5th grade use technology to learn about the past

Mrs. Birrel's 5th grade class are engaged in learning about the tools and technology from the past. They are learning how the past has influenced the present by using computers to view photos of medical and other equipment from the 19th and 20th Centuries. Working together in small groups, they are able to talk about the old fashioned equipment and compare it with the tools and technology of today and realize that what we have today has evolved from the things that were used in the past.

1st Grade Reflects...I Want to Be Like

First grade students recently completed their Where We Are in Place and Time unit where they explored the central idea Exploring influential people from the past can inspire our way of life. After they studied characteristics of people who influenced the past and how people's previous actions inspire future change, students reflected on who they might want to be like. Students uploaded their photo into Phrase.it and wrote a speech bubble of who they wanted to be like and why. It is evident that this unit get students thinking about how they can use what they learned from others to make good choices today! Check out a few samples from Mrs. Moyer's class below and see the whole class by clicking here.

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!

5th Grade Photo Collages

Earlier this year, 5th grade students brought in memory/ scrapbook type items to class. They composed a collage, then took a photo. Students printed out their collage and included it in the writer's notebook. This will help them generate ideas when they are writing stories in class. Check out a few examples from Mrs. Walker's class:

COE Cheetahs Celebrate International Day of Peace!

COE Cheetahs have been celebrating the International Day of Peace each year. This year in art class, students are making symbols of peace in origami like cranes, butterflies, doves, hearts, homes, and lotus flowers. Students also pledged to take individual actions.  As an IB school, it is so important to all of us that we each do our part to make this world a more peaceful place.  Check out what some of our students have pledged to do in the video below!

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

5th Grade Gets Inspired by Art

5th Grade is currently in their How We Express Ourselves unit of inquiry. 

Their central idea is:  Art, music and literature can express the values and influence the culture of the time
And the lines of inquiry:
1. Art reflects the values of a time period
2. The legacy of artistic contributions
3. How artists craft their art, music & literature to convey their message

Students looked at a variety of pieces of art then wrote a creative writing piece inspired by one of the works of art.  Once students are done with their piece, they will compare their story with what actually inspired the artist to create the piece.  Have you studied these pieces before?  What message do they convey to you?  

Kindergarten Paperslides

Kindergarten students recently wrapped up their Where We are in Place and Time IB unit. Their central idea was: Homes are unique all over the world. They inquired into: types of shelter, the difference between home & shelter, and organisms without a home. As their summative (end of unit) assessment, students did a "paperslides" project. The students picked an organism and drew them with and without a home. The students then recorded their slides and explained their learning.  Check out a few samples below:

4th Grade Living Leader Museum

During 4th grade's How We Organize Ourselves unit, they studied the central idea: Conditions within a community dictate the types of leaders that emerge. One of their activities was to construct a Leader Living Museum. The 4th grade students used their research skills to learn more about important leaders, then developed speeches using the information from their research. Each student created a poster with their leader on it, and other students could "push a button" and hear the speech of that leader.

5th Grade Book Critics

To show understanding of their book club projects, 5th grade students have been writing book recommendations to share with other fifth graders.  This is the beginning of a living document where students can find out about potential books by their peers.  Students are using Google Slides (like Power Point) to contribute to a collaborative document.  As students finish other books this year, they can write up recommendations to share with other students.  

Check out some of their work, and maybe even find a new book to read!

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.

4th Grade Reflects and Graphs the Results

Students created Essential Agreements (or norms for the classroom) at the beginning of the year. Then,they reflected on how they have been doing so far using post-its to create a bar graph.

They noticed which traits they are all focusing on the most and which traits they want want to try to focus on more in the future. They say, "Next time we create a graph, we hope that we will have more examples of the traits we were lacking on this time."