Five For Friday- November 20th

 

 1) Blend Space for Research

 My colleague Gisell Barrett (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Maestra-Barrett)
is just finishing her Masters program and brought this great knowledge to our team.  It is a researching platform that the kids can navigate on a computer or iPad.  Each member of our first grade team made a platform in Blend Space for our life long ago unit (transportation, communication, daily life, jobs, school,  and games and fun). 

   

Then, we created QR codes so that the kids could research in their expert groups.  It was easy because you can upload videos from You Tube, Power Points, Articles, and even things that you create. 

 We are giving the kids research time each day.  They are having a great time with it, and so far it has been great. It has eliminated the challenge for younger students to navigate spelling in searches and also having 10 QR codes for different sources. 

They are taking notes and preparing to write an informative book on their expert topic, create a timeline, and make a group iMovie.  We first gave them all background information on all the topics, but each expert group will share out after their projects are done and give us more information so that we can learn from each other!
If you are interested in this unit I just added 100 pages to it.  Here is the link on TPT:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Long-Ago-Common-Core-Informational-Text-Unit-1531230

2)  Being Thankful!
 

 I love seeing the kids art and how different each one looks.  We made some simple turkeys and they were adorable.  Kid art is the best!

3)  We love field trips!

This is a cute picture of my firsties having some hands on fun with a telegraph.  We went on a Life Long Ago field trip to a local spot in our community that features a school house of the past, a working blacksmith, a telegraph, and much more.  It was fun!

 4)  Checking our Success Criteria in Math!
We made a great poster of all the things we need to include in order to be successful when solving a word problem.  I've been having the kids go to the poster to check as they finish their work and it has been working great!  It's teaching them to catch little things like missing labels or forgetting to write an equation or number bond!

 5)  Goodbye to a great leader.
Our fabulous principal Dr. Winters left this week to move on to a district directorship.  He is, without a doubt, a phenomenal leader who is humble, intelligent, kind, and a great person.  Our entire school sang to him in a farewell on his last day.  He opened our school and will forever be the heart of it.