Prepare to be blown away in Unit 10! Windy Days is a fun, interactive and engaging unit in which you will breeze through Computer Science and Digital Literacy Content Standards by the use of apps like epic!, BOOK CREATOR, Kahoot! and Seesaw. You will use SeeSaw to document student accountability and responses, epic! to view and read a collection of books about wind, and Book Creator to dictate and create digital illustrations of written work. To end the unit you will use Kahoot! to create of use a fun and interactive assessment which can be played in groups or pairs depending on the available amount of technology in your classroom.
At the beginning of the unit, preferably Day 1, you will assign a collection of books in epic! You will be required to establish a teacher account and be sure to download epic! on student iPads for them to use. In this app the books should be related to wind for the students to read or listen to while in your reading center during workstations. Once the student has read or listened to a story, they will then write and illustrate something they learned about wind from the story. They will then use the SeeSaw writer’s workshop activity to upload their student reflection into their individual journals on SeeSaw. You will need to create a teacher page in Seesaw and down app on student iPads.
Teacher Tip* You will need to share this activity with your class prior to assigning the Writers Workshop. Please click here for a quick tutorial.
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Imagine It! Unit 9 is titled “Red, White, and Blue” and highlights the values of America which include, but are not limited to: freedom, democracy, liberty, and justice. These activities are flexible and can be completed throughout the unit during different parts of the ELA block. What is Patriotism?Patriotism is a valuable trait for students to be able model and identify both in their classroom and in their community. After you’ve read a few stories about patriotism and students are beginning to be able to identify the concept of patriotism, provide students with a few extra texts from the media center or personal library that show symbols of patriotism. Students will explore the texts to identify evidence of patriotism in unit stories and the additional text. They will then be asked to use Seesaw to record their findings. Seesaw is a digital journal students can use to showcase their work and it can also be used by teachers to assign specific tasks to either one or multiple students in their class. If you are not familiar with Seesaw, check out this quick tutorial. **Teacher Tip** Create your seesaw class on the web or in the Seesaw app before implementing this activity with your students.
We will introduce the Imagine It story What’s Alive and learn the difference between living and nonliving. Students will recall and gather information from the text to identify living and nonliving things.
Students will collaborate using the app Chatterpix Kids during writing time or Inquiry days to take pictures and identify various living and nonliving things.
Chatterpix Kids is a great app that makes your photos come to life!
Grab your camera! Chatterpix Kids can make anything talk -- pets, friends, doodles, and more. Simply take any photo, draw a line to make a mouth, and record your voice. Use this task card to for student support. Check out this informational video on Chatterpix Kids
Team building activities cultivate a classroom community in which students work together to achieve common goals and learn to accept others ideas. Over the course of this unit, we will be using a variety of technology tools and team constructing projects to foster this type of community of students.
Before beginning this unit, you will need to download the SeeSaw App and create your SeeSaw class.
Some of the other technologies and materials needed include: a Smartboard, a laptop, student iPads, the SeeSaw app, the teamwork vocabulary word bank, the mill printable, paper, string, glue, wheat seeds (or small manipulatives), red and black paint, and paper plates.
Task 1
Shadows naturally fascinate children but when technology is incorporated that’s when the fun really begins! In this unit, My Shadow, students will discover the way shadows are formed, changed, and located while turning wonders into questions. We will be using Seesaw app, Book Creator , and Youtube to allow students to perform activities throughout the unit. Here is some more information about the two apps that students will be using.
Stick To It is all about perseverance and how to persevere to accomplish tasks like learning how to ride a bike, learning to read, playing an instrument, or even play a sport. Perseverance is about working hard despite disappointment or failure. It teaches us to keep trying even if takes days, months or years to succeed.
Perseverance & Problem Solving with Code - Inquiry
This activity involves coding and using algorithms to problems and persevere through tasks. An algorithm is step by step sets of operations needed to reach a goal. So you ask What is programming or coding? Computer programming, also known as coding, is the process of creating software. But what exactly is software, and how is it made?
What is Software? Software is a set of instructions for a computer to perform, like a cooking recipe:
So, programming is writing instructions for a computer to perform...soon enough you will be working with your students coding events in a story! To get the students excited about this activity begin with the Going on a Bear Hunt Song. Students are always excited to learn about the sea! Living by the coast puts us at a great advantage for students to be able to connect their learning to their experience. During this unit, By the Sea, students will begin to investigate life by the sea and what makes it so interesting. They will explore topics about sea life and how human interaction can play a role in life by the sea. Retelling A Story with Codeable CraftsAfter students have read a story about life by the sea, provide the opportunity to retell the story and/or identify elements of the story (problem, solution, characters, etc.) with Codeable Crafts. Codeable Crafts is an app for kids to create their imaginative stories by drawing and coding. You can find out more here. Prior to students creating and coding their responses, provide time for students to organize their thinking in a graphic organizer or acting out and recording their thoughts. This will also be beneficial if this is an activity that will be done over a period of time or in a setting where the students will be working on it one day and revisiting it at a later date. It may also be helpful to allow students to work in pair or groups for publishing a digital product.
The Finding Friends unit highlights friendship, finding friends, how friends act, how to be a good friend, and how to resolve problems. In this unit, students will demonstrate their understanding of the concept of finding friends, as well as their knowledge of the literacy standards. Students will be working on skills such as making connections, predicting, and identifying theme.
Friend Interviews - Unit Introduction
Using a cooperaltive learning strategy, like Mix Pair Share, allow students to get to know each other. After students have found their partner, the interview process can begin. In the interview, each student will ask 3 their partner questions. These questions can be teacher directed or student created. Students will take turns asking their partners questions in order to learn more about them. Use the “My Friend” response sheet for students to record what they learn. In each circle students will draw their partners response to the interview questions.
Before using Shadow Puppet with your students, you may want to watch the Shadow Puppet Edu tutorial.
Be sure to model this process for students before students are expected to participate in this activity. The teacher and the assistant can model all of the steps that we have listed so far. Conduct the interview with one another and complete the response sheet. Model for students how to create the presentation using Shadow Puppet Edu incorporating the interview data. This task card can be used with students while they are working independent of the teacher.
Patterns are everywhere! We find patterns in math, but we also find patterns in nature, art, music, and literature. Patterns provide a sense of order. Researchers have found that understanding and being able to identify recurring patterns allow us to begin to problem solve and develop important skills of critical thinking and logic. The knowledge and understanding of patterns can be transferred into all curriculum areas and open many doors where this knowledge can be applied.
Verb Patterns with Scratch Jr. - Writing
Begin your lesson by briefly introducing students to the idea of using verbs (action words) to create a pattern. For example, clapping a sequence and students repeat and continue the pattern. Give students the opportunity to create their own pattern and have the class or a “buddy” to repeat and continue their pattern. This Jack Hartman, Pump Up the Pattern video may also be helpful for illustrating using verbs to create patterns.
When students are secure with the concept of using verbs for patterns, introduce students to the Scratch Jr. app. Scratch Jr. is an app that allows students to program their own interactive stories and games. In the process, they learn to solve problems, design projects, and express themselves creatively. Here is a quick tutorial to help you get started. Show students how to how to create a new project, rename the project with their name, how to choose a character, and how to make a character move. Demonstrate how to have the character create a verb pattern. Students may enjoy several different verb patterns and the opportunity to interact/participate in the verb pattern. Then the teacher should model how to write/record the pattern (words, pictures, etc.). Allow students time to copy/write/record the pattern sentence. Students can be divided into groups or work independently (depending on device availability) to create their own verb patterns with Scratch Jr. Students will be responsible for manipulating the characters AND writing the sentence explaining the pattern. This task card will support students that may be working independently of the teacher or in workstations. *This activity may be completed over several days during writing instruction. Getting to know each other and the school surrounding is vital to a successful beginning of the school year. As students begin to feel more confident and comfortable with their new school surroundings, they start to become more confident and comfortable with academic learning as well. The Back to School unit provides great opportunities for students to become aware of their surroundings, including who their peers are and what the term “school” encompasses. It is important to incorporate several different hands-on activities that help students engage in learning about their new peers and school environment. In this we try to include a variety of learning activities such as a self-portrait activity to learn more about classmates, a sorting activity to learn about different places in the school and what is found there, as well as a SmartBoard activity where writing becomes incorporated into learning about classmates. Self Portraits - Whole GroupSelf-portraits are a great way to show individuality and creativity in the classroom. To begin, students will be given a template to take home in order to decorate to represent themselves. Parents are encouraged to help children complete this project which will be shared with the class (Parent Letter). As students begin bringing their decorated self-portrait back, the class learns about one classmate each day. The chosen student will have the opportunity to share their self portrait and have classmates ask further questions to learn more about the student. This information will then be used to create a biography about the chosen student. The teacher will use the information gathered to write the biography. Students will create their own illustration of that student to be included in the final copy of the biography.
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