Multiplication practice

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One of the great things about computers is they don't get tired of repetition. They give immediate feedback. And best of all, they are fun! 

Today we were practicing multiplication. We all played the same game on multiplication.com: Cave Run. It was interesting to see how some kids who don't perform that well on the speedy fact practice we do on paper we're champions when it came to playing a game.

The beautiful thing was it was all about practicing our multiplication skills. That is way more fun with a game than it is on paper! No one got tired of playing and no one complained about having to practice multiplication.

Testing Arches

We have really loked forward to doing our own experiments in our class. We brainstormed some guidelines first using jot notes. Then we worked in teams to decide what was most important. 

Today we were testing to see if a 10 cm gap made a stronger arch than a 20 cm gap. 

Re-telling with Book Creator

One of the skills we work on in grade three is learning to re-tell stories well. It is a good way to check for listening skills, comprehension and speaking skills.

Before we had iPads, we did the work on paper with the students writing the story. It was never a favorite activity of theirs.....nor was it a favorite of mine. There were pages and pages of details to write. We sometimes got distracted by spelling and grammar and punctuation rather than focusing on whether or not they were re-telling the story well. Some kids got bogged down in the writing and I wondered if, as a result, I was really able to determine if they were bogged down with the writing or if they really could re-tell the story.  Some became really prolific writers and seemed to make up their own story rather than re-telling the story we were focusing on.

Book Creator has changed all that for us. The kids love working with the app. We stream lined the process today so that everyone was quite effecient. We have done projects on Book Creator in the past and sometimes it's easy to get distracted on editing background and text colors and adding all sorts of extra pictures. We were able to avoid that today.

One thing that surprised me when they were re-telling today was their expression. I didn't expect to hear so much fluency. Some of them used great expression and fun voices when they were re-telling the story.

These are some of the pages we used in the past when working on re-telling skills.

 

Today's instructions:

1. Plan your words: To stay organized we first made notes about the six pages of the story. We wrote down key words that would help us remember what they needed to say for each page. It didn't take too long, likely because everyone wanted to hurry up and get to iPads. The nice things about the boxes on the planning sheet was there was room for some words, but not a lot.....just enough to remind them hat they wanted to say for each page.

2. Make the title page: I had them simply write the title, the author and "retold by....". No pictures. Just the necessary details.
 

3. Take pictures: The next task was to take all the pictures. Focusing on one skill at a time made things a little more effecient. I was amazed at how quickly some kids took the pictures and got them situated on each page.

 

4. Add your voice: Instead of writing their re-telling, they were just able to re-tell with their voice. I had them use the notes they took to re-tell.

 

5. Fancy it up: Once the recording was all finished they could go back and start making everything look fancy. In the past some kids spent hours editing text color and background. The way we laid it out they got the work done right away and then got to get to all the play involved with editing. Time well spent!

I thought it might be tricky having many people recording at time same time, but it worked out famously. Everyone was very focused and the noise level was like an old fashioned quiet library...without the cranky librarian shushing everyone.

We uploaded the stories to Showbie to hand them in and I put them on Vimeo so we could share them with our parents. Most kids were able to finish in the hour they had to work on it. A few will need a bit of time tomorrow - but not a lot.

 

I will grade them using this rubric: 

All in all it was a great afternoon!!

Just Like Dad

OWe are doing a project in science where students build a model of a structure they have studied. Clearly, Luke has good connections. Love his planning sheet. 

Strengthening Math Skills Through Play

One of the great things about the JUMP math program is the games that give students more opportunity to practice skills. Today we were practicing ordering and saying four digit numbers. Sometimes it gets a little noisy, but there is no question about everyone being on task! Worksheets do the trick, but games are definitely more fun. 

In this game they had to roll a dice and create a true statement (_  _ _ _ < _  _ _ _). They had to put the number rolled on one side of the equation, then the number rolled on the other side of the equation. If the statement was true after they had filled in all the blanks, then that student got a point. After that, they switched. The other person rolled the dice while the first student wrote he numbers this time. 

For those who were having trouble figuring out how to say four digit numbers, I would just to stand by their desk and listen to them as they played the game. Now and then I would have to correct someone, but it was interesting to see how when they played they said the numbers correctly more often when playing the game than when we were doing it with worksheets. I heard students helping each other to say the numbers correctly well into the hundreds of thousands. I also heard:

“I’m going to put that 1 in the ten thousands place.”

“No way. That number isn’t bigger because if you have four in the ten thousands spot that’s way more than 1 in the ten thousands spot.”

“I always put the highest numbers in the ones and tens place.”

“How do you say this again? One hundred twenty-three thousand, four hundred and ninety-two?”

“Let’s try millions!”

 

 
After they had achieved four points we added another place value spot so they were doing it with numbers in the ten thousands, then numbers in the hundred thousands. Nothing is more exciting to gr. 3 students! I told them that the government thinks students this age can only handle hundreds. They totally disagree!

Do a worksheet for half an hour, or play a game for half an hour? The choice is easy! 

Big Dreams

Part of the Rachel's Challenge program is goals and dreams. I believe it is really important to have dreams. We talked class about how important dreams are and how you have to be careful not to listen to some people. Some people like to tell others that their dreams aren't important or that they are too big. Dreaming is how great things happen. We cannot let people squash our dreams!

Next we are gong to talk what we need to do to accomplish out dreams. This is the bulletin board another grade made about goals.

Back to Class!

There's nothing like getting back into the classroom. Lots of hugs. So much to share. Everyone wants to talk at one time. They missed me!

...and gee I missed them.

Group Hug

PD With Kathy Schrock

Time to get back at it!!

We started our back to school with a PD day with Kathy Shrock. I attended all of her sessions and got a wealth of ideas! I am excited to try a few of them with my students. I was amazed at Kathy's website prior to the event. You name it, she has a link or an idea for it. She was equally impressive in person. She has experience in so many aspects of technology in the classroom and has a great way of presenting. Many of her ideas were preceded with "you do this already" and then followed with "here is how you could use technology to do that". It was amazing!

One of the things she discussed was the SAMR model. She mentioned that she had a hard time coming up with ideas in the "redefinition" category (new ideas and activities previously inconceivable). While we were at lunch my colleagues and I talked about this and realized that our experiences with authors on twitter and skyping were definitely something that wasn't possible in the past. She was so gracious in her reply. I commented that our next book was by an author who is dead and that our student's were disappointed we can't skype with him. I jokingly said that we are now discussing whether or not there is a way to tweet the dead and asked if there is an app for that. She replied with an idea!! She said that people do tweet in character and perhaps we could see if there is an account for the author.

It's true - what we can do with technology is only limited by what we can conceive!

One year ago we had a Tech PD session with George Couros. I would say my big take away from last year was Twitter and blogging.  I have found many ways to use both in the classroom and have quite enjoyed the learning curve.

I need to pick one or two things from Kathy's sessions and start to implement that in my classroom. What to pick? What to pick?

Actually, I might not be ready to make a decision yet. Tomorrow I get one more morning with her. We will see what other exciting things she will share!