Search Results for "civil war"

Sep 24 2015 September 24, 2015 October 5, 2015 No Comment by David

4th Grade Primary Sources

Fourth graders at Davis Elementary are learning about primary and secondary sources (VS.1a), so today students in Ms. White’s and Ms. Bennett’s classes collected and analysed their own primary sources. First we discussed primary sources and why they are valuable. We looked at some Civil War photos, some photos of Abraham Lincoln, and a contemporary painting of George Washington. The students correctly identified all of these as primary sources. I explained that they would be going back in time today to take a photograph of a place, and then we would be comparing that old photo with a modern one. First we opened up Google Earth, and I told them to find a place in which they were interested. We discussed examples like their neighborhood, a favorite vacation spot, or a place that was important to their family. We zoomed in fairly close, so we were able to see roads and buildings. Next I showed them how to use the timeline feature and we went back in time. I asked if this was a primary or secondary source. We figured out that it was a primary source because it was a photograph taken by a satellite at that time. We used the Snipping Tool to take a screenshot of the place and saved it to our desktop. Then we dragged the timeline to the present and took another screenshot. We combined the two images using a cool webtool called Juxtapose. The images have to be hosted online to get the links, so we uploaded them to Comemories. Then we copied the links and pasted them in Juxtapose. Juxtapose turns them into a before/after comparison complete with a slider. The students could now compare the images and see how the places changed over time. Take a look at some student examples here.

Tags:GoogleEarth webtools

Mar 19 2015 March 19, 2015 August 11, 2015 No Comment by David

4th Grade Battlefield Fractions

Posted in 5th Grade, Math, Social Studies

Fourth graders at Davis Elementary have been learning about the Revolutionary War and Civil War battles fought in Virginia (VS.5c & VS.7b). They have also been learning how to compare fractions (Math SOL4.2a). So today students in Ms. White’s class compared the fractions of casualties in each battle to determine which battle was Virginia’s greatest victory. First students chose a battle they wanted to research. We used Wikipedia to quickly find the number of casualties on both sides. Next we went to Piktochart to create an infographic to display our findings. I showed them how to choose a template, add a title, and change the font, size, and color. Next we added a map of the United States (under Tools). They had to erase the data that was already in the map and replace it with the battle casualties data. Then they changed the colors for Virginia and the rest of the map. After that we added a pie chart showing the casualties (students had to type the data again and change the colors). I pointed out that they should try to limit the colors in their infographics to three or four colors. Last, they added some icons (under Graphics) to decorate their infographics. Finally we posted our infographics to our Google classroom page, and our classmates estimated and compared the fractions shown in the pie charts using the comments section under each infographic. After analyzing the fractions, we determined Virginia’s greatest victory. Which battle do you think it was? Take a look at some samples here. If you would like additional information about this lesson, including the lesson plan, you can find it on our county’s Henrico21 website. UPDATE: I taught a similar lesson in Ms. Burcham’s class at Varina, and you can see their infographics here.

Tags:infographics webtools

Mar 03 2015 March 3, 2015 August 5, 2015 No Comment by David

4th Grade Facts & Opinions About Famous People

Posted in 4th Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies

Fourth graders at Holladay Elementary have been studying famous Americans from the pre-Civil War time period (VS.7), and their benchmark tests revealed that many of them needed help distinguishing between facts and opinions (SOL4.6h). This is a very important skill, since most propaganda and persuasive articles are a mixture of both facts and opinions. So today we created websites about the famous Americans that included facts and opinions, and our classmates had to decide how we were trying to persuade people to feel about the person. First I asked them to choose a famous American from the pre-Civil War era (John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, or Nat Turner). Next we signed into CheckThis with our Google accounts. I showed them how to change the theme, colors, and fonts of the webpage. They researched their famous person online to gather some facts. Then they wrote a paragraph about him or her and added some opinions of their own. Next they added a photo of the person. Finally, each student wrote a poll question at the bottom of their site, asking their classmates to identify how they were trying to persuade their readers to feel about the famous American. You can take a look at some of their websites here.

Tags:websites webtools

May 24 2012 May 24, 2012 September 11, 2012 No Comment by David

Making a Collaborative Map in 5th Grade

Posted in 5th Grade, Social Studies

One of the great things about using Google Apps in the classroom is that students can collaborate on the same document at the same time. So partners could be writing in a Google Doc, entering data into a Google Spreadsheet, or making a Google Slideshow… together, even if they aren’t in the same class, or the same school! Today Ms. Lizotte’s fifth graders at Chamberlayne Elementary created a collaborative Google Map for their “Amazing Mail Race” project. Earlier this year they sent out letters to schools all over the USA and waited to see which schools replied. Here at the end of the year, they wanted to see all the different states where they received mail from displayed in one big map. So each student was assigned a letter/state to plot on the map. They chose an icon, marked the state, and wrote their name and where the letter was from. Then we embedded the map into a website created with CheckThis. You can see the website by clicking here. The map is interactive so be sure to click on the icons and zoom out, because they even received mail from as far away as Alaska! You could adapt this activity to your class by making collaborative maps about the explorers or Civil War battles or whatever else you are studying that can be displayed on a map. Let me know how I can help!

Tags:GoogleMaps webtools

May 22 2012 May 22, 2012 September 11, 2012 No Comment by David

4th Grade Thinglink Interactive Photos

Posted in 4th Grade, Social Studies

Mrs. Waggoner’s fourth graders at Chamberlayne Elementary wanted a fun way to review the famous Virginians that they have been learning about this year. So I introduced them to a site called Thinglink. It lets you create interactive photos like online newspapers sometimes publish with hotspots that provide information when you rollover them. I created a couple of examples to show the students first. One was a picture of a horned lizard with hotspots describing its adaptations. Another was a timeline of the Civil War with hotspots describing the different events. So once the students had an idea of what the site could do, they picked a famous Virginian, embedded the photo in a Thinglink, and added hotspots describing the person’s accomplishments. When they were finished I posted all the links to a GoogleDoc so anyone could access all the pictures for review… even at home! Hopefully you can see there are a lot of ways to use this site in your classroom. Take a look at some student examples: Stonewall Jackson, Maggie Walker, James Lafayette, Robert E. Lee, and Arthur Ashe.

Tags:webtools

Dec 06 2010 December 6, 2010 January 18, 2011 No Comment by David

VSTE Conference 2010

Posted in Staff Development, Trekkers

This Sunday Alfonso, Frank, and I presented a workshop at the VSTE Educational Technology Conference in Hampton, Virginia. It was called “Web Tools that Work in a Real Life Classroom.” You can see my website with all the links by clicking here. We basically shared many of the great web tools we’ve been using in your classrooms and which I’ve mentioned on this blog several times. One of the cool new things that we did during the presentation was use Today’s Meet. This site allows people to easily post questions during a presentation and have them displayed live so the presenters and audience members can respond instantly. It really encouraged participation and it might be a tool you’d like to try in your classroom. The Virginia Trekkers also presented Sunday and Monday and shared some of the new podcasts we’ve created this year: Frontier Culture Museum (people groups in Virginia VS.2d), McCormick’s Farm (technology and agriculture VS.9a), Richmond Slave Trail (with a special guest Trekker who traveled all the way to Africa VS.4a), Rock Quarry (the rock cycle 5.7), Ashland Bike Route (map skills), Monticello (Thomas Jefferson VS.5b), Richmond Squirrels Game Night (goods and services), Virginia Volcano (plate tectonics 5.7d), Pow Wow (Monacan Indians VS.2d), Appomattox (VS.7b and Veterans Day 3.11c), Museum of the Confederacy (Civil War VS.7), and Big Meadow in Shenandoah National Park (Blue Ridge Mountains VS.2, VS.10). Check out the all the latest podcasts and please consider submitting a class video to our Junior Trekkers Contest. It would be a great Henrico 21 project!

Tags:vste

Jan 12 2010 January 12, 2010 January 19, 2010 No Comment by David

Teacher Spotlight – Ms. Nuckols

Posted in 5th Grade, Social Studies

Ms. Nuckols at Holladay elementary had an excellent project idea for her 5th grade class that I’d like to share with you. They made Civil War newspapers using Pages. What made this project so great was that it involved many of the 21st century skills we’ve been talking about: collaboration, creativity, problem solving, technology, etc. Each student was assigned a topic to research and write about. Ms. Nuckols gathered together a variety of Civil War pictures for her students to use. Then groups worked together to create their newspapers in Pages. Each student’s article was added to the newspaper with a picture to accompany it. Finally, after the projects were complete, Ms. Nuckols printed them and displayed them on the wall outside her classroom. Publishing and displaying is an important step in any project because students love seeing each other’s work, and it gives them the perfect opportunity to review their information. You can see a sample newspaper from her class by clicking here. If you use her idea, be sure to send her an email to thank her!

Tags:pages Spotlight

Dec 17 2009 December 17, 2009 January 19, 2010 No Comment by David

New Trekkers Podcasts

Posted in Trekkers

This week several of my schools have been working on MAPS testing so they have needed the computers. This has given me some much needed time to update the Virginia Trekkers website. We’ve added two new podcasts. In Podcast #27 we take your class on a virtual field trip to a peanut factory in Wakefield, Virginia. Your students will learn about one of the important crops in southern Virginia and how it played an important part during the Civil War. We’ll show you first-hand how peanuts are processed from the farm to the store shelf. It’s a great way to review your economics and Virginia studies SOLs with your students. In Podcast #28 we take your class to the Citie of Henricus, which was the second English settlement, established just four years after Jamestown in 1611. It was home to Pocahontas and John Rolfe, and it’s also how Henrico County got its name. We’ll show you inside an English settler’s house and a Powhatan Indian’s house, plus you’ll learn about early colonial economics. So come on, let’s go trekkin’!

Tags:podcast

Aug 14 2018 August 14, 2018 January 13, 2019 No Comment by David

2018 Summer Elementary Conference

Posted in Staff Development

Today we had our 2018 summer elementary conference. Our theme was “Dive into Deeper Learning” because we wanted to focus on the four principles of deeper learning: learning is anytime/ anywhere, student-owned, authentic and connected, and community supported. Along with this focus, we revealed our newly developed Henrico Learner Profile (HLP) which will prepare our students to be #lifeready. We know that successful graduates demonstrate six traits: Quality Character, Global Citizenship, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Collaboration, and Communication. So each session of our conference included one or more of these elements. Lastly, we wanted to train our teachers how to use the new technologies they would be receiving this Fall: new iPads in grades K-1, new Chromebooks for students in grades 2-5, and new teacher laptops with Windows 10. Since teachers from across the county were taking a day of their vacation to attend this conference, we tried to make it fun and informative. We played games, gave away prizes, invited food trucks, and had a DJ playing music! Our “deeper learning” cruise launched with a Love Boat intro video starring the technology instructors, who are now called Innovative Learning Coaches. Then the teachers attended four sessions, or cruise destinations. Alfonso and I taught sessions on: (1) Windows 10 Tips; (2) Civil Debate in the Classroom; (3) Video & Animation; and (4) Blogging with Google Sites. It was a great day of learning from each other! We look forward to doing it again next summer.

Tags:conference

Dec 07 2012 December 7, 2012 January 23, 2013 No Comment by David

3rd Grade Greece & Rome Websites

Posted in 3rd Grade, Social Studies

Third graders at Holladay Elementary have finished their study of Greece & Rome and were ready today for a final project to review and share what they have learned. I showed them how to create free websites using CheckThis. First they had to decide which ancient civilization they wanted to review. We wrote that in the title. Next they had to pretend that they actually lived in ancient Greece or Rome and tell about their lives. They had to include facts about land features, occupations, trade, sports, art, etc. They wrote a paragraph, or as much as they could in the alloted time (you can save if you log into an account, but since we didn’t, we had to finish the website in the hour we had together). I showed them how to add a picture from the Internet, but I also just learned today that CheckThis has a webcam feature you can use to add pictures. So I was able to test it out with Ms. Marion’s class. They took pictures from classroom books about Greece and Rome. We also added a Google map of the region that was fully interactive. Finally, we wrote poll questions for site visitors to answer. You can see all the websites by clicking on the teacher links below:
http://tinyurl.com/checkthismarion
http://tinyurl.com/checkthisbarnes
http://tinyurl.com/checkthiscowart