Category: 1st Grade

Jan 30 2018 January 30, 2018 May 10, 2018 NoComment by David

1st Grade Animated Services

Posted in 1st Grade, Social Studies

First graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about goods and services (SOL1.7), so today, students in Ms. Wimmer’s class created animated services with ABCYa! Animate. First, we discussed the differences between goods and services and identified various jobs that provide services (fireman, policeman, doctor, nurse, dentist, teacher, barber, plumber, etc). The students chose a service they wanted to animate, and we headed over to ABCYa! Animate to draw a picture of a big head. We wanted it to be big so we could show the mouth moving. I explained that they could add a hat to show the uniform, but I don’t think anyone did that. Next, we used the Copy Cat button to make a copy of the face. We deleted the mouth (with the X tool) and drew another mouth in a different shape to make it look like it was talking. I showed them various mouth shapes for making different sounds (Oh, EE, L, F, Th, etc). We noticed that in some mouth shapes you can see the teeth or tongue. After making a couple of additional copies of the face with different mouth shapes, we pressed the Loop button (so it repeated) and exported it as an animated GIF. Now it was time to add the voice. We used Vocaroo to make an mp3 recording of the students explaining the services. Then we posted our animations and recordings on a Padlet. I combined them all into a video that you can see here. Later, I realized it might be easier to upload the animated GIFs to WeVideo and record a voiceover there. I’ll try that in another lesson!


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Dec 12 2017 December 12, 2017 March 16, 2018 NoComment by David

1st Grade Earth & Sun Pixie

Posted in 1st Grade, Science

First graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about the relationship between the Earth and the sun (SOL1.6), so today students in Ms. D’Antonio’s class used Pixie to create a diagram showing that relationship. First, we opened Pixie and used the Paint Bucket to fill the page with the blackness of space. Next, we used the Paint Brush to sprinkle a bunch of stars across the sky. I showed them a picture of the sun compared to Earth so they could see the incredible difference in size. Based on that information, we used the Shapes tool to draw a huge yellow circle for the sun. We made it so big that it didn’t even fit on the page. I also showed them how to use the Smear tool to smear rays from the sun (they liked that a lot 🙂 ). Then we searched the Stickers for an image of the Earth and added it to our picture. Of course, the students could add other stickers to make their pictures more creative. I asked them to identify the day and night sides of the Earth based on which part was facing the Sun. A cool, interactive way to demonstrate this is to go to Google Maps, switch to satellite view, click the 3-D button, zoom all the way out until you can’t zoom anymore, and click and drag the Earth around. You will see the sun and the day/night side of the Earth. The students used the Text tool to type “day” and “night” on the correct sides of the Earth sticker. Finally, we exported our Pixie files as JPG images and uploaded them to Padlet. You can see them all here.


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Jan 24 2017 January 24, 2017 April 4, 2017 NoComment by David

1st Grade Character Feelings

Posted in 1st Grade, Language Arts

First graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning how to identify characters’ feelings in stories they read, using the illustrations and context clues (SOL1.9). Today students in Ms. Sokolowski’s and Ms. Shelly’s classes drew illustrations of characters showing feelings and wrote sentences about them. Ms. Shelly’s class used ABCYa! Storymaker for this project. First they painted a character’s face showing happiness, sadness, fear, anger, or some other emotion. Then they typed a complete sentence about the character. We saved the images as PDF files and uploaded them to a Padlet, that you can see here. Ms. Sokolowski’s class used StoryboardThat for their project. StoryboardThat is a website for creating comics. The students made a 3-panel comic with three characters showing different emotions. I showed them how to use the “Edit Pose” button on each character to change their facial expressions and poses. Then we added speech bubbles, or “Textables,” and typed sentences about their emotions. We took a screenshot of the comics to save them and uploaded them to a Padlet as well. You can see their projects here (some of the situations they illustrated are quite humorous!


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Jan 13 2017 January 13, 2017 March 28, 2017 NoComment by David

1st Grade Services with -ing words

Posted in 1st Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies

First graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about goods and services (SOL1.7) and -ing words (SOL1.6e). So today students in Ms. Wimmer’s class wrote sentences about people who provide services, and we used -ing words to describe their work. First we reviewed some of the services they’ve been learning about: firefighters, policemen, barbers, teachers, doctors, etc. Then we talked about action words that end with -ing to describe what these community helpers do: helping, teaching, cutting, etc. (A great site to review services is Scholastic’s Listen & Read. It has several short articles about various services which can be read aloud). Next we used ABCYa! Storymaker to write and illustrate our sentences. The students used the paint tools to draw a picture of the service, then they wrote a complete sentence starting with “He/She is” and ending with an “-ing” word describing what they do. We took a screenshot of each student’s work (using the Snipping Tool) and uploaded them to CoMemories. You can see them all here.


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Dec 15 2016 December 15, 2016 February 7, 2017 NoComment by David

1st Grade Equality Animations

Posted in 1st Grade, Math

First graders at Trevvett have been learning about equality (SOL1.18), so today students in Ms. Lang’s class created equality animations using Sketchtoy. Sketchtoy is a cool web tool that replays whatever you draw, letting you watch the whole process in fast speed. It’s great for showing the steps in solving a problem or illustrating a scientific cycle (like the water cycle or a life cycle). First I showed them how to select a large size pen and a color of their choice. They drew a row of dots, making as many as they wanted, as long as the total number of dots was under 18. Next we selected a smaller pen size and and wrote “=” and the total number of dots. Then the students chose a new color and circled a portion of the dots, writing the number of dots they circled underneath. Finally, they chose one more color, circled the remaining dots, and wrote that number beneath. They also wrote “=” and the total of the two groups. They added some animation (probably their favorite part), and we saved it by clicking the save button. When you save in Sketchtoy, it gives you a link to share. We copied the students’ links and pasted them into a Padlet so they could watch each others’ animations. You can see them all here.


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Dec 13 2016 December 13, 2016 February 7, 2017 NoComment by David

1st Grade Winter Changes

Posted in 1st Grade, Language Arts, Science

First graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about changes in the weather during winter, and the effect those changes have on animals, plants, and humans (SOL1.7). They have also been learning how to write complete sentences (SOL1.13). Today students in Ms. Sokolowski’s class and Ms. Harris’s class practiced writing sentences about winter to accompnay digital drawings they created with ABCYa! Storymaker. First we drew our winter pictures. We used the paint bucket to make the sky blue, then we used the big roller brush to paint the ground white with snow. The spray can tool was perfect for drawing snowflakes in the sky. The students added people, animals, and plants, showing how they are affected by the winter (for example, they drew people wearing coats, trees without leaves, and animals hibernating or migrating). Next we clicked the yellow button on the side to type a complete sentence beginning with “In winter….” Finally we clicked the green button to print our assignments and saved them as PDF files. We shared them on a Padlet that you can see here: Ms. Sokolowski and Ms. Harris.


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Dec 09 2016 December 9, 2016 February 8, 2017 NoComment by David

1st Grade Past, Present, & Future Comics

Posted in 1st Grade, Social Studies

First graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning to distinguish among past, present, and future (SOL1.1). Today students in Ms. Valvoda’s class used StoryboardThat to create imaginary scenes from the past, present, and future. We started with the present, since that is the time we are most familiar with. I showed them how to find modern backgrounds using the Scenes tab. Next we clicked on the Characters tab and chose a person that was dressed in clothes from the present. I demonstrated how to change the color of the person’s hair, skin, and eyes using the pop-up menu items. Then we went to the U.S. History Scenes tab at the top and chose a background to represent the past. We discussed ways that the past scenes were different from today (they used fire for lighting and cooking, buildings were made of wood and stone, animals were used for transportation and work). For our Characters, we clicked on the 1600s-1800s tab and chose a person from the past. We noticed that the fashion styles for men and women were very different. Finally, the students had to be creative to think what life might be like in the future. They could pick any background scene and any character they wanted, as long as they could explain how it showed the future. Some of their visions of the future were very interesting–from military dystopias to underwater cities! You can see them all here.


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Dec 01 2016 December 1, 2016 January 23, 2017 NoComment by David

1st Grade Writing about the Past

Posted in 1st Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies

First graders at Trevvett Elementary have been learning about life in the past in History (SOL1.1) and how to write complete sentences with capitals and punctuation in English (SOL1.13e). Today students in Ms. Fletcher’s class showed off their skills by writing sentences about the past. We used ABCYa! Storymaker because it has a familiar writing paper template and an age-appropriate font. The students got to the website all by themselves by typing “ABCYa” in a Google search, clicking the link, then clicking the 1st grade button, and finding the Storymaker link on that page. First we discussed different ideas they could write about so they weren’t all writing about the same thing. We talked about how they cooked on a fire, traveled using horses and wagons, washed clothes in a bucket or the river, went to school in a one-room schoolhouse, sent letters instead of texts, and many more ideas. The students typed their sentence about the past using Shift to make a capital at the beginning and remembering their period at the end. We encouraged them to use sight words and sound out any unknown words (SOL1.12c). Then they used their newly-learned click-and-drag skill to draw a picture illustrating their sentence. When they were finished we saved them as PDF files (click the Print button). Finally we helped them upload their files to a Padlet (a free online bulletin board). You can see them all here (click each one to view the whole page).


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Nov 17 2016 November 17, 2016 January 16, 2017 NoComment by David

1st Grade Animal Sentences

Posted in 1st Grade, Language Arts, Science

First graders at Trevvett Elementary have been learning about animals in science (SOL1.5) and how to write complete sentences with a capital and a period in Language Arts (SOL1.13e). Today students in Ms. Lucas’ class used ABCYa! Storymaker to draw an animal of their choice and type a complete sentence about the animal. First we helped them log into their accounts which, in itself, is a major accomplishment. Then we helped them navigate to the website, and I showed them how to use the drawing tools to draw an animal. We talked about a variety of different animals to help them get ideas and not all draw the same one (everyone seems to love cheetahs)! Next, we clicked the writing button (yellow button on the right side) to write our sentences. I really like how this site uses the lined paper format familiar to first graders and a kid-friendly font. I taught them how to use Shift to make the first letter a capital. I also explained that they should press the space bar once between each word. After they typed their sentences, I pointed out where the period key was for the ending. We pressed the green button on the right side to see both the writing and the painting together. Then we clicked the Print button to save it as a PDF. I wanted to save them all to one place, so I tried out a new feature in Google forms: file upload. I created a short URL to a simple form http://tinyurl.com/lucasform, and we helped the students upload their PDFs to the form. It automatically creates a folder in Google drive where all the files are collected. It worked great! You can see all their hard work from today here.


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Oct 06 2016 October 6, 2016 December 2, 2016 NoComment by David

1st Grade U.S. Symbols Patterns

Posted in 1st Grade, Math, Social Studies

captureFirst graders at Trevvett Elementary have been learning about patterns in Math (SOL1.17) and U.S. symbols in Social Studies (SOL1.11), so today students in Ms. Lucas’ class created patterns with U.S. symbols using Pixie. First I showed them how to add a text box by clicking the blue T, and they typed their names with a capital letter. Next we clicked the Stickers button and searched for the Symbols folder (it has an orange exclamation point on it). Inside the Symbols folder, there is a folder of American symbols. There are stickers for the four symbols the students have been studying: the American flag, the bald eagle, the Washington Monument, and the Statue of Liberty. I showed the students how to click and drag the stickers onto their document and create a pattern. As they finished their patterns, we exported them using the Export button, and I uploaded them to a photo sharing site called CoMemories. You can see them all here.


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