Matter Matters

Assignment: Create a group video about matter!  Here's where the students went with the task....
1. Formed their groups into Solid, Liquid, & Gas
2. Decided what kind of format their video would be
3. Worked together to write the parts
4. Determined who would have what role
5. Practiced and prepared props
6. Filmed their videos
It's about the PROCESS and not just the PRODUCT!  If you could have only seen the process above and the effort that went into it, you'd fully realize what they accomplished through this assignment.  Maybe next time, we should video some of the steps.  The students learned a lot about cooperation along the way, as well as reviewing the main concepts of these 3 States of Matter! 

Tiny Books...Huge Smiles

This week we used Artisan Cam's Picture Book Maker in the Computer Lab. It's simple, but provides plenty for focused writing projects. Students were introduced to the web storybook creator in class and the different elements. During our lab time, we asked Mr. Carls, BOCES Technology Integrator, to assist us in accomplishing our goal during one session. Each student chose their backgrounds, animal characters, and various objects.  After that, they composed a mini-book of 6 pages.Our focus was on beginning, middle, and end, as well as starting each sentence with a capital letter and ending it with a punctuation mark. The results were impressive! Upon returning to the classroom, we learned together how to fold, cut, and turn the printed sheet into a small story. The student's faces reflected their success! 
Here's a few link to some of the stories....  Try it out at home, using the link above!

Max's Story

Aunalee's Story

Isaac's Story

Little Books...Big Progress

I've been sending little books home for some of our reading groups.  Students need to practice reading them aloud a few times to either a family member, friend, their pet, or even a stuffed animal.  This helps students with their oral reading fluency.  Check out how Scholastic.com explains fluency for more details.

Here's one reading group's recording on their little book.  They were SO excited to listen to themselves read.  They made progress through practice and are finding confidence along the way. 

Progressing with Patterns

We've been learning about growing and repeating patterns in Math.  During Math, we often use interactive SMARTnotebook activities like the screen shots you see below.  This one was from SMART tech's exchange.  Next week, we will be creating placemats for Thanksgiving by creating a pattern of our own design. 

Have a wonderful holiday!  We have a lot to be thankful for!



Summarize with Vocaroo

This week we are reading the story Chinatown by William Low.  Today we are practicing the strategy of summarizing.  We are going to learn how to use Vocaroo to record our voices.  We listened to the story again, stopping to summarize.  Students are working hard on determining the difference between a main idea and detail.  Please listen to the main parts of the beginning, middle, and end of the story below. 

Beginning - by Anthony


Middle - by Bayleigh

Detail - by Isaac

End - by Natalie

Detail - by Joshua

Skype Across the Sea



Today we Skyped with a class from ITALY!!  Yes, the country across the ocean.  This was our first overseas call.  Jenny Burroughs, Distance Learning Support Specialist from Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES, sent me an email inquiring if I was intersted in Skyping with Ms. Toschi's class.  Yesterday was one of those days I was glad that I always have Skype open.  I was talking with another teacher at my door and suddenly my students were saying, "Mrs. Griffith, we have a Skype call."  We weren't expecting a call, but I told the kids to go ahead and answer it.  They did, I finished my conversation, and realized it was Rita Toschi calling.  We spoke briefly and decided to have our classes meet today.   

Some of my students couldn't stop chattering about the call and we had a good share of clock-watchers this morning as 9:00am slowly came.  Ms. Toschi had each of her students come up, introduce themselves, and ask a question.  So, one of my students came up, introduced themselves, answered their question, and asked them the same question.  After everyone had a turn they sang two songs for us - one in Italian and one in English.  They asked if we had a song.  Thankfully, my students sang our RCS school song with confidence. 

We've Skyped a lot this year and it's been amazing to see the growth in the students so far.  At the end of every call, we always have an informal conversation about what went well and areas that we could improve on.  Different students remarked on how they remembered to speak clearly, look at the webcam not the microphone, wave when it's appropriate, listen carefully to what others say so we know how to respond, and more.  They really are making progress and becoming effective communicators in the 21st century!  Nice work class! 

Thank you to Natalie, Colin, and Miss S. for taking the photos and video clip.

Pumpkin Poems & Pictures

We combined the art of taking photos with the art of composing a poem!  Here are our pumpkin poems! Leave us a comment on one of the pictures that follows the poems.

The Survey Says...

We've been learning how to read, create, and answer questions on different types of graphs.  Each student group prepared a question to survey the students in Miss Dunsinger's class.  During a Skype call, they took turns asking their questions.  After that, we were asked different questions by her students.  A student counted and reported the results to her class with the webcam and microphone.  Here is our class' final project below.  Take one of the student-designed quizzes attached to their graphs.