Exploring Digital Storytelling

The students started their day with an introduction to a new, web based, digital storytelling application, Storybird.   Storybird uses a broad selection of art work to inspire literacy skills.  Each child was assigned a username and password today.  One of the great things about this application is students are able to continue their work from home, at their home school or here in SAGE.  All they have to do is login to the website.  Another great feature of the site is you have the ability to print copies of your child's story on your home printer, share their stories through email, embed them in websites or blogs and even order hard or paperback copies of your child's book.  

The students spent some time exploring the available art work.  When they found an artist's work that inspired a story idea, they began creating their book.

Have your child login and share their story with you.

After lunch and recess, the students met our newest Quirkle, Lindy Light.  After reading our Quirkles book

We conducted an experiment to see how white light can be broken into the color spectrum.  In our experiment we shined a light through a prism and discovered rainbows across our floor. 

Next, we learned/reviewed Bloom's Levels of Thinking.  We discussed Benjamin
Bloom and how his taxonomy was developed.  Then we went through each level and discussed the types of tasks you might be doing and the kind of thinking that needs to occur.  I quizzed them over the levels and was very pleased with their responses!


At the end of the day, I introduced the students to the game SET.  It is a great visual perception game where you have to find sets of three cards in which each of the four attributes (color, shape, number and fill pattern) are all different or all the same.

It is a "tight" thinking game, but it is a lot of fun!

I was very pleased with the boys and girls today!  They really got a lot done!

Flexible Thinkers.... Learning to Bend Our Brains

Busy week for me!  I'm sorry this is so late.

We started our day working on our creative problem solving skills.  We reviewed/were introduced to the Components of Creativity:

• fluency
• flexibility
• originality
• elaboration

We discussed how we can strengthen each of these skills and how they help us produce quality work. The students were given three small squares of paper with a "E" shape in the middle.  They could rotate the paper in any manner.  There task was to create three different pictures incorporating that shape.  They did a good job and came up with several very elaborative and original pictures.  Ask you child to tell you about his or her pictures.

In the computer lab, the students continued exploring Microsoft Power Point.  They reviewed how to add and format a text box for size, color and style.  Next, they learned to insert rectangles, ovals, squares and circles as well as Autoshapes.  They can resize, reposition, flip and rotate the figures.  They also learned to use the fill bucket to color the figure and to format the lines for color, thickness and style.  

After recess and lunch, we had our Spanish lesson.  Senora Gates worked with the students on the following vocabulary:

1.     Classroom expression-¿Me permite ir a tomar agua?

2.     Colors search game

3.     Birthdays-Cumpleaños

4.     ¿Cuántos años tienes?

5.     Vowel sounds

At the end of our day, the students were introduced to our newest Quirkle, Kitchen Chemistry Kal.  We began our lesson by reading our book and discussing the vocabulary words which included concoction, extracted, casein, keen, curds and whey.  

 This week, we had a kitchen chemistry demonstration where we created glue using 1% milk, vinegar and baking soda.

The students then recorded their observations and conclusions on their experiment log.  The day goes by way too fast!  It seems like I am always wishing we had 15 minutes more. This one was no different!

Hola! Senora Gates has Begun Our Spanish Instruction!

It is great to be back from our winter break!  We started our day welcoming a new classmate and sharing a few, "What did you do over winter break?" questions.  We continue to grow at a steady pace and Riley is a great addition to our class.


We enjoyed a long block of Exploratory time through our morning.  Jason is learning about bats and working to finish the comprehension worksheet.  Ask him to tell you about the bat's nursery and how the momma bats find their babies.


Emily has created new Dr. Seuss style characters for her Synthesis project at the Dr. Seuss center.  Today she finished her crayon/watercolor scene of her characters and began a written description explaining her picture.


Kyla, Riley and Colton started their first center today.  Kyla is learning about Magnets from a video and some books.  Riley read with Mrs. Quinn, who stopped in for a visit and to offer a helping hand.  They were reading about sea horses.  I heard them discussing how a sea horse uses its tail to hang on to sea grasses and kelp in the ocean waves.  Colton is learning about Scorpions.  At recess, he told me the really dangerous scorpions have smaller claws, while the scorpions with larger claws are harmless.  Ask you child to share some facts they learned today.


Zacarias finished his Application volcano display.  He created a model of each of the three kinds of volcanoes, composite, cinder cone and shield, and wrote a description of each.


Anna used primary colored water colors to mix and paint each color on a color wheel for her Application level task.


Delanie, complete with birthday tiara, is designing a wooden bird call.  It is an Application task at the Birding center.  Today, she painted a design on the wood.  Once it is complete, she will try it out on any of the birds that have hung around for our winter.


Isabella is completing the Comprehension worksheet at the Planets center.  Ask her why a person would weigh less on the moon?


Maddison is creating a bones picture book.  Having illustrated the skull and the bones of the hand and feet, she was ready to tackle the spinal cord.  First, she looked up the spine in the World Book Encyclopedia to find out the parts of the spine and how many vertebrate are in each section and then began her rough draft drawing.  Her book is going to be very informative!


Alex finished the Comprehension worksheet at the Insects center.  Ask him to share some facts he has learned from his reading.


Jaynah has worked for several weeks to design, create and sew a hand puppet for the Synthesis task at the Puppets center.  I was tickled when she added a little "hair flair" to her puppet.  She is certainly proud of her finished puppet!


After lunch and recess, we went to the computer lab.   The students are learning to use Microsoft Power Point.  Today, we reviewed/learned how to find our individual file folders on the network drive.  The students learned to open a new Power Point Presentation, how to name the file and how to save their changes.  They learned to insert and type in a text box.  They also learned to format it for width, position and font color, size and style.   In the weeks ahead, they will become very competent with this application.

Today, the students had their first Spanish lesson with Senora Gates!  Each of the students selected an optional Spanish name.  We also learned about:

1.     Greetings.  Hola, Buenos días. 

2.     Names- Me llamo…¿Cómo te llamas? Mucho gusto.

3.     Friends-Amigos- Pablo, Livia, Antonio, Rosa

4.     Colors-rojo, azul, blanco, negro, amarillo, verde, anaranjado, rosado, morado, gris, azul cielo, café o marrón.  Game-Levántense- Siéntense

5.     Numbers 1-10 Los números 1 hasta 10

Next, the students were introduced to our newest Quirkle, Jazzy Jet and learned about aerodynamics.  

Each student created a round plane and a square plane.  After attempting to fly them, they discovered the shape of a plane affects the way it flies.

 Next, the students learned to fold a paper airplane with a shape similar to a real jet airplane.  We discovered that a plane with a pointed front flew straighter and farther than any of our round or square planes.  An aerodynamic shape flies the best!

They worked hard and I think we had a good time too!