Category: 1st Grade

Apr 16 2015 April 16, 2015 August 12, 2015 NoComment by David

1st Grade Spring PowToons

Posted in 1st Grade, Language Arts, Science

Screen Shot 2015-08-12 at 2.42.19 PMFirst graders at Davis Elementary have been learning about the changes that happen in the weather, plants, animals, and people in the spring (SOL1.7), so today students in Ms. Long’s class created animated spring pictures using PowToon. First we discussed some of the changes that happen, and I showed them a few samples so they would get an idea of how a finished PowToon animation looks. Once they had their ideas, we helped them log into PowToon with their Google accounts and get started. First we changed the background and added text. I showed them how each element has it’s own timeline for when it appears and when it leaves. Next we looked through the various free clipart galleries and added some images that were spring related. The last step was to add a speech bubble and make one of the characters say a sentence about the spring. We copied the links to our finished PowToons and posted them to Google classroom so our classmates could watch our animations. You can see a few samples here.


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Mar 03 2015 March 3, 2015 August 5, 2015 NoComment by David

1st Grade Fractions in Google Docs

Posted in 1st Grade, Math

Screen Shot 2015-08-05 at 11.21.49 AMFirst graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about fractions showing halves, thirds, and fourths (SOL1.3), so today students in Ms. Bower’s class reviewed their fractions while learning how to use Google Docs for the first time. It took a while to help sign everyone into their Google accounts and get into Google classroom, but once we were there, I had posted a blank template for them to open. They typed the word “Fractions” at the top, and I showed them how to change the font, size, and color of the text. Next I demonstrated how to create a simple 1×2 table using the Table dropdown in the menu. The students created their table, and I asked how we could use that to show 1/2. They replied that they could color in one section of the table. I showed them how to use the paint bucket tool to fill in a section any color they wanted. Then we typed “1/2” in the remaining section. We followed the same procedure for thirds by creating a 1×3 table, but I let them decide whether they wanted to show 1/3 or 2/3, and they filled in the appropriate sections. By this time some of them were familiar enough with the procedure to create their fourths fraction on their own. Since all the tables were the same length I asked them how many fourths would fill in the same amount as 1/2? They could easily see that 2/4 = 1/2. They decided whether to show 1/4, 2/4, or 3/4 and wrote the fraction. Finally we helped them post the links to their fractions on Google classroom, and they enjoyed looking at each others’ creations. You can take a look at some of them here.


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Jan 28 2015 January 28, 2015 June 23, 2015 NoComment by David

1st Grade Compound Words & Shapes

Posted in 1st Grade, Language Arts, Math

Screen Shot 2015-06-23 at 7.46.08 AMFirst graders at Laburnum Elementary have been learning about compound words (SOL1.6g) in language arts, and they’ve been studying shapes (SOL1.13) in math. So today students in Ms. Schumacher’s class created their first Google documents using compound words about shapes. We helped them log into their Google accounts and into Google classroom where I posted a blank template as an assignment. I showed them how to choose a font, size, and color, as well as how to type capitals and periods. Next we brainstormed some compound words that were shapes (pancake, football, bookmark, sunflower, hamburger, blueberry, cheesecake, bathtub, corndog, breadstick, watermelon, notebook, blacktop, etc). I instructed them to type a complete sentence using a compound work and a second sentence identifying its shape. When they were finished with their sentences I showed them how to add an image using the Google image search. We posted the links to their documents on Google classroom so they could read at each others’ sentences. You can read a few samples here.


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Jan 20 2015 January 20, 2015 May 15, 2017 NoComment by David

1st Grade Push-Pull Animations

Posted in 1st Grade, Science

Screen Shot 2015-06-03 at 3.10.09 PMFirst graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about force, and specifically push and pull motions (SOL1.2). So today students in Ms. Schemmel’s class created push and pull animations to illustrate these forces. We used ABCYa! Animate to create the animations. First we reviewed and demonstrated push and pull motions. I pointed out that the force is usually in front of an object when pulling, and it’s behind the object when pushing. The students used clip art and their own drawings to illustrate either a push or a pull. After saving the finished animations as GIF files, we uploaded them to our Google classroom page so we could look at each others’ and comment on them. I posted a few examples here for you to see. (UPDATE: I have been posting animated GIFs to Padlet lately and they seem to be working better. See here and here.)


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Dec 11 2014 December 11, 2014 May 13, 2015 NoComment by David

1st Grade Goods & Services

Posted in 1st Grade, Social Studies

chefFirst graders at Davis Elementary have been learning about goods and services (SOL1.7) so today students in Ms. Long’s class created Pixie drawings showing what they want to be when they grown up and telling whether they would provide goods or services. They used the brush tool to paint parts of the picture, but they also used clipart from the Stickers library. Then they added a photo of themselves with the webcam tool. The last step was to type a sentence identifying their job and the goods or services they provide. We exported their pictures as .jpg images, and I showed them how to upload the files to their Google classroom page. Since the classroom page is private, I also uploaded them here for you to see.


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Nov 19 2014 November 19, 2014 April 30, 2015 NoComment by David

1st Grade Turkey Stories

Posted in 1st Grade, Language Arts

karenThanksgiving is coming up, and 1st graders in Ms. Tyler’s class at Laburnum Elementary have been practicing their new writing skills by writing about what they would do if they were a turkey. They had already written their stories out on paper, and today they wanted to publish them. We used Pixie because it not only has some turkey clip art, but the students could also paint their own turkeys if they wanted. First they typed their sentences out, which was a lot of work for 1st graders this early in the year! Next they added a turkey picture and put a photo of their face on the turkey’s head. Finally we exported the Pixie documents to JPEG files so we could post them on our Google classroom page. I also posted them here so you could see them.


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May 15 2014 May 15, 2014 July 1, 2014 NoComment by David

1st Grade Motion Animations

Posted in 1st Grade, Science

motionFirst graders in Ms. Gerrard’s class at Davis Elementary have been studying different types of motion: straight, circular, pushing, pulling, vibrating, and back and forth motions. Animations are a great way to show motion! Today we used ABCYa! Animate to illustrate different motions. I instructed the students to pick a motion and to try to make it unique, something the other students in the class wouldn’t think of doing. Then they started drawing the first scene. I showed them how to duplicate it several times with the Copy Cat button to slow down the animation. Then they changed the image slightly to show the type of motion they were trying to display and duplicated that several times as well. Since it’s a loop, the motion just continues through the two different images and it looks like constant motion. They saved it as a GIF file, and I published them all to a Google Doc that you can see here. As you can see, Ms. Gerrard’s first graders did a great job being creative and sharing unique types of motion!


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May 12 2014 May 12, 2014 June 30, 2014 NoComment by David

1st Grade Fact Families

Posted in 1st Grade, Math

factfamToday I tried out two new web tools with Ms. Edmond’s first graders at Holladay Elementary. She’s always willing to try new things! They have been learning about fact families in math (SOL1.5) so we illustrated some fact families with QuikSlides and SketchToy. I like both of these sites a lot because they are easy to use and don’t require a login. QuikSlides is a way to make a simple slideshow. You can change the font and color of the slides and even link to online images and videos. You can also set a password so you can go back and edit your slideshow later. The slideshows can be viewed online with any device including the iPads! The students made a new slide for each of the four members of the fact family that they wanted to show. You can see their slideshows by clicking here. Next we created animated illustrations of those fact families using SketchToy. With SketchToy you can draw pictures and then watch an animated replay of your drawing. The students especially liked how they could adjust the vibration of the lines. The students drew a picture showing the number of objects in their fact families and then wrote out the corresponding addition and subtraction equations. I instructed them to make the color of the objects match the numbers. Most of them did a great job following directions. I put all their links together into a Google doc that you can check out here:


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Apr 30 2014 April 30, 2014 June 30, 2014 NoComment by David

1st Grade Spring Acrostic

Posted in 1st Grade, Language Arts, Science

springFirst graders in Ms. Smith’s class at Laburnum Elementary have been learning about poetry in language arts and spring in science, so today they wrote an acrostic poem that spelled out SPRING. They came up with their own words or phrases to go with each letter and typed them on a Pages document. When they were finished, I showed them how to highlight the first letter of each line and change the font, size, and color so it stood out. Next we went online and I showed them how to do a Google image search to find spring pictures that went along with their ideas. They learned how to drag and drop the pictures from the browser onto their document (that took a lot of practice for some of them)! Finally, they saved their acrostic poems, and I combined them together into one document. I exported it as a PDF and uploaded it to another publishing site called Issuu. You can take a look at their finished project by clicking here.


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Apr 10 2014 April 10, 2014 June 29, 2014 NoComment by David

1st Grade Flower Animations

Posted in 1st Grade, Science

flowerFirst graders in Ms. Long’s class at Davis Elementary have been learning about flowers and how they grow (SOL1.4) so today we made animations of growing flowers using ABCYa! Animate. I taught a similar lesson last year but I learned a couple of lessons since then. First, I learned a big lesson about modeling. I have found that if I draw a picture while modeling the steps in a process, the majority of students will end up copying my drawing. That’s what happened in my last lesson… almost all of the students’ flowers were red like mine. So this time I purposely drew an ugly grey flower that resembles Medusa. None of the children copied it. Also I learned how to make the animated GIF actually animate in the Google Doc (host the images on another site and link to the URL instead of importing them directly into the Google Doc and then link to the publicly shared Google Doc instead of the published web version). Finally, in order to keep the animations from moving too quickly, we pushed the Copy Cat button a few times for each picture so there were duplicates. You can see their finished projects here.


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