Touring of The Southeast Region

Mrs. Lampe's Fourth Grade Class has recently completed their study of the northeast region. This was a project that involved research, writing, and presentation.  Students worked with a partner to collaborate and produce a final script for filming in front of the green screen.  This authentic assessment is a great way to develop 21st century skills.  These students created this project with a purpose and for an audience. They hope you not only enjoy this video but that you also learn something new.

 Click on the picture above to take a tour of the southeast region with Mrs. Lampe's  state experts.

Hour of Code

The Hour of Code has been an amazing opportunity for all students!

We started the week full of anticipation only to discover the internet wasn't working Monday morning at Proctor school and the Hour of Code site had too many visitors and crashed.  We didn't give up.  After our internet was restored, we went to plan B and worked on one of the other programs offered on the site working with java script.  Everyone was thrilled.

As 21st century learners, students need opportunities to create, design, and problem solve. The Hour of Code provided all of these and more. Students need to use digital tools that expand their thinking.We talked about perseverance and staying with a problem to its solution. Even when we make a mistake, we think of how to solve the problem.  We try again and perhaps again and again.  I wish you could have been there to hear, as well as see the excitement when "Congratulations" was on the students' screens.  Very powerful and confidence building.

Click to visit the code website.  Try an Hour on your own.

President Obama was the man of the Hour of Code for us. He even wrote code.

MassTLC Education Foundation Project Manager Rachel Nicoll was kind enough to bring us some I Love Computer Science buttons.

Take a peek at our week coding.

Happy Holidays from Girls' Coding Party

We had our last Girls' Coding party!
The night began with a skype visit from Cathy Moya who works for Microsoft in Washington. We discovered her through Skype in the classroom.  Cathy shared a lot about her background and her job with the girls.  Her enthusiasm for her job was very evident.  Cathy encouraged everyone to love what they do.

After the visit, The Girls' Coding Party created some holiday cards using the program Scratch. Try Holiday Card Tutorial to create your own.  Be sure to click on all the different sprites to see the actions that are embedded in the cards.  Don't forget the green flag at the top to see some actions as well.  Happy Holidays!

How did you do that?

Decking the National Christmas Tree with Codes of Jolly

Decking the Trees with Codes of Jolly:

Taken from the White House blog:

This year, the White House Christmas tree got a digital upgrade. For the first time in history, girls across the country used code to light up the state and regional holiday trees through Google’s Made with Code program. In his remarks at the ceremony, the President highlighted how the trees has entered into the 21st century:

"We still have school kids involved, too. But this year, they’ve given all the state and territory trees surrounding the National Christmas Tree their first digital upgrade. Young women from all 50 states used their computers -- using their coding skills to control the colors and patterns of the lights on the trees. So thanks to those wonderful students. It is incredibly impressive. It’s actually one of the few things that Tom Hanks cannot do."

The Girls' Coding Party spent time decorating a tree for Presidents Park in Washington D. C.

My personal tree creation made with Code,

Google’s Made with Code Initiative:

Beginning on December 2, girls can head to www.madewithcode.com to code a design for one of the 56 state and territory trees. Girls can select the shape, size, and color of the lights, and animate different patterns using introductory programming language and their designs will appear live on the trees.

Girls can code the trees throughout the month of December, and visitors can see and code the designs live in Washington, D.C.

Girls Working on creating their own designs.

Mrs. Boucher is enjoying the girls' work.

Click below to see the Tree designs the girls submitted.

This tree will be shown as the Massachusetts's holiday tree on December 11, 2014 around 9:07 pm live in Washington D. C.

Visit the Northeast Region with Mrs. Kelleher's Fourth Grade

Mrs. Kelleher's Fourth Grade students have created a project to share all their new knowledge of the Northeast Region.

First, the students created a detailed drawing of the region and then used the iPad to take a picture of their drawing.  Then using the app ChatterKid students recorded their facts from the perspective of the map itself.  It is always fun to work with ChatterKid and watch the map come to life.

This is an example of a final map.

Click on the picture above to hear their final project.

Girls Coding Party Guests from Masco High School

The Masconomet High School technology teacher, Mrs Richard, and 3 of her students, Paige, Elena, and Caroline, came for a visit with the Girls Coding Party.  They shared the projects the high school girls have been working on using technology. Proctor School girls were very impressed with their creative work.  We spent time solving puzzles, watching animated videos, reading their magazines, and having a fun time together.  Their work is inspiring!

Mrs. Richard talks about her girls' program at the High School.

Click on the picture above to see the amazing projects the girls at Masco have created.

The girls also spent time working on another Hour of Code Program titled Flappy Code.  Using code to program their selected player through a maze of their own creation, the girls created their own games.

This is an example of an active coding work space.

Here are some the the girls' Flappy Games made with code.

Have fun!
Click on the link below and Press "Run".
Click or tap the screen to move Flappy to the target.

Victoria's Flappy Game

Ainsley's Flappy Game

Faith's Flappy Game

Nina's Flappy Game

Maddy's Flappy Game

Emma's Flappy Game

Create your own Flappy game. You can change all the visuals and all the rules, even the gravity. When you're done, click Finish to let friends try your game on their phones.
Leave your game link in comments below.  We would love to see what you have created.

Next week begins The Hour of Code.

Photosynthesis

Mrs. Corliss'  Class completed their study of plants by producing a video.  

Students drew a detailed picture of a plant and then took a photo of it on the iPad.  They then selected one of the plant's parts and wrote a script in the first person from the plant's point of view. Using the app ChatterKid each student recorded a short description of the plant's job.  These were then all added to iMovie for the final project.

Click on the picture to learn all the parts of the plant and how they help the life cycle continue.

We used the app skitch to annotate our class flower.

Math in Focus Lessons

Flipping the Classroom When a student works over the weekend and comes to school excited to share his work, everyone gets into the act. Using the app educreations Tom created a math problem for others to solve. Mrs. Murphy's Class took his idea one step further. The task was to create a lesson to challenge other students to test their math knowledge.  Using their Math in Focus text book, students selected their own concept and worked with a partner to create their lesson. Grab a pencil and paper and work through their math problems.  Remember no peeking at the answer until you have solved the problem first.

Northeast Vocabulary

Fourth Graders spend a lot of time studying the regions of the United States. 

While studying the northeast region, Ms Scott's Class decided to share their knowledge of new vocabulary.

The first step was to use their text books to identify vocabulary words that were important.  We worked together in the library using the glossary to help us define the words.  

Then working collaboratively students wrote their own scripts to creatively teach others about the important words from the chapter.

Using our new green screen, groups filmed their script and chose the background for their scene.

After a little app smashing using Green Screen by Doink and iMovie, here is their final project.  Click on the map below.

For fun click on the picture below for some practice with the states in the northeast region.

We Took a Trip to Delaware

Mrs. Lampe's class participated in a Mystery Skype session with Mr. Bonavita's 4th grade class from New Castle, Delaware.  They almost stumped us when they said their state was not in the northeast region.  They consider their state in the eastern region.  We had to really work hard to solve this mystery.

Questioner and Answerer are ready!

Think Tank is listening to answers and getting ready with a new question.

Click on the padlet to see the facts we learned during our Mystery Skype.

"I Mustache You a Question"

Mrs. Murphy's class had some fun while exploring graphs during a math lesson. Using the mustaches from Creative Teaching Press, students attached them to a pencil and asked each other the question, "I mustache you what is your favorite color?"

Click below to see a special message to all the males in our lives.

After gathering all their data, fourth grade students then used Excel on the laptops to create a table of their data. The challenge was to show the data in two forms. Some students choose a pie graph while others selected a bar graph.  Impressive work!

I Mustache You:  "Can you create a graph in Excel?"

Thank You Global Read Aloud 2014

One Book Connects the World!

As we come to an end of Global Read Aloud 2014, we must say it has been an amazing journey!

Please look at a snapshot of all our experiences.

Made With Code

Girls in Grades 5 and 6 had the opportunity to meet on Monday night to work with each other on a program called Made with Code.
We began the workshop with a skype visit from Audrey Lawrence who works for skype.  Audrey told the girls how she had an interest in math and science and in college discovered the world of coding.  She talked about the changes she has seen since she graduated college and how things are becoming more mobile.  Do you remember the program The Oregon Trail?  Audrey enjoyed this program as a young girl.

Using code the girls made a bracelet for the first letter of their first name.

Coding Yeti to make him dance!

What is code? Read our ideas.

Double Click on the wall below and add your ideas.

Created with Padlet