COE Cheetahs Win 3rd Place in Battle of the Bluebonnets!

The COE Battle of the Bluebonnets team took home 3rd place yesterday after a heated competition!  Our team of 5 reading rock stars, led by their coach Mrs. Collings, actually tied for first place with three other schools- several tie breaker questions were needed to settle the competition. In the end we brought home 3rd place medals- our highest finish yet!
Our team practiced well and worked together as a team- and it paid off.  If you see Mrs. Collings or one of these students, be sure to congratulate them on their accomplishment!

Movenote: A New Tool that has Spread Like Wildfire @ COE!

Recently, several Chandler Oaks teachers have learned about a new tool to use with their students called Movenote.  Movenote lets students combine photos or documents with video so they can talk about their work. This is an awesome tool to use to encourage reflection, fluency, presenting and sharing!  But it's not really about the tool, it's about all the great learning that is taking place when students use it! Check out these examples to see COES students hard at work sharing their learning!

Ms. Estrada's 1st grade class: What traditions do you celebrate in your family?
Ms. Ortega's 1st Grade Class: Procedural Video- How To Make A Snowman
Ms Imperial with 2nd Grade: Poems about Pets in Spanish
Ms. Morehead's Kindergarten Class: Read Aloud of Published Writing Sample 1  Sample 2  Sample 3

I think you'll agree that our students have found a lot of great uses to communicate what they know and have accomplished!

Blogging in the Classroom: Kinder and 4th Grade Students Think, Wonder and Reflect

This year, two classes have started blogging in the classroom with a great tool called KidBlog.  Both Kindergarten and 4th grade students started blogs this spring as an opportunity to write and express their ideas and wonders for a wider audience.  Students have written about their activities at school and in their daily lives, things they wonder about, and their reflections of the day. In just over a month of blogging, the two classes have received over 2700 views!  Pretty amazing!

Kinder blog samples:

4th grade samples:

We hope you will hop over to their blogs and check them out.  One of the best things a blog author can get is some great feedback and comments.  So if you like what you see, or you have some thoughts or questions of you own, I know our students would love some comments!  (By the way, for student safety, all comments are moderated by the teacher, so your comment will need teacher approval before it can be viewed by others.)

Mrs. Morehead's Kindergarten Class

Mrs. Ganong's 4th Grade Class

3rd Grade Investigates Communities

3rd grade students recently wrapped up their Sharing the Planet unit.  Their central idea was "Human and geographic factors shape communities."  Lots of different learning activities helped build student understanding of this idea.  

Students worked in groups to research various landforms on PebbleGo (one of our library research resources).  

Then,  they created a visual representation that included the important facts and information from their research and presented it to their class.

Students worked in groups and used Kidspiration (mind mapping software) to create Venn diagrams where they compared different types of communities such as rural, urban, and suburban.

Students interviewed a family member about the community they currently live in or where they grew up in order to learn about how that community developed.  Students created a timeline and presented it to the class.

Keith Abbott, a parent and local minister, shared photos and spoke to all of 3rd grade about how the hurricane in Haiti affected the community.

Kindergarten Investigates: Cheetahs

Kindergarten students have been sharpening their research skills!  The past two weeks, Mrs. Morehead's class has been working together to create a research project.  The children voted on a topic (Cheetahs), did all of the research (some in books, some using on-line resources), took notes of their research, compiled information in small groups, and then independently created a 3D display of their part and recorded their voice using Easi-speak microphones.  This is the movie that they made. What a great way for kinder students to share their knowledge with others!

4th Grade Students Create Book Trailers

4th grade students in Mr. Snyder's class have been making book trailers with their book clubs.  After finishing their books, student talked about the story and pulled out elements that might make the book something others would want to read.  Students checked out some examples, then talked about what features make a good trailer.  They created a storyboard and gathered images from clip art that would help them entice a viewer to read their book without giving the whole story away.  Finally, they used Photostory to combine their images and voices to create their trailers.  Check out a few of their projects below, and maybe even find a new book to read!

Read Around the World

Student Council members worked together to recruit guest readers among their family, friends, and community.  The students advertised the event on broadcast and at school assemblies.  They also introduced the speakers and helped make sure everyone had what they needed on the day of the event.  Student Council's goal for the event was to create an appreciation of other cultures and languages from our community which therefore helps Chandler Oaks become a No Place for Hate!  The event was a success!