Applying Our Creative & Critical Thinking Skills to Our Writing

The students started their day with an introduction to a new, web based, digital storytelling application, Storybird.   Storybird uses a broad selection of art work to inspire you to write a story.  Each child was assigned a username and password today.  One of the great things about this application is students are able to continue their work from home, at their home school or here in SAGE.  All they have to do is login to the website.  They can even collaborate on a book with their classmates.  Another great feature of the site is you have the ability to print copies of your child's story on your home printer, share their stories through email, embed them in websites or blogs and even order hard or paperback copies of your child's book.  

The students spent some time exploring the available art work.  When they found an artist's work that inspired a story idea, they began creating their book.  Have your child login and share their story with you. 

Below is the book Theo completed.

The Weird Knight on StorybirdIn the afternoon, the students continued their animal research.  

This week, they learned strategies for organizing information.  As the boys and girls read their animal articles, they used a color coded key to highlight it for specific content.  This will help them next week when they begin recording notes in their animal research booklet.

They did a nice job on this step and seem ready to begin the note taking process.Have a great weekend!

Finding the Questions to Drive Our Research

Our day started by completing a pretest KWL on the animal each child is about to research.  The students listed facts they Knew about their animal and wrote questions about What they wanted to learn about it.   At the end our individual research unit, they will record what they Learned about the animal.   

We reviewed how to access the district's research data base.  We used the Smart Board to explore Searchasaurus, World Book Online, Kid's Search and Kids Info Bits. The students succeeded in printing a Searchasaurus article and scanned other brief articles in the online applications.  Finally, we were able to check off our progress on our research, task list.

We discussed the scope of our research and the types of sources we will be learning to use and cite.  We also looked over the research packet we will be using to keep our research organized.   

This is a new twist on the animal unit I have taught for many years.  I wanted the students to select an endangered animal so we could find relevant, real world problems to explore and, to the best of our ability, do what we can to bring about a solution.  I also wanted to involve them in the planning process.  By helping to define the direction of their research and the potential projects and products they will complete, they will be more invested, engaged and motivated throughout their research.  The students brainstormed ways they can individually, in small groups or as a class help endangered animals.  I guess I was a little surprised.  All three 2nd grade classes approached the problems in very similar ways.  It was a very interesting, and for me, enlightening discussion.  

We (both teachers and parents) have taught our children to problem solve and think the way we have always done--even the way our parents, their grandparents, have done.  Their ideas began with: 

• "We can make posters to teach others about endangered animals and hang them up around our school and on (telephone) poles in our neighborhood."
• "We can take the endangered animals out of the forest so they aren't in danger any more."
• "We can make flyers and hand them out to people at our schools and at our open house."
• "We can send letters to our government and President and tell them to protect the animals."
• One student even suggested, "We have a fund raiser so we can all fly to Washington to meet with the President or government officials to convince them to save endangered animals."
• "We can make phone calls or send letters to scientists working with the animals to ask them questions."
• "We can go to the radio station and be interviewed about our research."
• "We can make a video and have it shown on TV."
• "We can write a play about protecting the animals and perform it at our Open House."
• "We can make a wax museum where we share what we learn with the people that come to Open House."

I was really dumbfounded!  I know they are young and have limited life experiences, but they are all "tech" experienced.  They are our digital natives.  They are unafraid of the Internet.  They text, email and interact with others on the computer as if it is completely natural to them, yet in all three classes, the first 8-10 suggestions included no technology beyond a telephone.  I teased them and told them they were thinking like their great grandparents did when they were eight years old!  It still took a little prodding and a few example suggestions before they opened up and started thinking of 21 Century skills.  Once they were rolling, they suggested:

• sending email, texting, video conferencing, and tweeting
• making a video and putting it (embedding it) on our blog
• making a podcast news show to add to our blog
• making a video about saving the animals and uploading it to You Tube
• making a website to teach others about endangered animals
• blogging about our research
• use digital images to share information about the animals on our blog or on website
• making a website to share our research and digital posters
• doing an online auction as a fund raiser
• making an electronic newspaper

Yeah!  Maybe they will be ready for the demands they will face as adults in a technology driven world after all.  Research supports my belief that our children must learn to think differently; must learn to collaborate from a distance as well as face to face.  They need to have a broad knowledge of the digital tools available to them and be able to quickly assimilate and evaluate Internet based applications.  We know the Internet and the digital world will change faster than we can ever master the skills.  Our children will be prepared if we can teach them to think.  

Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock says, 'We need to teach students to learn how to learn, learn how to unlearn and learn how to relearn, because that's the real skill."  Loosely quoting Psychologist Herbert Gerjuoy, Toffler said, "Tomorrow's illiterate will not be the man who can't read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn."  That is our job.

Fortunately, their ideas raised even more questions and this will be the starting point for their research.  The actual projects they will complete will be determined when they have learned more about their topic.

The students were able to work at their exploratory areas.  They are finishing projects and having fun along the way!

This student even made a water balloon out of Origami paper.  We just couldn't pass up on the opportunity to fill it and "wing it" across the parking lot out front.

Senora Gates ended our day with Spanish.

Another busy, but satisfying day!

Wow! Three New Students in One Day!

Today we welcomed Duaa, Elsie and Patty.  They were enthusiastic and maybe a bit nervous at the start of our day.  By the end, they seemed to have settled right in to our group.  I know they will be great additions to our class!

After getting to know our new friends, we reviewed on the white board how to locate our endangered animals site, www.arkive.org and how to search for a specific species.  Today, was our "highly anticipated" day to choose our research animal.  After one final look at our endangered list, the students settled on their choices.  This group is studying a variety of species including yellow crested cockatoo, chimpanzee, Asian buffalo, yellow headed parrot, Bengal tiger and several others.  Ask you child about their choice and what inspired their decision.

The students were introduced to/reviewed how to search for a library book by author, title, subject or series in our district online catalog.  Because our species are so specific, many students had to refine their search to include all or our district's elementary school libraries.  It is difficult skill to learn to broaden a search and it requires the students to be flexible in their thinking and persistent in their search.  Hopefully the books we are ordering will be helpful in our research.  Next week, we will go to the district online resources to find a Searchasaurus article on our animal.  It will be one of our main resources.

I am not concerned about finding sufficient information.  The animals I offered as choices were ones for which I know we have information.  As this is their very first, in depth research project, I want them to be challenged, but I also want them to be successful.  It is my goal for each student to have a bibliography that includes at least one book, traditional encyclopedia, online article, online encyclopedia and possibly a magazine article.  This will give them the opportunity to learn to cite a variety of sources too.

Next week, for most of the students is still pretty fun.  We will be focused on gathering sources.  The following two to three SAGE days will be pretty challenging and fairly taxing.  My usual opening statement for the day will be, "You need to be prepared to work really hard today.  You are going to feel confusion and frustration and you will get tired of writing, but I promise you, if you dig in and persevere through the research portion of our study, I will make it worth your while with our projects."  Very few adults, let alone students, enjoy the note-taking, knowledge-gathering portion of a research study.  In general, these will be the whiniest weeks in my classroom, (LOL) but at the same time, they will contain the work for which the students are the most proud.  With that pride comes confidence in their abilities and in himself/herself.  As you talk to your child after their SAGE day, ask them what they have learned about their animal, encourage them to persist in their note-taking and most importantly, praise them for their efforts.  One great outcome you will see is they sleep well after a long day of work!

After lunch and recess, the students worked on their math problem solving skills in the TOPS Math program, (our individualized math problem solving program.)

Next, I introduced the students to a visual perceptions game called SET.  In this game, they have to find sets of three cards where all of the cards attributes are either all the same or all different.  It is a very "tight thinking" activity.

We ended our day with Spanish instruction by Senora Gates.  Today the students learned practiced their numbers from 1-40.

I enjoyed our day and I hope your child did too!

Jumping into Second Semester

It is nice to be back in class!  The students came in excited and energetic this morning.  It sounds like they had a fun winter break.  Today they were focused and hard working.

We started our day sharing something we did over break to "feed our soul;" for me it was painting.  The kids shared about receiving special presents, enjoyed seeing cousins they don't get to see often and spent time with family and friends.  

Next, we discussed the spectrum labels used to identify an animal species' status:

• extinct
• extinct in the wild
• critically endangered
• endangered
• threatened
• nearly threatened
• vulnerable
• least or lesser concern

For the purposes of our research unit, the students will be choosing an animal that is endangered or critically endangered.  We are using www.arkive.org to determine an animal's status.  Several asked for the link so they can explore the animal lists and check on animals they are interested in studying.  They will make their final choice next week and begin gathering information on it.  (***As this is the first real research most of them have done, I want to avoid obscure animals and those on which little has been published.)


The students were introduced to the North Kansas City Online Resources.  In the computer lab, they worked to cross-reference our list of endangered animals to be sure we have a Seachasaurus article available for each animal species.  The did a great job!

After lunch the students worked in their individual Exploratory areas.  Ask your child about their progress.

Next, we discussed the importance of goal setting, how to make a specific, relevant and reasonable goals, and what we can do to achieve our goals.  The students began this process by choosing an area of focus for a goal related to their SAGE work.  In the weeks ahead, we will write and refine their goals and begin tracking their progress.  Ask your child about his or her individual goal ideas.

We ended our day with our Spanish instruction with Senora Gates.