During the past two weeks, I have been hosting a modified version of March Madness. Students have been voting for their favorite fictional book characters, including completing their own brackets, and explaining why they feel it would end in this manner. Students have also been creating posters for their favorite book characters, and displaying them in the school to promote their favorite, and persuade others to vote. Students have created posters using the same template from Black History Month, as well as drawing, and creating posters at home on poster board.
It has been very exciting to see the students invest so much in voting for their favorites and cheering them on. It has been a very successful campaign to encourage reading. Voting is still going on (as we are now in the Elite Eight) for at least two more weeks! Be sure to check out the March Madness page on iGould to follow the results!
0 Comments
Today was Read Across America Day! In celebration of Read Across America, and Dr. Seuss's Birthday, the entire school had a door decorating contest. While it wasn't so much of a contest (since everyone who participated won), it was an opportunity for me to create a school wide display. Where is the best place for a school wide display in Gould Elementary? The gym doors! The gym is at the very end of the main hallway at the school, and can be seen as soon as you enter the main doors of the school. For my display, I decided to create a display I have seen done on Pinterest. Using the doors, I recreated a "Readbox" (instead of Redbox, the movie rental service). Fourth and fifth grade students wrote summaries of some of their favorite books the previous week, and I used the summaries as "teasers" on the cover of each book. Also, instead of advertising movie rentals, I created a sign that read, "Free Book Rentals now available in the Library!" While the idea came from a Pinterest image, the addition of the student work element was my own. Also, I added a digital element to the display by adding QR codes on each of the books. Once scanned, the QR codes would take the scanner to either a book trailer of the book, the official site of the book, or an unofficial fan site of the book, in order to help "advertise" the book for check out at the media center. Gould Elementary has an exciting time celebrating Black History Month each February. This year, the multicultural committee decided to hold a Poster Contest for students to research a famous or historical African American, and create poster to display what they learned. Working with fourth and fifth grade teachers, I decided to use this as my enrichment unit. Over the past few weeks, students have researched their chosen figure. Students used their research to write informational paragraphs on their person. During this time we also discussed copyright, plagiarism, and fair use. We also discussed how to give credit and site work. At this point I placed a template on the project page. The template was a powerpoint file, with a picture, headline, tagline, and basic body text. Students placed their own text and information on the template, and then they adjusted fonts, colors, and text sizes to make the posters their own. Students also used Google to search for images using the "labeled for non-commercial use" search filter. Once a photo was found, students placed a photo credit on their posters. I was very proud of the results and final posters the students produced. Some of the final products are shown below. This week I created a technology display used for school wide information. I choose to create this display just outside my own classroom because it is one of the places parents often congregate during PTA and school wide events. My classroom is next to the gym, were PTA and school events are often hosted, and the PTA Sign-In sheet is often placed across from my classroom.
On the display I created (or obtained) QR codes for various school sites used to disseminate information to parents (such as the school website & Facebook group). I also created a how-to display about QR codes for parents who are not familiar. While parents stand in line to sign-in, or are waiting for PTA to start, they will be able to scan QR codes of important sites from the school! |
Jason SmithJason Smith is the 3rd & 4th Grade Gifted Facilitator at Gould Elementary. Archives
March 2017
Categories
All
|