2nd Grade Ask3

My 2nd grade students have used Ask3 for 3 assignments now.

Initially they used the app to answer a question about recess. The goal was for them to familiarize themselves with the app and understand their commenting options and how their feedback could be incorporated into a video or picture I assigned.

The second assignment was to create their own video about balancing acts they could do with a spoon and egg. For example, balance the egg on the spoon while passing the spoon behind their back or under a raised leg. In addition to creating their own video, they commented on the video of at least 1 peer.

This week I had photos of rural, urban, and suburban communities in the app. I asked students to identify the clues in each photo that led them to identify what type of community they were looking at.

1st Grade Counting Coins Skitch and Pic Collage

The first grade students are counting coins. I asked each of them to grab a handful, lay the coins out, and take a photo. They imported the photo into Skitch and labelled the coins, showing how they could count on to determine the total amount of money they had. They repeated this process 2-3 times and created a poster in Pic Collage. Good ah, ha for me...I needed to remind them (which I did after Pic Collage products started arriving in my in box) to start with the larger coins and end with the smaller coins. Somehow I wasn't getting all the poster sent via email, just a portion...gotta love technology.

2nd Grade Explaining Community Types Strip Design

We are nearing the end of our communities unit, soon it will be time to create communities. To show understanding of differences between community types students used Tools4Students as a planning tool. From their they took their favorite 1 or 2 distinctions for each community (rural, suburban, urban) and included it in captions to go with photos imported into Strip Design.

2nd Grade Syllable Rules with Magnetic ABC

We are getting ready for STAR testing next week with a lot of review. This past week students reviewed 4 syllable rules (words ending in -le, words with a double consonant, rule to break after a short vowel, and rule to break after a long vowel).  Pairs of students used the Magnetic ABC to show the syllable division of 2 syllable words. Rather than give them a list of words, I asked them to think of their own, using inspiration from around the classroom and from books.

Front Row Education Fraction App

Fractions are going away in 2nd grade according to the CCS. However, my district is still balancing CCS and state standards. State standards for 2nd grade still include fractions, and students are still tested on them, so we covered fractions back in November and periodically review the concepts.

A few months ago I heard about Front Row Education, I believe from a Teachercast podcast. Their fraction app is in the testing phase and my students are lucky enough to be trying it out. The app provides a progression of fraction skills linked to the CCS, starting in third grade. There are multiple choice questions, fill-in questions, video tutorials, and written explanations for each level of fraction skills. Due to the age/fraction knowledge of my students, most of them only progressed to about level 10 in the app, but there is a lot more learning available for them.

The teacher dashboard is well organized and provides a whole class snapshot as well as the ability to drill down and see exactly what each student understands and struggles with, all tied to CCS.

My students liked it so much (much better than workbook pages and differentiated and self-paced) they are hoping for more math topics at some point in the future.

For more info about Front Row Education you can reach them at  team@frontrowed.com and there's a video at http://www.frontrowed.com.

2nd Grade Balance Game and Educreations

2nd grade students continue to put balance concepts and vocabulary to use, this time using the app Balance Game by Uwe Meier. The task here was to play the app and take several screenshots of balanced scales. Next, import the screenshot(s) to Educreations and explain the science/strategy used.

One group chose to type their thinking, the other used the record option--I love how easy the iPad is for differentiation and for students to make the choices that work best for them.

typed response

verbal response

Two other balance apps students used were Fill the Cup and iSolveIt: MathScaled, but I did not have them create any content after playing those games.

2nd Grade Poetry Using WordMover

We are starting our poetry unit, not one of my favorites. I like poetry without rhyming or syllable requirements, so we start there first. Tony Vincent suggested using the Word Mover app as a fun way of starting students with poetry creation.

The first assignment (after reading and discussing some poetry) was simply for students to use the app to create a poem.

Students liked the ease of the click and drag words as well as the ability to add words of their own.