Youtube as an educational resource

Youtube is blocked in my district. That means I can't show Youtube videos on my Smartboard. This has been a source of frustration for me for years. Over vacation I was determined to find a way to download Youtube videos so that I could bring them to school on my zip drive. I figured it and I've been downloading like crazy.

America The Story of Us is a great documentary from the History Channel. It is possible to download short clips from the documentary from Youtube. The one above is about the battle of Lexington and Concord. In Science we are building ladybug laboratories to study the behavior of ladybugs. To build background knowledge I will show my fifth graders this short clip about ladybugs:

The fourth graders are writing personal narratives about a great day at an amusement park. The small moment we have worked on together is a ride on a roller coaster. I showed this short clip during writing class to inspire them:

Who would of thought Youtube was so educational? Christine

Learning about JFK

Here we are at the JFK museum

Before our field trip to the JFK Museum, my fifth graders needed to add a great deal to their background knowledge about our 35th president. I normally have my students write a report, but this year we tried something new. Every child made a lapbook about the president. If you don't know what lapbooks are( I had never heard of them, but they are very popular with homeschoolers) here are some great sites that show quite a few examples.
http://www.ourlapbooks.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmiehomeschoolmom/collections/72157601906639826/
The first thing I did was use stickies to map out where I would put the different things I would make on the lapbook. I wanted a variety of items that would pertain to a biography like: family photographs, flip books, a map, a timeline. I had the children use stickies to "plan" their books before doing anything. We brainstormed a variety of things that you could use in the lapbook, and I provided lots of materials (presidential seal, pictures, flip books, the link is down below).

Here is my model w/ stickies

Each child did write a report, so we decided to glue those on the back of the flipbooks. They stand up, so they are great for display. They came out really terrific! Christine

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php This is another site I used for templates.

An introduction to Anne Frank

After reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, I like to introduce my 5th graders to Anne Frank. David Adler's picture book biographies are excellent. The one he wrote about Anne is particularly wonderful. It is a beautiful introduction to a difficult but important story that fifth graders a ready to learn a little bit about. I explain that most middle school/high school students are expected to read The Diary of Anne Frank as a class assignment. This is just an introduction.

   The lesson goes as follows: I ask the students to fold a piece of paper into a mini "file". (This represents the file cabinet we have in our heads, our background knowledge.) On the front we make our thinking visible by writing everything we know about Anne Frank. Some students have never heard of her before, their file cabinets are empty and we are about to fill them up. Inside we write all of the questions we have about her BEFORE reading. Then we partner read the David Adler picture book, I have a class set. Next, we write all of the questions we have AFTER reading the book. On the back of the file folder we write a summary of the story. A class discussion follows regarding the questions that came up as they read. I have a collection of books written for elementary age students that I share with them after this experience. Christine 

Building Background Knowledge

Vietnam is not a topic most fourth graders know much about. The story, Two Lands One Heart is in our Trophies anthology. It is the story of a family separated by war. The mother and son go back to visit family in Vietnam. To acquire background knowledge on the country before we read the story, I like to use this site:
http://www.pocanticohills.org/projects/bestwork.html The work on the website was produced by kids at Pocantico Hills School in Sleepy Hollow, New York. I was able to show the slide show to my whole class on the Smartboard. When you look under their BEST WORK you can also find topics such as:

• Ben Franklin
• Abe Lincoln
• The American Revolution
• Harriet Tubman

The kids like this because it was written by other children. Christine

The comprehension toolkit

Here is a lesson I got out of the Comprehension Toolkit. Thank you Kathy D. for lending it to me! The toolkit comes with 4th/5th grade nonfiction articles and lessons to do based on the reading strategies in The Keys To Comprehension book by Harvey and Goudvis.It also comes with a CD that I was able to use with my Smartboard. This lesson, Summer of the Shark, was about adding new information to known (background knowledge). The topic of sharks is great because kids do have a good amount of background knowledge on the topic.The lesson also explores the idea of a misconception. I modeled my own background knowledge about sharks, and then hid a misconception so that I could correct my own thinking during reading. I then had the students read the rest of the article with a partner to see if they had any misconceptions. We also added our new learning as you can see from the poster. Christine 

This is the whole toolkit with some picture books

Literacy Bags

My summer project was to get some literacy bags up and running for my 4th graders.My purpose is to build background knowledge on various topics through a home/school connection. My mother stitched the names on these bags I found at the Dollar Store. Filling the bags was the fun part. We made 24 in all. I got the idea online. http://teacherweb.com/SC/bells/madden/ap2.stm this website inspired me to try the idea with older kids. I tried to put a variety of materials in each bag: puzzles, stamps, games, fiction, nonfiction, read alouds, art projects and more. I'm so happy with the way they turned out! Christine