3rd Graders Make Work Easier

Third grade students recently finished their summative assessment for their How the World Works unit. Their central idea was work happens when a force causes change.  Students were challenged with creating something that would solve a problem or make life easier.  Students had to address the work that would happen and  the energy needed to help solve the problem or make work easier.  Students could present their creation using any format they chose.
Check out a couple of samples from Ms. Olson's class. These students used Padlet, an online bulletin board, to organize their ideas. Students really exercised their creativity and came up with some pretty innovative ideas!

http://padlet.com/embed/849kiccuee8g

http://padlet.com/embed/1y8amntkfqao

KCOE News: Students at Work

You may not know it, but Chandler Oaks has some budding newscasters in 5th grade!  Each morning, a team of students reports to the broadcast studio to write, rehearse, and produce the daily news show that is delivered to all students.

  Students report to the broadcast room early each morning to update the script with current events, weather, lunch menu, pledges, art and other special segments.  Those same students also produce most of the special reports such as Wonder Box Wednesday, where student reporters research questions submitted by other COE students and report the findings.

Student broadcasters learn communication skills, how to work flexibly on a team and the ins and out of the technology tools used to produce the KCOE news show.  Students get to rotate through a variety of roles such as anchor, engineer, director and special reporter and learn more about some of the duties and skills needed in the broadcast industry.  They learn a lot, but it is also a lot of fun!

5th Grade Students Design a Green City

5th Grade students finished their Sharing the Planet unit last month. The inquired into the central idea Using and conserving resources alters our relationships with communities and environments. To show their understanding at the end of the unit, students were given the real world task of creating a "Green City" that would run entirely on alternative energy. In their presentation, students had to discuss the impact on the community and environment as well as the conditions that must be necessary for the alternative energy forms to successfully power the city. Check out some samples below from Mrs. Walker's class:

4th Grade Ramps Up for the Writing STAAR

4th grade is in the home stretch before the writing STAAR test. They have been doing Six Traits review and revising/editing review in rotations. Students are reminded of how much they have learned throughout the year in writing workshop. They've come a long way and made so much progress as writers! Students are applying their writing skills to develop great ideas, using ba-da-bings to explode the moment, and covering their drafts with colorful revision and editing marks. We are so proud of all our writers!

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:

4th Graders Take a Virtual Tour of Texas- and Send Postcards!

Students in 4th grade recently took a virtual bus tour through the regions of Texas. They took notes on each region as then went. Students used Padlet, an online bulletin board tool, to collect their notes and thoughts. As an assessment, they created a postcard on a Google Drawing and wrote a letter about their favorite region, using facts and details to back up their reasons. See Ms. Barrios' class hard work below:

5th Grade Explorers Trading Cards

5th Grade recently wrapped up their Where We Are in Place and Time unit where they investigated the central idea "Human discovery and exploration shapes the individual and the world." After studying several different explorers, they made trading cards to show what they learned.  Students researched what motivated the explorers and what their impact was.  Students in Mrs. Kim's class used Microsoft Publisher to put together their cards, while students in Mrs. Walker's class utilized Google Docs.  Check out some of their awesome work below:

Links to Mrs. Walker's Class Explorer Trading Cards

1.  http://goo.gl/NgIEkW

2.  http://goo.gl/WAq1Kq

3.  http://goo.gl/PjKS9O

4.  http://goo.gl/riJCF2

5.  http://goo.gl/2KJKo4

6.  http://goo.gl/S47UKs

7.  http://goo.gl/lfvk2o

8. http://goo.gl/WIo182

9. http://goo.gl/Lf05Km

10.  http://goo.gl/1dPlFd

11. http://goo.gl/BfTC6g

12.  http://goo.gl/IcMbO6

13.  http://goo.gl/fgnEQw

14.  http://goo.gl/fWYbW1

15.  http://goo.gl/Fhhbxf

16.  http://goo.gl/A5mbfm

17.  http://goo.gl/OFjit6

18.  http://goo.gl/dD8sbN

19. http://goo.gl/jC1LlR

20.  http://goo.gl/jMFgiF

21.  http://goo.gl/Wj8Nah

1st Grade Graphing with Kidspiration

First grade students have been exploring graphing in math as one way to organize and make sense of data.  Students in Ms. Estrada's class used a table of their favorite colors to make a bar graph using Kidspiration. The math view gives students grid paper and simple shapes to work with, so they were able to make a colorful bar graph that matched their table data.  Students worked cooperatively in partners to create their graph, then together added two observations that they could make such as "blue was the favorite color because it got the most votes" and "yellow and purple have the same number of votes."   Pretty awesome!

3rd Grade Economics Fair

3rd Grade students recently held their annual Economics Fair.  As part of their IB How We Organize Ourselves unit, they inquired into the central idea: Economic systems require decisions and choices that impact lives and communities. Students created goods or developed services and invited the school to come to their marketplace. Prior to the fair, all students wrote a business plan &developed marketing.
Students used Vocaroo to record radio commercials and shot a video commercial to air on our morning news program.  Check them out!
Radio Commercials


3rd graders researched options for what they would do with the profits. Groups presented their ideas and  then they voted on their favorites. This year they decided that their proceeds would benefit The Wounded Warrior Project and Austin Disaster Relief. Austin Disaster relief was chosen because they are helping with recovery efforts in West.  The Wounded Warrior Project was chosen because there are several students that parents that are active in the military.  In total, 3rd grade raised about $1500 from their fair for the community!

Spring Techno Art Movies

Students in Mrs. Lanahan's Techno Art Club have been busy this spring!  They used claymation techniques and Frames movie making software to make their own movies.  Students used a storyboard to plan out their movie, then created scenery and props.  Students used digital cameras to photograph each step of their movie, then combined the photos with music and special effects.  Check out their work 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

4th Grade Letter Writing

Students in 4th grade were recently working on friendly letter writing.  One of Mrs. Ganong's students wanted to write to her grandparents  but their first language was Polish. Although the student can speak and understand Polish, she wasn't sure if she could write it.  She used Google Translate to help. First, she wrote in English, then pasted her work into Google Translate.  Once it translated her writing, she was able to check it over to make sure it sounded right. The whole class benefited as well, because Google Translate will read aloud the translation. It's remarkable what technology tools like Google Translate can do to facilitate communication!

4th Grade Investigates the Uses of Water

4th Grade students in Ms. Barrios' class searched for uses of water and categorized them using an online Web 2.0 tool called Padlet. Students saw how much water we use for "fun/entertainment" and decided that sometimes that is actually wasting water. They took action and decided to come up with ways to conserve water in their everyday use so they wouldn't feel so bad using "fun water" during the summer. What an awesome example of doing something with your learning! This activity is part of their "Sharing the Planet" unit where they are exploring the central idea, The availability of usable water affects people's opportunities.

Check out their work!
http://padlet.com/wall/id8man1tis
http://padlet.com/wall/63vuhykvfw
http://padlet.com/wall/ewcm57a424
http://padlet.com/wall/mk84okcmms

5th Grade Presents: Artists, Musicians & Authors That Reflect Our Values

Students in 5th grade just completed a research project as part of their How We Express Ourselves unit. The were studying the central idea Art, music and literature can express the values and influence the culture of the time. Students were asked to research an artist/author/musician that reflected their values and present to the class. Students passion came though in their presentations and we were able to learn a lot about what they value and find important.  In this example, you can see that Caleb is passionate about I.M. Pei's architecture- he even dressed up as him!

Kindergarten Investigates: WORMS!

Kindergarten students got their hands dirty ins science this week.  In their exploration of living and nonliving things, they had the opportunity to compare gummy worms and real night-crawlers   Students used their observation skills to describe both worms and make note of similarities and differences.  

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?  

3rd Grade Creates Cartoons- en Español!

Third grade students have been putting their language skills to use! They are writing comic strips in class using Kidspiration software to show their use of new vocabulary words.  It's pretty amazing that only after two years of Spanish, our students are writing stories in a second language!  We are lucky to have Senora Imperial- our Teacher of the Year- helping us learn both the language and the culture!

Kinder Kids Dig Into Research

Kindergarten students have been honing their research skills using nonfiction texts and Pebble Go! (one of our library databases . Students inquired into what makes their animal unique and able to survive in it's environment then wrote and illustrated a book to share their findings.