Do Penguins Have Knees? Mrs. McConnell's Students Know

Mrs. McConnell's second graders continued their research about penguins using a great website called Wonderopolis.  This is a website that initiates the lesson with a question and offers a variety of information through non-fiction text, videos, and other resource links.  The question of the day...."Do Penguins Have Knees?"
Students read the article and found out that if you were to x-ray a penguin's legs, you would discover that penguins do indeed have knees!  In fact, a penguin's leg is made up of four parts:  a femur, knee, tibia, and fibula - the same bones you have in your leg!   After reading the article carefully, students checked their understanding by answering questions on a Google Form using classroom Chromebooks.  Once they completed this mini quiz, students were able to return to Wonderopolis.org and watch a penguin dance off on video.  These flightless birds are hilarious.  Wait a minute...these students weren't finished yet!  Mrs. McConnell taught her students how to use Google Drawings so they could go on to design their own penguin posters.  Each student had a great time creating an awesome mini poster complete with images and facts they learned about these interesting birds.  This is a great way for students to show what they know...and they LOVE it!

Mrs. Huguley's Students Create Penguin Google Presentations

There is a chill in the air....and second grade students have been learning about penguins.  Mrs. Huguley decided this would be the perfect opportunity for her students to learn how to create a Google Slides presentation and show what they have learned during this unit.   After a few visits to the computer lab, these second graders are quickly becoming Google experts.  They can now log into their Google accounts, go to their Google Drive, and retrieve a project they have created and saved.  Each student did some research on penguins and learned how to add a fact and an image to each slide in their presentation.  Students learned many other technology skills along the way.  These second graders can now insert and resize images, format the background, and change the font, text size, and color with ease.  Learning these basic technology skills will enable them to create many more exciting digital projects simply by plugging in different content information.  I heard one student whisper to another, "This is so cool!"  There is one final step planned for this penguin project, and it is going to be exciting....stay tuned! 

Mrs.Conner's First Graders Love OSMO

Every classroom at Highland Park recently received an iPad mini and an OSMO through a grant from the Muscle Shoals Education Foundation.  The teachers and students are LOVING them!  OSMO is a unique gaming accessory for the iPad that comes with games that will change the way your child plays.  OSMO currently works with games/apps like Tangram, Words, and Numbers.  These are interactive games created to strengthen math and reading skills, but kids enjoy them so much -they don't even realize they are learning.  Teachers are excited because students can use these technology tools in independent centers to reinforce skills being taught in the classroom.  As you can see...the smiles are multiplying in Mrs. Conner's class thanks to our newest technology.