5th grade Washington, D.C. slideshows

The 5th graders went on their annual trip to Washington, D.C. in March and learned so much! Ms. Lord's class wrote narrative and non-fiction pieces about their experiences and I worked with them to turn their writing into a Google Slide presentation. First the students learned how to access their Durham Public Schools Googledocs account and then we learned how to create a slide presentation.

Below are a few of the students' presentations. Enjoy!

Manatee Weather News in K/1!

I had so much fun working with Mrs. Overby's K/1 class to create weather reports! This project was one of the culminating pieces to their weather unit in Science. Each group was assigned a season and had to write a weather report that reflected a typical day of weather during that season. The kids worked together to create a background and write the report. Some students brought in props to make the video as authentic as possible. We had fun pretending to be the weather reporters like we see on TV! :) Enjoy our live weather reports below! 

Kindergarten Community Helpers

Mrs. Reuther's Kindergarteners learned about community helpers before Spring Break. Some students researched with me in the Media Center and some students worked in the classroom. After reading about community helpers, students chose one as their favorite and wrote about how this person helps our community. I used the Educreations App on the iPad to record each student reading their own writing. Watch our Educreations slideshow below to hear all about our favorite community helpers!

African Storytelling

3rd graders have been participating in electives about Africa the past few months. Each elective lasts 3 sessions and then students switch to a different class. Students had the option of taking an elective such as African games, flags, mask making, Ancient Egypt, and more! I've had fun teaching the African storytelling elective. First, students learned some facts about the history of storytelling and why it is such an integral part of African culture.

We read two porquoi tales and a trickster tale during our 3 weeks together.

We learned that African storytelling is a participatory experience so we borrowed instruments from  Mrs. Allen (our music teacher) to use with our stories. Each student chose an instrument they felt best represented their character in the story. We had fun exploring all the unique sounds during our performances!

Black History Month Living Museum

On Wednesday 25 of our talented students acted as notable African Americans during our annual Black History Month Living Museum. I gave students a research guide to help them organize their research and then turn it into a speech. Students worked on writing their speeches in first person and practicing it out loud at home. During our dress rehearsal, we gave students feedback on their presentation via a rubric. The rubric gave each student feedback on eye contact, speaking clearly, preparation, pace, and voice projection. 

4th grade actors: Nelson Mandela, Mary McCloud Bethune, Jesse Owens, George Crum, and Dorothy Dandrige

Artist Edmonia Lewis

NC Artist John Biggers

Actors performed at the luncheon for students and families in 25 minute shifts. We were visited by Jackie Robinson, Marie Maynard Daly, Jesse Owens, George Crum, Serena Williams, Shirley Chisholm, and Wallace Amos--just to name a few! Our actors were courageous, professional, and impressive! Thanks to all the families who were so supportive of our young actors. They shared a wealth of knowledge about important people who have contributed so much to our world. Great job, manatees! Your hard word taught us so much!

Please watch the Animoto slideshow below to see all our young actors in action!

Three Little Pigs Reader's Theater

Last week I worked with another small group from Mrs. Overby's K/1 class on a reader's theater script to support their classroom study of fairy tales. We chose the Three Little Pigs because students have been reading variations of this fairy tale would be familiar with the plot and characters. In our first few sessions the students worked on word recognition and fluency. Next, they moved on to add actions to support our lines. It was hard to do both at the same time and remember to use a louder voice! On Friday they were excited to perform for the class and share their talents. Bravo to all the actors! :)

Penguin Parade!

1st graders from Mrs. Roach, Ms. Noble, and Mrs. Barrow's classes visited the Media Center last week to learn about African and Adelie penguins. Students have been learning about the penguin species in their classroom and this enrichment group allowed them to research one penguin in depth and work on their literacy and technology skills at the same time. Students chose which penguin they wanted to learn more about and then used the PebbleGo database to find their information.

At the end of each research session the students shared their findings with a partner. It was so interesting to hear what our friends learned! 

One day we read an article about how scientists are using penguin robots in Antarctica to study the penguins without scaring them. It was so neat! They call the robot a 'chick cam.' If you would like to read about it and see a video of the chick cam in action, visit this website: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/11/08/362377186/watch-the-robotic-baby-penguin-that-spies-for-scientists

Chick Cam--photo credit: NPR

After the students gathered their research, I taught them how to use the Word Cloud maker from ABCya. I challenged the students to select the key words or phrases from their research to use in their word cloud. Each student typed their own key words and were so excited to see the final product! The Word Cloud maker allows you to choose the font, colors, and layout of the word cloud, ensuring that each student ends up with a unique and thoughtful creation. You can see a few of their word clouds below. After leaving the Media Center, the students went back to their classroom to share what they learned with the class. Great job, 1st grade researchers!