3rd Grade Book Trailers

3rd Graders in Ms. Bisoni-Lais, Mrs. Lafferty, and Mrs. Boese's classes completed book trailers using iMovie.  The project began by having the students understand what book trailers were and comparing them to movie trailers.  Students used an iMovie Planning Sheet to help narrow down their theme and list the main ideas.  Next the students worked through the concept of "Story-Boarding" to map out a plan for their book trailer.  Students used iMovie on the iPads to build their movie trailer with text slides as well as taking images from their books.  The students did a great job with the technology integration as well as portraying the storyline of their books while being careful not to give away the ending.  What a fun project!

Click here for the full version of the Google Presentation step by step guide with screenshots  for creating a book trailer using iMovie on the iPad.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nfM1C-KYEqcsfelXUXpwR7gir2N2WOumwTIkprBx1GY/edit#slide=id.p

Here are the slides:

Check here soon for YouTube links to some of the students trailers.  

Mrs. Savage's HS Graphic Design Posters

Students in Mrs. Savage's HS Graphic Design classes 

have been busy creating READ posters for teachers in the district. 

Mrs. Robertson's 8th Grade Holocaust Survivor Skype

Mrs. Robertson's class was honored to Skype with Holocaust survivor Magda Herzberger.  Magda has written several books about her experiences, including her newest one, "Surviving Hard Times".
What experts/eyewitnesses could you Skype with?

5th Grade Robotics

5th Graders in Miss Wiebe's room are working on their Project Lead the Way and building robots. Teams completed their robots this week and had fun building and driving on their obstacle courses! It was fun to have 7th and 8th Advanced Tech students help the 5th graders troubleshoot robot issues.

Mr. Rewerts' 7th Grade Social Studies Country Creation

Mr. Rewerts' students are completing their country creation project.
Part of the project included researching a real country and then creating their own country.
They had to draw and label their country.  This student chose to do so using a Google Doc.
Very creative using the Google tools with shapes and lines!

World Book Online

From Mrs. Yoder/Mrs. Unruh...

Teachers,

I wanted to share a new resource we now have available--ebooks from World Book Online.  

To get to them, follow these steps (using your specific building: es/ms/hs):

1. Go to the MS library website.  ms.hesstonschools.org/library

2. Click on the "World Book Online eBooks" link.

3. Click on the eBooks icon.

4. Search for your topic.  You can search by subject, grade range, etc.  

5. There are a wide variety of books included: history, biographies, animals, biomes, etc.

They can be read online or downloaded onto an iPad using the free World Book eBook app.  They are simultaneous use, meaning all students in your class can read the same book at the same time (different from many eBooks out there).

There are 19 sets of eBooks included in our subscription (over 150 books total!) and we have a subscription to them until November of 2015.  I encourage you to take a look and think about how you may be able to incorporate them into a lesson.  

Mr. Richardson’s 1828 Campaign Posters

Mr. Richardson's 8th grade Social Studies students created campaign posters for the 1828 election.

The students created using iPads and any App of their choice.  Several chose to create Smores, Pages documents, or Google Docs.  Students had to create a campaign slogan, declare their political party, voting targets, time frame political promises, and have a time appropriate look for the overall campaign.

Remember it is always beneficial when you offer students the choice in the medium they are using.  The goal is the end product so they can show what they know, not the medium they are using.  Students often show more ownership and engagement when they have some input in how they will create the end product.

Adobe Slate App

AppAdvice.com named Adobe Slate one of the top 10 new apps of the week!  Recently I spoke about Adobe Voice, a quick way to easily make videos.  Adobe Slate "turns any document into a beautiful visual story in minutes".  I set up a free account and in a matter of minutes had a story containing pictures (either from the internet or pics you have taken), and text.  It was very simple to create the visual story and this could be used with elementary as well as up to high school students.  The presentations are very professional looking.

Check out Adobe Slate if you are looking for a new way for students to share what they know!

Miss Stucky's 2nd Grade Class Blog

Check out Miss Stucky's cute class blog!  

You can visit it to see all of the creative things she is doing in her classroom!

http://www.2fabulousinsecond.blogspot.com

Remember, class blogs are an easy way to increase parent communication!

Contact me if you would like to set one up!

Mrs. McGuire's Student ThingLink

Mrs. McGuire's Extended Learning students integrate technology into their projects regularly, including presentation tools as well as other tech tools such as ThingLink.  Here is an interactive image a student created for their stop motion presentation.  I have blogged about ThingLink several times before...and we still love it!  We have used it as young as 3rd grade, up into high school.

Click here to view the image interactively!