Lots of New Books!

Well, not really lots of new books but it seems that way! Lately, many of our students have been discovering new books and authors that they love. The best part is that they are talking about these new books they love and the demand for them is spreading like wild fire! I must say, I am very happy to see something other than "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" floating around here!
We were talking at the end of the day about how we could share our new titles with our virtual audience using a web tool. A simple blog post is fine but a list we could add to continuously with our favourites is even better. As we were scrolling through the blog looking for a tool we had used in the past that would work for this, there it was, at the bottom of our page - our Shelfari! Of course! What better way than our Shelfari!
Mrs. Tresoor and I have been scheming about some "not a boring book report" tasks the kids could do when they are finished reading a book. I found this blog post that got me thinking about the cool ways students could respond to their reading. We want our students to be more accountable for what they are reading. We also want them to share what they are reading with their peers, just like they have been today, because we know how powerful peer opinion is when it comes to choosing a book. We both started with a "Now I am Reading..." chart in the room where students put a sticky note of the book they are reading. When they finish it, they give me that sticky note and put a new one with their title. Today alone, 11 sticky noes were handed in for new ones! Awesome.



The pile of sticky notes from TODAY alone!

 One of the "not a boring book report" tasks we have been planning to introduce was to write a book review on Shelfari (or chapters.ca or amazon.ca etc). Previously I have used our Shelfari myself, adding books that I read with my students, that my students read, that I read professionally and personally. This is probably why it sits there at the bottom of our blog, lonely and ignored. Now that I have used it with my students, they are more aware of it and will be much more likely to scroll allllll the way down there!
You can check out our Shelfari by scrolling down, all the way down (perhaps I should move it???) to the bottom of our blog. Or, you can click here. You will notice not all the books are children's books. I also post some of the personal reading I do here. I think it is important for my students to see me as a reader and see the books that I read when I am at home.
Stay tuned for the book reviews coming soon to our Shelfari!

Expert Projects

We have recently introduced a new element to our Daily Five called Expert Projects. Students can use one of their choices each day during Daily Five to work on a topic of their choice. They may choose to share knowledge from personal experiences or research using books, the internet or other people. These expert projects will be presented to the class as they are complete. Some have been shared here on our Expert Projects page as well as on the student's personal blogs. Students have to set up a plan, follow the expectations set out and work towards the rubric we created.

Daily Five is by far a favorite in our class, primarily because of the choice it gives students. When expert projects were introduced, at least 95% of the students jumped right in to a project. The freedom and variety that these projects offers is very appealing to them. Some students have already completed more than one!

While working on an expert project, students are covering a gigantic range of skills including reading/scanning for information, recording information in jot notes, organizing information, tracking resources, using a variety of resources, writing information in sentences using their own words, publishing work using a HUGE variety of tools (web 2.0 and good old marker and paper!) and speaking to an audience. Phewf, sounds like a lot of hard work. But they love it and have fun doing it so it doesn't feel like a lot of hard work.

It's a win-win for us all :)

Expert Projects

We learned a new daily 5 choice it is called expert project!!!!!! It's were you pick a topic and I mean ANY topic. Then you pick a way to present it so here are a few examples of ways you can present, Prezi, Comic Life, Poster, Powerpoint, speech, audio clip, voki, wordle, tagzedo, and videos and movies. Then you present it to the class. I picked giraffes as my topic and I am doing a poster and a powerpoint.

-Ashleigh
 
(You can see more details about our projects on the "Expert Projects" page of this blog.)

Publishing Tools

Just as we are getting back at it, 2 great links came my way via my Twitter network. Both relate to some great new ways to publish student work that we are going to look at this term. These come from GlennW and Mrs Ripp. You can check out their full posts by clicking their names. Some of the most exciting ones in my eyes include:

• Flipsnack - A free site with Premium features, Flipsnack will quickly convert uploaded PDF documents into a cool virtual magazine with flipping pages and it’s easy enough for even adults to figure out. You can view and share the online version in a variety of ways including Facebook, Twitter and html embed codes.
• Issuu - Issuu is another tool that kids can use to upload almost any document format and create a virtual flipping book. Like Flipsnack, you can share or embed whatever you upload.

Mrs. Ripp's post was about alternatives to a "book report" and more interesting ways students can be accountable for their reading:

• Blog about your book; reflect, ask questions, see if others have read it.
• Create a wordle about the word associations you had with the book
• Sell the book to your classmates, how can you get them to read it - written or oral - try this even if you did not like the book, can you still convince others?
• Write a letter/email to the author (even if no longer alive). Tell them what you thought of their book.
• Create a VoiceThread discussing your book's message.
• Pretend you are the author on a Voki and tell us about your newest project.
• Use Shelfari to post the book and then explain why you chose to post it.

Skyping with Mrs.Malkoske's class :)

Today we tried out Skype for the first time as a class. We had a call with Mrs. Malkoske's grade 1 and 2 class down the road at Dr. Hamilton School. We are going to Skype regularly as reading buddies for Read to Someone during our Daily 5 time. After we all had our chance to see what Skype is all about, Rachel and Ricky had a chance to read to two students in their class. I love using Skype in this way whether it is with same-age students or Little Buddies like this. The students are totally engaged in it and able to model being good readers for the youngsters.
-Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)

Today I was the first person to skype with Mrs.Malkoske's class. I skyped with Jayden, I read her If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and she read Dolphins. I think both books were awesome!It was pretty fun being the first one to skype with someone. This was my first time. I hope I will get to skype with her again.

BY:Rachel :P

Publishing With Book Creator

This week i finished my frist story in daily 5. So I got to publish it on the ipad. The ipad is from a group that Mrs.Dent Scarcello is in. I got to publish it on a app on the ipad called "Book creater". Book Creater is where you get to type your book, when you are publishing you get to put pictures in your book. Its very cool and when you are done your book it goes strate into "ibooks" (if you have it) but if you dont have it, it just stays in book creater. Book creater is a great way to share your storys and to get your friends to read them. I  love doing book creater and I can't wait to finish my other book in daily 5.

- Jada :)

My Fantistic TWAS

This week at school I got taught a new game called Banana grams. Banana grams is a game that 4 or 5 people can play and righ now I’m going to teach you how to play.


Step 1: flip over all tiles and then pick 21 if 4 but if 5 15.


Step 2: say “split” and the game starts and you are trying to make as may word or long words.


Step 3: say you have a Q or a V you can say “ Dump” and put the Q or the V goes into the pile and pick 3 new tiles but you don’t want to say “dump” all the time or you will end up with to much tiles.


Step 4: when your tiles are all gone you say “Split” then you win 
That is how you play Banana Grams

This week we did a french paper on Famous people. You had to cut Famous people out of magizene or on the computer. I cut people out of a magizene and i took Justin timberlake and Karry underwood.

But lots of people forgot to bring in pictures but Brook saved the day because she had a teen magizene so every buddy took pictures from brooks Book. anyway then you had to glue the pictures on the paper and write their names.

This week we started a plasic bag round up. Its when you have to collect all the plastic bags you can.

anyway me and Emily were parters so you have to take a bag and turn it inside out of no food or receipt or in the bag. Then you have to line them up in a row of 10 and Mrs. Dent scarcello puts a tally on the white borad. We have 2600 bags so far then round up ends on October 27 so bring all the bags you can. Adress #3950 raliegh St.

In daily 5 i am so close to be finshed my book on the ipad. My book is about my dog bening a super dog and his real sister Emma. My dogs name is Jumbo and he is a dashound i love my dog. I took pictures of my dog around my house on my ipod i also got pictures off the computer. Also in Daily 5 i am reading a book called Dork Diraies and its number 4. It came out on Tuesday afternoon. I just got it on October 13, 2011 or yesterday. I am really enjoying the book so far and i am on page 55.

By: Jada



Class Edit - Math! Math! Math! Sharing Our Learning

After Brooke and Rachel wrote and self-edited their blog post to share their learning we used our SmartBoard to edit the post all together. We think they did a great job being the first students to write a "sharing our learning" blog post. Here is our edited version of their post.

Yesterday we learned about ones, tens, hundreds , thousands ect, in math. So Mrs.Dent Scarcello taught us anything times 10 you would put a zero in front of it like 10x10=100! We also talked about when you move to the next bigger place value it always gets 10 times bigger.We got twelve 100 paper squares and cut them up and taped ten of them together to make 1000. We had to find a way to make 10,000 with our table neighbours, one group had 5000 and the other groups needed 1 or 3 more people. We ended up with two groups of 10 000 and one group of 5 000. The total was 25 000 little squares. We took them out to the hallway and taped them together. We counted every single one of them and then we took a pretty picture from one end to the other. We destroyed it after, IT WAS FUN :) !!!!!!
- BrOoKe AnD rAcHeL (edited by grade 5)

Math! Math! Math!-sharing our learning!

Yesterday we learned about ones, tens, hundreds , thousands ect, in math. So Mrs.Dent Scarcello taught us anything times 10 you would put a zero infront of it like 10x10=100! Then we got twelve 100 paper squares and then we cut them up and taped ten of them together 1000. So then we had to find a way to make 10,000 with our table neighbours and one group had 5000 the other people needed 3 or 1 more people. Then we took them out to the hallway and taped them together and then we counted every single one of them and then we took a pretty picture from one end to the other and then we destroyed it after IT WAS FUN :) !!!!!! - BrOoKe AnD rAcHeL

Options, Options, Options in Daily 5!

So far I am really like daily 5 the writing is super fun. I used to hate writing because we always had a topic. now writing is super fun because I get my choice of a topic -Jessica :)

I really like daily 5 beacuse you get to write its so fun. In grade 2 i did not like writing at all but now i LOVE  writing. Right now I'm writing a story about  my dog bening a super hero i think its a pertty good story -Jada!

daily 5 is a great way to start the day because a couple years ago i always thout writing was boring but know it is fun because i have topics to write about.-Mason :o

i like daily 5 because you get to write about whatever you want its awesome.Kayla

Daily 5 is really awesome because we get to pick what we want to do. So far we have learned read to self and writers work shop. For read to self it's explains it's self you just read to your self. For writers work shop we can write a story, graphic novel, novel, poems, comics, song, or whatever you want!!! -Peyton :P

daily 5 is really fun because we get to pick what we want to do. Like we could read first for a while then write in are book it is really fun!;) my favorite type of writing is graphic novel and comics!;)-Brooke!!!

Diving Into Daily 5

This week we dove in to Daily 5. I used Daily 5 last year in grade 2 but it is brand new for our grade 5 class. Launching Daily 5 for the second time and in an older grade is a totally different experience too. We are having great discussions and everyone is quickly on the same page.

Our first choice is Read to Self. We have all agreed on the expectations and the kids were able to follow them amazingly, right off the hop. I am so happy that we seem to be a naturally engaged group of readers! I basically have to pry their books out of their hands when time is up.



Since Read to Self came so naturally and the kids were independent with it so quickly, I introduced our second choice this week as well - Writer's Workshop. This is one of my favourites because last year I had such a fabulous group of writers. They LOVED to write and we had so much fun exploring new ways of publishing. Once again, I am in luck! Our grade 5 community loves to write as well!

First we discussed expectations, brainstormed topics to write about and forms of writing. Today I released the authors and they dove "write" in. Again, when time was up it was music to my ears to hear the moans and groans because they didn't want to stop :)

Once again this year, I am really enjoying using the Daily 5 program and it is so neat to see that the students love it as much in grade 5 as they do in grade 2. Next week the students will post their reflections on the process of starting Daily 5. Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)

iClassroom {Storykit}

We explore many ways to publish our writing in grade 2. A few students are working with Storykit, an app available at the app store. They write and edit  their story in their writers notebook and then move to an iPad to publish it. Text is typed in and then illustrations can be drawn write in the app or a photo can be used. Once the story is complete, it is shared online and can be emailed. My students are highly motivated to publish their writing using Storykit.

Skype + Daily 5 = Awesome!

Last week we used Skype again during Daily 5 for Listen to Reading with our buddies in Morris. It is incredible to me how quickly our 21st Century Learners/Digital Natives pick up these tools and use them independently. Sometimes with our network we have technical difficulties and I have an entire team of "technicians" ready to help or at least "suggest" what I am doing wrong! Ms. Martens and I get the call going and say hello, and usually some stories are shared between the classes. Then, the buddies that are reading to each other take it away, one after the other. It is awesome to me to see our classroom walls turning into windows.
The story that Carl from Ms. Martens class shared with us was very interesting!

May 18 - I went fishing in the ditch with my dad. There are fish in the ditch because of the flood. I caught three fish. One of them was huge. - Carl

I suggested that Carl should go with his dad to each of the ditches to save all the stranded fish! He didn't think that was such a great idea. We are happy for our Morris friends that they didn't have to leave their homes and that the flood water has receded for this year.
- Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)

Keanna was one of our readers, here with Sjusen in Morris.