Using Wallwisher to Show New Learning

We have been sharing our learning using wallwisher.com. Instead of using sticky notes and sticking them to a chart I have made.  I put a wallwisher icon on my student's iPads so they can easily get to the site.  You need to create an account first before you begin.  Last week I had students share their learning about spiders using wallwisher. This is how it turned out. Another way we are using Wallwisher is we participated in the Global Read Aloud this year.  Every Thursday 3 classes from British Columbia and my class...

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Using iPads For Our Spider Inquiry

Yesterday we began our spider inquiry.  We have been reading Charlotte's Web for the Global Read Aloud and the students were fascinated about how Charlotte sucks the blood from her victims.... So, our inquiry about spiders was born.  This was a perfect time for this inquiry because we have been talking about how to link reading to non-fiction writing in our school and this project practically fell into our laps! Step 1 - The Wondering...

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Community Read

Last Thursday my class participated in our first Community Read.  I was talking to my good friend Karen Lirenman on google hangout a couple of weeks ago and she was sharing pictures of her first Community Read.  I loved the idea and I asked her if it would be okay if I tried it out in my room.  She said, "of corse."  I immediately wrote up a letter inviting the parents into my classroom on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the morning...

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A Collaborative Personal Narrative Writing Unit

Today we began our Personal Narrative Writing Unit.  I say "we" because our class (from Windsor, Ontario) and Mrs. Soltauheller's class (from British Columbia) are doing the unit together. Mrs. Soltauheller and I worked on the unit and all the details using Google Hangout from our homes after school last week.  We decided that I would teach the first lesson to introduce what a Personal Narrative is and to tell the students that they would...

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Paperless Classroom Part 2 (How to use the Automator App)

If you did not read my first post on "How To Set Up A Primary Paperless Classroom on iPads" here is the Link This post is to show you how to create an automated action that takes one file, creates multiple copies itself and places in multiple folders of your choice. This can only be done on a Mac computer. 1. Create a new folder to sync files from.  This folder will allow the file(s) placed into it to sync to multiple folder at...

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Charlotte's Web Predictions

Today we finished reading chapter 4 of Charlotte's Web.  Students were asked to predict who the voice was that was talking to Wilbur at the end of the chapter.  Here are some of our predictions. Tomorrow we will be reading chapter 5 with 3 other classes via Google Hangou...

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Writer's Workshop

Today during Writer's Workshop we worked on being good partners.  We are practicing the notice and question part of share time.  Students chose a piece of writing and met with their partner.  Their partner had to share what they noticed about their writing and to ask a question about their  partner's writing piece.  We are also working on our stamina.  We are up to 11 minutes without talking and working the whole time!...

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Creating Math Problems On The iPads

Today I read the "Math Curse" by Jon Scieszka aloud to the class and discussed the story with the children. I asked them to think about  problems that involve mathematics in their own lives.  (How many times do they brush their teeth in a month?)  We then took out the iPads and I asked the students to make up their own math problems with the ShowMe app.  Here are a few that the students made: ...

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Our First Skype Call Of The Year

Today, we had our first Skype call of the year from Mrs. Lirenman's class in British Columbia.  We are both reading Charlotte's Web for the Global Read Aloud.  Mrs. Lirenman and I introduced the book to our classes and then our classes shared their predictions with each other via Skype.  We have some new students in our class this year, so before we Skyped with Mrs. Lirenman's class, we made an anchor chart titled "Skype Norms" Skype...

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