Earth Day

Earth Day is April 22^nd this year, so this week we discussed Earth Day in every class. We watched You Tube videos about recycling and the importance of the three R’s. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

We watched Peppa Pig – Recycling in Pre-K and Kindergarten.

In First and Second Grade, we watched Charlie and Lola – Look After Your Planet.

We watched Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to Enjoy a Better Life in 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th grades.

Next week we will continue with our Earth Day theme by having students create a public service announcement about protecting our environment. They will work in small groups using I pads and an app called Chatter Pix to create their PSA’s.

National Library Week

This week was National Library Week, so some of the books I read had the library or reading as a major aspect of the book. In addition, all of the books I read this week were new books that we recently received.

In Pre-K, I read Shake the Tree by Vignocchi.

In Kindergarten, I read Don’t Blink! By Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

In First Grade, I read A Hippy-Hoppy Toad by Peggy Archer.

For Second Grade, I read Rhyme Crime by Jon Burgerman.

For Third Grade, I read The Magician’s Hat by Malcom Mitchell.

For Fourth Grade, I read I Can Be Anything! Don’t Tell Me I Can’t by Diane Dillon.

Fifth Grade was unable to come to the library this week due to STAAR testing.

WebDesk

This week, I talked to every grade level except Pre-K about WebDesk. We discussed what it is, how to add apps and how to access saved files in the students’ home folder.

  

WebDesk is a dashboard with different apps that students and teachers can use to access all of the resources and tools they need in one location. Once you have logged in the first time, you do not have to log in again thanks to Class Link. This greatly minimizes the amount of time it takes to get students to log in and get started.

Adding an app is as easy as clicking on a plus sign. That will bring up the App Library where students can select the app they wish to add.

We added the KOHA app (green book) which is the library catalog app.

This app allows students to see what books they have checked out, search for books in the library catalog and easy access to our library resource page.

  

Students may access any saved files in their H: or Home drive by clicking on the My Files link at the bottom center of the dashboard.

From there they click on School Network and then Home folder.

In Pre-K, I read Thank You, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony.

Valentine's Day and WebDesk Survey

Since Valentine’s Day was this week, I decided to read Valentine’s Day stories to Pre-K through 2^nd grade. In Pre-K, I read Henry and the Valentine Surprise by Nancy Carlson.

In Kindergarten, I read Happy Valentine’s Day, Gus! By Jacklyn Williams.

In First Grade, I read Amelia Bedelia’s First Valentine by Herman Parish.

In Second Grade, I read Little Mouse’s Big Valentine by Thatcher Hurd.

In grades 3 – 5, I asked them to complete a brief survey on how comfortable they were using WebDesk and Google Drive. The majority of the students said they could easily access WebDesk, but more than 50% said that they did not feel very comfortable in adding apps and accessing their files. The majority of the students stated that they knew how to create a Google doc, but not a Google sheet.

I hope that this will give me some topics that I can work with them on throughout the remainder of the year.

Winter Olympics

In Pre-K – 1^st Grade, I read G is for Gold Medal: An Olympics Alphabet by Brad Herzog. It gives some history and interesting facts about both the summer and winter Olympics.

In grades 3^rd – 5^th, we watched various episodes of The Science Behind the Winter Olympics from NBC Learn.  We learned about various sports such as bobsledding, hockey, figure skating, skiing, snowboarding and curling. It was very interesting to see the physics behind some of the more difficult moves made in each of these sports.

I really tried to encourage the students to watch some of the Winter Olympics. I feel it is a great way to show and encourage good sportsmanship.

Digital Citizenship

In Pre-K, I read I Stink! By Kate and Jim McMullan. The book gave many clues for the students to guess who the character was.

In Kindergarten, we used the entire time learning and practicing how to use a shelf marker. This week was the first week that they were able to go to the shelves to check out books. They were so excited to be more like the “big” kids. Some were a little overwhelmed with all of the choices as well.

In First Grade, we discussed staying safe online and how to tell if a website was “good” or “bad”. We talked about what to look for and to determine if it was a green, yellow or red site.

In Second Grade, we talked about using keywords when doing an Internet search. Keywords are the important words in the questions we want to know about our topic. We did a little practicing by asking about guinea pigs.

In Third Grade, we discussed plagiarism, copyright, and the importance of giving credit where it belongs.

In Fourth Grade, we talked about how to cite a source and having a bibliography when doing a report or research project.

In Fifth Grade, we discussed three important aspects of digital citizenship. Safety and security, digital literacy and ethics and community. We will continue this lesson next week with a little activity.

Texas 2x2 and MLK

In Pre-K through Second grade, I read books from the Texas 2x2 list. Students must read at least five books from the list in order to vote for their favorite in April. I like to read a few of them to help them out a bit.

In Pre-K, I read Duck, Duck, Porcupine! By Salina Yoon.

In Kindergarten, I read Fabulous Frogs by Martin Jenkins. They really loved learning about some of the different types of frogs. One class even went back to their classroom to write and draw about what they learned.

In First Grade, I read Hank’s Big Day: The Story of a Bug by Evan Kuhlman.

In Second Grade, I read I, Fly: The Buzz About Flies & How Awesome They Are by Bridget Heos.

In Third Grade, I read Martin Luther King, Jr. by Lucia Raatma. We also discussed the difference between a biography and an autobiography.

In Fourth Grade, I read Aesop’s Fables compiled by Michael Hague.

Due to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, all but one of the Fifth Grade classes missed their library time, so we just did a check out only.