Drumpets and T-gons and Penkeys, Oh My!

scranimalsThe Fourth Grade students have completed a unit on poetry appreciation.  After studying about the basic elements of poetry, the students enjoyed reading the poems of children’s poet laureate, Jack Prelutsky.  They adored his book Scranimals, which is a clever collection of imaginary creatures.  In the book, illustrator Peter Sis created great pictures of these new creatures, which are combinations of animals with fruits, vegetables or plants. The students spent a few class periods combining the characteristics and the names of different animals and objects and were inspired to create their own original drawings and poems. They are proud to present their creativity in this slide show:

Web 2.0 = Cool Tools

web20titleThe term Web 2.0 has been around for a few years now.  It refers to online applications that are interactive, allowing users to create, collaborate, and share.  Some common examples of Web 2.0 sites are social media sites, blogs, wikis, and picture & video sharing sites.

There are many other applications that are great for students.  Here are four examples of free online applications that you can explore. Check out each one and add a comment to this blog post. You can comment on whether sites like these are helpful or how easy they are to use.

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Read The Words: Converts text to speech   Quizlet: Create flashcards

timetoast_logo Wallwisher logo
TimeToast: Create & share timelines     Wallwisher: Online sticky notes

For more great online applications, be sure to check out this wiki, Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools that has hundred of sites for students and teachers, arranged into 18 different categories:

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The Book Swap is On!

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Clean out your closets & bookshelves for our
used book exchange!

For every gently used children’s book you bring in, you will be able to select another donated book to keep
(up to 10 books).
Please bring books in on your regularly scheduled day for library class.  Upper School students may swap at break.

NASA Celebrates 50th Anniversary of First American in Space

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On May 5, 1961, U.S. astronaut Alan B. Shepard became the first American to orbit the earth when his Freedom 7 spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.  NASA is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first U.S. human flight with several ceremonies and a parade, and the U.S. Postal Service has just released a new stamp honoring Shepard. Mercury_Shepard_stamp_1_1

Students can visit NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature Site to check out several decades of space exploration, from the 1950s through 2000.  This terrific interactive site features Automa, a talking robot, who introduces visitors to the great features of the site.  Students can explore decade by decade, listen to music and news broadcasts for each time period and even launch rockets!  The site’s interactive timeline is easy to navigate, and students (and their families) will find much to discover at this site, which goes far beyond just space exploration.

SHOW®WORLD–A New Way to Look at the World

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Change the world one map at a time…

Use SHOW®WORLD, an online application and watch the countries of the world change size on the map based on the subject you select.  This is a great way to visualize data on population, resources, world religions, and a number of other topics. Data is provided by several international organizations.  Maps can be downloaded and saved as images, and data can be downloaded as an Excel file.  This is a great way to graphically show information for presentations!