Mrs. Klipfel's Top Teaching Tips: Madden

Showing posts with label Madden. Show all posts

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Personal Narrative with a Halloween Treat

Mrs. Madden's class took a twist to their personal narrative writing. Students wrote stories about Halloween and then added their own creative touches.

After creating illustrations for the beginning, middle, and end of the story, students used the iPad to take pictures.

Mrs. Madden helped students edit and record their story in the app Book Creator.

Click on the personal narrative tales below. Be prepared to be entertained.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Famous People

A Second Grade reading and writing curriculum area is the study of biographies. Students read and research about a Famous Person who has made a difference. The project begins during library class where Mrs. DeFrank displays all the biographies for the students. It is an exciting time watching the selection process. This year Mrs. Madden's Class decided to take their new knowledge and create a digital project to share. After researching and writing their report, students then wrote a short script from the first person perspective of their famous person. Costumes were discussed and students practiced and practiced before filming in front of the big green screen. Famous People from Mrs. Klipfel on Vimeo.
Mrs. McCarthy's Class also added a digital component to their learning. Her students created a paper version of their famous person. Each student then wrote a first person script for their famous person and practiced for fluency.

This is also a green screen project but this time the paper famous person was in front to the green screen. Can you see the green stick holding him in place? Do you know why it is green?

Using the app Green Screen by Doink the paper version was transported to a different time and place.

Can you guess why this famous person was recorded in front of a red screen?

Hint: Look at the color of her dress.

Mrs McCarthy Presents Famous People from Mrs. McCarthy on Vimeo.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Mrs. Madden's Class Goes Under the Sea

Second Graders in Mrs. Madden's class have been hard at work researching a sea animal. They also created detailed sea animals during their art class. Using a shoebox and assorted accessories students then placed these creatures Under the Sea. Using the app ChatterKid the students helped bring these sea animals to life.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

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.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Polar Animals

Second graders have been reading nonfiction text as they study the polar regions. After writing a paragraph to describe the most fascinating fact about their polar animal, students used the app drawing pad to illustrate their animal. When these were done we recorded these facts in the app educreations. Click on the link below to learn some new interesting facts discovered by Mrs. Madden's class.

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/mrs-madden-s-arctic-animals/17699546/?ref=link

Using a graphic organizer for my drawing pad picture.

Mrs. Madden taking a picture of our art work.

Almost done drawing!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Butterfly Life Cycle

The boys and girls in Mrs. Madden's class came to the library for a sharing of their hard work this week. It was very enjoyable watching all the educreation videos they made.

When we were done we practiced with our bodies to show all 4 stages of a butterfly's life cycle. Can you guess what the stages are?

Answers: egg, larva/caterpillar, pupa/chrysalis, butterfly

Here is the bulletin board the students created to write about the similarities and differences of butterflies and moths. Remarkable!

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Butterflies and Moths

For the past few weeks, the second grade has been studying butterflies and moths. The classrooms had butterfly nets hanging from the ceiling and the students watched the life cycle right before their eyes. It is always a fun day when the newly hatched butterflies are set free.
The students in Mrs. Madden's class worked on comparing and contrasting butterflies and moths. The students also spent time researching and writing the details in a venn diagram in order to complete a compare and contrast writing piece.

Click on the picture to test your knowledge of the life cycle of a butterfly.

Flash Player is necessary to view this site.

Click on the butterfly to color online. Flash Player is necessary.

The students used the app educreations to share their new knowledge.

Sam and Trevor Daniel and Noah

Matthew and Max

Joelle and Grace

Ashley and Louie

Charlie and Olivia

Ella and Grace

Anna and Sarah

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Fairy Tale Writing

Once Upon A Time while visiting Mrs. Madden's class I shared the First Grade Elements of a Fairy Tale Project. The Fifth Grade students were so inspired they wrote their very own Fairy Tales.

When I told the First Graders about this they were so excited and proud of their work.

Now it's time to share the Fifth Grade Fairy Tales with the First Graders.
And They All Lived Happily Ever After.

Harrison~ The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/harrison-the-three-little-pigs-and-the-big-bad-wol/5872401/?ref=link

Sam~ The Magic Stone
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/sam-the-magic-stone/5870114/?ref=link

Victoria~ Alli's Adventure
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/victoria-alli-s-adventure/5871848/?ref=link

Wyatt~The Golem' Stone
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/wyatt-the-golem-s-stone/5871254/?ref=link

Samantha~ The Quest of Fire
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/samantha-the-quest-of-fire/5871138/?ref=link

Alec~The Three Little Cats

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/alec-the-three-little-cats/5619021/?ref=link

Tony~ Get Those Dragons

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/tony-get-those-dragons/5620340/?ref=link

Isabella~The Three Little Pigs and the Dragon

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/isabella-the-three-little-pigs-and-the-dragon/5615651/?ref=link

Rita~ The Three Steves and the Charged Creeper King

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/rita-three-steve/5612384/?ref=link

Eva~ The Fire Breathing Dragon

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/eva-the-fire-breathing-dragon/5610745/?ref=link

Olivia~ The Dead Sea Scroll

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/olivia-the-dead-sea-scroll/5608779/?ref=link

Charlie~ The Wizard's Apprentice

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/charlie-the-wizard-s-apprentice/5608471/?ref=link

Rebecca~The Magic Shoelaces

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/rebecca-magic-shoe-laces/5608208/?ref=link

Matthew~ the Three Little Squirrels and the Enchanted Tree
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/matthew-the-three-little-squirrels/5869425/?ref=link

Stanley~ The Big Bad Teacher and the Three Little Boys
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/stanley-the-big-bad-teacher/5870521/?ref=link

Maggie~ The Blue Sea

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/maggie-blue-sea/5608040/?ref=link

Alana~ The Three Stockings

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/alana-the-three-stockings/5607694/?ref=link

Monday, February 18, 2013

Colonial Regions

Fifth Graders working in groups in Mrs. Madden's class had a busy week researching The Colonial Regions. I really enjoyed watching the dynamics of each group. The boardrooms of many high level corporations would have been impressed watching the deliberations and collaborations of each group as they worked together. Students used the fifth grade portal to gather research on their region. Portaportal is a FREE site that lets you list specific links in an organized way. Click on the link below to view the grade 5 portal.

Each student researched their specific topic and then created their slide in educreations. Students took screenshots and we then emailed the pictures. The final part was compiling each group's work onto one ipad and importing them into educreations. Click on each project below to view the final results.

**Tech Tip: An easy way to have students find a web site on the iPad is to make it an app on the iPad.

1. Go to the website.

2. Click on the send arrow

3. Click on Add to Home Screen

4. This will add an app for the website on your screen.

Monday, November 26, 2012

The Three Branches of the Legislature

Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?

Mrs. Madden's Fifth Graders were hard at work for the past two weeks researching The Constitution and the Three Branches of Government. They took notes and highlighted important information. The students then created a minimum of 5 slides to include: title page, Legislative Branch, Executive Branch. Judicial Branch, and Checks and Balances. Many students included extra credit pages as well. They then recorded their voice and added extra details for their final educreations presentation.

Quotes of the Day:
"I loved it!"
"It was really fun because we got to use iPads and I have never really used one. The end was fun when I became an expert."
"I like taking pictures."
"Educreations was fun to use. You get to speak for yourself and highlight. You can't do that on other things."
"This was fun to use. You can draw and create a video while underlining."
"You get to be really creative. It is easy to use pictures. I learned some new things."
"I want to do this again!"

"The Founding Fathers, the framers of the Constitution, wanted to form a government that did not allow one person to have too much authority or control. While under the rule of the British king they learned that this could be a bad system. Yet government under the Articles of Confederation taught them that there was a need for a strong centralized government.

With this in mind the framers wrote the Constitution to provide for a separation of powers, or three separate branches of government. Each has its own responsibilities and at the same time they work together to make the country run smoothly and to assure that the rights of citizens are not ignored or disallowed. This is done through checks and balances. A branch may use its powers to check the powers of the other two in order to maintain a balance of power among the three branches of government."