Extending States and Capitals

Our third graders learned their states and capitals in Social Studies and I wanted to build upon this in the computer lab.  To help get the students excited about geography, they typed friendly letters to a particular state requesting maps, brochures, and postcards.  (What an easy way to blend Social Studies, Language Arts, and keyboarding!)

Their efforts have paid off and we are starting to receive informational packets back from many states.  Students use the maps, brochures, and postcards to give a short oral presentation about their state.

So far we've received mail from:

Alabama

Arkansas

Colorado

Idaho

Illinois

Mississippi

Montana

North Dakota

Oklahoma

South Carolina

Utah

Vermont

Wyoming

Makey Makey Manners

Second graders spend many weeks learning about good manners in Social Studies class.  They cover such areas as classroom manners, telephone etiquette, manners at a friend's house, etc.  At the end of their manners unit, students and parents attend the annual Manners Banquet held at a local restaurant.  This gives the students time to showcase their new manners.

We created interactive manner review boards using Makey Makeys.  Students recorded three good manners to use when in a particular situation.  Then they created display boards using pizza box lids and Makey Makeys.

This project was a great way to directly incorporate a Social Studies unit and coding.

Presidential Chatterpix

Fourth graders had so much fun creating a class video on the presidents.

Each student researched two consecutive presidents.  Besides the basic information such as years in office, party affiliation, vice president, students also found 'weird but true' facts.  This made the project very entertaining for the students.

Students used their research and created a chatterpix video featuring each of their presidents.

Once students exported and airdropped their video, I put all videos together into one iMovie.

Students had the best project results when they spoke loudly and slowly.  Be sure to separate the students so background noise is not recorded by accident.

Seasons iMovies

Our first graders created iMovies about the four seasons. 

Students watched a short BrainPop video about each season.  Then they illustrated each season using KidPix. 

Objectives of this long term iMovie project:
-learn how to import jpegs
-turn off Ken Burns effect
-add backgrounds with titles
-add transitions
-add music and trim end to match length of movie
-fade out music at end of movie

This project took several weeks.  (Students meet once per week for 55 minutes.)

Students loved watching each other's movies!

Foldify App

If you haven't used Foldify you are missing out on creative fun!

Our third graders researched different state symbols and then created three dimensional visual representations.  After completing a short research worksheet students used the ipads to find pictures of their state symbols.  (FREE research worksheet can be found here.)

Foldify makes creating three dimensional shapes easy.  Students choose a shape, drag and drop pictures, and print.  I printed on cardstock, but regular paper would be fine.

Earth Day

Earth Day is fast approaching and second grade created these wonderful posters for our hallway.  We used KidPix for the writing.  Students practiced writing "I can" and "I will" statements.

The students loved creating their handprint Earths.  After painting our planets the second grade teacher had the great idea of adding a little glitter to their projects.  She said, "Everything is better with glitter."  Although I disagree, she was correct in this case. 😀 

Career Day

Our entire lower school participated in Career Day.  Students came to school dressed as a particular career of interest.  We had doctors, builders, pilots, teachers, artists, and so many more.  Teachers even participated. 

We incorporated Career Day in the computer lab by having first graders write about their future careers.  We encouraged students to write and draw with detail. 

 


I love their imaginations.