The Digital Scoop

Throwback Thursday: End of the School Year Activities

The final weeks of school are always busy, fun, hectic, and a little bittersweet.  With all that is going on, I thought it would be the perfect time to throwback to some previous ideas I have shared over the years for end of the year projects!

 

Fourth Grade Word Clouds- This activity could be done by any grade level or even by the class as a whole.

 

Three Fun End of the Year Activities- These activities will have your students reflecting over the year or dreaming about the future.

 

Portrait Poem- This is a fun activity for anytime of the year.  You could also have students write it more as a grade level...5th graders enjoy or as a class...we appreciated.

Of course you could also have students code a fun end of the year project.  Maybe they could pick a favorite event or subject and create a scene about it in Scratch!

I hope you all have a fabulous end to your school year and that you finish strong!

:) 

Printable Code Blocks for Course 1 of Code.org

 

These code block cards are a great way for students to practice building patterns.  Students can then use a "loop" to make their patterns shorter.  

I decided to use business cards for easy separation after printing.  I was able to print the same file on different brands of business cards I happen to have leftovers of.  You could also cut the blocks so there was no white business card around the edges, I just felt like that wasn't necessary.

Before I gave them to students, I wanted a good way to store them.  I found some scrapbook sleeves at a craft store that were perfect for business cards.  

I made "repeat" blocks by printing the top block and then cutting matching card stock for the sides and bottom of the block. 

These make a great whole class activity or center for small groups.  You could also have students build patterns out of other classroom manipulatives and still shorten them with the repeat blocks.

Finally, I created some cards with ab pattern suggestions on them.  So students could either be given a pattern card or draw one from a pile and then create the pattern using code blocks.

East Blocks

West Blocks

North Blocks

South Blocks

When Run Blocks

Get Flower Blocks

Make Honey Blocks

Number Blocks

Repeat Block Tops

Patterns to Make Cards

You could also put magnets on these or pull them out when a student is struggling through a puzzle on the computer.  Hope you find these a fun and helpful as I do! :)

Write About This Pinterest Boards

If you love the Write About This app or you are just looking for some fun writing prompts, you need to check out the Write About This Pinterest boards!

 

Each writing idea contains a picture and corresponding writing prompt.  

The ideas encourage both fiction and nonfiction writing.  Teachers could display the picture as a daily warm up and have the kids use the prompt to journal.

What will you be inspired to write about? :)

Pattern Block Learning- Creativity, Problem Solving, and Coding?!?

Last week, I invited my 1st grade students to be problem solvers and creative thinkers using the Math Learning Center online Pattern Blocks.  They loved it! 

I allowed them to freely move between three different activities using the site:

 

• Free create- I encouraged students to use their imagination to build items of their own choosing.  I was delighted (as I always am) to see their originality and creativity shine.

  

Lion

 

Rainbow

• Solve a Puzzle- I showed students the outline feature where they can complete a puzzle using the shapes.

 

• Build from a Picture- I provided a bunch of pattern block picture cards to inspire students.  Many students started by replicating the cards and then adding their own twists!  If you are looking for picture ideas, check out this Pinterest Board for ideas!

I have also been encouraging the kids to look for patterns when solving Code.org puzzles.  The pattern blocks were a great way to practice making patterns and simplifying them into "loops".  I love when a tool has a variety of uses!  Students can use the pencil tool to draw the "loop" block and the number tool to show how many times it repeats.

Do you have a great idea for pattern blocks?  I would love to hear about it!

 

Online Activities to Help Students Develop Perseverance and Problem Solving Skills

I have been thinking a lot about ways I can encourage perseverance in my students.  We talk about it a lot, but I find often until they are faced with a big challenge they don't totally understand what it means to persevere.  I found a few online activities that are both fun and challenging in the best way!

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I introduced my 1st grade students to the Big Escape Games from TVO Kids.  Students are left in a room or area to find hidden clues and solve a puzzle.  I love that the game changes every time you play by hiding the clues in different locations.  Students often play the same version repeatedly for the challenge of new hiding places for clues.  Students definitely need perseverance to find all the clues and solve the puzzle.  

Big Escape 1

Big Escape 2

Big Escape 3

Big Escape 4

 

Goldburger To Go

 

 

My 2nd grade students needed something a little bit more challenging.  I decided to introduce them to Rube Goldberg Machines.  I started by showing them the beginning of this YouTube Video:

 

We talked about how the machines worked and how they involve a lot of "tinkering" to get them just right.  I then showed students the following puzzles:

Dish It Out- I added this one to provide some easier puzzles for students to try before attempting the others.

Rube Goldberg Burglar Catcher Machine- This puzzle has 4 areas to adjust to make the machine work correctly.

Goldburger to Go Machine- This puzzle has 13 areas to adjust to make the machine work correctly. 

My students both loved and struggled with these!  They loved the idea and readily attempted to solve them.  They often struggled the fact that the puzzles were extremely challenging and took a long time to solve.  They started to see what perseverance means.

I know there are other Rube Goldberg Machines and other escape puzzles online.  Do you have a favorite?

 

Drawing and Writing Fun with ABCYa Story Maker

One of my favorite winter classroom activities is to have kids draw a snowman/woman and write about it.  This year, I decided to have kids try using the ABCYa Story Maker and it was wonderful!

 

Students begin with drawing a picture.  There are a variety of fun tools for them to choose from.  They can also select different colors, use an undo feature and  clear the page if they want to start over.  My students really enjoyed the rainbow brush!

 

Once they are done drawing, they can click on the A a and move to writing.  Students can always go back to fix something on their drawing.

 

The writing area provides a place for 3-4 sentences.  I love that students can view their picture while they write.  They can also select different colors for their text.

 

Once the writing is done, students can click on the green page button and put everything together!

 

Finished pages can be printed or saved.  Students will be prompted to add their names before saving or printing.

Notice the little white button at the bottom of each screenshot?  You can add multiple pages!!!  It truly is a story maker!  One thing to note, you can't save and come back to your work.  So students will need to finish and download or print in one sitting.

My students really enjoyed using the Story Maker. I loved how easy it was to put a drawing and text together!  Be sure to give this one a try!

 

Drugs Make Us Angry!

I had so much fun using an Angry Bird theme for my Red Ribbon Week door decor and student project!

 

I decided to have the 1st graders draw Angry Birds in Kid Pix and add Red Ribbon Week messages about saying no to drugs and living a healthy life.  I did a search for Angry Bird pictures and had a few displayed so the students could look at them for inspiration. The kids worked so diligently on this project!

 

 

 

I LOVE how this project turned out!  I would love to hear if you did something for Red Ribbon Week!

 

 

Sesame Street Videos to Teach Coding Concepts

A few weeks ago, while searching Pinterest, I came across a great Sesame Street music video called The Power of Yet.  I knew right away it would be perfect for teaching my Kindergarten and 1st grade students about perseverance in problem solving.

The kids loved it!  I had them share things they are already good at and things they struggle with.  We talked about how we just haven't learned them YET!  We brainstormed strategies for overcoming our frustrations.  Then the students went and practiced coding.  It was great to see them apply what they had just talked about in their problem solving.

While I was on YouTube, I found a couple other Sesame Street videos that would be helpful in teaching coding concepts.  

The Robot vocabulary word video would make a good introduction to robots and how they need to be told what to do.  It would fit well with my Drawing A Robot Lesson.

 

The Elmo and Dwight Howard Strategy video would be good for teaching students to make a plan when coding or debugging a code.  

 

The Pattern vocabulary word video would be fun to help introduce loops and looking for patterns in code.

 

I'm sure there are more videos out there...I just need to find the time to look for them!

Robot Drawings in 1st Grade

 

For the past several years, I have done a shape drawing lesson with my first graders.  We have drawn house, cars, castles, and rocket ships to name a few.  This year I decided to add a Computer Science spin and ask the students to draw robots.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how this project turned out!

 

I began the lesson by sharing the book Robots, Robots Everywhere! by Sue Fliess & Bob Staake (iTunes $2.99).  I used the iBooks version which includes an audio recording of the story being read.  I chose to manually turn the pages so we could talk about the different robots on the pages.  I selected this book because of the shapes and colors used in the robot illustrations. I also liked the different robots shown.  At least one student in every class, mentioned how they also had seen a "vacuum robot".

After the story, we talk about ways to draw a robot.  I opened Kid Pix 3D and modeled using the shape and line tools to draw.  

The students spent the rest of class drawing their robots.  If they finished before other students, they went to their Code.org accounts and worked on solving computational thinking puzzles.  I wanted to give all students ample time to draw.

 

During the next class, I introduced a robot poem to students.  I made this poem up and really liked the balance between having the students copy a few lines and having them create a few lines in their poem.

Line 1:  Robot, Robot,

Line 2:  Uses code,

Line 3:  Follows programs,

Line 4:  Student shares what their robot can do.

Line 5:  Student names their robot

I opened KidPix 3D and modeled writing the poem.  We talk about using special keys on the keyboard (shift, delete, return) and sounding out words.  I asked the students to copy lines 1-3 and add their own lines 4-5.

   

 

The above poem totally made me smile!  I was also really pleased and excited to see how much my 1st graders had retained from their Kindergarten year.  They remembered adding spaces between words, making capital letters, and so much more!  

I plan to further tie this lesson to coding and computational thinking when we turn our classmates into robots and verbally code them around the room and when we use Dash and Dot robots.

I love when a lesson both informs and delights my students and myself! :)

 

 

Drawing The Cat In The Hat!

 

“I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny, but we can have lots of good fun that is funny.” 
― Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat

This week has been full of Seuss style fun!  Check out the fun drawings my 1st graders made of Cat in the Hat!

Before starting this project, I found a great YouTube video showing how to draw the cat.  The video doesn't have any sound, which was actually nice.  We were able to talk about what we were seeing and make our own conclusions. 

 

We watched the video in stages, talked about what we saw, and then brainstormed how we could translate the drawing in Kid Pix Deluxe.

 

I love how they turned out!  The students were excited to print them and share with each other!  

:) Happy drawing!