Students Practicing a "Connect to Self" Reading Comprehension Strategy

Students have been practicing the Reading Comprehension skill of "Connecting a text (story) to Their Self" and recording their response using the iPad app "Pixntell".  I will publish student examples over the next couple of weeks as they record a response in Reading Groups.  Here are a few we did this week! Click on the arrow to hear!
                                            By Noah:

 

By Saif:

 

By Benjamin:

 

By Paul:

 

By Quincy:

 

By Elizabeth:

 

By Jayden:

iPad Student Work - Main Idea of "Alamo Across Texas"

Reading Comprehension Practice - Retelling the Main Idea of the story: Alamo Across Texas. This is a cute story the students love about Alamo the Alligator and how he uses his habitat to have all the things he needs and loves! Here are the student projects which they collaborated on with friends from Ms. Gelles' class. The iPad app "Educreations" is a little difficult to share what the students created, so you have to copy and paste your child's link below in your browser to view and hear:

 By Benjamin (and Katie)
 http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/benjamin-katie/6220153/?s=tqn4eG&
ref=appemail

 By Noah (and Allison)
 http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/noah-and-allison/6220693/?s=wE99w2&ref=appemail

By Remi (and Micah)
 http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/micah-and-remi/6220702/?s=6bGWDM&ref=appemail

By Lizzie (and Arshvi)
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/lizzie-arshvi/6220706/?s=A3VPsv&ref=appemail

 By Elizabeth (and Brady)
 http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/brady-elizabeth/6220708/?s=ej4VaL&ref=appemail

 By Aadi (and Ryan)
 http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/ryan-aadi/6220711/?s=ySMD5n&ref=appemail

By Mariah & Nichie
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/mariah-nichie/6220715/?s=VHinvN&ref=appemail

 By Chaden (and Joy)
 http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/chaden-joy/6220723/?s=YfiV7v&ref=appemail

By Aashish (and Archit)
 http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/aashish-archit/6220813/?s=lBEFNr&ref=appemail

By Alexia (and Emmy)
 http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/emmy-alexia/6220829/?s=A8GzQh&ref=appemail

By Paul (and Asha)
 http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/by-asha-paul/6220918/?s=5vKrRf&ref=appemail

By Parmis (and Steven)
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/parmis-steven/6220954/?s=ZBo5jj&ref=appemail

 By Saif (and Kylah)
 http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/saif-kylah/6221106/?s=Wij8UU&ref=appemail

 By Jayden (and Rafi)
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/jayden-rafi/6221122/?s=NbFWRH&ref=appemail

By Quincy (and Nancy)
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/nancy-quincy/6221133/?s=8cd8Jc&ref=appemail

 By Victoria (and Nolan)
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/victoria-nolan/6220692/?s=UH7UCa&ref=appemail

Magnet Mania!

This week students discovered the amazing world of magnets.  Students can explain that magnets have "poles" and that they have the ability to "attract" or "repel" objects (and why!)  Here is a sneak peek into their discovery of magnets:

First Grade Library iPad Lesson

This week our class has been collaborating with students from Ms. Gelles' class on some engaging library iPad lessons. Students were practicing reading comprehension skills by retelling the Main Idea of a story using the iPad app "Educreations". A special THANK YOU to our librarian, Ms. Rowe, for helping our students with this exciting app! Here is a short video peek of these awesome First Grade collaborators:

Texas Animal PBL Group Share Videos

Earlier I promised to post the very short videos of each animal group sharing their specific Texas Animal project (from our recent PBL).  The students were using our wonderful class microphone!  Here are the animal groups:

American Black Bear Group:  Nichie, Remi and Saif

 

Bobcat Group: Victoria, Jayden and Chaden

 

 

Prairie Dog Group: Noah, Aadi and Elizabeth

 

 

Rattlesnake Group: Benjamin and Paul

 

 

American Alligator Group: Parmis, Quincy and Alexia



 

 

Monarch Butterfly Group: Aashish, Mariah and Lizzie

 

Welcome Grapevine Elementary First Graders!

Friday morning, prior to Spring Break our First Graders were eagerly awaiting the arrival of GES 1st Graders to Bear Creek.  They were coming to view our students' "Texas Animal Art Show" which was on display in our hallway. Click on the link below for your own "private tour" of the Art Show before all the excitement began!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brDPegUlU2A

It was fun  to watch our "Firsties" make fast friends with GES "Firsties" as they pointed out their Texas animal artifacts displayed in "museum style" down our hallways.  Next we entered our classrooms with small groups of GES kiddos spread out among all 7 first grade classrooms.  Now it was GES First Graders' turn to share their Texas Animal projects with our kiddos.  They used iPads to scan QR codes to bring up their Voice Thread Animal Projects to show off!  Here are a few snapshots of Friday Morning before Spring Break!

And if you want to know what this sounded like, click on the link below!  Fun Times in First Grade!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdezP2aXYNw&feature=youtu.be

"Super Problem" Solvers!

Did you know how amazing our First Graders are at solving "real world problems"?  Well, they are if you give them the right tools and time to do so!  So, we are nearing the end of our Texas Animals PBL, and we are excited to learn that Grapevine Elementary First Graders will walk to Bear Creek to visit the Texas Animal Art Show which our First Graders created.  We Skyped them earlier in our study, so our kiddos were ready to meet these neighboring  fellow First Graders face-to-face!  Being typical First Graders, they began to ask a lot of questions like "Do they have 7 classrooms like we do?"  and "How many kids will be coming?"  and finally... "How many of their kids will fit into our classrooms?"  So there you have the beginning of our "Super Problem."  We ditched our "regularly scheduled lesson" and brainstormed ways we could solve this Super Problem.  We tore big sheets of butcher paper, got out counters, picked partners and got to work.  I had to stop mid-way and regroup a little to clear up a little confusions, then off they went again solving the world's Super Problems.  They figured it out (each classroom would get around 11 or 12 GES students visiting), shared their findings and explained how they went about being a Super Problem Solver to the class.  Here they are hard at work solving "real world problems"!  By the way, when GES students finally got to visit Friday prior to Spring Break, you should have seen the kids "counting" to be sure we had around 11 or 12 GES First Graders in our classroom!

Our Real World "Super Problem"

Students brainstormed tools they could use.

Great Job Super Problem Solvers!

iPad Texas Animal Activity

As students were nearing the end of their research on specific Texas animals, we took a break and reviewed their written notes in Science Notebooks.  Then each group collaborated to create a Pic Collage (iPad app) highlighting some of the interesting information they were learning.  Here they are:

Created by the American Alligator Team

Created by the Black Bear Team

Created by the Bobcat Team

Created by the Monarch Butterfly Team

Created by Prairie Dog Team

Created by Rattlesnake Team

 One more Bobcat Pic Collage by Jayden (she was not here the first time we did them!)

Texas Animal Research and Fun!

This week students were very busy finishing up the "PBL" (Project Based Learning) about Texas Animals to help the Fort Worth Zoo.  This has been a 3 week project, chalk-full of state standards, higher order thinking and 21st Century skills.  The PBL included things like:
~ Skyping with zookeepers and First Graders from Grapevine Elementary
~ Solving real world problems
~ Generating lists to determine what we needed to know about Texas animals
~ Deciding and choosing which animal to research
~ Researching using iPads, non-fiction books, classroom computers, videos, and Voice Threads from our 1st Grade friends at Grapevine Elementary School
~ Collaborating and working with a small group of classmates (teamwork!)
~ Organizing and recording animal information in our Science Notebook
~ Creating a piece of artwork that reflected their knowledge of the Texas animal and habitat
~ Generating a summary of important facts they learned about their animal
~ Creating a "Pic Collage" (iPad app) of their Texas Animal
~ Typing their summary
~ Sharing with classmates (and parents) their Texas animal artifacts (using our classroom microphone!)
~ Helping to design the First Grade "Texas Animal Art Show" for Open House (Wow! It was like a real art gallery!)
~ Hosting  First Grade students from Grapevine Elementary who walked to Bear Creek to see the Texas Animal Art Show and share their own Texas animal projects

Click on the link to view a few moments from our PBL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVgzdGwX4y8

Here are student groups displaying part of their final product for the Texas Animal Art Show:

Monarch Butterfly Team

American Alligator Team 

Prairie Dog Team

American  Black Bear Team

Rattlesnake Team

Bobcat Team

I hope to post short videos of each Team's "Group Share" of their projects after Spring Break!

Hello New World!
This is the beginning of our classroom blog!  Exciting!  This coming week students will be finishing up their PBL (Project Based Learning) about Texas Animals in preparation for
"Student Showcase Night" on Thursday, March 7th.  That evening, all 1st Grade students will have a Texas Animal Art Show where they will share their projects and learning!  They are so excited.  Can't wait to post pictures next week of all the exciting things happening in our classroom!