May 13, 2014 by plemmonsa

3rd Grade Environmental Projects with Flipgrid, Story Me, and Blackout Poetry

Third grade has been revisiting their environmental science standards at the end of this year.

S3L2. Students will recognize the effects of pollution and humans on the environment.
a. Explain the effects of pollution (such as littering) to the habitats of plants and
animals.
b. Identify ways to protect the environment.
• Conservation of resources
• Recycling of material

In the library, I pulled tons of environmental print books and made a pathfinder of ebooks, database resources, and websites around the environment.

We’ve also had guest speakers from The Seed and Plate What is The Seed and Plate?

We are an independent magazine in Athens, Ga. with a focus on food, farming and community in the Southeast. We hope to educate and inspire using our surroundings and the amazing people we’ve met along the way. We begin now as an online media publication, with an eye towards a print version in the future. Enjoy.

The Seed and Plate has been fantastic because they have presented to the students several times on composting, community farming, and being friendly to our earth. They have also supported students as they work on environmental projects and plan to give our students an outlet for publishing their work.

We’ve also hosted the Athens Clarke County Recycling Department to talk to the students about composting. Students have been using compost bins and paying attention to the amount of food that is being thrown away in our cafeteria. Since students are watching this closely, they are really starting to think about what we can do as a school to be friendly to our Earth.

After our exploration of print and digital resources as well as our guest speakers, I sent all of the resources into classrooms for students to continue using. Students chose a focus area to learn more about. Then, they came back to the library to learn about 3 options for final projects during the last week of school.

Option 1: Students could write a script with or without props and record it on our environmental Flipgrid.

Option 2: Students could use the Story Me app on the iPad to create a comic strip about their chosen topic.

Option 3: Students could create a blackout poem using text from a web resource or a copied page from an environmental book.

As I shared each option with students, I let them know what they would need to prepare in order to create their final product in one work session. For Flipgrid, students would need their scripts and prop. For Story Me, students would need drawings that they wanted to include in their comic and possible text that would go into speech bubbles written on post it notes. For blackout poetry, students needed to print the page from the web or have teachers copy a page from a book to use. Students spent 2 days in class preparing their materials.

Today, students came to the library with their materials ready. I gave one more quick overview of the projects and we designated areas for record, areas for coloring for blackout poetry, and areas for spreading out to take photographs for Story Me. The classroom teacher, Natalie Hicks (spectrum teacher), folks from The Seed and Plate, and I all walked around and helped students think through the process of creating their product.

Eventually, I stopped roaming around so that I could focus on collecting work from students. Each Story Me comic was saved to the camera roll on the iPad and then downloaded to a folder on my computer. Each blackout poem was photographed and downloaded to a separate folder. Flipgrids were automatically added to the online grid as students submitted.

The students were truly prepared when they came to the library today. This allowed them to really focus on putting together their final product rather than focus on trying to create all of the content. Students supported one another and adults were able to focus on students who needed extra support.

Now our work is ready to show to the world. We’re sharing it all with our new friends at The Seed and Plate to highlight on their website but we also have a gallery to share with you here.

Flipgrid:

Blackout Poetry:

Story Me Comics:

November 6, 2013 by plemmonsa

Exploring Georgia Habitats with 3rd Grade

Each of our 3rd grade classes have booked time in the media center to research the habitats of Georgia. Here’s what they need to know:

S3L1. Students will investigate the habitats of different organisms and the dependence of
organisms on their habitat.
a. Differentiate between habitats of Georgia (mountains, marsh/swamp, coast,
Piedmont, Atlantic Ocean) and the organisms that live there.
b. Identify features of green plants that allow them to live and thrive in different regions
of Georgia.
c. Identify features of animals that allow them to live and thrive in different regions of
Georgia.
d. Explain what will happen to an organism if the habitat is changed.

S3L2. Students will recognize the effects of pollution and humans on the environment.
a. Explain the effects of pollution (such as littering) to the habitats of plants and
animals.
b. Identify ways to protect the environment.
• Conservation of resources
• Recycling of materials

During their library time, I set the stage by doing a brief mini-lesson. We looked at the standard and talked about the word “feature”. We tied this to the word “adaptation” and looked up the definition online.

a change or the process of change by which an organism or species becomes better suited to its environment.

Then we looked at a National Geographic video on owls. We didn’t watch the entire video, but we paused each time a new feature of the owl was mentioned: its satellite head, its huge eyes, its large wings, etc. We tied this back to the word “feature” an the word “adaptation” so that students would know the kinds of things they were looking for in their research.

Next, I posed the question: Why does all of this matter to us? why do we need to learn about animals, plants, and their habitats? Before they answered, we watched a news clip that aired this morning. It was a perfect fit to our topic because it showed a black bear roaming around near an elementary school’s dumpster in Hall County.

http://www.wsbtv.com/videos/news/hall-county-schools-cancels-after-hours-activities/vCHZXM/

After watching this clip, I posed the question again. Students said things like:

If we know about plants and animals, then we’ll know how to take care of them.
If we know about habitats, then we’ll know how to not pollute them.
We’ll know how to keep animals alive and where they belong.
and more.

I was really glad that I watched the news this morning at the gym instead of rushing in to school because that clip really set the stage for our research.

For about 30 minutes, students used a graphic organizer to gather information about the habitats, plants, and animals of Georgia in a variety of ways. They could freely float between 3 different areas in the library.

Books: I used the State Standards Publishing series for regions, rivers, and habitats of Georgia.
Posters: These posters featured different kinds of animals along with a map of where they were found in Georgia. Students had to identify an animal, look at what region of Georgia it was found in, and then think about what habitat that would fall under on their graphic organizer.
Websites: Students had access to a Sqworl site that had songs, informational sites, and games about the habitats and regions of Georgia. http://sqworl.com/uo3kud

As usual, it was interesting to see where students chose to go. Some went directly to games. Others went to posters. Other chose books. It really said a lot about what kinds of media our students need access to in order to match their needs as learners. Some students stayed at the same station or site for the entire 30 minutes while others moved to several stations. During this time, the teacher, student teacher, special education teacher, and I were able to walk around and facilitate learning. We asked questions to nudge students thinking or spent time showing students how they might pay close attention to a game and gather facts while still maintaining momentum in their game. As usual, it was very freeing and individualized. This has come to be one of my favorite models for gathering information. My regret is that we don’t have more day scheduled to find information. Now, the students will use their 1 to 1 netbooks to continue to explore the Sqworl site on their own.

October 23, 2013 by plemmonsa

A Visit to the High Museum of Art: Witness…The Art of Jerry Pinkney

Today was step 2 of our 3rd grade folktale project, and it was a big step. We traveled to the High Museum of Art to see the exhibit Witness: The Art of Jerry Pinkney. Prior to going, we spent time exploring all of Pinkney’s books in our library collection. Mrs. Foretich, the art teacher, also did a lesson on museum etiquette.

On the way to the High, students explored Pinkney’s books some more. As we neared our destination, I asked a few students to think about what they might like to tweet about the books or their excitement for the exhibit. Our plan was to use twitter throughout the trip to document some of the things we saw and the things we learned. We used our school hashtag #barrowbuddies to tag our posts.

After arriving, our groups split in half. Some toured the exhibit, whiles other ate lunch. Then we switched. Some of us were also able to explore some of the permanent collection before our tour began.

The tour of Witness: The Art of Jerry Pinkney was done by a docent. We received a brief history of the museum before entering the exhibit. Our docent had us sit in front of collections of paintings and told us about the stories that the paintings came from. We saw paintings from historical books such as Minty and Black Cowboy Wild Horses, folktales such as Three Little Kittens, Rikki Tikki Tavi, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Little Match Girl, and biblical stories such as Noah’s Ark. Our docent had the kids work together to retell some of the familiar folktales as she pointed out things in the paintings. We noticed how Pinkney set The Little Match Girl in New York City rather than in Europe where the tale came from. We noticed how Pinkney set Little Red Riding Hood in a wintry woods so that it made sense for her to wear the kind of cloak she was wearing. Along the way, we also learned about Pinkney’s childhood and how he always had access to a pencil and art supplies. As we studied the watercolor paintings, we were reminded of the difficulty of working with this medium and the need to work quickly before the colors run together. At the close of the exhibit, we looked at The Lion and the Mouse. Along with looking at the paintings, students got to do some impromptu storytelling of their own using puppets.

http://youtu.be/au7CvQzDuQs

The finale of our visit was getting to hear some of Pinkney’s folktales come to life through the storytelling talents of a rambler from the Wren’s Nest. We heard 2 folktales, and the students were heavily involved in the performance. He had them hanging on every word.

http://youtu.be/ld_G4nzkM1I

Our field trip allowed us time to do a brief second stop at the Georgia State Capitol rotunda. Although students didn’t get to tour the entire Capitol, they at least got a frame of reference for the Capitol as we study it back at school. We plan to use the Georgia Capitol Tour App on our iPads to do a more in-depth look at this landmark.

Once again on the way home, students took another look at Pinkney’s books with a new appreciation for the artwork that spans the pages of this books. It was truly awesome to stand in a room surrounded by the collective work of Pinkney. We did not have enough time to truly appreciate the years of work that went into this collection, but we will return to our school with a new appreciation of his art.

Our next steps will be to: