Melody is Visiting Proctor School

In October and November students participated in the Global Read Aloud. At Proctor School teachers read aloud from the book Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. This is a powerful and moving story.

As a follow up, Ms. Hampson's 4th Grade in Jane, MO decided to create a cutout of Melody and send her around the world. This class even created a website for this project, Melody Around the World. Proctor School was fortunate to host her last week. As Melody visited classes, students discussed how to make her welcome in their room. They included her in all their events and activities.

Having Melody visit was such a success we decided to skype with Ms Hampson's Class. They gave us some of the background of the project. They have actually created 50 cutouts (with 50 more in production due to such a high demand). They sent them all off to Sharon Draper to sign and then dispersed them around the world. Melody has visited Hong Kong, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Ireland and many of the states in the United States. Our Melody arrived directly from Rome, Italy. She is off to South Carolina from here.

We had an opportunity to introduce our school and ask questions.



Grade 4 enjoying the visit.



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Text Features in First Grade

Reading a lot of non fiction books this month, Mrs. Dunn's Class have been talking about text features. Text Features came to life one day in first Grade.  

Click on the links below.

  Talking Text Features   Fast Fact  

Biographies

Grade 2 has been immersed in the study of biographies. The Common Core State Standards require students to "describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text"  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.3: Informational Text. One great way to get students to understand historical events in sequence and to see the connection between the events is to have them read biographies.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.10
"By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 2-3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range."

 

Dress Rehearsal for Famous People Performance

Students used the FREE app ChatterPix and took a picture of a drawing they created for their report.  The app allows you to record a 30 second clip.  We then put all the short clips into iMovie.  The links below use SafeShare.TV for us to share the Grade 2  Masterpieces.

Mrs. Madden's Class Video

Mrs. Mack's Class Video

Mrs. Austin's Class Video

Mrs. McCarthy's Class Video
 

 

Where Are You?

 

"Ms Scott's class in Mystery Skype Action~

Today we went on a trip in the USA but we had to try to find where we were going.  The First clue was that it is west of the Mississippi River and in the Midwest region.  The second clue was the place borders Canada.  It is Minnesota!  Now we tried to find out the town or city.  The next clue was it is northwest of St. Paul and not in a major city.  The county starts with the letter M.  The county is Meeker.  It is a town in Meeker County.  The town is Litchfield!  Now you know where we went today."  Reporter Carissa

   

What does Mystery Skype look like?  Before and During


Our visit today was to Wagner Elementary School in Litchfield, MN
Thank you to Mrs. Swenson's Fourth Graders for collaborating with us.

 

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Nouns

Mrs. Corliss' Class Dive into Nouns!       http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/mrs-corliss-dives-into-nouns/19866577/?ref=link  

Mystery Skype to Illinois

"Today we had a Mystery Skype.  We each tool turns to ask questions about where they might be.  Our class found out what state they were in first:  Illinois.  We found out that they were north of Chicago.  The class is close to Logan Square.  We found out that they were in Oak Park.  We found out that they were in Horace Mann School.  We did it!  Not too long after they found our school:  Proctor School.  This Mystery Skype was a really fun one.  We can't wait to do another one."

Reported by Joe, Mrs. Murphy's Class

 

 

 

 

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How can you use technology to foster collaboration, generate solutions, and make informed decisions in order to successfully solve aproblem?

Check out the students' responses to this essential question.

Mrs. Murphy's Class Kidblog  

Famous People

Second Grade have been reading in many genres this year.  As part of the Biography unit each student researched a person who has made a difference.  The students then drew a detailed illustration of that person.  Using the camera on the iPad we took a snapshot of the picture.  In the app ChatterPix (FREE) students recorded a 30 second clip speaking from the point of view of their researched person.  All the short videos were imported into iMovie for the finished project. 

 

How do you make a difference?

Did you learn something new from their video?

   

 

 

Biography:

A story of a person’s life written by an individual with exceptional knowledge of the subject.

• Accurate history of a person’s life.
• Reflection of the time and place in which a person lived.
• Usually chronological.
• Carefully researched and authentic.
• Subject may be an historical or contemporary figure.