Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from Steward School! On the day before vacation we took out the green screen and used the app Green Screen by DoInk for some fun photos! Click on the video below and get ready to smile. Be on the lookout for hidden pictures.

Tech Tip:

Set up the green screen and take a class picture with students sitting down.

Have background pictures saved to you camera roll on your iPad.

Open the app Green Screen by DoInk. 

Lower level place the background image.

Middle Level place the class picture.

Pinch to size in the spot you want.

For fun app smash with a writing app. I use explaineverything.

Add the the top level for class name or date.
Pinch and place where you want the added detail.
Check out this google doc with picture directions.

Family Recipes From Mrs. Boucher's Class

Right before Thanksgiving Mrs. Boucher had the idea of collecting family recipes from her students. For homework, students were asked to bring in a copy of the recipe, as well as a picture.

Using google docs, students wrote the recipes and then copied them into the app Book Creator.

 This led to the creation of a class family recipe book.

You can also find these recipes on the students' kidblog pages. 

They would love it if you visited and left them a comment.

Click on the image below for the ibook version of their recipe book which is accessible on an iPad in either book creator or ibooks.

Click on the image below for the PDF version.

Tech Tip:

When opening the digital book on your device you will get this message.

Choose either Open in iBooks or Book Creator. 

Hour of Code Student Work

Here are a few examples of programs students created during the Hour of  Code. 

Beware!

 Up is not always Up

and

 Left is not always Left.

Enjoy!

Matt's Program

Tom S's. Program

Daniel's Program

Tom M.'s Program

Hour of Code

Do you want to watch students actively engaged in their own learning?

Do you want to see students solve complex problems based on what they learn from their failures?

Do you want to see students explore computer science?

The Answer~

Introduce the Hour of Code!

"During Computer Science Education Week, which runs from Dec. 7 to Dec. 13, more than 184,000 schools and programs worldwide will host Code.org’s “Hour of Code,” an initiative to show K-12 students that computer science can be fun."

The laptops, iPads, and computers were very busy this week as students at Steward School and Proctor School joined others around the world solving problems while working on the Hour of Code. 

Students in grades 2 and 3 began with the Classic Maze with "Angry Birds" chasing the Pig.

Students in grades 4 and 5 were given the option of "Minecraft", "Star Wars" or "Frozen".

MassTLC sent us this poster and pins for everyone!

The Challenge was to work to complete the program and then to go on and create your own game.

Daniel accepted the challenge. Click the picture below to play his game.

Here is a little picture collage of all that was happening this week~ 

View on Flipagram

The Northeast Region~Google Style

How do you take advantage of all the wonderful features found in google for education? As a teacher it is always the challenge to have students expand on their learning. Mrs. Murphy had her class work together to create one classroom slide presentation to showcase the northeast region of the United States. A group of 2 or 3 students were responsible for the information on one part of the final project. The project was initially shared and then students added their group's information.  Here is their final presentation on The Northeast Region. I look forward seeing what this innovative class thinks of for the next region they study.

When working together it takes a lot of cooperation and collaboration on everyone's part. Here is where google scores Big Time! These fourth grade students collaborated via google comments. Check the excerpt below from their shared work. Did you notice the time that Mrs. Murphy and these students were commenting? The ability of  working with Google for Education opens the learning beyond the school day. These students were invested and happily worked from home to complete their assignment.

We Visited Nebraska

Mrs. Gibbas' fourth grade students traveled over 1366 miles via skype to visit with Mrs. Hamilton's fourth grade class from Elkhorn Valley Schools in Tilden, Nebraska

Both classes played a game of Mystery Skype and asked yes or no questions to narrow down where in the world each class was located. The questions were thoughtful and used a lot of geography vocabulary.  Some of our questions: Is your state east of the Mississippi River? Does your state border the state of Nebraska?  Is your state north of Kansas? Are you located in the western region?
Both classes guessed the other location within one question of each other.

After our skype visit the students had time to ask and answer questions.

We found out that their mascot if the falcon.

Their school goes to grade 12.

There are only 1000 people in their town.
They had snow on Monday and Tuesday this week.
The live in the central time zone which is one hour behind us.

President Gerald Ford was born in Nebraska.

KoolAid was invented in Nebraska.

Chimney Rock is a landmark in the western part of the state.

  

Take a Trip With These Explorers

Mrs. Nicholson's Fifth Grade Class went on a journey together. During their unit on world explorers, they also explored the new territory of google slides. Working in small groups, students researched an explorer and then worked in google slides as a collaborative group to create a presentation to share with the class. Take a peek at these new discoveries.