Happy Earth Day- Teaching Paperless

Happy Earth Day!  To celebrate, I pledged (via @teachpaperless) to go paper-free in our homeschooling today.  Honestly, it was wonderful! I wanted to share our day with you and hopefully inspire ideas for your homeschooling or classroom teaching.  For me, I am constantly inspired by the wonderful teaching suggestions and ideas shared through my PLN.  So, take a peek inside a day at the St. Francis Homeschool.

We begin our day with prayer followed by a morning devotional.  Today, we combined history and our religion.  We are currently studying The Hundred Year's War in world history and Joan of Arc.  Today, we looked more closely at her life and explored her path to sainthood using resources at Catholic Online as well as the BBC History Resources. Using Dabbleboard, we outlined the key facts from her life. 

Our children were able to collaborate on this project and we plan to revisit  and add to our page at a later date.

For our language arts block today we used Time4Learning, Spelling City and StoryBird.  Weekly spelling lists are added every Monday.  Today, our children were eager to take their weekly tests.  After testing online, they each emailed the pdf of their test to me using gmail. After this success, I have decided to transition to this method of record keeping each week.  Less paper and the kids loved it!  Earlier in the week, each child used activities on Spelling City to write sentences and paragraphs online using their weekly spelling lists.  Again, results were emailed to me and we made corrections through Google Docs.  Totally cool!  Finally, Luc, our second grader, felt inspired to write a story about the importance of recycling.  Using Storybird, he was able to publish his masterpiece.  Check it out!

Save the Earth- Recycle! on Storybird

For science, we wrapped up our unit on the periodic table.  For the past few weeks, our children have been looking closely at the first 18 elements.  I'm always looking for alternative ways to assess understanding. Today, Abby and Ellie showcased their favorite elements on a digital poster created using Glogster.

In addition, Abby, our 4th grader, was emailed a handout to complete reviewing atomic symbols and other important information.  Going with the paperless theme, she completed the handout and emailed her responses back to me. 

Finally, we ended our day creating wordles suggesting ways we can be better stewards of our world and the environment this Earth Day and every day.  Again, the mind of a child is amazing.  Even our three year old had great ideas.  Take a look at their creations and see their solutions to global issues affecting us all.

Today was a great day!  I enjoyed watching our children engaged in their projects and collaborating with each other.  We were techie! We were paperless! We did our part today to make this a better world! 

Google Docs: A Catalyst for Change in Elementary Writing

Technology is great and has served as a catalyst for for positive change in our language arts currciulum.  Thanks to Google docs, I have developed a writer/editor relationship with our 4th grader.  She is able to share her projects with me and we are able to collaborate just as in a professional working relationship.  Frustration levels have been reduced and more open dialogue has begun.  What a cause for celebration! I have found she is more motivated and feels empowered.  As a result, the overall quality of work has improved and it has become more fun for everyone.  Let's not forget that her typing skills have dramatically improved as well. 

Although we have been using this system for a few months now, I wanted to share our success  as well as her latest assignment.  We have been studying The Black Death in Medieval History.  She was asked to write a newspaper article as if she were reporting with the perspective of someone living during that time.  Check it out!  It's "hot off the press!."

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Death and Destruction: The End of the World
by  Abby Allain

A highly contagious disease is spreading rapidly throughout every corner of the known world, leaving most victims dead.  One in every three people have died. It is thought to be carried by fleas on rats, which like to hangout in towns, especially the food stores, houses, and ships.  It has traveled from southern China, through central Asia, carried over to Baghdad and Crimea.  It is thought to have entered Europe by ships going to Italy.  It has now spread to Paris and London. Entire cities have been wiped out.  Baghdad and Mecca were emptied out into death. Authorities are suggesting to burn clothes of the dead to try and stop this plague from spreading.  This serious problem is spreading rapidly leaving none to hide.  Its name- The Black Death.
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This assignment showcases one of the many possibilities for teachers and homeschoolers as they search for ways to implement technology meaningfully in their classsrooms.  As an educator, I am always looking for new and creative ideas to stimulate excitment while still learning.  If you have any ideas to share, please pass them our way.  Another great thing about technology is the ability for teachers to share resources and build a community of support.  Happy Learning!

Integrating Medieval History, Simple Machines and Web 2.0

Last week, our children utilized a variety of resources to explore simple machines.  We focused on six main types:

• inclined planes
• a screw
• wedge
• levers
• pulleys
• wheel and axles

For each simple machine, we viewed the corresponding BrainPop movie.  Afterwards, they worked together to complete the vocabulary handouts and the online quizzes.  This provided a great foundation allowing for deeper exploration.  For fun, they created a wordle to review key ideas.

Activity:

Our children went on a simple machine scavenger hunt.  The mission was to keep a tally of each type of simple machine while capturing either a photo or digital footage.  Our 4th grader took charge and decided to use her digital camera.  After completing the handout, she entered her data on spreadsheet.  I gave her the choice of using either Zoho or Google Docs.  The younger children simply filled in their tally charts.

 

Afterwards, they worked together to create a animoto of their simple machine discoveries.  Check it out!

Great Online Resources:

• Try Engineering
• Museum of Science and Industry

I know you are probably wondering how medieval history fits into the picture!  Throughout last week, we were also continuing our discussion on medieval castles.  Along the way, we ran across a great online game called Destroy the Castle.  Basically, you build a virtual trebuchet and launch an attack on the castle.  Fun, right?  Each child had the opportunity to build their model and test it out.  Throughout the process, they kept a record of which designs were most successful.  In the middle of it all, a light bulb went off.  They realized that a trebuchet was a combination of class 1 and class 2 levers.  Enthusiasm spread and before we knew it, we were building our own model using drinking straws and paper clips. 

Always looking for ways to integrate subject areas, I decided a journal needed to be kept throughout the building process.  Our 4th grader was nominated for this task.  So, let me see, we have science, history, and language arts included so far.  What about math?  Simple!  After completing the model, they launched carrots and measured the distance.  They also explored the effect of adding various counterweights.  Again the information was recorded on a spreadsheet and results discussed. 

What a week!  What began as two separate lessons ended up being a multidisciplinary unit study.  We launched an attack on the mundane and made learning fun!

Web 2.0 Resources:

• Zoho
• Google Docs
• Animoto
• Wordle
• BrainPOP