Why Teach Google Earth: what are 2nd graders learning?

Second graders study communities, with one focus being our school garden and observing plants and animals. To help with learning about butterflies the technology connections include using the Journey North materials on the migration of monarch butterflies.

The teacher uses a classroom projector to show students the maps that show the path of the butterflies as they migrate to Mexico. After students have seen the maps they can use Google Earth to visit the states that they have seen pictured on the maps. As a literacy skill they learn that there are two letter post office abbreviations that they can enter in the search box to "fly to" a new state (e.g. MA, NH, MN, TX) and then zoom in and out to view the overall colors and features of the landscapes that give them visual cues as to the topography. What can they see when they travel? (Questions: Does the state of Minnesota look like the state of Texas? What do you see? What do you think the land looks like there?) What is going on in their minds as they change the view to go closer and then zoom back out to view the state boundaries and country borders? Is there a mathematical-spatial learning process going on?

Recently I've been reading about "partner learning" and the power of having students talk out loud about their explorations and questions. For this session using Google Earth we paired the students and had a "navigator" enter the search text and a "pilot" who pressed Return or clicked on Search to "fly" to a new destination.

What are students learning as they "fly", "zoom" and explore a virtual earth? The engagement in the room is full of, "What ifs?" and wondering as they talk about going N, S, E, W, look at the geographic features like lakes, mountain ranges and deserts. They are talking about countries, continents, oceans and more as they move around and explore. They are asking basic questions about typing on the laptops, finding letters, the space bar, delete key, etc.

A classroom teacher wrote a blog post about the session and the inclusion of a follow up activity where students went to see their own homes and explored the town. Part of the power of this lesson was the collaboration between the classroom teacher and my role as instructional integrator.

Second Graders Learn to Program with "The Foos"

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Second graders used "The Foos" for Hour of Code in December. There has been considerable interest in returning to this problem-solving, logical thinking activity this year. The website: http://thefoos.com has links to download the free app for iPads, iPhones, Android devices and computers if families are interested.

Coding in the Primary Grades

All students in grades 1-12 had an opportunity to participate in an "hour of code" activity that was appropriate to their grade level. First graders used the iPad app Kodable to explore the concepts of planning a sequence, using if/then options and learning to repeat commands. Following the Hour of Code week students have been asking to access the app as one of their options in the classrooms.

Second and Third grades used the coding activities posted at the Computer Science week learn to code page of tutorials. Several students were able to complete the activity, whether they finished or not they all had success with the logical thinking procedures that are the underpinnings of programmming.

This is a slide show of some students at Rowe using iPads and YES learning top program on their laptops with assistants from HMS:

Building Bridges to Tomorrow - FlatClassroom K-2 Project

This spring I have been working with Marypat Bowen's class and the Building Bridges to Tomorrow K-2 FlatClassroom global collaboration with 22 schools. As part of the project each school created video content about weather and seasons in their part of the world that will be compiled using WeVideo. This is the video created by the Yarmouth class to share with the others. 

Listening to Stories

One of the activities that early readers can do at school and at home is listen to stories as they watch the words and the pictures. We have looked at this more closely in our grade 1 & 2 classrooms this past year and we are curious about whether increased listening time will help with reading fluency. One disclaimer I should make early on is that when my young adult children were small I had some songs on tape, but I wasn't a big fan of mechanized story voices--I wanted there to be a human connection when a child was being read to and I refused to purchase the popular toys of the time (like Teddy Ruxpin) that had taped stories embedded inside their fake fur. I still believe in that human connection for reading time, but I value the option of additional time on their own for children to hear great stories and vocabulary that might be beyond their reading level.

Some of the sites that are available online are:

1. TumbleBooks if you are a Portland Library Card Holder. Phrases are highlighted.
2. Storyline Online has stories read aloud by actors.
3. Oxford Owl has many ebooks that can be read aloud.

Some of these are now configured to work around Flash issues on an iPad. If you setup a home button from Safari to go to TumbleBooks it automatically goes to the Mobile Devices page that has books that don't need Flash.

For more sites the students at YES go to our Educational Resources site for instance on the Reading and Writing page for second grade.

Quote of the Day from a Second Grader

"On my iPod there's an apple on the back."

Arctic study in the second grades includes animal reports using the wonderful site ARKive for photos and videos. With many wonderful picture books in the classroom, using resource sites in the lab and reviewing the material found in the Clicker Animals of Cold Lands books. Student have been creating reports and illustrating their knowledge using Clicker Paint. 

Life Cycles

Students in 2nd grade have been learning about life cycles: insects, apples, sunflowers, humans, and others. After reading and learning about various life cycles in the classroom they used the Clicker CD titled "Life Cycles" and then Clicker Paint to create a life cycle drawing. Their drawing skills were impressive and their work was outstanding.

2nd Grade, Lesson 1

In our school setting 2nd grade is the first time students have access to computers. To start they year, they explored the drawing tools of Clicker Paint. The buzz of discovery in the classroom is the primary sound as 7 and 8 year olds manipulate the trackpads to create the colors, images and combinations that show their understanding of the possibilities for creating with this software. The classroom teachers and I use this program in a progression from Exploration to Illustrating a learning (Fall, Life Cycles, etc.) to Illustrating and adding text to describe learning. Every child experiences success, accomplishes a new skill and feels mastery of the technology involved.