Twitter, Skype, Adjectives & Verbs, Firemen, Rocks & Soil & TGIF!

We have been super busy this week and the students are loving being a part of the "Global Read Aloud" project where we are reading a chapter book (Marty McGuire) with thousands of children from around the world!  We are sharing our learning via Twitter, Skype, and even on our  Padlet Wall.  In one of our chapters we read this week the boys & girls made "text to self" connections about a time when their Moms or Dads "made them do something they did not want to do!"  Students wrote their thoughts on our Padlet Wall  using their iPads.  You can check them out by clicking on our Padlet Link:
http://padlet.com/wall/MMChapters3and4and5

We regularly send out "Tweets" using a Global Read Aloud hashtag (#) and love reading other Tweets from boys and girls around the world!

We also were able to Skype with a classroom from the Chicago Area (Ms. Smith's 1st Grade Class) and talked about Marty McGuire.   We also like hearing about their weather (compared to ours in Texas) and even wrote them letters and mailed them (US Postal Service!)  We are hoping they write us back!!  Oh, and in between all of this we also had a Fire Safety assembly where the firemen dress up as clowns to teach us safety tips!

 

We continue to learn about different parts-of-speech and this week we focused on adjectives and found them -- along with verbs -- within our reading!  Marshmallows are a great way to use our 5 senses to learn all about adjectives.  We sorted adjectives and verbs and used "Doodle Buddy" app on our iPads to list them as we found them in our reading.

 



 

 

Wow!  We have been super busy - and do you need a little "comic relief" about now?  Well here it is!  These super-funny students recently received Bear Brag Awards for being "RESPECTFUL" students around campus!  They wanted to make "funny faces" for their picture!  Love It!

 



Ok - back to business - and the students have been working very hard learning about properties of soil and ways we use rocks and soil around Bear Creek!  They were excited to use their senses (not taste!!) to investigate what is in soil.  Be sure to ask your child what soil is made of!  They should tell you:  rocks, humus (dead plants & animals), water & air!!   For some reason they really think the "dead plants & animals" part is really cool....  :)  Here are a few of them investigating soil close-up!

We also walked around campus looking for all the ways we see rocks and soil being used.  We used our iPads to take photos.  We are using these photos and the iPad app called "PixNTell" to create an audio project about ways rocks and soil are used at Bear Creek.  Some students have already completed this project, some are still working on them.  Click on the links below to see/hear a few that are complete:

 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ib91fmsqu8ppvx/10-11-2013%201156Emmi.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5qwawnizix5dter/10-11-2013%201156Gianna.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mpzl9zp2ynz0q4k/10-11-2013%201212Aaryan.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nakp1jpiz9g7dz9/10-11-2013%201156Sahaj.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cqhw91v1btff30o/10-11-2013%201203Saanvi.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lru0fmm8phwim1x/10-11-2013%201214Ellie.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wf7x9yrsiu85s5t/10-11-2013%201219Matorma.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hki63ewo1b6005r/10-11-2013%201201Mikayla.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xge23aax5keo2gu/10-11-2013%201213Vinay.mp4

So many things happening this past week and we were all very thankful it was finally Friday! Hope you enjoyed this snapshot into our week!