Have you heard? It’s time to make your mark! Using Peter Reynold’s book The Dot, you can kick off your own celebration of creativity. See how here: http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/
Thoughts About Summer!
We teachers are busy gathering resources for students to use over the summer. Reading lists, informative websites, learning apps-I have compiled and gathered and shared. I hope my 3rd through 5th graders work hard on their keyboarding skills on rainy days. I hope they get to the library and read a great book every week. That can be done regardless of weather, right? Possibilities include on a hammock, under a tree, on a park bench!
We are lucky that we live by the ocean. I hope that you get to ride the waves and pick up shells. Maybe you will be lucky enough to get to a Red Sox game! Just don’t forget that reading every day is so important. If you have a little sister or brother, offer to read to them, too!
If I don’t see you at the public library, I will see you in August ready to hear about the good books you’ve read!
Don’t forget sunscreen! 🙂
Reading and Learning Resources
Please save Kerpoof!
@kerpoof @disney I promised my students that I would write to you and express all our concerns about Disney discontinuing its support for the kerpoof.com website. We want to know why you bothered to buy this site to just stop supporting it? We LOVE this site. Kids from kindergarten through grade 5 love creating movies, earning coins to purchase fancier tools; they love making awesome cards and pictures. We love that it’s free but with a pay component if you really can’t live without some of the extras. But mostly we love that what we create at home or at school can be saved and then worked on later on, because it’s web-based. Every one of my students have accounts. We saw that @disney wants to concentrate on mobile apps so that’s why @kerpoof is being tossed aside. Not all students have iPads and tablets, you know. Not all students have computers at their homes. Some kids only get to use technology when they are at school. Taking this away means there’s one less awesome tool for creativity that teachers have in their toolbox. Please reconsider this choice. I know that we always use as our litmus test- “What is best for the kids?” I can tell you what is best-please continue to support this fabulous website for the kids. Thank you. #savekerpoof #kidslovekerpoof
Hour of Code
Dondero School has enjoyed a great week during the Hour of Code! We begin each class with the video announcing what the Hour of Code is. Then I chose an iPad app or a website that the kids could use to program from this list:
Escherian Stairwell
What a great lesson on media literacy!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1123493397/the-stairwell-project-building-a-modern-myth
Great Stone Face 2013 and 2014
Wonder! This was the Great Stone Face Award winner! Wow, this was such an amazing book. I am reading it to grade 4 and we are loving it.
Here are the nominees for 2013-2014:
2013-2014 Nominees
- Buddy by M.H. Herlong
- Chained by Lynne Kelly
- Child of the Mountains by Marilyn Sue Shank H
- Freaky Fast Frankie Joe by Lutricia Clifton
- Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke
- Gods and Warriors by Michelle Paver
- The Golden Door by Emily Rodda
- Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms by Lissa Evans
- Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead
- Little Dog, Lost by Marion Dane Bauer
- Malcolm at Midnight by W.H. Beck
- One Dog and His Boy by Eva Ibbotsen
- One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
- The Power of Poppy Pendle by Natasha Lowe
- Prairie Evers by Ellen Airgood
- The Prairie Thief by Melissa Wiley
- Ship’s Cat Doris by Jane Simmons
- Ungifted by Gordon Korman
- The Vengekeep Prophecies by Brian Farrey Fantasy
- Wooden Bones by Scott William Carter
I’ve just read Little Dog, Lost and am almost finished with The Prairie Thief. Two excellent choices!
Fun Activities to do with Excel
http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/08/01/15-fun-things-with-excel/ (although I cannot get the first activity to work where you insert the shapes. I am using Office 2011 if anyone else figures it out)
http://www.schools.utah.gov/cte/documents/facs/conference/S08/Cmpt_Bentley_Excel2007.pdf
http://celia.wikispaces.com/file/view/excelprojects08.pdf
http://ethemes.missouri.edu/themes/1380
http://www.edtechpolicy.org/MICCA2006/Presentations/ExcelDPM.pdf
Kids and Technology 