Live Cam in Action

This last week our class started our morning routine with our morning work. It was a comprehension piece about Sea Otters.  A lesson that normally takes 5-10 minutes turned into 20! One of the question's asked was about KELP. Only one student had actually seen KELP ( she had been up to Monterey , CA). Only about 10 had ever seen seaweed ( I was trying to integrate inference )so we decided to turn to some technology for help.

 

 We brainstormed with our partners different places we could go to on the web to find out more about sea otters and KELP. There was so much information and better yet, so many illustrations and video clips to broaden our "horizons" on this particular subject. Our personal favorite was a live video cam streaming from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We watch the cutest little animals roll around in their KELP.
So one question about a simple vocabulary word like KELP turned into such an amazing lesson for all of us , not just the students.
 


Later that same day in science we were reading 2 different articles (about a giraffe and gorilla ) and preparing to write an opinion paragraph about which animal was the best . As the students began to write, I was able to find a gorilla live cam from the Houston Zoo. I put the link up on our webpage. That night I had  several kiddos who went on to watch the gorillas . 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All aboard..... The complete sentence!

Image
We decided that we needed to do something about the frustrating fragments that often plague our third graders' writing.  Therefore, we started the school year by teaching the four types of sentences during Lang. Arts time.  Immediately after that, we tackled subjects and predicates. Slowly, our ideas started chugging.  When brainstorming, we often try to come up with some sort of visual that students can apply to a new concept.  We decided to try using a train analogy to teach subjects and predicates this year.  We could teach students to think of a complete sentence as a train, with the subject being the train's engine, and the predicate serving as the train's caboose. After the whole group lesson, the kiddos worked as a team to put subjects and predicates together( ocean theme of course ) Not  only did our third graders really seemed to enjoy the  subject   &   predicate  activities we did, we can honestly say that they really seemed to latch onto the train analogy! 
Read more

Olympics lesson through GOOGLE CLASSROOM

Image
Today the kiddos had a teacher-free lesson on their google classroom. We prepared a google slide about the history of the Olympics and an interactive worksheet. As they went through the slideshow (on their own) they filled out the answers to the worksheet. It was a great way for us to teach about the Olympics but not worry about how to squeeze it into our jam packed day.  Loving our GOOGLE classroom and all it offers!
Read more

CAUSE and EFFECT

Image
CAUSE and EFFECT   Why is Cause and Effect Important? Cause and effect is a theme that comes up time and time again in learning. In math, it is a way to make sense of concepts like the  order of operations  or  regrouping . In reading and writing, understanding cause and effect can help your child learn to read more critically and to write stories with captivating plots and fascinating characters. In science, it will help your child  understand the scientific method ; in history it provides perspective for how a historical event is the culmination in the chain of a series of causes and events; and in social relationships, cause and effect is a key way of learning to engage more appropriately. Today in class we made a cause and effect anchor chart ( shown above)  and discussed with partners some examples.  Then each child was then given a CAUSE in which they needed to write an EFFECT. We had a lot of great ideas.       Another fun lesson with these kiddos. We will review as the weeks co
Read more