Thursday, January 24, 2013

First Graders Become Storytellers/Videographers with iPad app

Bella and Boden replay the story they created using the
Puppet Pals iPad app during Library class.
In recent weeks first graders at Memorial School have become adept at an iPad app called Puppet Pals. The students have become well versed with key elements of a story - character, setting and plot - so since the new year they have worked with a partner to create their own stories.  First they chose fairytale characters and settings and developed a plot line to create a video puppet show on an iPad using a FREE app called Puppet Pals.  More recently, first graders have explored additional story genres and themes such as holiday, arthropod, monster, political, and farm animal stories. We will continue to work on our storytelling skills utilizing the key story elements including plots with problems and solutions and post them online once we have perfected our storytelling skills!

The 20 library iPads were provided by a grant from the Spaulding EducationTrust and an anonymous donor.  They have become an integral part of teaching information literacy skills in all grades - K through grade 5.  We are lucky and learning via iPads everyday at the Memorial School Library. Thank you!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Busy, Busy in the Library and Tech Lab!

The New Year has started off with plenty of activity in the school library and the technology labCheck out these photos of students of all ages learning about everything from penguins' struggle to survive and the life of Martin Luther King - to  grammar apps to how to create a QR Code to researching the USA to developing autobiographical PowerPoint presentations.

Technology Lab Substitute Teacher Mr. Paul Clark helps
5th graders use an iPad to answer questions to a Math
quiz. The quiz required students to scan QR Codes that gave
information needed to answer an array of math questions. The 5th
grade also learned how to CREATE their own QR codes! Look for
the codes around the school building in the coming weeks!

Second graders get competitive playing the iPad app
Bluster. The game tests their skills matching rhyming
words, synonyms, homophones, word roots, etc.
Mrs. Blanchette's third grade was the first to
finish THE WILLOUGHBYS by Lois Lowry.
Library teacher Ms. Silag read this favorite of hers
aloud at the start of library class for several weeks.  The
book introduced us to many sophisticated words and we
were all quite please with the "old-fashioned"ending!

 
Kindergartners do the Penguin Shuffle during a Library
Lesson about the Emperor Penguin's life in the frigid
 Antarctic. They shuffled together through the
 "wind"  to keep penguin "eggs"safe and warm
in the frigid Antarctic. All our eggs survived!
 We agreed being a penguin is hard work!
Fourth grader Ben G. uses library books
and online sources found on the iPad
to research the state of Montana.  The project
is a collaboration between the Library and Tech Lab
and integrates research skills, technology skills
and Social Studies.  The end product will be a
travel brochure on each state in the USA!