This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the interest of improving my craft.

Week ending 05/11/12

Kindergarten

What we covered / did / explored:

• Since today’s activity was a counting based lesson utilizing PowerPoint, we warmed up with Leon’s Math Dojo (click the green bar on the bottom left to start) and ABCYA’s Marble Math.
• In some classes we did a semi-kinesthetic warmup activity using students standing in groups to illustrate math facts. Hilarity ensued, of course. :)
• The performance task for this week was to manipulate objects on a PowerPoint slide into addition statements. In the process, kids got experience navigating PowerPoint, clicking and dragging items, entering text, and so on.

What I learned / observed / inferred:

• This lesson would be stronger if I incorporated some more complex arrangements and possibly subtraction facts.
• I could revamp it completely into a template that would allow the student to choose the identity (number) and then the corresponding math fact. Hmmmmm…
• This lesson might be okay earlier in the year. Though most took the better part of the hands-on lesson period to complete their work, it wasn’t challenging enough. It was just tedious.

What students can do at home:

• Counting games like this can be great fun if you use ordinary (or even funny) objects. Set some up and let your kindergartener show you what they know!
• Activities like this can also be easily replicated on just about any software program. Tux Paint would be a good choice!

What we covered / did / explored:

• There was no warmup today as we needed the entire period for our exploration of insects – in this case, common red ants.
• We introduced the lesson with a quick SMART Notebook activity I built based on lessons from SMART Exchange and images from the Internet. Clearly the kids had prior knowledge of insect parts as they sailed through the identification process.
• I demonstrated use of the QX5 microscopes and the subject ants I gathered earlier in the week. (These microscopes are WONDERFUL, but hard to find, this store is selling them online but I have no experience with them, so proceed at your own risk. Here’s a seller on eBay with some as of this writing.) Thank you, NCS PTO, for providing them so many years ago!
• Once I showed/reminded the students what to do and sent them to their workstations, the usual magic happened. (Without fail, every lesson I do with these is a highlight of the year.) Students shrieked with glee as they discovered ant parts up close and personal, grabbing high-resolution images of ant eyes, leg hair, mandibles and more.
• For fun after the lesson, we always let the kids put anything they want under the microscopes, and this class did not disappoint. Ordinary shirt fabric looks incredible at 60x and even moreso at 200x. Hair barrettes, jewelry, fingers and fingernails, shoelaces, tissue paper, whatever we could find, we explored. It was controlled chaos. And it was beautiful.

What I learned / observed / inferred:

• Exploring stuff is crazy fun but I need to do a better job of structuring this lesson around actual inquiry rather than just affirming prior knowledge.
• At one point we had an unidentified object that appeared to be a crystal of some kind, very small, attached to an antennae. We talked about it and concluded it was a grain of sand that came along with the ant when I collected samples outside.
• One of the great joys of teaching for me is watching students as they interact with each other and technology and then listen to what they have to say. A parent volunteer was standing next to me when a student in Mrs. Edelmann’s class on Friday said, quietly, to herself, “…I think I want to be a scientist when I grow up.” She had been working diligently for several minutes, alone, after her partner had gone on to play a computer game once the lesson was finished. I love these “a-ha!” moments that can literally change a student’s life trajectory. As I told the parent standing next to me, *THAT IS WHY* I teach.

What students can do at home:

• Microscopes are neat tools for inquisitive minds (if you can’t find one of the QX5s there are many others to choose from.) Similar effects can be obtained with digital cameras that feature macro picture capability. Even common objects can be explored and studied in great detail!

Second Grade

What we covered / did / explored:

• We warmed up with a new keyboarding activity, which I used as an assessment: Letter Bubbles. Students did three rounds of the game on “Beginner” mode. Those who scored 95% accuracy or higher got to write their name on the SMART Board regardless of speed (Words Per Minute). They then signed their names into one of three columns on the board indicating speed ranges (0 to 8 wpm; 8-10 wpm; 10+ wpm). I am fairly certain every kid in each class got their name up on the board since it was not a timed activity and all they had to do was be accurate. It was great fun!
• Kids finished their Mother’s Day Coupons (see above example). I am thrilled to know that Northfield moms will be enjoying these tomorrow!

What I learned / observed / inferred:

• Keyboarding speeds are about where I expected them to be at this time of year.
• The approach I used this year – brainstorming the ideas first in a Word document, then rocking the PowerPoint afterward – helped immensely. Everyone successfully completed the project and the quality of this year’s coupons was better than ever. The kids had a blast, too.

What students can do at home:

• THEY CAN DO ALL THE NICE THINGS ON THE COUPONS, FOR STARTERS!!! :)

Third and Fourth Grade

What we covered / did / explored:

• We warmed up with a new keyboarding activity, which I used as an assessment: Letter Bubbles. Students did three rounds of the game on “Beginner” (Grade 3) or “Classic” (Grade 4) mode. Those who scored 95% accuracy or higher got to write their name on the SMART Board regardless of speed (Words Per Minute). They then signed their names into one of three columns on the board indicating speed ranges (Third Grade: 0 to 10 wpm; 10-12 wpm; 12+ wpm; Fourth Grade: 0 to 10 wpm; 10-15 wpm; 15+ wpm). I am fairly certain every kid in each class got their name up on the board since it was not a timed activity and all they had to do was be accurate. It was great fun!
• Since this week was NJASK testing, we gave the kids a break and let them play games for the rest of the period. Monster Milktruck is our runaway lab favorite as of this moment!

What I learned / observed / inferred:

• Keyboarding speeds are about where I expected them to be at this time of year.
• Kids need time to relax, and I’m thrilled to have been able to provide them with that opportunity during this stressful week.

What students can do at home:

• Practice keyboarding with Typing Pal or Letter Bubbles, or, take the Monster Milktruck for a spin!