Joanne's Picks...

I have decided to add my picks for the month to my classroom blog, just click to visit and see what I have discovered this month in my web travelings...
This way I am sharing with a larger group than just my K-3 AISI group and that is the whole point, share your knowledge with as many people as possible.

Passion!

Great Video!

Mrs. Adams Small Finds

My finds this month are very minimal. I really like the site called Sppech SPACE, which is a cornucopia of ideas for integrating speech ideas into the classroom. I am also liking Diigo, which I am now using rather than Delicious to bookmark my favourite sites.

Speech SPACE




Diigo

Finding Smartboard Activities

Try this list of Smartboard Search Tools.
Don't spend all night looking for just the right thing!
Refine your search.
Work Smarter not harder!!

Linda Coutts

Barb's Paper Making Mess


Ok girls now that I have entered the "land of crazy" I thought I should demonstrate why I belong there. Today's new position states the obvious, sorry Lisa no offense, you were wise to take a hiatus from this land! However, my PLC project more aptly demonstrates why a) I am crazy and b) why I love teaching. I have struggled with finding the time and yes the motivation to treat this project as more than just one more thing on an already overloaded list. Then, I decided to make paper as part of my real world project. Now I have been accused of taking things too far, something I am sure you four will disagree with, but in my head it always seems like a relatively easy undertaking. So here goes, a description of my PLC project:

The Grade Two's have spent the fall learning about what it takes to become an author, and, that authors write about what is important to them. Well one day after having a discussion about the growing hill of paper recycling in my room with various powers that be I thought about how else to use that paper. That is where my project took flight. Since I know you are well acquainted with my husband's love of poetry I felt that I needed to encourage this in my young writers. There is something quite rewarding with finding a word that rhymes with scooters...

So we began writing up a storm and then spent the last week making a mess that I am sure Diane still has not forgiven me for. But what resulted was complete student absorption into creating their top secret "latest edition to the book market" right in time for Christmas. The finished copy was fairly rustic however, the kids had a blast doing it and we produced over 12 poems, five of them with stanzas, rhyming patterns, syllabic rhythm and following an actual idea from start to finish!

I think I have found a new career (especially since I still have the hill of bags in my room) however, I think my blender will never be the same again. Thanks to Santa for my Magic Bullet, it doesn't matter! Below are a couple of the websites we used to investigate poetry and play with words in order to create our "Winter Wonderland" book of poems.

So, sorry girls there's no pictures - my hands were fairly mucky, but aren't you glad, cuz my PLC project was rather ducky!


Word Clouds
http://www.tagxedo.com/

Poetry Engine
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/poetry_engine.htm#

Lisa's Thoughts For January

My grade two class participated in a real world assessment task found on the Alberta Assessment Consortium website. Their job was to design, create and present a magnetic toy to the president of a well known toy company. After the toys were created and our presentations were over we took them out for a trial run. We had grade one students play with the toys. Then we gave the grade one students money which they could use to "buy" their favorite toys. We tallied the results and found the most popular toys.Pictures and video of our project will be added soon.

If you're looking for great elementary art ideas check out Art Projects for Kids and Incredible Art Department.

Looking for another source for online videos, check out Teaching Videos.

Joanne's top 3 picks...

This Snowflake Workshop is so good and will be awesome on our smartboards.

Professionally, this Harvard Education Letter entitled, "Kids haven't changed, Kindergarten has." is a fantastic read that for me completely reinforces the need for dramatic play in the Kindergarten classroom.

At My Best® is a Free comprehensive curriculum-supported toolkit for children in grades kindergarten to grade three to promote and develop children’s overall wellness. At My Best® combines physical activity, healthy eating and emotional well-being and aims to support children’s optimal physical and emotional development by inspiring and motivating them to make healthier choices today, and develop lifelong healthy habits.
**Lots of fun, educational kids activities/games in the kids section. Good for k-3 health.