Partner Reading and Favorite Program Writing part 1

I tried some partner reading with the 2nd graders today. I am thankful to their 1st grade teachers who did a great job teaching them how to partner read. They knew to use rock, paper, scissors to decide who read first. They held each other accountable as they read the story and made sure to take turns. I heard more than once, "This is my page!" or "It is my turn."

We also did another writing assignment in MobyMax . This time the students wrote about which of the computer programs or iPad apps they enjoyed the most and how it helps them learn. Here is a sample of what they wrote.

My favorite program is Mobymax. Mobymax is my favorite program because we can do Math,Reading,Vocabulary,Language and Literature the best part about mobymax is their is also games!Mobymax helps us in Math,Reading,Vocabulary Language and Literature so it helps us in alot of things. For example if your doing Math but then you get bored you can go on to Vocabulary.That is why my favorite program ia Mobymax.

My favorite part about scratch is that you get to learn to animate also you can create some crazy things anything you want. you can even put a firey troll to create you animation. you learn to control you animation also you can make it look like its flying if you want. you can create you very own to and if you dont know how then go to an option to get a creature. if you want to check scratch out go to www.scratch.com also click scratch office sight to get to the right place.

I like to read books on the iPad. The app is called iStorybooks. I like stories about people.

I need to revisit the connection between what they are doing and how it helps them learn. It is intriguing to read their thoughts about working on the computers during summer school. It might be time to try some apps that they can use to record their ideas.

Comments

Ollies and Math

Thanks to generosity of Chevron through Donors Choose , my math class experienced a new mobile technology, Ollies! Ollies are programmable robots made by Sphero . We used the app, Macrolab to program the Ollies. I modified a lesson from the Sphero website to teach the concepts of measurement and data. The first day, we explored how to program the Ollies and how changing the variables in the program affected what Ollie did. The students recorded data to capture what they were seeing. On day 2 it was time to be more methodical with our data collection. Students only changed one variable at a time. This allowed students to discover the relationship between time and the distance that the Ollie traveled. The students changed the variable of the delay between the roll and stop commands to develop this understanding. There was definitely a lot of excitement and motivation to learn measurement. On Day 3, we analyzed the data recorded from each group. There were some noticeable differences

Roller Coasters

The students chose words to describe roller coasters. We recorded them using Answer Garden . I think it also describes what building roller coasters is like. There was a buzz of excitement as groups of students designed and constructed marble roller coasters. One of the student remarked, "This doesn't look like regular library time." He had just asked me if he could tape the roller coaster ramp to the wall and was shocked when I said, "Of course." The students were so engaged with their projects that they did not notice a visitor from the Hillsboro Tribune . Kathy Fuller came to learn about what was happening in our building this summer. We are proud that we will be featured in the newspaper. I will make sure to include the link in a future post. We will be continuing our roller coaster construction tomorrow. I am very thankful that our custodial staff is supportive of these messy projects. This video captures the feelings expressed in the wordl

Halfway

I am taking it as a positive sign that we are halfway through our summer program and there is still tons of positive energy. Mrs. Gonzalez and Ms. Ayala's phone calls resulted in 5 new students today! We are expecting even more new students on Monday. My hope is that we can bring the average daily attendance to 40 students. This article affirmed our purpose for the summer program and pushing the students to work on their math skills in addition to reading. http://www.vox.com/2014/7/13/5891583/summer-slide-achievement-gap-vacation I am looking forward to comparing their end of the year MobyMax math placement with their beginning of the year placement test score. Plans for next week... Model canoes, gardening, writing a Scratch character description and an art project

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