Inman Primary

Mr. Erickson's First Grade Class Practices Reading Strategies Taught by Red Oak Eighth Grade Students

Our eighth graders did a fantastic job teaching their reading lessons! The first grade students in Mr. Erickson's class were a joy to work with!

Red Oak Middle School Students Visit Inman Primary! 


Today was the first day that one of our middle school classes visited Inman Primary! Our 8th graders were assigned to a few reading buddies in Mr. Erickson's classroom. The first graders met with the eighth grader that they are going to be paired with all week, and spent a few minutes getting to know their "teaching partner" during our meet and greet session this morning. This is going to be such a fun week!

Using New Web 2.0 Tools to Engage Our Learners! 

Students from Mrs. Vannausdle's class were introduced to a new tool called Little Bird Tales. These third graders have been working on a "Flat Person" community project over the past several weeks. Every student from Mrs. Vannausdle's class sent out a flat person, (their own Flat Stanley), to different businesses around town. Questions were sent along with their flat person that focused on goods and services that their business offered. When all of the flat people and question forms are sent back to the students, they will be writing about what they learned. Mrs. V's third graders will create a book about what they learned using the tool Little Bird Tales. The students are excited to get going with their Little Bird tales!

Here is a quick tutorial on how to use Little Bird Tales:

Celebrating Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss' Birthday

On Friday, March 1st, the following classes connected with Mr. Erickson's eighth graders and celebrated reading on Read Across America Day: Miss Crouse, Miss Smits, Mrs. Nielsen, Mrs. Billings, Mrs. Graber, Mr. Erickson, Mrs. Dunn, and Mrs. Dolch.

We planned a fun collaborative activity for this special day that exposed our students to a new technology (for most) , Google Hangouts. For all of you Skyoe users, Google Hangouts is a great alternative that allows you to connect with up to nine other people at one time. Here is an article that outlines some possible ideas on how you can utilize Google Hangouts in the classroom and/or in education.

Before our reading event on Friday, the classroom teachers that were participating filled out an NEA Reading Achievement Award for all of their students. These awards were given to the kindergarten and first grade students after all of the reading events for the day were completed.

To start off our reading celebration, our students watched a quick video that captured some of our elementary and secondary students reading the NEA's Read Across America Poem.



The read Across America Poem is available on the following website:  NEA - Read Across America Poem
I used iMovie, which is installed on my MacBook Pro, to create and edit this movie. I then uploaded the completed movie to my YouTube account in order to share it as a video. If you have an iPad, you can download the iMovie app for $14.99.( iMovie App Link ) iMovie is an awesome tool for creating and editing movies and would highly recommend using it!

After watching the video, our elementary students listened to eighth graders while they introduced themselves and talked about their favorite Dr. Seuss book. After the introductions, the eighth graders lead an echo reading with the elementary students, reading the NEA's Reader's Oath. It was so much fun to listen to the kids read this pledge together.

Mrs. Dunn's class and Mrs. Dolch's class performed their special reading song they had been working on for the eighth graders. They did a fantastic job!


The last part of our collaborative time was spent playing Dr. Seuss BINGO. I created some BINGO cards for the first grade classes that included some of their important words. The Kindergarten classes also used their important words on their BINGO cards.The eighth graders and Mr. Erickson took turns reading the BINGO words to the elementary students. This was a fun activity for all!

This was a great way to spend Read Across America day, celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday, and try out Google Hangouts!  

Creating a Video of Mrs. Sterbick's Class Performance on Digital Learning Day

Mrs. Sterbick's class has been working hard on their Charlotte's Web One Book\One School performance. Today I captured their video on my iPad and then created a video to add to the One Book / One School Tubesnack station that will be played during our Charlotte's Web family event on February 12th. 

Glogging on Digital Learning Day

The glogs are almost finished! Here are a couple pictures of what the third graders were working on today in Mrs. Jones' room on Digital Learning Day: 

Here are a few examples of the glogs that these third graders are creating:

   


   

  

Encouraging a Love For Reading and Celebrating Digital Learning Day Via Skype

Today, Miss Crouse's kindergarten class and Mrs. Pease's third grade class had the opportunity to listen to a couple of books written by some of our local seventh graders via Skype.

The books were read by seventh graders, Noah and Cody. The authors of the books, Morgan and Paige,  wrote and illustrated these fun books in Mrs. Manz's seventh grade language arts class. This Skype session was a fun way to share the hard work and creativeness that the seventh graders put forth when creating these books. This was also a fun way to share the love of reading and celebrate Digital Learning Day with one of our kindergarten classes!

Cody read Paige's book first.

Next, Noah read Morgan's book. 

We did not have enough time for Hannah's book to be read, but Hannah did get in on all of the fun! 

 

What a great way to celebrate Digital Learning Day! 

February 6th, 2013

Favorite Charlotte's Web Character Voting

Over the past five weeks, our students, staff, and families have been taking part in our first annual One Book/One School reading event. Teachers have been reading the book Charlotte's Web with students at school, and our students have been reading the book at home with their families. On Friday, all of our students and teachers voted for their favorite Charlotte's Web character. The results will be posted soon! Here is a short PhotoPeach slideshow of the voting booths. 

Favorite Charlotte's Web Character Voting! on PhotoPeach

February 2nd, 2013

Glogs, Glogs, and More Glogs!

Today we continued our research project by reviewing the Super 3 Research Steps and assessing where the students were at using the Super 3 Research Rubric. Next, the students learned how to create a Glog using an awesome Web 2.0 tool, Gloster. After modeling how to create and edit a glog, we took the students into the Tiger lab so that they could try out their glogging skills! The third graders did an awesome job setting up their glog, adding a wall, and adding a title to it. Stay tuned for more glogging fun! 

January 28th, 2013 

Super 3 Research Steps & Glogster

One of the third grade teachers, Mrs. Jones, and I have been collaborating on an Author Study Research project over the past week. The third grade students in Mrs. Jones' class have been learning the Super 3 Research Process as part of this project. In an effort to make this learning as engaging as possible, I created a Glog for the elementary students to access and learn from as we are going through the research steps.( Super 3 Research Steps ) 

On Tuesday we went over step one of the Super 3, which allowed our third graders to devise a plan for their research that they would begin the following day. 

On Wednesday they began their author research. Mrs. Jones created some handy research folders for all of the students. The folders were a genius idea! They really helped with the organization of their research questions.

In order to assist with some of the newly learned information literacy skills, accessing and locating information, I created a pathfinder using Google Docs. The pathfinder includes books that are available in our library, ebooks that are available through our AEA's Follett Shelf, and websites for all of their chosen authors. You can view the author pathfinder here Author Study Pathfinder  

Mrs. Jones and I have been very pleased with the research that the third graders have conducted so far. They have been very much engaged in this project. It is going to be so much fun to learn from them about all of their authors!

After the third graders have located all of their needed information, they are to go back to the same websites they used for their research and find pictures to go along with their information. They will be inserting these pictures into their Glog that they will be creating for their end product.

On Monday, January 28th, we will be teaching the third graders how to use Glogster. They are going to be very excited about trying out this new tool! 

Using PhotoStory 3 With Mrs. Walford's Class

Mrs. Walford just completed an awesome research project with her students! The second graders researched various animals and then create fun stories about their animals. Mrs. Walford came to me and asked me if I would help her students add narration to their stories. I was very excited about helping her students with this project! The second graders in Mrs. Walford's class did a fantastic job narrating their stories using PhotoStory 3. This was a great way for students to practice their fluency. While recording, we were able to discuss their fluency skills and then they were able to listen to themselves read their stories. Thank you Mrs. Walford for allowing me to come in and help you and your students with this awesome project!

State Research PowerPoints

Mrs. Bruce's third graders have been finishing up and  presenting their PowerPoints this past week. The third graders have done a fabulous job with their research and with the creation of their PowerPoint presentations!  Some of the students decided that they wanted to add audio to their presentations to make their presentations seem more like a photo story. Mrs. Bruce helped record audio, while I helped others finish up with their PowerPoint slides. Overall, we have been very pleased with the final products! 

One Book One School Event 

On December 19th, we held our first ever Inman Primary One Book, One School kick-off presentation. I captured the days events on my iPad and uploaded the video to my computer so that I could create an iMovie for the event. After creating the iMovie, I uploaded the movie to my YouTube account. Next, I thought it would be fun to try out a new tool that I recently added to my Web 2.0 toolbox, called TubeSnack. TubeSnack is a free tool that allows you to create playlists of videos. I thought this would be a great place to store all of our One Book, One School videos that I intend to create and collect over the next month. You can view the video of our kickoff event by clicking on the TubeSnack link below.

50 States Research Unit

December 19, 2012 - 

Last week Mrs. Bruce, Mrs. Pease, and I started a 50 states research project with our third graders. Our students began their research project by first learning about the Super 3 research process. After going over the first step in the research process, our third graders were introduced to MackinVia, which is a free resource that is offered through our AEA. The third graders located an e-book for their state that they chose to research, and then used their newly acquired e-book skills to locate information about their state. The third graders followed an outline that was put together by Mrs. Bruce and Mrs. Pease that included the content they wanted the third graders to learn about their chosen state. 

After we return from our winter break, we will continue on with our research project. Students will be creating a presentation with their state information and then will present their final product to the rest of the class. 

3rd Graders Explore Mackin VIA During WIN

Today some of our third graders who visited the computer lab were introduced to Mackin VIA. The students had a great time looking through the e-books that are available on this awesome resource. I will be introducing this ebook resource to all third graders on Friday so that they can use Mackin VIA to help them with their upcoming state research. 

Some of the third graders came with their "thinking hats" on today! These students pictured below were at the writing center that is set up as one of the centers in the media center during our WIN time at Inman. 

Using Paint in the Computer Lab

The K-3rd grade students that visited the computer lab on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving had the opportunity to use a computer tool called Paint. I "borrowed" this idea from a now retired teacher, Mr. Crouch. Mr. Crouch would host a Paint contest with his computer classes before our Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. I had the opportunity to judge the Paint creations that the middle school students created. I was always very impressed with the creativity that was put forth in their Paint projects!
 I though this would be a fun activity to try with the elementary students. I decided to hold a contest for the third graders and run it like Mr. Crouch always did with his students. I was amazed with the end products that the Inman students created! The images below are the third grade contest winners:

PE Time For Mrs. Erickson! 

I had the opportunity to step in for Mrs. Lamb yesterday. I had so much fun with the K-3 students! I thought I would share some of the pictures from some of the activities that the students took part in. They had a blast trying out our rock climbing wall! (I had a blast as well!) 

 Kindergarten classes:

 First Grade Classes: 

 Second Grade Classes: 

Third Grade Classes: 

Ryan is demonstarting how we should NOT go past the red "danger line" on the rock climbing wall. 

The third graders ended with scooter races!

 Computer Lab Time 

The Kindergarten classes have been using a website called abcya.com in the computer lab during our WIN Wednesdays. I really like the learning activities that are included on this website. Here are some of the activities that the Kindergartners explored and worked on Wednesday, November 7th: 

The alphabet Matching game: 

Match the letter to it's sound

Create words by moving the magnets to the refrigerator. 

Learn the keyboard!

Create a word search puzzle! This kindergartner used words that she could think of that she had been learning in class! Very impressive!  

Election Time!!

All DK-3rd grade students took part in a school wide election on Tuesday November 6th. Our third grade classes were in charge of helping out at the election booths. Here are a few pictures from our election day:

(COMING SOON!...CHECK BACK BY NOV. 12th) 

Researching and Blogging With Mrs. Kelly's Second Grade Class!

Yesterday Mrs. Kelly's second grade class came into the computer lab and began working on their animal research project. These second graders will be conducting research on a chosen animal and then posting their findings on their blogs. Mrs. Kelly has set up a class blog account using Kidblog.org. This is an awesome blogging tool for educators that is easy to set up and easy to use. Each student in Mrs. Kelly's class has their own blog link that they will be using for this research project and throughout the school year. 

Yesterday we went over a few internet safety and identity safety items before the students accessed their blogs. Here are the learning targets that we addressed with this lesson:

Once we went over the learning target for the day, students were instructed to type in the URL for Mrs. Kelly's Class blog. I will post a link to the class blogs once students have added information to them. 

Library QR Codes

Today I created QR codes for our library website. I uploaded the code to a sign that I created to hang up around the school. Teachers can scan this QR code with their SmartPhones or iPads and be directed to our library website that is full of resources for students and teachers.                                                                                                 

  

21st Century Conference Fun!!

Today Mrs. Fluckey and I are presenting at the 21st Century Conference in Bedford, IA. Our presentation is titled "Engaging Students With Technology Driven Projects". You can view our presentation Wiki by clicking on the picture below:

This morning we had the opportunity to listen to Kevin Honeycutt speak about engaging our students with the use of technology. He is an awesome speaker who is very inspiring. His website is full of great resources. Visit his website to gain some different ideas as to how you can engage your students with the use of technology.  

Book Fair Poster Contest! 

This past week all Inman Primary students have been creating reading posters for our poster contest that we are having during our Scholastic Book Fair. The poster contest winners will receive a free poster from our book fair. I created a document that I hung up around the media center that listed the instructions for the poster contest. You can view the poster contest document here: elementary reading poster contest 

Here are some pictures of the third grade poster entries:

Here are a few second grade entries:

Here are some of the first grade entries: 

Here are some of the Kindergarten and DK entries:

All Inman students did a fantastic job on their reading posters! 28 students will win a poster from the book fair on Thursday.

What I Learned at the GHAEA Teacher Librarian Workshop...

Ann Petersen and I had the opportunity to attend the GHAEA Teacher Librarian workshop that was held on  September 13th in Red Oak. I gained so many new and exciting ideas that I cannot wait to get started on! Our AEA now has a subscription with Mackin Via! Just click on this link and enter your school's AEA username and password. You will be directed to the Mackin Via collection that is FREE and available for all teachers and students!

Another awesome eBook resource that is available through our AEA is the FollettShelf. Click on this link and you will be directed to the elementary FREE FollettShelf eBook collection! Click on this link and you will be directed to the secondary FREE FollettShelf eBook collection! Just enter your school's AEA username and password and you will be able to browse and start reading any eBook!

I also learned about our AEA online updates. We now have a great resource to use in our classrooms called AEA Digital Library. Visit this website, enter your AEA username and password, and browse the collection. You should be able to download any video you would like to use in your classroom to your computer.

A few other topics that were covered at this workshop included iPads in the classroom, ways in which eBooks can support literacy growth, and some new Google tools! Google now has a handy research tool that is available via Google Docs! Click on the following video to see how to use this awesome tool!
  Google Docs Research Tool . I will definitely be using this with the 8th graders when it comes time to learn the research process!

Make sure to check out the Red Oak library website to see what other resources are available! All resources included in this blog post are available on our library website as well!!

WIN Wednesday Fun!

Today was the first day that we ran our WIN Wednesday schedule at Inman Primary. On these special days, the media center is filled with student learning all day long! Students were involved in different activities at the different stations we had set up around the media center. 

The first station was a read and relax station. Students could either read one of their good fit books silently or they could read quietly with a buddy. 

The second station was a writing station. Writing prompts were posted on the wall for students to use when they started their work at this station. 

The third station was in the Tiger Computer Lab. Students worked on the following during this station:  how to log on to the computer, how to care for the computer, how to open up a web page, how to open up new tabs, how to log off the computer correctly, and explored the Google Chrome apps that are on the computers. 

All students did a fantastic job in the media center today! It was so much fun to see all the learning that took place today! 

Goldfinch Award Winners Display

Today I created a hall display of the 2012-2013 Goldfinch Award winner books so that students and teachers could view these books from the hallway. My hope is that students will see these books as they are walking by and will remember them when they come to the media center to check out a new book to read. This is also a good way for teachers to quickly gain an idea of a book that they might want to use in one of their lessons. 

Our New Media Paraprofessional! 

Mrs. Sifford is our new media paraprofessional at Inman Primary school. We are VERY excited to have her in the library at Inman. Mrs. Sifford has been busy rearranging the books on the shelves in the library. The kids are going to love the way that they are arranged! Book arrangement is something that Mrs. Sifford and I have discussed quite a bit this year. "Ditching the Dewey" seems to be a hot topic right now in the library world. We have not completely done away with the Dewey Decimal System, but we do have some of our books arranged by topics rather than by the Dewey call number. We still have MUCH work and discussion to do on the topic of book arrangement in our elementary library. For now, we are pleased with the new arrangement! 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Fun!

This week in the library we are reading and discussing the book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" with the Kindergarten classes. I found a fun BINGO game for the kids to play while working on their letter recognition. This book is the first piece of literature that the kindergarten classroom teachers and I have planned as part of our connecting the classroom to the library curriculum.

See What is Happening During Media Special at Inman!

I have created a Google calendar for our media specials at Inman Primary School. Anyone can view the calendar to see what the students will be doing on any given day. The days that are titled as lesson days are the days in which I will be at Inman teaching the students a literacy, library, or technology lesson. The days that are titled Storytime will be days in which Mrs. Sifford will read to the students. I will be adding any videos I create for media special time, lesson plans, and any other links that go along with lessons on the calendar. This information can be viewed by clicking on the lesson date and then by viewing the details for that particular day.

I am starting an incentive in the library for good behavior. All classes will be given four stars to start the day off with during media special time. Classes that end the day with all four stars remaining, will receive a book. Once a class receives four books, they will receive their chosen party. They can choose from the following parties: 1. Movie Party 2. Treasure Box Party 3. Cookie Party 4. Computer Game Day Party

If a class happens to loose a star throughout the media special time, they can earn that star back by following my expectations and by being a respectful class. 

Pictures of the Library

A few changes have been made in the Inman library since the beginning of the school year. There is still work to be done, but here are the pictures of the library as of now.

Library Orientation!

Our K-3 students have been taking part in a library orientation this past week. I created a video that our students watched and discussed. We will be finishing up the video this week. Our 1st-3rd grade students will be checking out their first book to take home from the media center this school year!