Tag: websites

Numbers Graphs of Ocean Facts

OceanGraphsNumbers can be used to create eye-catching graphs of different concepts you are teaching in your Oceans Unit. For example you can use a pie chart to show the percentage of the earth that is covered by the oceans, you can use a bar graph to show the sizes of the different oceans, and you can use a stacked area graph to show the depths of the different ocean zones (adjust the opacity to make it transparent like water). Take a look at a sample here and download the Numbers template here. Also, if you are looking for some good websites for your oceans unit, sure to check out my Oceans Unit links.




Kindergarten Trackpad Practice

PumpkinOne of the most important technology skills for kindergarten students to master is using the trackpad to manipulate what is on the screen. The click and drag is especially challenging for them. So in my kindergarten classes this week I have been taking the students to a website where I have gathered together several sites for practicing the click and drag. A very cool one, especially for this month, is where they click and drag to carve a pumpkin. Check out the Trackpad Practice site for yourself and bookmark it for your students. Oh, and make sure that your kindergarten students practice typing their names on the computer, using Shift to make a capital letter. That’s another important technology skill for them to master.




Teacher Spotlight – Miss Gaglio

shapeimage_4I know many of you have created classroom websites in iWeb this year, and that is fantastic! If you haven’t created one yet, or if you’d just like some inspiration, check out Miss Gaglio’s site. She’s a 3rd grade teacher at Chamberlayne Elementary. She has included several extra features that you may want to include on your site. For example, did you know that you can use the HTML snippet under Web Widgets to embed widgets right on your website? Miss Gaglio has a current weather widget from Weather Bug and a poll about the students’ favorite book that she made on Vizu. She also has a link to spelling games she created using her weekly spelling list at Spelling City. There are photo albums, podcasts, and videos on her website as well. Check it out!




5th Grade Rocks Podcast

RocksRockFifth graders at Chamberlayne Elementary were rock stars today. They made rock podcasts with photos of the different types of rocks jammin’ out on electric guitars. They added their own voiceovers to describe the rocks and how they are formed, then they chose a musical soundtrack. They didn’t finish today, but you can see what they started on by clicking here. To download all the files for this project click here. The files include 3 Pixies for making the pictures of each rock and a GarageBand template to get the students started, plus a folder of pictures to use (that’s why it’s 41MB!) Finally be sure to check out my page of interactive rock websites for yor students to explore by clicking here. Rock on!




2nd Grade Weather Keynotes

weatherkeynote2nd Graders at Laburnum worked on different weather projects today. One class made Keynotes. I gave them a template and photos to use (which you can download here). On the first page they inserted a photo of themselves from Photo Booth into a stormy scene as you can see in the picture at left. Next they added slides to describe the different weather terms they have learned, and finally we added transitions and builds to make it animated. They did not finish today, but you can see a finished sample here. If you’re teaching the weather unit, I’d be happy to help you in any way that I can. I’ve assembled some great weather websites here that you might want to explore!




Technology Infusion

InfusionFullToday was staff development day in Henrico County. My fellow ITRT, Jill Baedke and I presented a workshop on Technology Infusion. There are basically two definitions of infusion: (1) a drink prepared by soaking fruit or leaves in a liquid, and (2) slowly injecting medicine or fluids into a vein. So you can think of infusion as a slow process whereby something becomes one with something else. Anyway, the picture I drew was supposed to convey this in a grungy, graphic-design type of way, like the word “infusion” is becoming one with the person, but people have told me that it just looks like blood spurting out. Sorry about that, it was unintentional. Now getting back to main point of this whole thing, technology infusion would involve using technology throughout the learning process, not just as one distinct piece of the process (project-based learning vs a computer lesson). There are many examples and links on the website so check it out by clicking here.




1st Grade Patriotic Symbols

Symbols1st Graders at Trevvett are studying patriotic symbols in social studies (SOL 1.11) and graphing in math (SOL 1.18) so we decided to combine those into one integrated project using Pixie and Numbers. First the students found stickers of the symbols in Pixie and matched them with their names. Then they took their photo using the webcam tool and identified their favorite symbols by recording their voices. You can take a look at their projects here. Next we tallied their favorite symbols and entered the data into a graph template that I created for them to use. You can see a sample graph here, and you can download all the files for this lesson by clicking here. There’s also an interactive quiz to review the patriotic symbols on the Virginia Trekkers website.




5th Grade Rocks Keynote

RockCycle5th Graders at Chamberlayne worked on making Keynote slideshows for their Rocks unit this week. I gave them a template and a folder with pictures of the different types of rocks (metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary). You can download the files by clicking here and you can view a sample slideshow I created by clicking here (you will need to let it load, then click to advance the slides). There are many great interactive websites about rocks and the rock cycle (SOL 5.7a) that you can find by clicking here. Come back next week to see how another 5th grade class made Rocks Podcasts using Garage Band!




4th Grade Virginia Regions

RegionsThere are many projects your students could do for the Virginia regions unit. They could do a GarageBand podcast about each region, they could make travel brochures in Pages, or they could make animated movies with Pixie showing a virtual cartoon tour across the state. Let me know if you want to try one of those ideas or perhaps you have an idea of your own. Fourth graders at Chamberlayne are working on Virginia Regions Keynotes this week. You can see my sample by clicking here (you will need to wait for it to load then click to advance the slides). You can download all the files for this lesson here. The packet contains a template for dropping in student folders, the sample, and a folder of websites. Speaking of websites, don’t forget about the Virginia Trekkers website which has videos from each region. There’s a drag and drop activity for identifying the five regions here and you can download a map of the regions for viewing in Google Earth by clicking here.