Tag: websites

Jan 05 2016 January 5, 2016 May 10, 2016 NoComment by David

4th Grade New Year Goals

Posted in 4th Grade, Language Arts

CaptureHolladay Elementary is a Leader in ME Lighthouse school (the first elementary school in Virginia to reach that status), and students here try to show the 7 habits of highly effective people. Fourth graders in Ms. Tonello’s class wanted to include the 7 habits in their goals for the new year. Today I showed them how to publish their goals by making a quick website with CheckThis. First we went to CheckThis, and I showed them how to choose the fonts and colors for their website by clicking the “Aa” button in the top right corner. Next they typed their title, subtitle, and wrote about their goals for 2016. We clicked the green “+” button to add photos that represented each goal. Then we added a poll question to allow visitors to vote on which idea they liked best. Finally we published the websites and pasted the links to Google classroom so they could visit each others’ pages. You can see them all here, and feel free to answer their poll questions.


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Nov 12 2015 November 12, 2015 February 18, 2016 NoComment by David

4th Grade Nonfiction Text Features

Posted in 4th Grade, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies

website2Fourth graders at Davis Elementary have been learning about nonfiction text features (SOL4.6a) and drawing conclusions using textual information (SOL4.6f). So today students in Ms. White’s class created nonfiction websites using CheckThis. Since they have been studying clouds (Science SOL4.6) and Jamestown (VS.3), they made their websites about one of those topics. First we reviewed text features to include like bold type, headings, captions, and photographs. I also explained that their classmates would be using the information in their websites to draw conclusions, so they needed to be thinking of good questions to ask about their topics. Next, we went to CheckThis and created a website without signing in. Since students can’t create an account, we had to finish the website during the one hour lesson, which wasn’t a problem for this class. I showed them how to customize the colors and fonts of their page. Then the students typed their information, making important words bold. I was surprised at how much they were able to type in such a short time! They also added a photo and a poll. The polling feature is one of the reasons I prefer CheckThis to other webpage-creation services because it adds an interactive element to the students’ websites. Finally we published our sites, copied the links, and posted them to Google classroom with a good question for our classmates to answer in the comments. You can take a look at all their websites here.


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Apr 14 2015 April 14, 2015 August 12, 2015 NoComment by David

4th Grade Famous People Predictions

Posted in 4th Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies

Screen Shot 2015-08-12 at 10.29.39 AMFourth graders have been studying famous Virginians of the 20th century in social studies (VS.9). Making predictions (SOL4.5i) was also an area of weakness on the benchmark tests, so today students in Ms. Anthony’s class created websites where they asked their classmates to predict how a famous Virginian would react in a certain situation based on their character. First each student picked a famous Virginian and did some quick research about him or her using the Internet or their notes. Next we went to CheckThis, and I showed them how to customize the theme, fonts, and colors of their website. They uploaded a photo of their person and typed a few facts, focusing on ones that revealed the person’s character. Then they thought of a new situation for the person and wrote it as a poll question. They also wrote some ways the person might react to the situation for their classmates to choose from and practice making predictions. Finally they posted their websites to Google classroom so their classmates could visit them and vote. You can take a look at a few samples here, and you are welcome to vote as well.


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Mar 16 2015 March 16, 2015 August 6, 2015 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Educational Coins

Posted in 3rd Grade, Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies

Screen Shot 2015-08-06 at 11.50.28 AMThird graders at Varina have been learning about money and multiplication in math (SOL3.8 & 3.2), so today students in Ms. Leo’s class designed their own educational coins and made up multiplication problems about them for their classmates to solve. First we discussed how the U.S. Mint designs new coins to sell and how, if people don’t like the designs, they won’t buy them. There are thousands of unused dollar coins sitting in vaults because no one wants them. I asked the students to guess the most popular coin (surprisingly, it’s the penny). Since they were also learning about the water cycle in science (SOL3.9), I told them to put something educational on their coins from science (water cycle, plant cycle, frog cycle, butterfly cycle, related to the circle shape of coin) or social studies (Greece, Rome, famous Americans, etc). They could either work with a partner or by themselves. Partners divided up the tasks, so one designed the coin using Pixie and the other designed a website about the coin using CheckThis. The website had to persuade people to buy the coin. Then they made a math multiplication word problems to explain how the coins are packaged and shipped out to banks (rolls of coins in boxes). Their sites were published to the classroom page, but you can take a look at them here.


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

4th Grade Facts & Opinions About Famous People

Posted in 4th Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies

Screen Shot 2015-08-05 at 10.24.53 AMFourth 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.


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Feb 09 2015 February 9, 2015 August 6, 2015 NoComment by David

5th Grade Elements Websites

Posted in 5th Grade, Language Arts, Science

KrystalFifth graders at Varina Elementary have been learning about the elements in science (SOL5.4c) and cause-effect relationships in reading (SOL5.5j), so today we created cause-effect elements websites in Ms. Long’s class. First the students chose an element that they were interested in learning more about using the Interactive Table of Elements (other good resources are The Picture Periodic Table and the Simplified Periodic Table). I gave them some time to research their element and take a few notes. We reviewed plagiarism and copyright and discussed the importance of putting the knowledge they gained in their own words. Next we went to CheckThis, and I taught them how to use that tool to create their own website about the element. The students could change the fonts and colors and add pictures. They also needed to add an interactive poll question about a cause-effect relationship involving their element. We discussed cause-effect words they could use like “why” and “because” and “what would happen if…?” For example, we discovered that my sample element, aluminum, is used to build space ships, and we we asked ourselves why? We discovered that the cause was the lightness of aluminum. The students did a great job on their elements websites. If you’d like to see their sites and answer their cause-effect questions, click here.


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Jan 30 2015 January 30, 2015 August 5, 2015 NoComment by David

4th Grade Measurement with Tech Takeout

Posted in 4th Grade, Math

Screen Shot 2015-08-05 at 9.03.31 AMThis year all the elementary ITRTs have been working on a special project called Tech Takeout. We look at the needs of different schools and choose a school to focus all our resources on for one fun, intensive day of learning. Today we went to Adams Elementary to help the 4th graders with measurement. I worked with Ms. Wright, another ITRT, to help students create measurement websites using CheckThis. We brought a collection of interesting items including a Samurai Jack action figure, a boxing glove, a geode, a blowfish, a piranha, a bottle of Wonder Woman nail polish, a back scratcher, and a treasure chest from Paraguay. Each student in our group chose an item to weigh, and they used a balance to measure the mass of the item. Then they headed over to CheckThis to make their website. Within CheckThis the students were able to take a picture of themselves holding their item. Below that they created a poll asking the weight of their item. At the bottom of each website the students took a second picture of themselves holding a piece of paper with the correct answer. Ms. Wright and I added all their websites to one page so the students could view each others’ websites and answer the questions. You can see all the other projects from the Tech Takeout day at Adams Elementary here. UPDATE: Later, in March, we did a similar project at Baker Elementary. Check out the measurement websites they made here. We did the answer part differently by making a link to a Google doc instead of having the answer right on the website.


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Jan 13 2015 January 13, 2015 June 1, 2015 NoComment by David

5th Grade Light Websites

Posted in 5th Grade, Science

NdiFifth graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about light and its properties (SOL5.3), so today students in Ms. Dimatteo’s class created light websites using CheckThis. First they logged into their Google accounts and went to Google classroom where I posted the link. Ms. Dimatteo gave them the directions for their projects and told them that they could pick the subtopic of light that they wanted to research. Next I showed them how to customize the colors and fonts for their webpage. We focused on writing the text first, since that was the most important part. We encouraged the students to make sure they had their facts correct by using their notes or doing research online. Then I showed them how to search for and add a photo. Finally they added a question for their visitors to answer. We posted the links to Google classroom so they could visit each others’ pages and answer the questions. You can take a look at them here.


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Dec 02 2014 December 2, 2014 May 1, 2015 NoComment by David

5th Grade Nonfiction Text Elements

Posted in 5th Grade, Science

Screen Shot 2015-05-01 at 12.38.10 PMFifth graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about elements of nonfiction text like captions, headings, bold print, graphics, etc (SOL5.6) so today students in Ms. Sharpe’s class practiced including these elements in their own nonfiction text. First we researched an invertebrate or vertebrate of their choice, since they are learning how to classify animals in science (SOL5.5). After finding a few facts about their animals online, I showed them how to create a simple webpage using CheckThis. They typed the information in their own words and chose important vocabulary terms to make bold. They also added a photo and a map of their animal’s range and put captions under each image. Finally they published their websites and posted the links to the Google classroom page so they could read each others’ nonfiction texts. You can see some of their websites by clicking here.


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May 08 2014 May 8, 2014 June 30, 2014 NoComment by David

Kindergarten Butterfly Life Cycles

Posted in Kindergarten, Science

CoreyMs. Lee’s kindergarten students at Davis Elementary have been learning about the butterfly life cycle in science (SOLK.6). Since a life cycle is a sequence that involves change, it’s a perfect subject for an animation. So today we made animations of the butterfly life cycle using a site called ArtPad. First the students used the paint brush to illustrate each of the four stages: egg, larva (or caterpillar), pupa (or chrysalis), and adult. The paint brush tool is easy to use and you can change the size by simply dragging a button. The paint brush actually changes appearance as well. When they were finished, I showed them how to publish their drawings and get the link. If they click the link, they can watch the animated replay of their painting from start to finish, so it shows the sequence of the life cycle. It’s actually really cool to watch and the students loved it! I gathered all their links together and put them on a Google Doc that you can take a look at by clicking here.


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