iPads in Room 209

 Last Tuesday, Room 209 had the incredible opportunity to borrow a class set of iPads from the middle school.

We started out the day by watching videos from Discovery Education to help us review what we learned in earlier years about rocks, minerals and earth processes.  With the iPads, each student could stop the video to take notes or "rewind" to hear information again. What we noticed was that we took more notes and learned more when we could each go at our own pace without fear of missing important information while we were writing.



 









In Math, we worked on problem solving, showing our solutions by using a drawing app.  We then imported the drawing into a word processing app and explained our reasoning.  Wow!  There were some amazing results and we really focused on how we showed our solutions.  For the first time in all my years of teaching, the class asked if they could skip recess and keep working on math!  I was thrilled, but still made everyone head out for some exercise and fresh air.


In English Language Arts, we dove into the world of digital storytelling.  We selected stories we wrote earlier in the year so we could get right to work.  Mr. Callahan guided us in finding images that fit the theme of our stories.  Once we selected images, we imported them into an app called StoryRobe.  With just a little time to go, we found quiet spots in the room and read our stories into the iPad microphones.  StoryRobe put it all together and we had a slideshow which acted as a background to our stories.  It was strange for many of us to hear our voices on the recordings.


Perhaps the most exciting part of this day was that the adults in the classroom were learning as much as the students.  We discovered new uses for the iPads, figured out which apps worked best for accomplishing different tasks, and how we might use them better if we are lucky enough to have a "next time."


Our thanks to Pine Glen's own Mr. Callahan and Mr. Villano from the middle school for allowing us this wonderful learning opportunity.

Electricity Demonstration

Static electricity!

Look at what static electricity can do !
Today the 3rd and 5th graders went to the electricity show hosted by Mr.Papadonis and Ms. Pavlicek. The 5th graders used this show to review for the science MCAS. During the show they did many experiments and saw the Van de Graaff generator. In this picture there is a smaller version of the Van de Graaff generator. This demonstrated static electrity and what it does to people's hair as shown in the picture.  They also learned about Ben Franklin's inventions and Mr.Papadonis also recreated Ben Franklin's experiment.The kids had lots of fun while learning about electricity.

Guest Bloggers: Teresa and Sarvesh

MCBA Voting

On Friday, the 5th grade voted for their favorite MCBA book.  In order to qualify as a voter, students needed to have read a minimum of 5 books from the MCBA list.  We had a record turn-out this year, with several students having managed to read all 25 books!

Pine Glen Librarian, Mrs. Ogren, facilitate the voting in the library. Later, voters came together to have a pizza lunch and discuss the books.  There was a wide range of interests and preferences across the grade level.

When the votes were counted, we ended in a tie!  Alabama Moon and No Talking! each received 7 votes.  Vote totals for each book were sent to the MCBA program at Salem State University who will post the final winner when the votes from across the state are totaled.