Media Monday - Poetry Archive

Poetryarchive.org provides audio files of thousands of poems for children. It is well organized and easy to browse or search.

A lesson on poetry can begin with children reading the poems on paper and discussing the poem as a class. Student can then listen to the poem and discuss how their understanding of the poem may have changed. Students can support their thoughts with evidence such as tone and speed.

Lesson Plan: Counting Money

Lesson: Making Amounts Up to 50¢ Using Pennies, Nickels, Dimes, and Quarters & Think, Pair, and Share

Objectives:

·         Students will realize that starting with the coin with the largest value possible will mean that fewest coins will be used.

·         Students will be able to substitute smaller value coins when larger value coins are not available.

Materials:

·         Class set of iPads

·         Count Money Free app set to the appropriate level

·         Socrative Student app with a quiz on making money amounts up to 50¢

·         Interactive white board

Lesson Time: 40 minutes

Procedure:

Before. The teacher sets up the iPad apps so that the will be working on the right level. He/she sets the number of problems the students will work through independently during the lesson. On the day of, he/she sets up the interactive white board and makes sure the touch screen feature is working.

During. The teacher introduces the class to the lesson, stating that the class will be practicing how to make money amounts using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. The class starts out using the app on the interactive white board first so they can see how it words. Students make suggestions and the teacher drags the appropriate coins together for the first problem. Together the class tries an alternate way to make the same amount. The students then begin to work individually on their iPads. The teacher circulates to check on students’ progress.

Once the students have finished their problem sets, students divide into pairs. The teacher poses a question through the app on the interactive white board and the individual partners must first think of a way to make that amount separately, then share their method with their partner. Each group must come up with two ways to make this amount.  Once the groups are finished, the teacher asks several groups to demonstrate on the interactive white board how they make the amount. Students explain the strategies they used and the teacher may interject with questions to guide students toward noticing patterns (starting with coins with high value means few coins used). Below are some questions that are useful.

·         Why did you start with this coin?

·         How many coins did X use to make this amount?

·         Could you use more/fewer coins to make this amount?

·         What if you started with a different coin?

For each new amount the groups find several ways to make that amount and then share with the class, offering explanations and demonstrating how to count up to the amount. Throughout the process the students and teacher ask questions and make suggestions. As the student become more proficient, the teacher will ask students to identify the method that requires the few coins, the method that requires the most, and what methods work when some coins are unavailable.

After. Students return to their individual iPads to complete a quiz through Socrative. The teacher monitors each student’s progress through Socrative, checking on students who are taking longer than others and analyzing the results. Kids Coin Fun will be available for students to use over the next few weeks.

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Media Monday - Bees

Grade Level: K-6
This month's media collection is all about bees. These videos cover the most important information about bees, including how they are quickly vanishing and how we can help them. They also show everyday people interacting with bees while highlighting their importance.

  Honey Bees – Natural History Part 1
            Honey Bees – Natural History Part 2

      These two videos go to together to provide a thorough explanation of bees and their lives. Many of the videos on bees available through Youtube feature speech that is highly technical, but the language in this video is easy for students to understand. Unfamiliar terms are followed by explanations and the information is well organized.

where bees live, how bees reproduce, how bees communicate, what bees eat, why bees are important (pollination & honey production)

               Bee Swarm Capture

      Here you can see a beekeeper at work in an urban setting. A beekeeper is called in to deal with a bee swarm. This crucial moment in the bee life cycle is captured in high quality. Student can discuss the importance of a bee swarm and what to do if one encounters a bee swarm.

bee swarm, pheromones, starting a new hive.

         Worldwide Future of Food at Risk

This video covers the recent plummet in bee population. It explores several reasons why bees may be dying all over the world. If paused along the way, students can illustrate percentages, make predictions about why bees are dying, make predictions about what the implications might be, and discuss solutions.

rate of bee population decline, possible reasons, implications

                SSE – Community Bee Garden

Students at an elementary school in Ireland create a bee garden to promote biodiversity. The students plant plants in the garden and set up a bee structure in this video set to music. It’s a great way to explore how such a garden might help the bee population and it may spark a similar school project.

how to help bees

                  How to Help Bees in Your Garden

      This video answers the questions of what we can do to help bees and introduces several lesser known types of bees.

how to help bees, bumblebees, solitary bees

             
                  Mason Bees Micro Documentary

This video shows great examples of two types of solitary bees – masonry and leaf cutter. While there are a few second of material not appropriate for kids (1:06-1:11), this can be easily remedied by covering the screen or projecting device for a few seconds (it’s visual, not audio).

solitary bees, masonry bees, leaf cutter bees

                  How It’s Made: Honey

Students often wonder how bees make honey. This video shows the process from pollen to honey bottle. Most of the processing in this video is done commercially by machine.

pollen collection, honey making, honey extraction, honey bottling

         Honey Extraction

      This video takes you from uncapping to bottling. It shows a regular couple doing this in this kitchen at home. While the above video shows commercial production, this video brings it much closer to home. Seeing honey production from this perspective shows students that making honey is far from complicated and out of their reach. It can in fact be part of everyday life. Pausing the video along the way creates time for students to make observations about the process. Questions such as why does that work? Or why do they do that? Help students think through the process.

uncapping, extracting, and storing

                  Uncapping a Frame of Honey Using an Uncapping Fork

          Uncapping Honey with a Hot Knife

      These two videos can be used to supplement other videos on how to extract honey. It shows alternative ways of removing wax from a hive frame. Viewing this video along with other videos on honey extraction is a great way to engage students’ higher level thinking skills. Students can compare methods and determine which is better for what purpose.

And that's all folks! I hope you find these videos useful!

App Review - Count Money Free

This is a very useful app for practicing how to count money. The app accepts all variations of how to make each amount. For example, a student can use fifteen pennies or three nickels or a dime and a nickel to make fifteen cents. There is the option to show or hide the value as the coins are added or taken away, a great stepping block for those still not solid on the value of each coin. The check function is another great feature as it gives students a chance to fix what they've done before getting it "wrong." 

The only downsides to this app is the format. Younger students generally work with the cents symbol, but this app only displays amounts in the traditional dollar decimal format. This is easily circumvented with an explanation of the two forms, however, and does not really affect the app's effectiveness. Another down side are the + and - buttons. This app would be much work intuitive if it were drag and drop. 

Overall, however, the app is a great for the amount you spend - nothing!

World Tour

One of the biggest events of the year at my school is World Tour. Each classroom works on a specific country all year and presents what they know at on World Tour Day. Students learn everything from language and culture to geography and political standing. They decorate their classroom to resemble their countries and create art and artifacts from its culture. It is a huge undertaking, but a great way for students to fully engage. They explore the country, use the information to create elements, and present to their schoolmates and parents on World Tour Day.

This year my pre-kindergarten class had the Netherlands. Here are some snapshots of what the classroom looked like and short explanations on what kinds of skills were used for each feature.

The students worked together to create the final version of this information board. I compiled photos and information about the tulip industry in the Netherlands into a Powerpoint presentation. The text was simple so the students could read it aloud. We stopped and made observations or asked questions often during the Powerpoint. Afterwards each students wrote about the tulip life cycle and we compiled their best work into the final draft. During World Tour students mentioned that the Netherlands grows 3 billion tulip bulb each year.

Here is our dike and windmill corner. (To see how we make the tulips, check out this link.) We introduced the need for dikes and windmills through the Dutch folk tale, "The Cat and the Cradle." Once the students understood the issues facing the Dutch people, I introduced dikes and windmills through another brief Powerpoint, also easily read by the students. Each student wrote their own summary about dikes and windmills before working together to create the board below. Around the same time, we heard and retold another Dutch folk tale, "The Dutch Boy Who Wanted More Cheese" to make the connection between dikes, windmills, and farming. 

The class also learned about the Dutch textile industry and the flax process. This topic was introduced through the Dutch fairy tale "Spin Head and Snow White." I found a video about the flax process on Youtube that was not too complicated. We watched it several times, stopping often to ask questions and discuss. We also grew our own flax plants from seed, though unfortunately not early enough to see flowers! 

The students learned a bunch more about the Netherlands (Van Gogh, delftware, the Peace Palace in the Hague, and Amsterdam), through a variety of sources including folk tales, videos, and photos. On the day of, the students were veritable fountains of information!