Category: Blogs and Blogging

Posted in 21st Century Learning, Blogs and Blogging, digital storytelling, English, iPad, Lessons, Math, Projects, Roanoke County Schools, Science, STEM, Video, Writing

Lego iMovie Trailers

Posted on by Tina Coffey

Students in Mrs. Sharp’s and Mrs. Downey’s Math and Writing classes used Legos to practice skills! First, they created lego houses based on a STEM activity created by Mrs. Downey. They found the area and perimeter of each of the rooms in their houses, and made sure to include at least one simple machine and working light.

Lego Houses:

Then, in writing class, they created Lego video trailers using the iMovie app.  I created templates for them to use here:

iMovie Trailer Script Plans

But there are many iMovie Trailer templates out there! Here’s a few more I’m considering using next time:

iMovie for iPad – Storyboard Help Sheets

iMovie for iPad Printable Storyboard Templates

Here’s what the students created.  They only had one class period to write and film their trailers!

Lego Trailers:

The Journey from elemitrt on Vimeo.

The Cabin from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Super Family from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Summer’s Here from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Creepy Connie from elemitrt on Vimeo.

Check Out their Final Lego Movie Blog Posts here!

Posted in 21st Century Learning, Blogs and Blogging, English, iPad, Projects, Reading, Roanoke County Schools, STEM

The Big Bad Wolf

Posted on by Tina Coffey

Mrs. Downey’s and Mrs. Corbett’s class completed a S.T.E.A.M project centered on a beloved children’s story, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Mrs. Coffey and Mrs. Pettipiece helped too!

Video Trailer (Just a Tease)!

//player.vimeo.com/video/82306132?byline=0&portrait=0

Longer video


 

After discussing and analyzing the story, and comparing and contrasting it to the real Three Little Pigs story, students spent the next week delving into the world of engineers, architects, construction workers, realtors, consumers, and presenters. Each group of students planned, drew blueprint, tested and revised a house for the Fourth Little Pig.  Each house was created to withstand gusts of wind from The Big Bad Wolf.  They even completed a purchase order and shopped on a budget for the materials to use to construct their house.  They also used the app Pic Collage to create a real estate listing to market their house to potential pig buyers.

To see their pic collages and read more about the project, please visit Mrs. Downey’s blog post about it! You can find it here.

Cross posted on the Oak Grove Digital Library.

Posted in 21st Century Learning, Blogs and Blogging, iPad, Reading, Roanoke County Schools, Writing

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Posted on by Tina Coffey

 

 

Students in Mrs. Becker’s Class created Virtual Posters after Reading Island of the Blue Dolphins.  I absolutely love how these turned out.  Students drew pictures, and then used the Pic Collage app on the iPads to take pictures of their illustrations.  They layered them on top of each other, added the text, and added the background.  It’s a great mix of student art work and digital work.  I love them!

Students even posted them to their blogs.  Take a look the link below, and leave them a comment or two on their great work!

Island of the Blue Dolphin Virtual Posters

 

 

 

Cross posted on the Oak Grove Digital Library

Posted in Blogs and Blogging, iPad, Projects, Reading, Roanoke County Schools

More Popplets!

Posted on by Tina Coffey

Students in Mrs. Mulvaney and Mrs. Downey’s Language Arts Class are at it again!  This time they created Cause and Effect Popplets about the book Rosa Parks: Freedom Rider.   Many of them blog with different teachers, but you can see their work by clicking on the links below.

They were excited to learn how to post their work to their own blog too.  Keep an eye out for more projects by this class!
Posted in Blogs and Blogging, News, Roanoke County Schools

Blog Excitement

Posted on by Tina Coffey

There is quite a bit of excitement in the 4th and 5th grade hall at one of my schools.  And believe it or not, it’s all about WRITING.  Yep!  Writing journal entries, writing free writes, writing news reviews, writing assignments.  Why? Because students here are using blogs to write!

After a few lessons on safety, blog set up, writing blog posts, and commenting on blogs, these students took their blogs and ran with them.  It amazes me every time I walk in the computer lab and hear excited writing discussions, or in the hall or lunch room.  I even heard a group of students discussing what they wrote (or were going to write) outside on the playground!  And really, they have just scratched the surface.  They have been commenting on each other’s blogs, but really staying within their own school.  Today I challenged them to branch out and read other class’ blogs around the world.  And once again, the excitement was palpable…

I want to try and encourage their efforts by finding folks to comment on their blogs as well.  I’ve been following the #comments4kids hashtag on Twitter, and reading through the Comments4Kids site to find other similar classrooms.  And now, I’m posting here too in hopes that you might have  a moment to leave a comment (and a location) on one of their blog entries.  If you have time, here they are:

5th Grade

A big, big thanks in advance, and an offer to return the favor.  Leave me a comment (with a url) if you want me to comment on some of your students’ blogs!