What do you get when you mix shopping online, Christmas kindness, and Google drawings?

Recently Ms. Condra's second grade class decided to mix technology, math, and Christmas kindness... with a little bit of imagination.  Students chose a fictitious child (modeled after the Angel Tree Project) to buy gifts for shopping online at Toys R Us.   Once they determined if their child was a boy or girl (and the age), they learned how to shop online. Students were given a pretend budget of $100 to spend on their new friend, so they had to use math skills as they shopped.  Students learned how to use filters to find just the perfect gift and how to save the image of that toy.  Students then used a template in Google Drawings to create a poster of their final Christmas Kindness Shopping Project.  This project allowed the students to learn so many different technology skills in a real world situation...and focus on giving to others.  

Day 9 - Frosty the Snowman Day

Day 8 - Penguin Day

Day 7 - Candy Cane Day

Day 6 - Grinch Day

Day 5 - Christmas Tree Day

Mrs. Baggette's First Graders Learn to Play Kahoot!

Mrs. Baggette's first graders were thrilled to learn how to play Kahoot on tablets today.  Kahoot is a game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn.  Students are given a question on the board, and then they touch the appropriate colored block for the answer.  Students enjoyed the personalized interaction, but loved the leader board that posted their names even more.  They learned to play using a Christmas quiz on familiar characters and songs.  They ended this technology lesson, however, with Christmas themed math word problems.  This is great for student engagement, but also provides very valuable data for the teachers.  These little experts learned to enter in the game code, and then it was "game-on"!  These smiles and cheers (with hands in the air) were evidence that Kahoot will be a favorite review game in days to come.

Mrs. Huguley's Students Create Google Drawings with Research

Mrs. Huguley's second grade students recently used their Google accounts to create digital poster projects about the Rainforest.  Students have been learning about what a fact is, so they decided to collect them during their research.  Students then learned how to use Google Drawings to create a poster with these facts and coordinating images.  This was a wonderful opportunity for students to learn many skills during the process, and they did a fantastic job!

 

Mrs. Uhlman's Voki Elf

Mrs. Uhlman's first grade students have recently received several special Voki messages from Jack, their classroom elf.  Voki ( www.voki.com ) is an educational technology tool that allows you to create your own talking characters with special recorded messages.  Jack, the elf, recently sent a video telling the students they were doing a good job looking for text evidence in their story which helps them find answers to their test questions.  On a separate occasion, Jack also sent a message to compliment students who were doing an exceptional job on their work.  The students love it because their computer makes a special sound every time a message is delivered. I love how Mrs. Uhlman is using technology to spread a little Christmas cheer.

Polar Express Day with Santa - Day 4 of Christmas Cheer

Gingerbread Day - Day 3 of Christmas Cheer

Christmas Kindness Day - Day 2 of Christmas Cheer

Reindeer Day - Day 1 of Christmas Cheer

Mrs. Bulman Adds Technology to Christmas Program Practice

Mrs. Bulman and her first grade music students have been practicing for their upcoming Christmas program, but she wanted to offer them a way to practice after hours if they want to.  Although she normally provides CDs with the practice music on them...she decided to take it to the next level this year.  Mrs. Bulman learned how to rip each song from the practice CD, configure it in an editing program called Camtasia, and upload it to a YouTube playlist.  Now, students can pull up the Christmas program playlist on YouTube using a phone, a tablet, or computer at home and practice away!
To make it easy for students to access, Mrs. Bulman created a QR code with a link to the playlist that she will send home with students today.  What started as a "Could we...?" idea....ended in a successful, beneficial technology project. Way to go Mrs. Bulman!  Need a little Christmas Cheer? Feel free to scan the QR code below and sing along.

It's Turkey Time...

Mrs. Hays Uses QR Codes to Extend Learning

Mrs. Hays' second grade students are using QR Codes to extend learning in the classroom.  Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, these students are taking a deeper look at turkeys.  Mrs. Hays has created a variety of QR Codes  that link her students to videos, songs, and websites that will help them learn some very interesting facts about these birds.  Using the QR Scan extension on their classroom Chromebooks, students are able to scan a code in seconds and the learning begins.  QR Codes are easy to make....and a great tool for students to use because it saves time, offers technology independence, and increases student engagement.  

Mrs.Wiginton's 1st Graders Make Thankful Word Searches

Mrs. Wiginton's first graders recently learned how to create their own word search puzzles during a visit to the computer lab.  These first graders used QR Codes to access the ABCya! website. www.abcya.com/make_a_word_search.htm  Students then practiced their keyboarding skills by typing ten things they were thankful for.  They were amazed as the Word Search Creator generated customized online word searches for them with the click of a button. Students had a great time searching for the things that were special to them...and practiced those mouse skills at the same time.  Now that students know how to create these puzzles, they can use this website in a reading center or to study their spelling words each week.  I admit I loved it when I saw one of the students type he was thankful for computers.  :)

Innovative Ideas: Where there is a will...there must be a way!

Highland Park's technology journey continued today (beyond the school walls) with an innovative idea from our principal, Mr. Pounders.  Knowing that technology can make routine tasks more efficient, he began to connect procedures for student dismissal with his technology background...and a fabulous idea was born in a matter of minutes.  Mr. Pounders wanted to verbally call out the names of car riders and...with technology.... change that to a written format teachers could read while lining up students inside for dismissal.  Through the use of a Google Doc and voice recognition on his phone... it happened!  He moved from car to car reading the names into his phone and Google changed that to text on a live document that could be viewed on a teacher Chromebook in the lunchroom.  A collaborative Google Doc, a cell phone, and  the desire to be more efficient changed the look of student pick-up today.  It was effective because it saved time and man power.  Way to go Mr. Pounders!  

Mrs. Lawler's Monster Match Writing Activity...meets Technology

Mrs. Lawler's first graders recently created their own little monsters.  Each student then wrote a description of their monster.  Students then took a trip to the computer lab where they typed their descriptions using ABCya!'s Story Maker website.  Students also learned to take pictures of their art work with the iPad and used those pictures to create QR Codes.  Mrs. Lawler printed their descriptions and students added a QR code that reveals their artwork when it is scanned.  The students' smiles are evidence of how exciting this project was for them.  

 

Trick or Treat, smell my feet. Guess who's hiding under this sheet...

Mrs. Baggette's first grade class recently incorporated QR Codes into their Halloween writing activity.  Students wrote self descriptions to give hints about who was "hiding under the sheet".  Students then added QR codes to their mysterious art projects.  When the codes are scanned, a picture of the student matching the written description appears.  So cute....and the kids love to know they are hiding in a QR Code.

Look...we made our own QR Codes!

After these 2nd grade students researched specific animals chosen from their reading story using a Symbaloo page, they found an image of that animal and learned how to download it (the Screencastify extension was used to create a how-to video  for students).  Students then used the QR Code Generator to create their own QR code that would reveal the image of their animal when scanned.  They were so excited to learn that in addition to finding information by scanning a QR code-  they can actually create their own to add an interactive feature to their project.  Once the QR codes were created, they were printed and added to their student resource page.

When you scan the QR Code (on the left)...the animal appears (on the right) 

Symbaloo Research in 2nd Grade

Second grade students at Highland Park are taking their learning to a new level!  Students are researching different animals using a variety of sources including books, websites, and videos.  Mrs. McConnell's students are using a Symbaloo page on their Chromebooks to help them with research that they will use to create some exciting technology projects very soon...so stay tuned!