As most of you know, I had a little baby girl December 29th. I have been pretty busy since then and have gotten a little behind with my blog!
I brought her in to school and she met the class last week. They were fairly disappointed to hear she wasn't crawling, sitting, talking or even playing yet! One of the students asked me, "Doesn't she do anything?"
Thank you so much for all the well wishes! I am slowly but surely trying to catch up on things and hope to be posting more soon.
This Team Built A Hopsital
Yesterday. we spent some time building and learning about and communities. Students worked collaboratively in small teams to build one essential piece of a community.
This Team Built A Firestation
Each team used an iPad to research their assigned part of a community to learn about what it was, what it looked like and why it might be important to a community.
This Team Built A School
When students were finished, they presented their creation to the rest of the class, explained what it was and what they had learned. At the end of the project, we had a large community made up of various organizations. Below is a brief video clip showing the students in action!
Finalists! Earlier this year we decided to visit the website MrsP.com and during some of our dreaded "excessive heat days", we listened to Mrs. P read us a story from her magic library since we couldn't go outside to recess. We discovered she was hosting a writing contest and the students were eager to enter! Today she announced the finalists in her "Be-A-Famous-Writer" Contest and we are thrilled and excited that we have not one, but two finalists in our very own classroom! Congratulations to these hard-working students! Mrs. P's press release with this exciting announcement can be viewed here!
It was so nice to see so many parents at our classroom awards ceremony last week! Thank you again for coming. The students have worked hard all semester and have a lot to be proud about. The above two students were our team winners in the Noetic Math Competition (Fall 2012) and tied for 2nd place nationally.
We also had quite a few students who placed in the top 10% nationally, earning a spot on the Noetic Math National Honor Roll. Each student who placed earned a medal. Congratulations Mathletes!
3rd and 2nd Place Winners
Much earlier this school year, we studied about disasters and emergency preparedness. I incorporated the concept into a Social Studies unit, the kids did a webquest and creating a poster displaying what they had learned was the final part of the quest. I mailed the posters to the Arizona Department of Health Services, as they were having an emergency preparedness contest.
We did remarkably well in the contest and had many winners!
Semi-Finalists
Congratulations to all the students for their amazing accomplishments this semester!
It's true! We have had a few classes with the current Artist in Residence at Sonoran Sky, Mr. Thom Lewis of The Thom Lewis Dance Company inTucson, Arizona. Students have had a wonderful time, dancing, stretching and playing rhythmic games with Mr. Lewis. The video below shows a brief glimpse into one of the lessons.
Students Used iPads and iTouches To Scan The QR Codes!
Recently, we decided to write resolutions for the New Year and set some goals for 2013. Of course, writing them out traditionally seemed a little boring to us, so we decided to amp the lesson up a little to make it fit in with all of our 21st Century Learning.
Students all wrote resolutions using Google Docs and shared them with me. Depending on the length of their resolution they either pasted it directly into our favorite QR Code Creator Site, or made their document public, and linked the QR Code directly to their document.
This is an example of a QR Code which links to a public Google Doc. If you click on these close up images, you should be able to scan the QR Code right off your computer or mobile device and read it or hear it!
This is an example of a QR Code which links to text.
This project was so much fun! The students agreed that their favorite part was scanning and reading all the resolutions at the end. We used the i-nigma app to scan our codes.
We worked in small groups to create audio New Year messages as well! We used the Croak.it app to create audio recordings.
Next time you are at Sonoran Sky, please stop by our bulletin board and scan some of our QR Codes! Happy New Year!
Last month, I had the pleasure of visiting YouTube Headquarters in San Bruno, California for the first ever YouTube Education Summit. It was an amazing experience and I felt very honored to be invited. I had the opportunity to meet some incredible education innovators including Sal Khan (of Khan Academy), Sir Ken Robinson (via G+ Hangout), several representatives of Ted-ED and the most exciting celebrity of all - Steve Spangler, the legendary science guru of Steve Spangler Science!
Fan Girl Moment!
I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw that Steve Spangler was one of the speakers at the EDU Summit, and was captivated along with the rest of the audience as he got about 75 adults actively engaged in several hands on science experiments, right in the middle of YouTube headquarters. I'd been a Steve Spangler fan for many years (as any elementary school teacher probably is) but watching his entertaining science in person, kicked up my respect for him to an entire new level!
Human Energy Circuit
One of the many experiments he had us participate in at YouTube, was creating a human energy circuit using his cool, interactive Energy Stick. He gave everyone one of these fabulous devices and there were a few extras left and he generously gave me those to take back to my class!
The students had a great time learning about electrodes, circuits, energy and electricity experimenting with the energy sticks. As a class, we also sent Steve Spangler a few tweets during the lesson and he responded!
The energy sticks brought our science lesson to life and the students were able to correctly explain what we had done at the end of the period.
We also created a brief video demonstrating our new knowledge. Who knew science could be so much fun? Click below to watch the class in action!
Thanks again, Steve Spangler! We loved the energy sticks, learned a ton and had a fabulous time!
