Stop Motion

iMotion is a FREE iPad app that let's you easily create Stop Motion videos! I downloaded this app awhile ago and shared it with our art teacher. I didn't really explore it BUT she did and has been creating integrated science Stop Motion videos with 4th graders.

I couldn't believe how easy it was to create. You simply open the app and snap, snap, snap, snap, snap as many pictures as you need while adding to a drawing or moving something, etc. and then save you product! Then plug the iPad into iTunes to export the videos or send them over email! Since they are so small you can attach them to a QR Code using QR Code Maker so she will have the finished drawing on display with the QR Code.

Scan the QR Code to watch a Plant Stop Motion video created by two students in Miss Kohler's 4th Grade art class!

Solar System QRs, Google Drive, Clickers and Graphs

I know more about our solar system today than I did a week ago thanks to VA SOL 4.7 and 4.8. I've had so much fun working with the fourth graders on these objectives! During our first whole class lesson they used QRStuff and QR Code Maker to create their QR Codes. They used QRStuff to link to a cool fact about the planet they had researched in the library and QR Coder Maker to link to a picture of their planet. During the second lesson I had a small group (10 students) use Google Drive to create quiz questions from the curriculum and the class study guide. On their third lesson they learned how to copy and paste from Google Drive into SMART Response software (SMART Notebook) and set up a Clicker Quiz. On the fourth visit the whole class came again and took the Clicker quiz as a review before their big unit test. They did A-W-E-S-O-M-E and cheered upon walking in and being told they were taking a Clicker quiz haha! Today I worked with the same small group and Google Drive again to create graphs from their quiz scores and find the range, mean, median and mode of their scores (2 math objectives which I don't know of the top of my head). They did such a great job! I was beyond impressed and absolutely L<3VE using Google Drive with students! Check out their Google Drive Graphing Activity over here.  

I printed the Clicker quiz and their Google Drive document to hang in the hallway and I put a little blurb in our STAR Points about what 4th grade had been up to with me! I mentioned that if anyone had a similar SOL objective or if they wanted their kids to have practice scanning QR Codes that the 4th grade hallway was the place to be. I suggested students visit the hallway as a center with their iPod and a clipboard to record facts and didn't think much of it! This afternoon the 6th grade science teacher flagged down the fourth grade teachers and asked if it was ok for her kids to come scan the posters, had them send their clicker quizes for her to give to her 6th graders as review AND asked me to help her create a QR Code scavenger hunt slash space timeline activity for her 6th graders for next week! I showed her how to link text and pictures to QR Codes and got her started on the lesson! She was so excited about the activity and couldn't believe how easy it was to make! Needless to say I was SOOO happy leaving school today :)!

PS I was stalking the 4th grade unit test scores this afternoon since we use an online software and I have access! All three classes did very well on their test and ONE even earned a denim pass for next Friday! (Since we are a traditional school and we wear uniforms jeans are very special at our school. You can get a denim pass by earning a class average on a test of 95 or higher).

Google Docs and Clickers

Last week I had a blast working with the fourth graders! They are currently learning about our solar system! They conducted research in the library about the 8 planets. When they came to the lab as a class they made two QR Codes (one linked to a cool fact about their planet and one linked to a picture of their planet)! I wasn't sure how they would do BUT they did amazing even with the few glitches that we ran into! I am learning that teaching something THREE times (we have 3 teachers per grade level) allows for you to reflect and make any changes and really perfect a lesson! They were so excited about the QR Codes that they continue to bring me ones they made at home daily! I have a huge pile on my desk.

Then I took a small group for extension and they used Google Docs while working in teams of 2-3 to create test questions for a clicker quiz that they will be giving to their classmates this week! First I had them "marry their laptops" so they were side by side which they thought was the funniest and grossest thing EVER! One person opened the planning document and the other had the curriculum. They LOVED logging into gmail.com and thought it was beyond cool that they could see what the other teams were writing. They used their research as well as the 4th grade curriculum (Science SOL 4.7 & 4.8) to create questions. I asked the teachers to give me a few things that they wanted me to make sure was on the test but there was no need for my guidance. They rocked it and came up with awesome questions. I was VERY impressed. They begged to stay and finish on the first day so I told them they could work from home and over half of them accessed it from home! On the second day I taught them CTRL. C and CTRL. V which they thought was magic and they copied and pasted their questions and answers into SMART Notebook SMART Response.

I was worried that by taking this position (ITRT) I would miss all those funny things that kids say in the classroom but I am not missing out one bit! On the 2nd day the class was working on editing the questions for proper spelling, capitalization, punctuation and marking the correct answer with an * to make the copy/paste process go faster and to stay occupied while their classmates added questions. I sure wish SMART Notebook could be in Google Docs! Anyways, while working with a student at my desk on adding her question to the notebook I heard another girl say, "Who put "your mama" as a choice for "What's the hottest planet?" It took everything in me not to crack up laughing but when I got it together I told them that they were being inappropriate. If you're wondering... Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system!