the experts and this was surely the case when Mr. Enterline came to visit.

Students learned about scuba diving by watching some videos of a dive to see the shipwreck the Duane.  What was really exciting about the dive was that there was a Great White Shark in the video. What a shocker it was to see if from the vantage point of a diver!  Students had many questions about sharks after that and three lucky students won real shark teeth at the end of the class by showing what they had learned.

Students also got to see some of Mr. Enterline's scuba gear, including oxygen tanks, the wires divers hang on to when they are diving, flippers and a mask.  I don't know if seeing the video with the shark made them more or less interesting in diving themselves!

Mr. Enterline also brought some remote operated vehicles for the class to see.  Mr. Binder at the middle school has a club where students can make their own ROVs.  After Mr. Enterline left, students had questions about how they could be sure to join the club.  It's talks like these that help make science come to life.

Thank you Greg Enterline!

Georgia Buddy Teacher teaches Mrs. Newman more tech tips

One of the things that I really love about teaching is that there are so many opportunities for me to learn along with the students.  These past few weeks, I have been learning about new ways to collaborate with our buddy class in Georgia.  Their third grade teacher has been suggesting new ways for our classes to collaborate.

On Monday, we used padlet, a free online virtual posting wall, where students and teachers can post comments.  When we got to school on Monday, we could see comments our buddy class posted on the wall about how they were planning to make their mark on the world.  We looked at their postings, then added our own.  It was quick and easy and everyone was interested to see which ideas were the same and which were different.  (It was also a good reminder to the class that url addresses have to be typed into the browser exactly right or you won't be able to get to the wall.  Everyone had to learn where the underscore is on the iPad keyboard!)

In addition to the student conversation, there are imbedded videos for the students to watch.  Our next padlet exercise will be to post photos with our comments.  Here is a great video created by Richard Byrne (of Free Technology for Teachers) explaining how to find public domain photos at pixabay.com and insert them into padlet.  Another option is to have students import screenshots of their work from their ipads.

Here is a link to a slideshow of 32 ways to use padlet in the classroom.

This week, we are going to investigate using Today's Meet. Today's Meet is a free service for hosting back-channel discussions.  We may use it with our buddy class to have both classes answer discussion questions about our Global Read Aloud book, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

Today's Meet is very easy for both teachers and students to use.  The teacher can post a discussion question, then the students type their names and respond.  Posts are limited to 140 characters, like Twitter, so answers will have to be concise or will need to be posted in multiple pieces.

Here is a link to a post about 20 interesting ways to use Today's Meet in the classroom.

The Fourteenth Goldfish and Science

We just finished reading our read-aloud book, The Fourteenth Goldfish.  It's an interesting adventure that involves family, friendship and science.  Here's a description from the Randam House website:

Galileo. Newton. Salk. Oppenheimer.Science can change the world . . . but can it go too far? Eleven-year-old Ellie has never liked change. She misses fifth grade. She misses her old best friend. She even misses her dearly departed goldfish. Then one day a strange boy shows up. He’s bossy. He’s cranky. And weirdly enough . . . he looks a lot like Ellie’s grandfather, a scientist who’s always been slightly obsessed with immortality. Could this pimply boy really be Grandpa Melvin? Has he finally found the secret to eternal youth? With a lighthearted touch and plenty of humor, Jennifer Holm celebrates the wonder of science and explores fascinating questions about life and death, family and friendship, immortality . . . and possibility.

We enjoyed The Fourteenth Goldfish, and reading it sparked some interesting discussions about science.  Students wanted to learn more about the use of the atomic bomb and they wanted to use microscopes to look at things up close.  Lucky for us, Mrs. Newman's daughter is on her Fall Break and wanted to do some science and engineering projects with the class.  She set up the microscopes at the back of the room and showed the students how to use them.  Students saw prepared slides, including an ant, a cross-section of a pine seed, and a couple of other things.  Several students want to bring in items from home to look at under the microscope, so we will keep the microscopes out for a while longer.