Since October, the Maker Club has been creating videos. They spent a couple of meetings exploring different apps to use on the iPad for video creation, including Lego Movie Maker and Goldieblox. After that, we moved to Powtoon. For several weeks, they have been working on videos that give suggestions for ways to say, “Thank you.” A playlist of completed videos is embedded below, and more videos will be added as they are finished. Enjoy!
Tag Archives: videos
1st Grade Sings About Their Year
Today was our last day of 1st grade GT. I asked the students to try something different, and I was proud of how they met the challenge! Their task was to rewrite the lyrics of a familiar song to reflect on our year. This was an idea that I got from one of my favorite 1st grade GT teachers, Joelle Trayers. Last week, the students did some great reflections using our class blog as a reference, so they were able to look at those while writing their songs.
One group wrote their song to the tune of “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” Another group used “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” And the final group used “Happy.” They only had about 40 minutes to choose a song and write their lyrics before I asked them to perform, so it was just a quick activity to get them to think one last time about what we have done this year.
None of the groups wanted to be recorded performing their songs, so I just took still pictures. However, one student wanted a recording of her song, so I have included her video below. I also included the rest of the Tellagami videos from class. (Instructions will be coming with GT folders and report cards next week for scanning your child’s Photo Mapo to view the videos.)
With the little time we had left, the students were able to choose to play one of their favorite games/activities of the year: Robot Turtles, the interactive iPad game Osmo, or logic puzzles (Perplexers).
It was a great final class, and I look forward to seeing all of the students in 2nd grade next year!
3rd Grade Works on Creating Games and Videos
The 3rd graders are getting ready to present their suggested solutions for cafeteria issues to Mrs. Jessop and Mrs. Bailey next week. Two students worked on creating a video using a special app called Touchcast. This app allows us to use our green screen and add some other special effects. The other students are making games – one a video game and one a board game – to teach cafeteria rules. We still aren’t finished so hopefully we will make good progress next Tuesday morning!
5th Grade Makes Major Progress on Genius Hour
Today’s blog post is brought to you by Aubrie:
Today in G.T. we did testing for 30 minutes. That was not fun.
On happier notes, we did Genius Hour, and everyone is finishing up their projects (yay!). Hopefully, we should all get to create one more project before the year is over (gasp!). A message for the 5th graders – WORK HARDER!
We watched a new Kid President video as well, (attached below for your convenience).
We read ‘The Giver’, and are unfortunately nearing the end.
Last of all, Mrs. Eichholz explained Doodle4Google, a cool event where you draw a picture with the word ‘Google’ in it, according to the theme. The theme is… (dramatic pause) ‘An invention that would make the world a better place’. Get sketching!
Come back next week!
P.S. – Here is the Kid President website 🙂
5th Grade Blasts Off into Genius Hour
We spent a lot of time preparing for 5th grade Genius Hour – going over online safety and research skills, brainstorming ideas, and planning.
Today, the students finally got to dig into their various topics. It was so exciting to see them so engaged in their projects! Some are collaborating, and some are working on their own. Some are using technology, and some are going “old school.” The variety in the projects, and their planned presentations is just as diverse as the students in our class.
Being the first day, I don’t have any final projects to share, yet. But one group has given me permission to post one of their practice Lego Stop Motion videos, created with the free Lego Movie Making app on the iPad. Enjoy!
(If the video below does not appear, you can also view it by clicking on this link.
Happy July!
I hope that everyone enjoys the 4th of July holiday this week. It’s difficult to believe we are already beginning the 7th month of this year! I’ve collected a few nuggets over the past week that might interest you as you look for ways to spend your time this month. First of all, if you happen to be looking for a special gift for a young person in your life, you might want to check out this blog post that I did last Friday on my professional blog.
Also, if you want a great resource for educational videos, you might want to head over here to “The Kid Should See This,” where a mom posts a collection of videos that she finds for her own children from all over the internet.
You can click on the infographic above for some ideas to “Exercise Your Noodle” this summer from Kids Discover.
And, finally, I’ve embedded a very cute “Dog Goldberg” video below. It’s a commercial, but definitely shows the joy of creativity and invention. For more about Rube Goldberg machines, you can visit this post on my professional blog.
5th Grade Gets TONS Done!
Sometimes it amazes me how 16 students can be working on 10 different projects, and we don’t all implode from the absolute chaos! Today we got so much done that I haven’t even had a chance to upload all of the finished projects to share on this blog. Four Dream Team videos got finished, as well as five Genius Hour projects. A few of the students even found the time to work on the Robotics challenge board that is due next week. Way to go, 5th grade!
I’ve got the Dream Team Projects embedded below. Next week, I will try to include all of the completed Genius Hour projects.
Can you believe we only have two more GT classes left?!!!!
4th Grade Bonus Challenge
Okay, 4th grade, are you ready to earn some Class Dojo points? Since you were not able to come to GT this week, I am bringing GT to you!
Our Essential Question for this year is, “What can I do that will have meaning in the future?” Watch the two videos below. Try to think about what they have in common. Write a paragraph that answers the Essential Question and explain how the videos connect to this answer. Bring it to class next week to earn extra points. Remember, there is not one particular right answer.
The links for the two videos are:
http://youtu.be/o-Fpsw_yYPg
http://vimeo.com/52711779
Landfill Harmonic- The world sends us garbage… We send back music. from Landfill Harmonic on Vimeo.
5th Grade Produces Dream Team Videos
The 5th graders have been creating “Dream Teams” – 4 people from history who inspire them to exhibit the character traits that are important to them. To present their Dream Teams, they have been working on introducing them on talk shows using the Puppet Pals app. So far, we have 3 completed videos that I would like to share with you. Keep your fingers crossed that they work because this is my first time embedding videos from Google Drive on this blog.
Please add an encouraging comment to this post so that our producers will know their shows are being watched – and our future producers will be inspired to complete their projects!
4th Grade Crash Lands on the Moon
Today, the 4th graders did an activity where they imagined they had crash-landed on a distant moon, and had to rank the materials that they would like to have with them in order of importance. Once they ranked them individually, they met in groups to try to come up with a consensus for each material’s ranking. This was an important lesson in interpersonal skills, and we discussed the results in a Socratic Dialogue afterward. The students felt that they could have done better in listening and communicating, They will have another opportunity for working in teams next week.
The 4th graders also viewed the “Pep Talk” video by Kid President, and discussed synergy, being unique, and creating “something awesome”!
