Cause and Effect

This week The Behind the Scenes Book Club worked on Cause and Effect. Students did a great job of explaining cause and effect! Way to go!

Our photographer for Thursday's activities is James from Mrs. Strong's class. Today we had to multi task! (which is our middle name)  Some of the students had already made their password strips so they were able to read and explore on Big Universe. They enjoy using Big Universe. Others made their password strips which will help them keep all their passwords in one place and help them know where their passwords are.



                                              

Third grade photos by Kaitlyn P from Mr. Williams' class. Great job!

Too Many Passwords!

"What's the password for my email?"  "What's the password for TumbleBooks?" "What is my username and password for Big Universe?"  These are the questions that plague me all year long...even when they are displayed in the room. This year I found a very cute idea on Pinterest! So I adapted it for my students.

The students each chose one paint chip strip. We placed labels with the name of the website and our username and password on the strip. Our class photographer for the day, Trey, has submitted these pictures for our blog today. Trey is a fourth grade student in Mrs. Payne's homeroom.  He did an awesome job with his pictures!

As the year progresses, if we find that we have run out of space on paint chip strips we will add a paint chip strip. We will use a hole punch to put a hole in one of the upper corners and attach the strips with a string, ribbon, or some other creative way. The students also asked me to make a label with free e-book and interactive book sites. I will do just about anything to get my students exticed about reading!

   

I'm going to make copies of these strips and laminate them so the student can keep the copy at home and the original at school. 

Ky'Reon was the classroom photographer for his class, Mrs. Harrison's. Ky'Reon is a third grade student. He was very excited to be the class photographer!

                          

                        

                                                        

                                                   

New Project!

Today I explained to Mrs. Harrison's and Mrs. Payne's class about our new "project" we will be working on this year. I found an awesome idea on Pinterest and can't wait to implement it with the students. We will have a class photographer each day take pictures of the class as we work. Then the class photographer will post the pictures to our blog and write a little summary about what is going on in the picture. This will help me to keep the blog updated, allow the students ownership in the blog and the classroom as well as give the students more experience with technology!

Where did this year go?

It is truly unbelievable that we only have two weeks left of the 2011-2012 school year!

I have to say that this has been by far one of the most enjoyable years! I can't pin point one specific thing that made this year so great, it's just been a combination of the students, the activities that we worked on, the enthusiasm the students showed in the activities, the awesome group of people I work with oooorrrr it might be all that combined with me finally having my own space?!

I'm going to allow some of the students to tell everyone what they enjoyed most about our class this year. I don't want to offend any librarians but I must admit I don't consider myself a typical librarian. The term librarian seems to be kind of an archaic term.

I LOVE using technology with the students and incorporating it in any way possible! Here's a little bit about what we've done this year in The Media Center!

 Jehvion - I enjoyed creating our Black History Project! I learned a lot when I researched my topic about the Civil Rights Movement. My topic was about Emmett Till. I took all the information I learned about Emmett Till and the horrible things that happened to him and created a power point.

Jessica - My favorite thing about coming to the Media Center this year was when we created our power point after we researched where we'd like to spend our Spring Break. We got to research different places all over the entire world and then choose a place. You can take a vacation anywhere on the internet!

Halie - I liked learning about QR Codes! Ever since we learned about them I've seen them everywhere! We helped created videos or book trailers so that they can have QR Codes created for them and then the QR Code was put on the library book. It's really cool to scan a QR code and watch the book trailer about the book!

Acacia - I liked making book trailers for some of the library books. We used the ipods to take pictures of the books and record ourselves reading the book. Then we will make a QR code for the book trailer so when the QR Code is scanned the student can learn about the book or have it read to them. Kahlil - I liked that we were always using technology to create projects. I have learned a lot about different free sites that we can use to create a lot of cool projects.

KeShaun - I liked learning about all the things I can do when I make a power point slide show. I like using all the animations and transitions.

MyKael - I liked learning how to use my email account. I also like how Ms. Kearbey would send us assignments in an email and we could do them and send them back to her.

Those are just a few of the responses I received when I asked what they enjoyed about coming to the Media Center this year. I still have areas I'd like to make improvements and things I want to learn so I can share that with the students. I plan on using my summer to find more web 2.0 freebies out there. :)

Third and Fourth grade Adventures

The third and fourth graders are having a great time working on their Veterans Day webquest! They are quickly becoming pros while they navigate to various websites to find their answers! When they have completed their research they will each create a digital project!

I am so exciting to see what they will come up with!

Today they had a very special message from Uncle Sam!

September Already!

Can you believe that we will actually be in the month of September by the end of this week? I don't know about you but it feels like August flew by with lightning speed!

We've been busy in the library!
Kindergarten and First grade students have been discussing the elements of fiction. A couple of the stories we've read are The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister and A Pocketful of Kisses by Audrey Penn. Stop by our school library or the Daviess County Public library to check out these books or other exciting books to read with your child.







Second grade students have been discussing Internet safety and learning about the vast amount of information on the Internet. We've talked about how it is very important not to give out any personal information to anyone online such as where we go to school, where we live as well as, not sending pictures of ourselves to anyone we don't know.







Third grade students have spent some time becoming familiar with our new online AR program. They are doing a great job! We have also been reading digital books online. They love integrating technology with everyday tasks!







Fourth grade students are gearing up for a big project! Fourth grade students are going to create informational videos for Kindergarten students via StoryBoard3! We can't wait to share our final projects with you all! We are still in the beginning stages right now. Students are working on their theme and completing their story board templates before we begin working on the laptops. We had to discuss a very important topic that is one of those necessary evils...COPYRIGHT. We all have a better idea of what it is and why we can't just take someone's words, pictures or ideas and use them without giving the original author credit.





Some of the great ideas they have come up with for their stories are How to wait in the breakfast line appropriately and How to be a successful student at Cravens Elementary. Another part they are thrilled about is getting to use the flip cameras for the illustrations/video in their story. They are very excited about presenting these to the Kindergarten classes! I think you are going to be amazed at what they can do!





Our Book Fair begins this Friday, September 2nd! It will run through Friday, September 9th. It will be open from 7:30-2:45 daily. In addition to the regularly scheduled time, the Book Fair will be open early on September 8 for all the grandparents that come to have breakfast with their student! We will also have the Book Fair open before and after the 3rd and 4th grade Music Program on Thursday evening. Book Fair will open at 5! Come check out some great books for your child!
If you would like to volunteer,please let me know! You can also check out Cravens' Book Fair page at http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/cravens